Marlborough lures grape growers

By GREGG WYCHERLEY and NZPA

On the basis that if you can't beat them you might as well join them, a leading French winemaker has established a vineyard in Marlborough, and other foreign growers are rumoured to be actively looking for land in the region.

New Zealand is the one new world country that has taken a classic French grape variety and ousted the French original as the benchmark and Marlborough is now recognised as the home of the best sauvignon blanc in the world.

According to the Wine Institute, prime grape-growing land in Marlborough has doubled in price to about $150,000 a hectare in the past four years and foreign growers are jumping on the bandwagon.

The family-owned company of Henri Bourgeois has been making wine for 10 generations in the Sancerre region of France, famous for its pinot noir and sauvignon blanc wines.

But last September the Government gave the go-ahead for Henri Bourgeois to develop 90ha in Marlborough's Moonee Valley, to be planted in sauvignon blanc and pinot noir this winter.

Californian winemaker Gallo, which makes more wine than Australia and New Zealand combined, has been investigating buying land in the area.

There were also rumours that another US winemaker, Mondavi, was looking at buying Marlborough land.

Henri Bourgeois New Zealand manager Sally Denious said she knew of a number of other Sancerre growers who were investigating buying land in Marlborough, attracted by its ideal soil and climate conditions for growing sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.

Ms Denious, an American, said Marlborough was a winemaker's paradise.

"If you can't make good wine here then you should get out of the job."

She said Henri Bourgeois had been keen to capitalise on the worldwide trend for new world wines and the cachet of the Marlborough brand.

"Everyone in the wine industry sees France as the epicentre of wine - but it's silly to assume they're the only ones who can make good wine."

When her employer, Jean-Marie Bourgeois, began to see Marlborough wines commanding higher prices than his own in France he decided to look seriously at buying land.

She said the company intended to start slow, planting 5ha a year, building up to an expected volume of up to about 450,000 bottles a year in the next decade.

Marlborough Wine Grape Growers Association president Stuart Smith said he expected Marlborough to do well in international wine awards in October and November, adding to the considerable international interest in the region.

He said local wine growers were not intimidated by the interest from foreign wineries, quite the opposite.

"It's a pat on the back for the locals who were here already, who beat them to it."

Pinot noir has quickly become New Zealand's most planted red grape and by 2003 pinot noir vineyards are expected to have increased by a further 85 per cent, which should give the Burgundy growers of France something to think about.

Wine critic Jancis Robinson said New Zealand's pinot noir wines were definitely catching up to their French competitors.

The region's grape harvest this year was described yesterday as one of the best ever, with just a few red, riesling and some pinot gris grapes still on the vines.

But while most winemakers and viticulturists are cautiously optimistic over the flavours so far, a tiny segment of the industry specialising in super-sweet dessert wines is not so happy.

The drawn-out summer and autumn kept at bay the rain and humidity that encourages fungi such as botrytis, which can turn the berries into mush and leave the fruit with a sour flavour.

But a few winemakers rely on such fungal infections to produce the material for sweet dessert wines, commonly known as stickies.

Botrytis can be an award-winning friend, if managed properly, and Mike Trought, Villa Maria's regional viticulturist, said that under the right conditions, botrytis caused the berry to dehydrate, which concentrated the sugars.

"Then the fungus itself releases the flavours that come through in the wine in a very pleasant way."

Villa Maria appeared to be producing a dessert wine, but Cloudy Bay, Montana and a number of other companies which have produced sticky wines in the past were not bothering this year.

' "This year won't be a big year for botrytised wines," said Mr Trought, "but then again we have some wonderful chardonnays, pinot noirs and sav blancs to make up for it." New Zealand Grapegrowers' president William Crosse said the surprise had been in the sauvignon yields, which were causing a few headaches just after Christmas.

Growers had expected to have good average chardonnay and pinot crops, but were worried sauvignon blanc would be down for the second year in a row.

"But in fact that hasn't come to pass. It is an average yield, but it's better than we expected.'