I was very interested to see a particular email when it popped in recently – about a new producer in Marlborough, who was making Prosecco! I probably pay a bit more attention to Prosecco than most – even most wine writers. I’ve not been to the region, but it started when I did a Top 10 Tasting of Sparkling – I run my own benchmark tastings – and I really noticed the Proseccos amongst the other bubbles, and how much I really quite liked them. Sometimes it takes something like that to make you sit up and take notice of something – certainly in a comparative way like that.
So, I wrote an article giving my thoughts about it. I also hadn’t, until I looked into it, realised just how big a deal Prosecco is, in terms of volume of what’s produced. And it isn’t, to my mind, trying to be anything else. In a way you can argue that Méthode is trying to be Champagne. Prosecco does a different job. It’s OK to like both, for different reasons. Then, when the Prosecco Consortium visited New Zealand I was invited to a big Prosecco-only dinner and a Masterclass.
And I was very interested in the timing of someone making a ‘Marlborough Prosecco’. I sat down with Ben McLauchlan who is one half of the new label, alongside wife Helen, for a chat about it all. My first question was – why now? Was their decision to make a Marlborough Prosecco made in advance of the new DOCG regulations and the Trade Agreement that now protects the Prosecco brand/DOCG in New Zealand?
Ben McLauchlan: It’s an interesting question. I’ve always worked in the Liquor Industry in various roles. My wife and I decided to go on an OE – as you do as a young Kiwi. We travelled through Africa then arrived in the UK. I’d worked with wineries in the past but was intrigued with breweries. So I worked with Scottish and Newcastle, in on-premise, in Central London. Some of my first customers were the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Households. Amazing. I had to pinch myself every time I went in there.
One of the massive things that were happening in the on-premise was rosé. Plus cask beer and Prosecco. It was just starting and everyone was talking about it and getting really engaged. So fast forward a number of years. We’re at a vineyard in Marlborough – down Wratts Road. I took over from my Uncle about six years ago. It was still perculating around the back of my mind about Prosecco, but we’re focussing on establishing the business. We’re contract growers and grow for a number of wineries.
But we also closely partner with Ormond Nurseries. Really good friends with them but also done quite a bit of innovation around different types of vines. Sam Wickham is the Owner and Marketing person, and she called me one day and said “Ben, just wondering if you wanted to give something new a go? We’ve got these new Albariño clones, but we’ve also got this thing called Glera.” The clone was called VC01, but it was Glera and I knew the opportunity, but I didn’t know how the vine would grow, and how the grapes would develop within our micro-climate, down Wratts Road in Rapaura.
Initial planting was 613 vines. We tried it close planting and normal planting. we did a few things differently with the block around sub-surface mid-row irrigation, used plastic posts…so it was quite a ‘trial’ to see how they’d grow. It worked fantastically well. We established them and got them up to the vine and laid one cane. And then we had this fruit. And we’re going “wow, this is amazing”. Elongated bunched and very open – growing really well.
We partner with Tohu – supply some Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay grapes to them. Out of the Chardonnay grapes they make Rewa Blanc de Blancs – it exclusively comes from our vineyard. We knew then that something like that – a great sparkling wine – comes from our place. The opportunity is there then to actually produce a great Marlborough – and its very much around “Marlborough” – version of Prosecco. The base wine is made at Tohu, but because we have such small quantities it wasn’t feasible to send it up to Hawke’s Bay to go through the carbonation process.
We thought “We’ve got experts just down the road at No.1” and the opportunity to make an in-bottle-fermented Prosecco. So that arrives us at the product. And it was going through how do we brand it, how do we sell it? And we got to ‘Balvonie’ which is the name of our original farm, established by my Grandfather in 1935.
We are fully aware of the situation with the DOC and the trade deal. Our understanding of that is we have five years to utilise that name. We’re very much not trying to emulate what the Italians do. It’s a unique but widely accepted brand. We’re doing a Marlborough take on it.
WineFolio: Hmmm. Well, what people know is the name Prosecco. They don’t know that Prosecco is made from the Glera grape. People say to me that Rosé is made from Rosé grapes! They don’t know. And they don’t want to know. I talk to someone about how wine is made, or solera systems… and the glaze-over happens in seconds. They’re not bothered. But the authorities are going to be bothered about it.
I just had that new brand of Albariño from Albariño Brothers, and it’s a New Zealand take on it. Much as the packaging is designed to look like Spanish Albariño, and most people that I’ve heard comment on it say “this is amazing, it’s just like a Spanish one”. I may not agree. There’s just more fruit in New Zealand wines.
I tried your wine this morning, and I liked it. It does what it says on the tin – it tastes like Prosecco. It seems to be at the more ‘serious’ end of things – it has a vintage date on it, and it’s bottle-fermented, and I think that is good for the positioning, so not competing with the supermarket versions of ‘local’ Prosecco. And the wine is delicious. Talk me through the decisions around the sweetness that you settled on? It is just ‘that’s where it ended up” or were you going for a particular level and style? It is, for example, twice the Residual sugar of something like No.1 Cuvée. And it is on that border between Brut and Extra dry.
BM: Lee, myself and Lloyd – Lee from No.1, Lloyd from Tohu – did a trial. Taking the base wine and adding some sweetness I suppose, to get to where we thought the best end-point was. From a flavour and balance perspective. I think it was between twelve and fourteen grams that we added. It was really interesting. We all tasted blind through it. We were together but didn’t discuss as we went through. And we all arrived at the same point. The sweetness gave more balance. I have to admit that when I was starting that process, I really wanted to go for the lesser amount and keep it ‘serious’.. However, once you’d done the trial it was easy to identify the sweet spot. When it was dry it was missing something – in the palate weight.
Also, we want to have a Prosecco – not a Méthode, and that’s a part of the wine – it is playful and rounded. It’s got a really persistent bead through the Méthode process, but has the Prosecco flavour cues. What do you think about the level of sweetness?
WF: Again, people won’t really understand. They’ll just know if they like it or not. A customer doesn’t know that ‘Extra Dry’ on a Prosecco bottle means that it is sweeter than ‘Brut’. I’ve had a lot of people – in particular with Rosé – ask “I want a dry one”. And you give them anything – it could be one that I might think is on the sweet end of things – and it’s “Oh yes, I love that one”. If someone likes something – that’s what’s important. My number one rule is “Is it delicious?”. I do like that things that are correct – so, have varietal typicity. I think it is, mostly, good to know what a wine is by the presentation – the smell of it, the first sip – “yes, this is Pinot”.
For this bottle, I like that it’s different. It tastes like Prosecco, but it is different – so, Marlborough Prosecco. And Méthode – and vintage. It looks like a premium product. I can see this being a conversation starter at a party. A bottle of bubbles is to be taken to a celebration and makes us feel special when we open it.
I have to say that I was a little put off when I heard that in Prosecco they have huge tanks full of the still wine sitting waiting to be made into sparkling on demand, as the orders come in. There’s something about that story that people won’t want to hear – it takes away a bit of the gloss – so the better the story behind your bottle of bubbles the more it’s doing it’s job of being special. I do worry about what you’re going to call it long term though – because if it is ‘Sparkling Glera’ then you’ve got a problem.
BM: It’s been a really interesting journey about positioning of this product. Our initial perception was that Prosecco needs to be cheap and cheerful. We soon discovered that this product couldn’t be – due to the costs of production. So we needed to re-think where and how we were going to position this in the marketplace. As a premium product we needed those premium cues coming through. Interesting though was that we really liked the capsule, without the capsule. It’s a slightly rustic take on it. But we feel it links well with the label – the endless knot – which denotes our three generations on the farm.
It has been exciting to think about this product. What struck me a wee while ago was that we’ve got an opportunity to re-imagine what Prosecco is – for Marlborough. We’ve done it with Sauvignon Blanc. We’ve taken this grape variety into Marlborough and made it our own. I would think that we’ve done a similar thing with Méthode. However, can we do it with Prosecco?
And to your point, we’ve only got a limited window to establish that because of rules and regulations. It’s going to be an evolution for the Balvonie brand. We’re going to have to take Prosecco off at some stage. We understand that, but where we take it is an interesting question. It kind of adds to the story.
WF: It will be interesting to see what they do with the Prosecco coming out of the King Valley in Australia. I don’t think they have a Free Trade Agreement that’s the same as the one New Zealand signed, but if they want to have their product on the shelf here it can’t be labelled Prosecco?
BM: I’m just looking out of the window now at the Glera vines, and we’re going to have to put a trimmer through this week. They are that vigorous. And then they’ll start flowering. It’s not a problem of creating the grapes, it’s how you hold the plant back.
WF: How many bottles have you made?
BM: I just did the numbers on the 2024 and we’ve got 4364 bottles. It’s not big production. We’ve done that on purpose. We partner with premium wine companies to produce grapes for them. We’ve got 113 hectares of vines and where the Glera has gone is into pockets where we think it will grow really well. We’re really close to the Wairau River and have similar soil types, but still with slight differences.
WF: Will part of your positioning be to get it into good restaurants?
BM: Yes, we have already. We’ve got a restaurant in Picton called Sisu – a fantastic place. They really champion local wines and ingredients. There will be some targets in that space. Our main channel to market will be online. Through many years of working in the alcohol trade, I’ve got a few contacts so there will be conversations down the way. But it is starting small.
WF: In one of the presentations that I did recently, I talked about sparkling wine in New Zealand in particular, as a case study. I do think there is a market for some high-end versions. It’s quite parochial. If you went to a restaurant in Australia, you won’t find a NZ Méthode on the menu – they’ll have an entry-level champagne and a couple of good ones, then two or three Australian sparkling wines. And the same here – there ought to be the same amount of local wines as there are from overseas – and they should be New Zealand expressions.
I mentioned Albariño earlier, and I think that has real possibilities. I know that Sir George Fistonich has been on about Albariño for about thirty years – and, as usual, looks like he’ll be proven correct.
BM: I worked for Villa in a Key Account role when we’d just got back from the UK a number of years ago. It’s interesting to see the evolution of these products, and Albariño has been talked about for so long but it hasn’t really broken through. I think there is an understanding of it – with the consumer – and it was interesting in the Marlborough Wine Show just recently, because a student won a Gold Medal with their Albariño. I think it was one of the first student wines to have won a Gold Medal. It’s those sort of things that start building it.
WF: Are you going to be Méthode Marlborough and AMW? I see there’s a space on the back label that could fit those two logos!?
BM: Great question! I’m not sure that Méthode Marlborough would appreciate or understand a Prosecco. Steph, who is working with us around our Marketing and Design used to work for Méthode. What is your perception around AMW?
WF: Well – from a perspective of not being in the ‘wine trade’ as such – being a commentator – and living in Auckland. I see something that is trying to establish a set of quality-related criteria, and communicate that to the customer. And to me that sounds great, but I don’t know how well the message reaches those ears though? How it actually works, and what it includes and excludes, is something I’m actually keen to understand better – probably the next time I’m down in Marlborough I’d be looking to do that. Marlborough Sav is our wine industry’s greatest achievement and anything that both safeguards that from a ‘brand perspective’ and champions the smaller producer has to be a good thing? What’s your take on it?
BM: I’m probably the same as you. I know the people involved really well, and I understand the reason. What I’m intrigued about is the consumer in this picture. What is their understanding, and their view? Is it creating value for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc producers that are associated with it? I know the board are really passionate in driving this forward.
WF: I’m particularly interested in the map part of the project. As somebody who used to be in charge of a decent sized cartography team – the last remaining major printed-map producer in the country actually – I would love to hear how that is going down.
BM: It’s easy for me to talk about that map since we’re in what is perceived as the premium area in Rapaura. So it’s easy for us to go “yeah, great idea”. If I was from some of those outskirts you’d want to be in those premium areas. It’s like Remuera being the biggest suburb in New Zealand. You live in St. Johns – “you’re Remuera!” Rapaura is a similarly big area – for that reason.
WF: I hear some names more now that I used to do though – before the sub-regionality chatter. Places like Dillon’s Point?
BM: The flavour profile that’s come out of there – St. Clair and Matt Thomson have really driven that understanding of Dillon’s Point.
WF: Where does the journey take you next?
BM: We’ve got about 900 plants of Glera and we’ve got opportunities to plant more. It was just that unknown. We’ve had some good feedback about the product, but until we put it out there and get the consumer engaged with it – you don’t quite know? It’s that kiwi thing of you don’t want to be arrogant, but we are growing in confidence about what we’re doing. From a viticultural standpoint we’re really starting to understand Glera and how we can get the best out of it from the vineyard. Then it is about developing the Balvonie brand and what that means.
WF: Will there be other wines?
BM: Yeah, we’ve got 313 Pinot Noir vines closely planted in a unilateral cordon, and we’ve got seven clones in there. We’re creating a wine out of that at the moment. It was a little bit selfish on our part. I’m turning fifty in a month’s time and I wanted a wine! I really enjoy Pinot! So we made it for that, but I’m really pleased with the flavour profile. We’ll be releasing that in the New Year.
We’ve got a small block of Mendoza Chardonnay, which all goes to Whitehaven. It can very hard to grow and get right. But they’re producing the first ‘Greg Chardonnay’ that they’ve ever made, from that block which will be the flagship wine for their 30th Anniversary.
But we want to be true to our brand as well. You lead with a Prosecco that is innovative, different and unique, so for us to release a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc under the Balvonie brand – unless it’s got those same cues – seems wrong.
