{"id":1207,"date":"2020-05-02T23:55:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T23:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2020-05-02T23:58:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T23:58:36","slug":"winemaker-series-michael-brajkovich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=1207","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker series: Michael Brajkovich"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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An occasional series where we corner the best of New Zealand\u2019s winemaking talent. Today we talk with\u00a0Michael Brajkovich<\/strong>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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So, a New Year, and, in fact a new decade! But now it\u2019s back to work time\u2026 I\u2019ve arranged to meet the maker of my favourite wine (Mat\u00e9s Vineyard Chardonnay<\/em>) on the first day back to it after a decent Festive Break. I\u2019d been to a few events featuring Kumeu River in the last year, but never got around to talking to Michael; and a proper sit down and discussion seems overdue. For the Winemaker Series<\/em>, you will see that I\u2019ll be asking a few of the same questions to each person as we go \u2013 and we\u2019ll see what each has to say.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WineFolio<\/strong>: Winemaking \u2013 would you say this is a \u201cCreative\u201d field that you work in, or \u201cScientific\u201d?<\/p>

Michael Brajkovich<\/strong>: In the first instance, certainly Scientific. Because you need to have tools, and the ability to use that medium \u2013 artists have their medium, and grapes is our medium \u2013 so having some degree of mastery over that is very important. Then, once you\u2019ve got past the basics, there\u2019s scope to bring out the artistry. I guess that does take time. So it takes a lot of tastings and comparisons \u2013 learning from other regions and other winemakers; just learning how to do that, and bring out the best. In most situations, in other countries, that\u2019s been done over a very long period of time. And a lot of it’s handed down \u2013 you learn from your mentors.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: And yet, New Zealand has got here quite quickly?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: That\u2019s because of Science. We\u2019re not just working with \u2018what the Old man told you\u2019. All of us have had the benefit of some kind of education, and speeding things up from that perspective. The progress that Australia and California have made is largely due to the influence of science. Right from the 1930s, their governments recognized that they really needed to invest in education, and in research. To a certain extent in New Zealand as well, but on a much smaller scale; and it\u2019s good to see that type of thing is continuing – with the new Marlborough Centre that\u2019s being established.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: So when you wanted to follow in the family business, was Roseworthy College pretty much the only choice for you to study?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: No, there were two by that stage. There was Roseworthy, but also Riverina College, that became Charles Sturt University \u2013 in Wagga Wagga. In the end I ended up going to Roseworthy because Bryce Rankine knew my father. He was a Wine Researcher at the Wine Institute in Adelaide for many years and he said I should come to Roseworthy. I\u2019ve never regretted that, it was a fantastic experience. There was nothing here specifically targeted at Oenology. I also looked at the Food Technology course at Massey University. Lincoln had some aspects. Now you have many more options within New Zealand.<\/p>

WF:<\/strong>\u00a0Did you come back from that and go straight into the family wine business?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: Yes, my first vintage was 1982. The company was established \u2013 we had winemakers before. The assistant winemaker who was there before, Nigel Tibbits, is still with us \u2013 so he\u2019s been here in this job longer than I have. His experience and knowledge is fantastic. It\u2019s been a real benefit having him around to do all the things that we want to do.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: Back in day, you were focused on – was it – one great white and one great red wine?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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MB<\/strong>: That was Dad\u2019s idea. One really good dry red, one really good dry white wine \u2013 a bit like a property in Europe would do. But I then also had the opportunity to travel \u2013 to France, went to Bordeaux but also travelled around a lot of the regions and just saw how things happened there. I got a real feel for the history \u2013 why these places exist, how they work; which was quite foreign to what we have here. I took a very European perspective, applying that knowledge to our situation. The education I got at Roseworthy was fantastic \u2013 from a technological point of view \u2013 we had lots of really good teachers.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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But what Roseworthy was really good at was teaching the basics and principles and leaving it to the individuals to apply those the way they saw fit. A lot of the things that we started to change here in the mid-80s \u2013 for example, moving into wild yeast fermentation; using malolactic fermentation in white wines \u2013 which was just unheard of at the time. Doing things like barrel fermentation. That was an unusual thing. Whole bunch pressing grapes\u2026 nobody did that. We\u2019ve learnt things very quickly and changed things up very fast.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: You changed things in the vineyard as well \u2013 the lyre system for example?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: Yes, that was my contribution to it. My brother would now not like to have it (laughs). But it\u2019s there, and I think now we could achieve the same type of things with narrow rows; but at the time we didn\u2019t have that option. We didn\u2019t have the small tractors or the tractors that go over the row and stuff like that, so you had to adapt the current vine spacing with some changes to the canopy. A lot of that I learnt from Richard Smart at Roseworthy. I did my third year project under him \u2013 on Vineyard Canopy Management & Manipulation.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: And then the Merlot went?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: Merlot was a bit of a pivotal moment. It was in this office one day, and Dad had a visit from two guys from Corbans Wines \u2013 Bob Matthews and Kevin Petersen. Rothmans had bought Corbans and they wanted to get rid of their Auckland vineyards. They had a big one in Taupaki and a big one in Kumeu. And they came in and said \u201cwe want to sell these vineyards and we think you should buy them\u201d. Dad gulped, but we went and had a look. And we decided that Kumeu was the most attractive because it was just up the road; but the big attraction was that it had a 20 acre block of Merlot. That was the most significant Merlot planting in New Zealand at the time.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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So it was an exciting time. We bought the land in \u201983 and Dad managed to sell most of the grapes to another property. And we ended up with a large \u2013 100 acre \u2013 vineyard. Not all of it was good \u2013 Merlot was the best part of it. It had Muller Thurgau on it and a lot of Palomino\u2026 it had a variety called Golden Queen. But then things got really tough a few years later \u2013 the economy tanked and interest rates went through the roof, they hit 19%. So Dad decided we\u2019d sub-divide it; and sold off all except the Merlot. Then a few years later we were able to buy one back, so now we have two 20-acre blocks there.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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And the Merlot\u2019s all gone. We really thought Merlot was going to be the great variety for us \u2013 I\u2019d then had the opportunity to work the \u201983 vintage at Jean-Pierre Moueix at Pomerol and St. Emilion \u2013 Milan went and worked there as well in 1987. Things happened very, very fast. And with that first Merlot we produced \u2013 that won a Gold medal \u2013 was the first wine ever labeled with the Kumeu River label. Up until then we were San Marino Vineyards, and our first significant wine won a Gold medal, which was fantastic. Subsequent to that, we realised that Merlot in a good year is pretty good, but there are years where it just doesn\u2019t ripen very well here.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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At the same time we started planting other blocks of land that we had here in Kumeu, and we planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc \u2013 and Chardonnay. And of those four varieties it was the Chardonnay that shone all the time. Eventually all those other varieties got pulled out and got replaced with Chardonnay and a bit of Pinot Noir. Chardonnay is early ripening, and the other grape variety in Burgundy is Pinot Noir; so we thought that should do quite well too. And it does. We don\u2019t have a huge reputation for our Pinot here but\u2026<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I think it\u2019s pretty good! Why do you think that is? Because the Chardonnay is extremely well regarded \u2013 worldwide as well as NZ?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: I suppose it\u2019s a bit like parts of the Cote du Beaune that make primarily white wine, so Puligny, Chassagne, but also they make red. They\u2019re just not very well known for red. I think we\u2019re in that same kind of situation. The reds are pretty good, but they\u2019re not our main thing. And our Chardonnay certainly is.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: And the other thing that I really believe that Kumeu River could be known for in the future is the Cr\u00e9mant. I think that\u2019s wonderful. You obviously already have the Pinot Noir here to do that. And I do believe that New Zealand has the opportunity to excel at sparkling wine \u2013 I mean, no-one thought England would make decent bubbles, but now they are hitting their straps\u2026<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: It\u2019s an interesting thing with the sparkling; because years ago Dad used to make a lot of sparkling wine. Not particularly good, but quite commercial, and did very well with it. But it was just too hard \u2013 to go down the traditional method. Everything about it is difficult. So we didn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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It\u2019s better now \u2013 because we\u2019ve done it now\u2026 and we know more about it. We\u2019re very fortunate to have Tony Soljan just up the road who has a lot of the gear that we can borrow; but without that it would be impossible. You just have to invest too much money for the kind of volume that you can produce. But it\u2019s been a long time that we’ve thought that a lot of our vineyards could produce pretty good sparkling wine, but never got around to doing it. For sparkling you have to sit down and work out the economics, and you kind of go\u2026 nah!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Really one of the impetus for the Cr\u00e9mant\u2026 Mum and I were in New York, at the Wine Spectator Wine Experience in 2009 \u2013 10 years ago. And we\u2019re at a late night function in a penthouse with a view of the Chrysler Building. Hugh Johnson had come to New York and he hadn\u2019t seen us for years, and we sat down and had a great chat. We had the 2004 Mat\u00e9s Vineyard Chardonnay with us and he looked across and said \u201chave you ever thought of making bubbles?\u201d Just that little bit of encouragement \u2013 because he saw something in that older bottle of wine that was something like you might get in a vintage champagne.<\/p>

So, a couple of years later (and I didn\u2019t really tell anyone) we picked a little bit of fruit early and made it into some sparkling base. It was an experiment even then \u2013 if things hadn\u2019t worked out we would have just blended it away \u2013 but the wine looked good. So we decided to bottle it. We got a lot of really good advice from Rudi Bauer, and also Sarah Burton who was, at the time, at Cloudy Bay \u2013 both sparkling experts \u2013 and got a lot of ideas of what to do.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: I\u2019m amazed just how much of a Community, the New Zealand wine industry is.<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: It\u2019s all about the bigger picture. New Zealand wine is so small in the world \u2013 anything that we can do to improve the standing of New Zealand wine we\u2019re going to benefit from as well. The best example I ever saw of that was Robert Mondavi. He was a fantastic guy. I remember doing a wine dinner with him one night \u2013 so we had Mondavi wines and Kumeu River wines. I got up and talked about the Kumeu wines; and he got up and just talked about the Kumeu wines! He was always very generous in his talking about other people\u2019s wines as well as his. And all the boats lifted on the same tide.<\/p>

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WF<\/strong>: What about Burgundy \u2013 what do they think of Kumeu River?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: We\u2019ve had some very nice comments from people over there. We\u2019ve had people come and work for us from that part of the world, who had seen our wines before and thought they were in a Burgundy style; but here is something a bit different, and what can we learn from that? So that\u2019s been really good.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: What do you think of New Zealand Pinot Noir, generally?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: I think it\u2019s outstanding. I judged in the Air New Zealand Wine Awards \u2013 I was 5 years as Chairman \u2013 and every year the outstanding class was always Pinot Noir. It\u2019s always the biggest in terms of Gold Medals awarded. After that, Chardonnay; and Chardonnay wasn\u2019t getting the recognition it really deserved. The Pinot Noir \u2013 it\u2019s not necessarily in a Burgundian style either, but outstanding.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Telling the story of New Zealand wine to the world \u2013 is that a hard thing to do? Kumeu River has been going long before New Zealand Pinot Noir made waves; and about the same time as Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc became a global sensation?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: When we started with our agents in the USA and UK, was 1988, and at that stage Cloudy Bay had started – and they went very well. But people didn\u2019t know a lot about New Zealand, and we were very fortunate when we went into the United States that our agents there promoted us in a way that people thought we were somewhere else \u2013 somewhere in Australia\u2026 it wasn\u2019t then about New Zealand Chardonnay \u2013 there was no category \u2013 it was about Kumeu River Chardonnay. I remember a lot of restaurant lists in the late \u201880s \u2013 if there was New Zealand wine on the list in the US, it was Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Kumeu River Chardonnay \u2013 for a long time! Then, of course, other people starting coming in.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: Have you thought of doing the sort of thing where you take two barrels and make a \u2018Masterpiece wine\u2019? And what do think of that sort of thing?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: No. It\u2019s not of interest to us. All of our wines are of a reasonable volume that people can get hold of, and we\u2019re not interested in making two barrels of anything. Our portfolio here \u2013 the Mat\u00e9s and the Hunting Hill are around 1000-1200 cases each, so a reasonable quantity; but we have to be careful how it\u2019s priced. A lot of Burgundy producers do produce one or two barrels of a particular appellation, but that\u2019s because they\u2019ve only got a couple of rows and that\u2019s all they can make.<\/p>

However, now that we\u2019ve got the Rays Road Vineyard \u2013 that\u2019s really exciting. It\u2019s all on limestone and we\u2019re starting to see real limestone characters coming through.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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As the years progress we\u2019re going to get more and more Chardonnay off that \u2013 we\u2019ve already pulled out more than four hectares and replanted with two clones of Chardonnay \u2013 548 (from Burgundy) and UCD115 (from California, thanks to the late Warren Moran), which are very good performers here \u2013 and we\u2019ll definitely put some Mendoza in as well.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: What about awards and shows \u2013 you don\u2019t seem to chase Gold medals?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: No. We did, back when we were building the brand. The Gold medal that we got with the Merlot was very instrumental at the time, and we entered Chardonnays through the \u201880s and did OK. I\u2019m still a great advocate of the Show system. I think it does work, and it really comes down to who you\u2019ve got judging and how it\u2019s run. For example, here, the best Pinots do stand out, and win time and time again. The background to that however, is that not everyone enters; so you don\u2019t necessarily have all the best wines.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: I have a couple that I think are excellent \u2013 for example the Fine Wines of NZ List \u2013 if you just sat and worked your way through that, you\u2019d be doing OK!<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: Yes, that\u2019s a really good list. And very rigorous tasting protocol and programme. To get on that list, you have to jump through a lot of hurdles; and it is a list where a lot of people on there would never enter a Wine Show.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: Going back to the winemaking; and a question I ask all the winemakers I talk to.. is there a point in the process where you get \u2018a feeling\u2019 about the wine at hand. Is there a moment where intuition plays a big part?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: A lot of it is that. I think it all comes down to a lot of small details. And nothing happens purely by accident. It\u2019s the results of someone\u2019s efforts the whole way through. So if you go down to the cellar and taste and go \u201cWow, where does that come from?\u201d The answer is a whole lot of different people. That vineyard was planted, looked after, harvested and then through the whole process. It\u2019s the sum of those processes and every one needs to be done correctly.<\/p>

We like to have our own vineyards. We do purchase from growers but in every case we have a big input into how those grapes are grown. That\u2019s really important for our best wines. The Coddington has got better every year \u2013 but all the vineyards are getting better with age too. The stunning one really is the Mat\u00e9s, because ten years ago we thought that we\u2019d have to start again \u2013 it\u2019s got a lot of leaf-roll virus in it, and you\u2019re thinking it\u2019s going to fall over any day; but it just keeps going and we keep looking after it.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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WF<\/strong>: One of the last things I wanted to talk to you about is Climate Change. You mentioned Richard Smart earlier, and he seems to be heard more now for his opinions on Climate Change than viticulture. What are your thoughts?<\/p>

MB<\/strong>: We are very fortunate in being where we are, that the effects of Climate Change have not been as dramatic as they have been in, say, Australia. In terms of harvest dates \u2013 ours haven\u2019t changed much at all. We\u2019re still picking Chardonnay in the first week of March.<\/p>

So we\u2019re not looking at changing varieties or the way we do things, or alternative packaging. Glass is still, for us, number 1. Cans, I know have been very successful for beer. I don\u2019t know if we can say the same thing about wine \u2013 yet. You can\u2019t close yourself off, but for the time being we\u2019re quite happy with what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In terms of CO2 \u2013 as well \u2013 all that CO2 was sequestered by the vines in the first place, through photosynthesis. And then, during fermentation, a third of it, goes out as CO2 gas; but the other two-thirds is locked into alcohol. It\u2019s part of a cycle. We\u2019re not contributing any more or less than any other agricultural product. Even these guys who are capturing CO2 and producing Potassium Bicarbonate and\/or Sodium Bicarbonate \u2013 which is then used in other industries… what happens to that? You\u2019ve just moved the roadblock a bit further down. There\u2019s a big chunk of Climate Change that we can do nothing about, and we need to accept that.<\/p>

I\u2019m often asked the question about what is the biggest challenge to the wine industry today; and as well as Climate, for me, it\u2019s the Neo-Prohibitionists. That new puritanism that’s seen a decline in alcohol consumption. That\u2019s worrying, because who\u2019s going to drink our wine?<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An occasional series where we corner the best of New Zealand\u2019s winemaking talent. Today we talk with Michael Brajkovich. So, a New Year, and, in fact a new decade! 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