Winegrowing semi-collective Little Vineyards brought the "true terroir" of the valley with their debutante turn at the Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival on Saturday.
Terroir (which sounds scary but really isn't) is a French term, much emphasised by Gallic gastronomes, used to denote special geographic characteristics in the agricultural area surrounding wine,
tea and coffee production.
The Little Vineyards of Wairarapa concept is the brainchild of winegrower Nick Dench who uses another French term, n?gociant (in a roundly tongue-in-cheek way) to describe his role as a merchant who assembles the produce of smaller growers and winemakers and sells the result under the Little Vineyards brand.
Mr Dench is on the lookout for other growers to come under the auspices of the Little Vineyards umbrella and said the festival held at The Cliffs at Dakins Road was an ideal opportunity to promote the brand.
"Harvest has been fabulous for getting us profile, to explain our philosophy and to show people the beautiful wines that come from vineyards that most people have probably never heard of.
"The idea is single-vintage, single-vineyard wines. We don't believe in bringing in different bulk wine because then you don't taste the terroir," he said.
The terroir shared by Little Vineyards producers (including Mr Dench's Ngaio-nui on Castlepoint Road, Lyndor at Lees Pakaraka Road, Maggie's wetland winery at Opaki and Alex Johnston's Bijou at the Double Bridges "very rocky river terraces") stretches from the clay and limestone of Wairarapa's Eastern Hills to the river terraces of the central valley.
"Wairarapa has 7 per cent of all New Zealand wine labels but just 3 per cent of the wine there's an imbalance there because we've got more small vineyards than any other region.
"What we're looking for is other small vineyards to join us because there's strength in numbers anyone who wants to just needs to get in touch."
n Budding terroir-ists can contact n?gociant Nick Dench on (021) 248-8393 or email dlmcampaign@gmail.com
