Riverside Vineyard, Hakararamea Valley. Photo / Supplied Expand

Riverside Vineyard, Hakararamea Valley. Photo / Supplied

Waitaki, in North Otago, is the latest region to be producing some extraordinary wines.

Flying over the limestone hills of North Otago's Waitaki Valley, the late entrepreneur Howard Paterson had a hunch that what he was looking down on was prime viticultural land.

Now, nine years after he planted his first experimental vineyard, the region's orchards and sheep have started to make way for more grapes and this month the first winemaking facility in Waitaki officially opened its doors.

Paterson - who made some of his many millions by adding value to land by developing new uses for it - bought 2000ha in this viticultural terra incognita northwest of Oamaru. Though not all of it was suitable for growing grapes, 120ha are now planted in the Waitaki Valley, predominantly on the blocks he bought back in 2000.

Sadly, Paterson was never to taste the fruits of his vision for the Waitaki, dying suddenly in 2003. However, by then he had already started to generate interest in the region and had brought leading Marlborough winemaker Dr John Forrest on board to make the inaugural wine from his first plantings.

"I saw the potential, got excited and made the region's first wine, the 2003 Doctors Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir," recalls Forrest, who now makes wine from his own vineyards in Waitaki.

"I thought this wine was interesting and had a real terroir definition in its chalky minerality and limestone-based earthiness."

Growing Interest

It's limestone that's whipped up much of the interest in Waitaki, from winemakers and increasingly from international wine media, aware that some of the world's greatest wines originate from these calciferous soils. Limestone outcrops are found across the region from the otherworldly shaped Elephant Rocks that formed the backdrop for Aslan's camp in the film, the Chronicles of Narnia to the north-facing slopes suited to viticulture.

"There is no other region in New Zealand that shares the same topography, namely a significant area of north facing, limestone-based soils while having a cool, maritime influenced climate," notes Jeff Sinnott, winemaker at the Ostler vineyard, who spotted the potential of Waitaki with his brother-in-law and Ostler owner, Jim Jerram, around the same time as Paterson.

"As far as wine styles are concerned we are very encouraged by what we have seen over the past few years. Now we're at the forefront of one of the most exciting viticultural discoveries in the country."

When Grant Taylor started out as winemaker at Central Otago's Gibbston Valley back in 1993, he saw maps and climatic data on North Otago that suggested there were areas suited to grape-growing in the region.