So with harvest finished and all of the 2009 wines pressed, fermented, and in barrel and tank, tucked away for the winter, interns such as I became unnecessary. Just not much work left. So with that in mind, they cut me loose to move on to better things.

Namely, that my post-vintage tour of New Zealand has begun. As part of the Douglas Wisor Scholarship, I receive an invaluable experience: the opportunity to tour New Zealand and visit most of the best wineries in the country. The Craggy Range winemaker Adrian Baker has chosen a selection of wineries designed to expose me to a wide range of styles and approaches to winemaking, small to large, traditional to modern. The list includes most of the Family of Twelve, a group of some of the best wineries of the country, a list which includes ourselves, Craggy Range. The rest are on par in terms of quality.

So my first stop on this tour was the only North Island wine region included, Martinborough. Joining me on this leg of the trip was my harvest flatmate, James. Our first day was composed of a stellar lineup: Escarpment, Ata Rangi, and Dry River. This is basically the best of Martinborough, the legends and figureheads of the region. Escarpment was our first visit.

The winemaker and proprietor of Escarpment Vineyards is variously known as the King of Pinot, Pope of Pinot, and simply the master of this fickle grape. He ran Martinborough Vineyards and earned them a reputation as top producers. He’s also sometimes called Larry McKenna (that's a picture above of he and I, in front of a cut in the hill which reveals the soil profile). At first introduction I almost wondered if he would be a stony man, wary of sharing his hard-won wisdom, and I would have trouble getting any winemaking secrets out of him. As it turned out, he was an immensely friendly and talkative guy, happy to discuss his approach to making Pinot Noir. And it’s easy to see why so many people see him as a king of Pinot. His approach is multi-faceted and thoughtful, full of tricks to get what he can out of the grape. Many of those tricks involve working in the vineyard to get the grapes at peak quality, of course, but once in the winery he doesn’t slack. Natural ferments are utilized to give the wine an extra character, something darker, brooding, funky and wild. The natural fruit is not covered up, but rather balanced and melded, by this extra character.

Which brings up an important, though overlooked, aspects of the famous concept of terroir. People talk about true expression of terroir and usually they claim that their winemaking approach emphasizes terroir. But how can a winemaker best emphasize terroir? Is it by practicing clean, modern winemaking that brings out pure fruit and vineyard character? Or is it by practicing natural and traditional winemaking that brings out a whole different level of character in the vineyard's fruit? Even before we reach the winemaking, we can break down the terroir into so many facets. People tend to think of terroir as vineyard character, the soils and climate and viticultural practices. But a soil and climate does not always produce the same grape or wine; the character depends on what clone of grape is used as well. Simply put, nothing is simply or straightforward with terroir: it is a complex and difficult concept. I think perhaps it is best to abandon the concept of terroir as too complex to be defined. If it must be referenced, we should think of terroir as the final expression of the grape, the end result of all inputs from vineyard to winery, resulting in a coherent style in the end.

You see, different clones of Pinot Noir express distinctly different characters from each other, and each clone expresses differently on any given soil type and climate. But the impressions I received lead me to believe that some common trends can be identified. Larry McKenna uses the Abel clone, Dijon clones, and 10/5, amongst others (we tasted some of the above in barrel). The Abel clone is also sometimes called the Ata Rangi clone, because it first hit the scene as the prime clone used by Ata Rangi...but it apparently originates from France, and was brought over illegally, apparently in a gumboot, thus it's other pseudonym, the Gumboot Clone. It provides a certain tannin structure and backbone, and a savory character well liked by the Martinborough winemakers, amongst them Larry. Dijon clones add a different character depending on the exact clone (they include 667, 777, 115, and 114), but can be spicier, fruitier, and often prettier in aromatics and tannin, compared to Abel.

Of all of the winemakers I visited in Martinborough, Larry was the biggest fan of whole bunch fermentation, a technique used on Pinot Noir traditionall in Burgundy. To do this, you simply do not destem the berries, putting the bunches in tank whole. Larry does anywhere from 10-100% whole bunch, perhaps most typically in the range of 30-40% but increasing every year. This technique adds tannins which are extracted from the stems during fermentation, enhancing mouthfeel, weight of palate, and age-ability. It also adds a stemmy, herbaceous or tea-like component in the early wine (think of chewing on plant stems or tea leaves). According to Larry, these green aromatics will develop into a forest floor, visceral aromatic in the finished wine. This is the funkiness that many great Burgundies possess, and it is a characteristic in Pinot with which I am obsessed. This dark quality is balanced by the fresh uplifted fruitiness that is contributed by the fermentation of the whole berries still connected to the bunches. This kind of fermentation, which occurs in part due to internal enzymes of the grape berry and partly by normal fermentation, is called carbonic maceration, and it produces a very distinct aroma.

So we tasted through a wide range of barrels, sampling the result of these techniques. I would say that the techniques work, creating a dark, dense, funky but fruity wine. It is wonderful stuff with endless potential to age.

Next we moved on to Ata Rangi, where the kingdom is ruled by Helen Masters, the sister-in-law of my boss at Craggy, Adrian Baker. Helen and her crew make quite a few wines, including Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon blanc, Syrah and Bordeaux varieties. Talking to Helen, she showed us around her tanks and barrels and explained her approach to winemaking, clarifying and illuminating where and when we delved deeper with questions.

Helen seems to like the practice of leaving her white wines on lees. The lees add a texture and roundness to the wine the longer they are in contact. But to minimize malolactic fermentation (MLF) characteristics, the juice is cooled down and sulfured, which stops the MLF. But the lees are left to continue adding palate character, until the point that Helen decides they are better off left alone. You can see the effect of this in her wines: they have a texture that comes through as viscous. But the palate has other characters as well. Her acidity is solid, adding freshness and making your mouth salivate a bit, but not feeling tart or sour. Also, the phenolics are there a bit, adding another layer. In some wines, such as Pinot Gris in some cases, a small amount of residual sugar (still nominally dry) adds to the feeling of fullness. But she emphasized: the wine must finish dry, leaving you wanting another sip. If a wine is detectably sweet, the drinker feels sick drinking a full glass, let alone a full bottle. The wine must be balanced and dry. All in all, it is white winemaking creating texture and fullness; the aromatics which she also achieves are just an extra bonus.

We also went through her red wine barrels. She showed us through some clones of Pinot, and had a similar impression about many of the clones. She also liked Abel for it's darkness and depth. To quote from the Ata Rangi website: "We love the texture, and length of palate it delivers. Its tannins are substantial, yet are incredibly silky and fine. From our site, it brings dark cherry, and a brooding, savoury feel." They also use 10/5, dijon clones, and davis clone 5 (aka Pommard). Pommard contributes a character that is light and pretty, filling the early palate but ending light.

The Syrah we tried was incredible. I really liked the mix of characters it possessed. I'd just spend three months in Hawke's Bay, where the Syrah is a powerhouse of black and white pepper with some anis if you're lucky. Ata Rangi's Syrah was a subtler (but not subtle) mix of pepper, spice, earthiness, and fruit. It was lovely and rich on the palate.

Helen took us and her cellar crew to lunch in Martinborough town. It is a small town of a few shops and restaurants, and in the nature of small towns everyone seemed to know Helen. From there two of her cellar workers, Alex and Greg, joined us for our visit to Dry River.

There the winemaker Katy Hammond led us through a fantastic tour of their tiny winery. She broke down the process and approach of her and chief winemaker Neil McCallum for us. The winemaking is straightforward and solid, creating excellent wine. I was incredibly impressed by the results, and was incredibly excited by their viticultural approach. Talking to Katy we received a strong impression of the Carbon Zero approach they use, balancing their carbon output and pursuing a natural viticulture and winemaking.

I couldn't help but return and quiz them some more about biological viticulture. I liked in principal that they were treating their vineyard like an ecosystem, but not trying to follow a trend or an absolute such as organics or biodynamics strictly. I like the ideas of both systems, but wonder whether the strictures of each can limit best decision-making. Shayne Hammond, the viticulturalist, explained to me some of the details of their approach. In a nutshell, the vineyard is made alive and healthy. The soil is fed by compost and careful viticulture. Molasses, seasweed, apple cider vinegar, whatever is necessary. Molasses provides nutrients for bacterial and fungal growth, apple cider vinegar aids the digestive system of the fungi, and seaweed adds heaps of nutrients. Along with the fertilizer and good viticulture, the result seems to be healthy soil (looks great, and tons of worms) and healthy vines. Hard to argue with that.

All in all, it was an amazing day in Martinborough! I won't go into great detail about the beers and wine that were consumed later that night with the friendly locals, but let's just say it was a great time.

In the morning we had a great visit to the home of Hiro Kusuda. He is an impressive man, aside from his wine. His life story is very interesting, much of which he shared with us. Rather than go into detail, I'll link an excellent article by Jancis Robinson: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a200905187.html. In short: he came to make wine in New Zealand by a very circuitous route, and due to a great passion. The result is a very meticulously made wine. The grapes are selected very very carefully. In the vineyard, he carefully drops bunches to limit crops. Then he goes through and cuts off any marginal parts of each cluster, a practice I have never heard of to such extents. He will even cut off berries that might touch another cluster of wire. Only the perfect, free hanging berries survive. These clusters are eventually harvested, and then 15 sorters go one by one through the bunches, pulling off any berry that is imperfect. Even a slight sunburn or dimple or touch of disease is not acceptable. Finally, the grapes are destemmed and put into fermentors.

During ferment they are pumped over, a practice not very popular with fine Pinot producers. Hiro feels noetheless that it produces the style he wants. He tried to explain the style to me, but apparently the perfect word in Japanese has no direct translation. But he gave me some synonyms: clarity, purity, focus. The style is subtle but not lacking in complexity. It never jumps out at you, but requires you to work to find it. The winemaking is minimalistic, not using fining or enzymes as do many winemakers. The result is amazing. It is very different from, say, Larry McKenna's style. It really drives home the fact that Pinot is a stylistic grape. There is no right or wrong style. Different approaches make different wine, and all are valid.

Lastly I stopped briefly at Martinborough Vineyards and tasted through a few things rapidly. Again we worked through the clonal selections and again I saw that Abel adds character. 115 and 667 were looked to for their spice and fruit aromas.

From Martinborough I continued on to Wellington and took the ferry over to the south island, where I would go on to tour the most famous wine region of New Zealand, Marlborough, the notorious land of Sauvignon blanc. But I would soon learn that Marlborough is no one trick pony.