Perfectly Petite: Small Wineries |
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Call me cynical but it seems to me that the word “icon” has been seized upon by advertising agencies and marketers. It’s now become shorthand for “I con you into thinking I’m important”. Another word that gets my goat (don’t get me started) is “boutique”, to describe a winery. What we actually mean is “small” but the word boutique conjures up exclusivity, good taste and expense.
Most of the winemakers and winery owners I’ve met wouldn’t be at home in any sort of boutique. They’re down-to-earth people who work with the land and rely on the weather in the same way as other horticulturalists and farmers.
But the exclusive, expensive and in-good-taste winery does exist in New Zealand. Black Barn, beautifully situated in the old Lombardi vineyards on the slopes of Te Mata Peak in Havelock North is one of these. Though it is a small vineyard – about nine hectares – it grows a variety of grapes and its wines include a couple of Bordeaux-blend reds, two chardonnays and a sauvignon blanc. The wines, though, are only part of the experience.
The first building you come to after parking your car is an art gallery. It’s a simple, spare, beautifully proportioned space that, when I was there, had an exhibition by Dick Frizzell. The gallery is linked to the bistro and cellar door by a small formal garden and the bistro opens out on to the vineyards.
If you’d like to extend your stay beyond lunch, Black Barn can offer you a variety of accommodation including an eight-bedroom luxury retreat with tennis court and pool, a designer beach house and a turn-of-the-century cottage surrounded by vines. And if you’d like to be entertained there’s the open-air amphitheatre that hosts the Black Barn Concert Season. The experiences aren’t only for the well-heeled – on Saturday mornings in summer there’s a thriving farmers’ market. With all this going on you could be forgiven for thinking that producing wine is well down on Black Barn’s list of priorities. In fact it makes some pretty good wine, albeit on the expensive side. Its 2004 barrel-fermented chardonnay (about $32) is a substantial, creamy wine that was a double trophy winner at the 2005 Air New Zealand wine awards and its cabernet/merlot-based reds are very drinkable.
Who knows? They could become New Zealand icons.
To discover more about vintners’ luck, watch NZ House & Garden, 7.30pm Fridays on TV ONE, with the support of Mitsubishi Electric.
What I’m Drinking
Black Barn Merlot Cabernet 2003 ($25) - A 60 per cent merlot blend of traditional Bordeaux grapes. The merlot’s pleasant, plummy notes are offset by a slightly herbaceous, minty edge of cabernet sauvignon. Nicely coloured, softly textured and approachable wine that will develop some complexity over the next three to five years.
Five Flax East Coast Riesling 2005 ($9.95) - In the nine months since its release this wine has begun to unfold beautifully. Still fresh and relatively tight with lime and gooseberries on the nose, it’s developing honeyed, botrytis characteristics that are kept in balance by good levels of acidity. Top value from Pernod Ricard, our largest wine producer.
Story: Don Higgins
Issue: August 2006
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