One of the furthest-north vineyards I’ve visited is at Dancing Petrel up in Northland – where I visited Kim Gilkison after a tip-off from Rod McIvor at Marsden Estate (who makes their wines) that this was a trip not to be missed — if I was up for a drive. It’s a good few kilometres up the road from Kerikeri, at Paewhenua Island; but the views from the Tasting Room, overlooking the water across to Mangonui, are breathtaking. The vineyard is pretty easy on the eye too — check out the photos on their website at www.dancingpetrel.co.nz
I start off discussing how we’d met at Winetopia one time, before I knew much about them, as Kim gets out a selection of wines for tasting…
Kim Gilkison: This is our Arneis – did we have this at Winetopia?
Winefolio: If you did, I didn’t try it. You don’t see much of it around, so I think I’d have remembered it.
KG: It was already here and I really didn’t know anything about it. We took the vineyard over in 2019, so we didn’t plant any of the grapes — they were planted in 2006. We took Rod’s advice and used wild yeast to ferment it. It’s a bit different from the other people’s Arneis I’ve tried.
WF: It must be a couple of years since I’ve had one. I know Villa Maria were doing one for a while, but they’ve stopped, I think. It was really good. I reckon Arneis is a really bright and fresh, food-friendly white wine. A twist on the ‘usual’ thing that you’d get — like Albarino is?
KG: When I first tried it I thought ‘hmm, yeah, I don’t know – I’ll have to think about that!’ But I think it has quite a bit of body for what it is. It’s a bit different and it has been popular, so we’ve been happy with that. It looks scrawny in the vineyard. Compared to the other vines that have been in for the same length of time. But we’ve started spur-pruning it and it is making a huge difference. One of the people that’s helping in the vineyard, he’s taken a particular interest in it.
WF: So what made you want to take over a vineyard up here?
KG: We had an engineering company, and we bought the house in 2012 – it was the original cottage. We sold our business in ’13 and then we had three years to work through that. I renovated the cottage in between going to Brisbane, and it was about 2017 when I was up here and I realised “I’d moved” (laughs). And I love it up here. The people who were here wanted to sell the vineyard, and I looked at it and it seemed such a pity to see it disappear, so I took it over. I didn’t have anything to do at that time — for two weeks (more laughing). Been pretty busy ever since, but I have really enjoyed it.
WF: Does it help having someone like Rod on hand?
KG: Yes, it does, but we were really lucky as well that Monty has been in the industry for such a long time, and he’s downsizing his vineyard, so I got a couple of his workers. People that actually know what they’re doing. And Joe who has been his Manager for ever comes over every week and we go through what we should be doing. Plus the Wine Group in Northland is really supportive. If you’ve got a problem with something you can ask them. Mark Nobilo comes up and he’s sitting here and he says “Well, I did advise someone else not to buy the vineyard, because it’s a lot of work”
WF: I’ve heard a few points of view recently, from people who are happy just to be growers and ask themselves “why would I then bother with all of the making of the wine, and then the sales, marketing, distribution and so on?”
KG: I guess for us though — having a label that is just ours is quite cool. Locally, there’s Carrington estate and there’s Monty over at Kaitaia; and so in some ways it is quite a good market because we’re getting a lot of local loyalty and they’re enjoying the wine which is good. Our Tannat is sold out after Michael Cooper gave it a five star review. Normally we have three reds — the Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Tannat. There’s not much Tannat in the country so it’s been very popular. The Duke of Marlborough have been very good with that, so we get people heading our way specifically for our Tannat and our Viognier.
We have a few unusual wines, which is good and bad. It’s good in the Tasting room because people quite enjoy trying something different. The local restaurants like the Pinot Gris, Cabernet Franc and the Rosé, and a bit of Viognier. They don’t tend to get into the different wines so much, and that’s fine as those are our biggest crops anyway.
WF: They have a great local flavour up there. Considering how busy it is and they could probably just pump out anonymous wine bottle after bottle. It’s really good to see them championing the local flavours. I like that a lot. You get the local support, but I suppose you get the tourists who hopefully come up on their holidays and take a case back with the stories?
KG: I put some Chambourcin in last year, but then my father got sick and I forgot to get people to water it whilst I was away in Auckland. We’ve also planted some Chardonnay, more Syrah and some Gewurz. Mark said ‘Whatever you do, don’t plant something just because you like it’ (laughs) So I’m telling him what I’ve done — ‘I’ve planted the Gewurz just because I like it!!’ As Rod said — you’ve gotta have fun.
And we’ve been pretty lucky because since we took over every season has been good. Up here has been good for visitors because people have been coming here rather than overseas. We’ve had visitors coming here, from South Island who have never been here, and they can’t believe how nice it is! We’ve done quite well out of it, and some restaurants are busier than ever.
WF: I just had lunch at Marsden and it’s absolutely heaving. But is the wine going well?
KG: It is going well. We have quite a bit of our Pinot Gris and Viognier, so I do need to get it further afield. Now is a push to do more distribution. That side of it is not easy. And we’re thinking of putting a Tasting Room up at the top.
WF: And why wouldn’t you? It is ridiculously easy on the eye. That view from up there is quite special.
KG: We get a lot of people coming from referrals now, which is great. Some of it is that we just have this really informal sitting around a table doing a tasting way, and that would change. But the other side of it is people are always wanting to have a light lunch or platters and so on. So far people have to make a bit of effort to come. Which is fine because then they buy a bit of wine!
WF: I’ve heard quite a bit of chatter about Viognier recently which is good, and also Pinot Gris – which I’m keener on than a lot of people. People who haven’t really bothered with those before are drinking and buying quite a bit of it now.
KG: You should try our Pinot Gris then! What do you think the move is, for Pinot Gris, as far as the style goes?
WF: I think for it to be taken seriously — it’s that bigger, weightier style, with a subtle oak influence. Needs to be able to put some age on if it is a serious wine. Still with a nice mineral line. I had this conversation though recently with another winemaker, and they have definitely gone for drier.
KG: That’s interesting, because I’ve been going for a drier style. What I like is when people try it at a restaurant and then come over and buy it.
WF: I actually think that Northland is under-rated for its wine. There are some magnificent sites, and you’ve got so much going on up here; and then the bigger places now with Omata, Marsden and The Landing. There must surely come a tipping point where you do start to win a truck load of awards.
KG: You’ve got to start with a product don’t you? An experienced winemaker learns to do less to the grapes. I quite like ‘vintage variation’ for example. Rod will probably get sick of asking thirty different growers, but he does ask you how you would like your wine.
WF: In bottles, preferably, hahahaha.
KG: He certainly tells you how he thinks it should go, but he listens to the styles that you like. Our personal preference is drier wines.
WF: Aha – so this is your red. The single offering?
KG: Yes, our Cabernet Franc. The Tannat is all gone. We got it two days before lockdown so spent some time deciding which one was better. There are apparently high levels of those very good red wine benefits in it.
WF: I understand that Cab Franc is a very good blending wine, and when I see that a red blend is 15% Cabernet Franc, I do anticipate that it will be good. And I love it on its own. I refer to it having an umami balsam, resinous quality to it.
KG: We played around with doing a Tannat-Cab Franc blend but in the end we preferred them as single wines, so we’ve left them alone. The Syrah this year will be fantastic — like last years. In our first year we didn’t do a Syrah. I’d said to the pickers “Don’t pick past row 50” as we were picking Tannat, but the Syrah was still at 22 brix. But I came back and they’d picked it; so we turned it into a rosé which was lovely, to be honest. We picked our Pinot Gris as there was a 100mm Rain Warning, and our Gris is the one that gets affected — so we picked that the day before, and sure enough, there was 100mm of rain. Viognier doesn’t care — it’s got thick skins and it just carries on. And the Arneis we picked that week, because I looked at it and it was starting to flag. So we got it off and it was good. And reds just took off. It was like a new lease of life.
So the vineyard is looking good, and the people we’ve got helping are just fantastic. It can be tough up here — people say “oh people don’t want to work, or do this or that…” but so much of that seasonal work is very hard. It can be hard to manage, and to live on; so consistency of workers is a real issue. They take a personal interest in it, and it is all local employment!
NOTE – since this interview, Dancing Petrel have won the Trophy for Best Viognier at the NZIWS, with their Double Gold winning Reserve Viognier!
