Moon over Martinborough

The Escarpment gate

“Turn up Te Muna Road,” I tell Russ. “It’s up there.”

I’m in the front passenger seat, and Russ is driving. Joel, Louise and Lucy are squished together in the back seat. They’re friends of ours visiting from Chicago, and we’re headed to one of my favorite Martinborough wineries, Escarpment Vineyard, for a private tour.

Rick couldn’t join us today because he has to work, but that isn’t going to stop us from visiting a vineyard. And this isn’t just any vineyard.

Arriving at Escarpment

Driving across the cattle stop at the entrance to Escarpment Vineyard, you’d never know you’re entering the vineyard of a man who one reviewer actually called ‘the spiritual leader of New Zealand pinot enthusiasts’. There’s no imposing gate, no angelic music from on high. Just a small brick wall with a stylized ‘E’.

Russ drives us up the long driveway through the vineyard, and we pass a blue truck with a long mechanical arm that’s jutting out over the vines to dispense netting. Men are walking behind the truck, pulling the nets down around the grapes.

Putting on the nets

It’s late summer now. The fruit is ripe enough to be enticing for the birds, but it will be weeks before it’s ready for harvest.

At the end of the driveway, there’s a modest building surrounded by vines. Like the cattle stop at the front gate, this building is immensely practical, and it’s all part of the no-nonsense charm here. This place is not about pretense. It’s about making exceptionally good wine.

The Winemaker

The ‘spiritual leader’ at Escarpment is Winemaker and Director Larry McKenna, and he’s credited with putting New Zealand Pinot Noir on the global wine map. In person he comes across more like a humble high school wrestling coach than one of the most noted winemakers in the southern hemisphere.

Today Larry is in the UK. But he’s put my friends and me in the care of his Viticulturist, Dave Shepherd, and his Assistant Winemaker, Huw Kinch.

It’s Dave who greets me when I enter the building.

The Viticulturist

Dave is a rugby playing wine lover with a solid six foot frame and a sturdy handshake. He’s got high-tech hearing aids on both ears, and if you suddenly think he’s talking to unseen spirits, he’s just using the hidden Bluetooth mobile phone which is connected to his hearing aids. I met and worked with him once before, when I helped at the Escarpment pavilion during Toast Martinborough.

Escarpment Pinot Noir

I introduce Dave to my four Chicago friends, and we wander off together into the vineyard.

There is something vaguely awe-inspiring in talking to someone who knows a lot about a specific subject, and talking to Dave about vines is no exception.

He tells us about the vines, about the different spaces between the varieties. They’ve planted their Pinot Noir for their flagship ‘Kupe’ wine closer together than their Chardonnay. The more densely planted vines give less fruit per vine, but more intensely flavored grapes. The closer row spacing means they have to keep the grapes closer to ground – to cut down on shading and to hold the day’s heat longer.

Dave walks over to the vines, touches them, and talks about how our relatively cool summer has meant the grapes are ripening later this year.

“What’s this?” Russ asks, pointing to a bushy thing by the Chardonnay vines. Near the bush is something like a tiny roof.

Manuka by Chardonnay vines

“It’s Manuka,” Dave says. “It attracts parasitic wasps.” The tiny roof, Dave explains, is for a wasps’ nest. There are holes up inside it. The parasitic wasp kills the pesky Light Brown Apple Moth, which does damage to the vines.

The setup is a clever alternative to spraying, and no doubt it’s part of the reason Escarpment is accredited as a sustainable winegrower.

After our walk through the vines, Dave takes us over to the edge of the steep escarpment the winery takes its name from. Here the ground drops away dramatically, and we’re looking out over miles and miles of gorgeous pastureland. There are rolling hills in the distance, and we can see the line of the Huangarua river. Below us a local farmer has harvested a crop of pine trees, and now he’s burning off the remains. Smoke rises in the air.

Then we walk down to the wine cellar, to meet Huw.

The Assistant Winemaker

At the very edge of that steep escarpment is a large concrete pad in the open air. This is a working area, and Huw is busily washing out wine barrels as we come down the steps. There’s drainage below our feet, and the water runs red with wine.

I introduce Huw to my friends. He is at least as tall as Dave, with a peaches-and-cream complexion. Being a young twenty-something, he must be very good at what he does. After all, it’s no small thing to be chosen as the assistant winemaker to Larry McKenna.

Huw is just as friendly and unpretentious as Dave, and I suspect that’s part of why Larry has picked them both.

Lab of the mad scientist

Now Huw turns and leads us into the wine cellar. The space is high and dark, built into the edge of the escarpment itself. To my left is a countertop with bottles and clear tubes. It looks an awful lot like the lab of a mad scientist. To my right, rows and rows of wooden barrels are stacked high. On one far wall, there are tall silver vats which nearly reach the ceiling.

“How much time do you have?” Huw says. These words are music to my ears. He then proceeds to take us through every single one of their yet-to-be released 2009 Pinot Noirs.

Have I died and gone to heaven? Yes.

Dave immediately starts passing out the wine glasses.

Huw climbs up on top of the barrels. He’s carrying a large wine glass and something that looks suspiciously like a turkey baster. He’s opening barrels and sucking out wine, blending the wine from different barrels to the correct mix in the glass.

Dave slaps down a blue plastic bucket in the middle of the group.

“For spitting out your wine,” he says.

“Spit it out?” Louise says. Her eyes are wide. “We’re not allowed to drink it?”

Dave laughs. “Of course you can.”

Joel pipes in. “You spit it out if you don’t want to get drunk.” Joel and Russ are wine lovers to the core. They know the rules.

“Seems like a waste,” Louise answers, smiling.

Barrels and barrels of Pinot Noir

When Huw comes down from atop the barrels, he pours wine from the large glass he’s carrying into each of ours.

I wish that I were a real wine writer. I could tell you all about precise floral components, subtle tannins, and the rich, complex flavors that are cascading across my deliriously happy palate as I stand in the Escarpment wine cellar. But the truth is I only know one thing about wine. I know what I like.

And today I really, really like every single wine we taste.

The Wines

We start with the Escarpment Pinot Noir, and it’s very good. I like the way the dark taste of the wine fills my mouth. The best thing is, from there things only get better.

We move up through what they call their ‘Insight Series’ – wines each from a single site around Martinborough. The idea is that each site offers distinctive characteristics. It’s not just about the brand ‘Escarpment’ but about the exact plot of land the wine comes from.

Here’s where the ‘Insight Series’ sites are located around Martinborough:

• Pahi – On the McCreanor Vineyard, Princess Street. 25 year old vines.
• Kiwa – The Cleland Vineyard, Cambridge Street. 25 years old vines.
• Te Rehua – The Barton Vineyard, Huangarua Road. Vines over 20 years old.
• Kupe – The young, densely planted vines on the main Escarpment site.

Escarpment Pinot Noir

All of these locations are places I pass and know. On Princess Street, Rick and I catch the bus to Featherston for our commute to work. Cambridge street is a good place to park when you’re headed to the Martinborough Fair. Huangarua Road is our road. The main Escarpment site is my destination when I go running.

As I stand here underground, tasting all these incredible wines, I feel like I’m drinking in my village, tasting the way the grapes have pulled the soil up into their hearts.

My favorite wines of the day are the Te Rehua for its bold black cherry and plum flavors, and the Kupe, which is subtle and sophisticated and unbelievably delicious.

Saying goodbye

When we’ve tasted the last wine and Huw and Dave have answered the last of our many questions, we thank them repeatedly and head up the steps to the main building again.

Piling into the car and heading back down the drive, I feel like Dave and Huw have taken care of me and my friends incredibly well. Russ, Joel, Lucy and Louise are all going on about the enchanting setting and one-on-one attention we received.

I am left with only one unanswered question.

Which bottles of Escarpment wine are we going to buy at the Martinborough Wine Center? Because we’re heading there straight away.

Tell me, what are your favorite New Zealand wines?

____________________

Related posts

Read other stories about:

• Escarpment Vineyard
• wine and vineyards
• food
• the Chicago friends

Or check out Escarpment’s website.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 8:28 am and is filed under New Zealand, Wine & vineyards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.