I’m passing through North Canterbury to return my hire car to the airport and fly back to Auckland after a ten-day “Field trip”. With only time to squeeze in one appointment en route, I am welcomed to James and David’s ‘new’ winery, tucked away down a quiet road in Waipara. Their warehouse is in Amberley, with their dry goods and finished wine. David is quick to point out that “We like to focus on the things we’re good at, which is not warehousing and logistics. Specifically not logistics”.
I bring something to snack on, and we laugh about how we’ve all actually had a pie for breakfast as well! It’s 10 o’clock. I’m told that “The Paris Baker and the Amberley Pie Shop – both are pretty good. And Little Vintage coffee shop – definitely the best café in Amberley.” I add “one of the best cafés in the country I’d say”. Of course, these things are important to me, as a small chunk of the real estate on the WineFolio website is about tourism info for visitors to wine regions.
I ask how things are going in the area? The pair describe “The vibe in the valley, with different producers and different understandings of what Waipara Pinot Noir can be, and how to make that happen”. Things like Forager by Dom Maxwell, who is the Chief Winemaker at Greystone are signs of really interesting things happening in the region.
We get to start with a wine from David’s 15 Minute Bottles label – the ‘Mild Nat 2024’. It is described by the man himself as “Pinot Noir 10/5. Disgorged Pet Nat from 2024. Just down the road, past the Waipara Domain and Sherwood. 10/5 on its own roots planted in 1992, managed by our old boss at The Crater Rim and currently in conversion with Biogro. The ’24 is the first year working with this fruit. The previous vintage had been from Terrace Edge vineyard, also 10/5. They have sold – about a year – and Pete is taking a step back. Seven grams of residual sugar. A generous balance”.
A new label and project from the duo is all about experimentation and pushing boundaries. Called Matter of Time, the labels are representative of Canterbury alluvial gravel rivers. James tells me “You’ve actually come at the perfect time, because we were talking just last week that we want to open all these wines to look at them”.
The next wine I try is an Albarino under that label, from Terrace Edge, which has been fermented in barrel. Once it goes dry they settle it and add in some frozen juice and bottle it – so effectively an undisgorged Pet Nat – in the Col Fundo style. They keep it at an ambient temperature over the winter which stablises it. The only wine I really know that ‘tastes like grapes’ is Muscat, but this has some of that – it is quite fruity – with lime, pear and quite grape-like. I really liked this style – fresh, but with enough funk to give it plenty of definition and energy.
They work with a site in Oxford, which isn’t really a wine-growing area – more lifestyle blocks.. it’s the same block that they make rosé from. A Pinot Noir Pet Nat has a five day Carbonic fermentation on skins, then made in the same way as the Albarino. They pick the fruit into the fermenter at the vineyard. Usually they would pick into bins and bring those to the winery, but as James explains – “in this case we thought it would be really gentle to do it in the vineyard. But then we realised that a one and a half hour drive from there to the Crater Rim… so when we picked it it was up to here, and when we got there it was down here… so, cool – extraction! It’s exactly the colour we wanted it”. It has a Grenache-like carbonic fresh pop of fruit, and a softness to the juice, but with a slatey minerality.
They like to mix up the tastings, so the next wine is a 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, from the Bryterlater label. James has been making this cuvée from a vineyard in George’s Road. Bellbird Springs planted it back in the early ‘90s. It’s quite a hot site, down next to the river, but very sheltered and still and the river actually adds heat. But the soil there has alluvial gravels with clay, so they’re getting really good acid retention. James tells me “Over here where The Crater Rim is… Omihi means ‘Hole in the Sky’ and I think that’s quite fitting because you can be super hot here and you can drive that way, or that way and it’s just shit weather. Just call it a microclimate for growing wine.”
Hand-picked, whole bunch pressed and no skin contact, but taken with a bit of solids to the barrel. It sounds like it is made like a Chardonnay. A little bit of stirring, but with zero sulphur added until February. But it has a whole bunch of Loire feelings to it too. Quite tight and filled with energy but generous. James wants to call it volumptuous (which isn’t a word, although someone else I know tries to use it too) but I don’t get that. There’s a curviness to it, but without heading to volumptuous. I recall the 2022 version which had less sway to it – my write-up at the time mentioned “A great balance of interest and drinkability here. Hints of Chablis. The texture is silky and viscose”.
Dave unlocks another white wine – this is also Sauvignon Blanc, from just over the other side of the Waipara township. It was new fruit to them this year, so they played around with the picking time and the treatment in the winery too. Just over half was direct pressing, then around 30% was whole bunch and carbonic for 7 days. The remaining 20% was destemmed and on the skins for three weeks. Dave explains “It has been great to see it for the last six months as more of those Sauvignon aromatics drop away and you’re left with a real acid/texture balance”.
I find people (like me) will go into a nice wine bar – like Apero or Cave de Vin – and just ask for “a textural white wine please”. I also do think that ‘blends’ are becoming more accepted now. It’s taken a while for consumers to get around what each of the different varietals mean to them, and are confident of ordering those, but it has taken a longer while to get across blends. Whites in particular it is different if they’re traditional ones like Bordeaux or GSM.
James does have eleven wines in his Bryterlater range. “We’re cutting back!” he exclaims. “Not in volume, just the amount of offerings. Sauvignon Blanc just gets totally lost, because most of my clientele want ‘something interesting’. And as interesting and different and fantastic as my Sauvignon Blanc is… when they look at the list they assume it is the most boring thing on there, you know?”
I add an opinion that I do think that some of the ‘interesting’ left-field wines – like orange wines – around today are being made from varietals that can be bland in the mainstream – like Pinot Gris, or Sauvignon. When I worked at Vic Road in Devonport, I’d see a lot of smaller producers. James agrees – “when i was in hospitality, I definitely drank a much broader range than what I do now. Now it’s mostly just our wines and Steinlagers!”
As if on cue, an ‘orange wine’ is opened and put into my glass. A very amber-orange colour indeed. The nose has lots of pink and orange floral notes in particular – citrus blossom, rose petals. From three separate sites – Pinot Gris from Mt Cass, just in Waipara; George’s Road and Gewurz from Church Road – the same site as the Pinot. I guess that it isn’t Gewurz-led, but it is a bit dominant on the nose… less so to taste, which has more Gris to it.
And, to continue the blend theme, there’s also a Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Riesling wine up next. There’s something very interesting in the space between Sauvignon and Pinot Gris that this wine gets to play with. Both somewhat Italian-tasting and also with a distinct pot pourri vibe to the bouquet. The wines of northern Italy are certainly in vogue right now, and this wine could easily come from Friuli. There’s a chalky dustiness to the tannin that I like, and it has a soft grip to it. Lots of juicy fruit on the finish.
James tells me “We went there, on the border with Slovenia. In fact we went too far and into Slovenia in our little Fiat 500. We pull over and get a glass of wine. And it was something like $3 a glass for this skin-contact wine in a local bar. Then we got back in the car and drove back over the border – and the wine became $15!”
Things get even curlier with a wine I have actually seen before – when Dave came to Auckland one time he had it as a side taster. A riesling/chardonnay/gewurz/pinot noir blend. All the classics! The block was planted in the mid-80s when they were working out what was going to work in Waipara. Apart from the riesling – of which there is about half a hectare, it is just three rows of each. It has a nice touch of Campari to it; and a mid-palate tropical note that is fun, and probably comes from the riesling.
Matter of Time as a label is aiming to be putting hand-made wines onto a shelf somewhere like Glengarry for $29 a bottle. Dave describes it as “Still clean and precise but outside of what people are used to – with an edge to it. We’re selling this ourselves through our existing channels, but we really need to find the market that is not cannibalising our own market”.
Reds start to appear – a Pinot Noir and Syrah blend. The Syrah is about 20% – de-stemmed and on skins for three weeks. The Pinot comes from the site in Oxford. I really like the wines I’ve had that use this mix, and I wish that people who have both varietals, would do one. This has a brightness and real spice to it. It is a direction that the duo are going to head down. Both the orange and chilled red wines from 2024 went into keg format as well.
A 2023 Pinot Noir comes from Central Otago – with plenty of whole bunch winemaking at the party. Dave tells me it started at 85% in the first one and had decreased over the years – to around 50% now. A richness through the mid-palate, and some really soft tannins. But has the potential to age well – might just get more serious as it does.
A wine called ‘Yonder’ is next. James tells me it is called that as inspiration came from overseas. “Places in the Rhône, places in Australia. I think Syrah is this long-lost variety – especially in North Canterbury. Hunter Valley Syrahs have this high acid but then a really amazing palate weight” We laugh about the fact that I did not know that James is originally from Bendigo, in Australia – and I only find out because I say that I love Syrah from Victoria. His parent’s have a vineyard near Heathcote – in Axedale. He tells me “Bindi, around 1996, was one of the wines that turned me on. And Mt. Mary Cabernets – stuff like that. They were the wines that made me decide I wanted to be in the wine industry”.
The fruit for the Syrah comes from Terrace Edge – a Chave clone. About 10-15% whole bunch at the bottom of the ferment, and then a light pump-over morning and night. Basket pressed about five weeks later. Two weeks then in post maceration – which has softened and lengthened the tannins. The tannins reach back in the palate. It is obviously borderline to grow Syrah down in the Waipara Valley, but the treatment gives resolution and it really works. It does have ripeness and a peppery character, plus some serious acidity.
James tells me about how the winery they’re in now came about… “The vibe for us, is that we beg, borrowed and stole… well, we didn’t steal anything, but we leaned a lot on our friends to open this place and everyone in the valley has just bent over backwards to support us. People like Pegasus Bay helped us a lot. Dom and Huw are both good mates of ours. I worked at Greystone when i was going through University as well. There’s no arrogance here – everyone is really well connected. It’s a really giving place. If anything happened here, I could call Dom, or Matt Donaldson – anybody… and I’d be able to take my fruit to their winery and process it, just like that.
It’s not an easy place to grow grapes. I think the next step for us would be to manage a vineyard together. I’ve managed an old Syrah block myself, and we’ve done a Pinot block together – but both of those were one hectare! But we need to find something that’s bigger, and not shy away from investing in equipment”.
