Jane hunter o.b.e.- marlborough - new zealand
WESTERN MORNING NEWS - SATURDAY 5 JULY 2008
Food Editor Carol Trewin meets the owner of one of the world’s leading
wineries
Delivering wines with style and elegance
RUBY
RED ~ Jane Hunter with a glass of her Pinot Noir at the Cormorant Hotel,
Golant
IF
NEW Zealand wines can be summed up as elegant, feisty, zestful, generous
and top quality, then Jane Hunter is a wonderful ambassador for her adopted
country, mirroring all these qualities and making wines to match. Yet
she nearly did not go into viticulture at all, having specialised in animal
husbandry
at university in Australia. Her practical work found her in the
middle of nowhere in south-west Australia and she realised that this was
not the life for her, and switched to viticulture in her final year. “
I didn’t drink wine until I was 23 or 24; all the other students
were a rather raucous lot. My interest is growing grapes but I think I
have got
a commercial palate and I can pick out what customers will like,” she
explains modestly. These skills are what have made Hunter’s Wines
one of her adopted country’s most successful wineries, putting it
on a world stage, winning countless medals and awards. A relative newcomer
in wine-making terms,
New Zealand has come to be regarded as among the best for what it does
well.
Although
some Kiwi vineyards are owned by big multinational corporations, many
more fit the boutique winery category, small or medium-sized, and these
are,
in the main, the ones that have put New Zealand on the world wine map,
none more
so than Hunter’s Wines.
Jane and her late husband Ernie planted their first vines in the Wairau Valley on South Island in 1979. They won their first awards in 1986 at the Sunday Times Wine Festival – the first time a New Zealand wine had won anything, she recalls, where it was wine of the show. Since then the international prizes, trophies and accolades have just kept coming. Only a few years after making their debut wines, Ernie was tragically killed in a motor accident and from 1987 Jane became owner, viticulturist and managing director of Hunter’s Wines. Never in any doubt that she would carry on developing the vineyard and new wines, she says its success is due to the work of her team, which includes wine consultant Tony Jordan and chief wine maker Gary Duke.
Hunter’s winery sits in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough district. Although Jane is coy about giving exact acreages, she reckons her own vineyards, plus others she leases and a handful of contract growers, have yielded enough grapes for about 80,000 cases of wine this vintage. Her bestknown wine is Hunter’s Sauvignon Blanc, made entirely from the grape that she believes has made New Zealand’s reputation in the last decade. “ If New Zealand hadn’t found Sauvignon Blanc we’d be struggling,” she says as we walk around Cornwall’s best known vineyard, Camel Valley, with its owner Bob Lindo. “We make good Chardonnay but so does everyone else. We also have Pinot Noir and everyone is going for it.” Jane is equally enthusiastic about this grape, which she believes is emerging as a contender for New Zealand’s second best selling wine varietal.
The range of other grapes she grows includes Reichensteiner, Pinot Meunier,
Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer. “
This one’s not widely made in New Zealand but it’s my particular
favourite so we make it.” The one we taste later is lovely, off dry,
fresh and young, with hints of Turkish delight and rose petals.
I have joined her on a brief visit to the Westcountry, where she is
to hold two tastings in Cornwall. The first in the Cormorant Hotel
at Golant,
with
its stunning views over the Fowey River, the second later that day
in Saltash, both organised by Castang Wines.
Like all good marketeers Jane travels extensively, meeting chefs,
sommeliers, buyers and wine merchants, promoting her products. Although
these wines
are fiercely sought after, exports are vital for Kiwi wine makers and
account for at least 60 per cent of the wines produced in New Zealand.
But first
Jane is enjoying a brief vineyard tour with the Lindo family, swapping
anecdotes, advice and information on everything from making organic
wine to screw
cap
closures. She is not keen on organic wines: “Making wine is so hard
already in a country like New Zealand. You have to be realistic. But there’s
no doubt that sustainability is the buzzword and it makes us think about
when we spray and why, whether we need to,” she says. “In the
old days everyone used to spray every 14 days without really considering
the need, now they have the research stations sending out e-mails after it
has
rained to say if you have sprayed within the last 14 days then you do not
need to do anything, or they advise what should be done within certain parameters.
Everyone is much more careful about only spraying or irrigating when it is
really necessary.”
On the subject of screw cap closures, she is surprised that it is still a subject for debate in Britain: “No-one asks in New Zealand because it’s a done deal,” she says. “We were one of the last in New Zealand to change but since then the consistency and freshness of the wine is quite amazing. We’ve never looked back.”
Irrigation is a problem. The soil at the bottom
of the Wairau Valley is stony and dry, whereas the land further up
the valley that
she leases is damper and richer. This helps her wine maker Gary Duke
to obtain grapes of varying degrees of ripeness that allow him to blend
consistent
wines
across each vintage. Having grown up in southern Australia where
her father was a grape grower close to the Barossa
Valley, she learned at an early age to be pragmatic about the weather. “When
it rains at vintage time I realised that there was nothing you could
do about it. You might as well have a good night’s sleep so as to have a clear head the next day to know what to do next.” She
also recognises that there is as much art as there is science to making good
wine. “For small and medium wineries it is a combination of both,” she
says. “When you get to any scale it becomes a science. Big wine makers
have to have consistency, so they need to take a scientific approach. Making
wine is a series of simple actions but each one has to be right.”
In 1993
Jane was awarded an OBE for her services to New Zealand wines, and
in 2003 was recognised for her work with the inaugural Wine& Spirit
Competition Women in Wine Award (UK). To say that she is one of the
world’s finest
viticulturists is not an overstatement and these
awards are a mark of the work she has done to put New Zealand and
its wines on the map.
Later in the day at the two tastings it is easy to see why she has
achieved this status. Her
understanding of how to react to changing wine styles and trends,
and her handcrafted, highly
individual and excellent wines spoke for themselves.
TASTING NOTES
Hunter’s Marlborough Miru Miru 2005. Miru is the Maori word
for bubbles. This is a classic champagne blend of Chardonnay, Pinot
Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes, with a ginger spice and
creamy mousse, and nut, biscuit and fruit flavours.
Hunter’s Sauvignon Blanc 2007. This is a classic Marlborough wine, aromatic, oil, smooth
textures with rich fruit and alcoholic freshness.
Hunter’s Marlborough Chardonnay 2006. Good Chardonnay complexity, an elegant wine
with subtle oak and impeccable balance, ripe fruit and herbaceous character.
Hunter’s Marlborough Riesling 2007. This is a clean, fragrant,
lovely Riesling with good fruit and dry finish, typical Riesling oiliness.
Built to last.
Hunter’s Marlborough Gewürztraminer 2005. Delicious for sipping whether after work or
with light food. Good spice, yet the wine is gentle and essentially dry. A very versatile wine.
Hunter’s Marlborough Pinot Noir 2006.
Dense plum colour with a lifted varietal nose, with
violets, plum cherry and spice notes against a subtle oak background.
Hunter’s Marlborough Merlot 2004. A medium-bodied wine with aromas of ripe plums,
blackcurrants and black cherries, balanced with warm, spicy oak. The
tannins are soft and supple with a long finish.
Tasting notes courtesy of Castang Wines. In Britain, Hunter’s
wines are only available in restaurants, or through a handful of wine merchants.
In Devon they are stocked by
Christopher Piper Wines, while Castang Wines is the only Cornish outlet
and can supply via mail order throughout the UK. Jane Hunter's excellent
wines can be viewed and ordered from our NEW
ZEALAND wines page.
Updated 24th July 2008
With thanks to the Western
Morning News for allowing us to reproduce this article.