“I’ve been in first light city Gisborne, the last few days. It’s on the east coast of the North Island and produces more Chardonnay than any other wine region in New Zealand. Thus when you see the Wines of Gisborne welcome signs as you leave the airport, you are welcomed to the “Chardonnay Capital of New Zealand”. But I quickly found out that there’s much, much more for this diverse wine region to hang its hat on. The aromatic variety, Gewurztraminer, has long been a star and although it seemed to fade for a while, it’s now shining bright again. Trendy Viognier is capturing the interest of many and, believe it or not, there’s also juicy Merlot and I found a pretty seductive Malbec as well.
It seems a bit of a yawn when you hear that 75 to 80 percent of the region’s wine is produced by one producer, a company that we affectionately know as Montana but now officially goes by the name of Pernod Ricard New Zealand. But the other 20 to 25% of production is under the control of growers (who supply for other companies) and a growing number of boutique wine producers based within the region. Names like Amor Bendall, Longbush, Revington and Tietjen and Witters (TW), whose labels have been around for quite a while have been joined by new kids on the block like Kirkpatrick Estate, Brunton Road Estate, Waimata Vineyards, Bushmere Estate, Stone Bridge Wines and GoldenVines Estate.
It’s a vibrant young community of young families, young couples, and even a young lad, (Tony Taylor of Goldenvines who at just 22 has produced a trendy range of café style wines from his ‘grower family’ vineyard). But there’s a buzz of excitement in the community and it’s to do with someone who was young a long time ago. Some once considered a ‘Young Turk’, but who now could be considered an ‘elder statesman’ of the wine industry. That man is Nick Nobilo. And the buzzword is ‘Vinoptima’.
Everywhere I went the same questions kept popping up.
“Did you hear Nick Nobilo has returned to Gisborne?”
“Are you going to Vinoptima?”
“Oh, you’ve been to Vinoptima. Isn’t it fabulous?”
“What, you got to taste the wine out of tank. You’re privileged”.
