{"id":1839,"date":"2020-08-09T02:13:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T02:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2020-08-09T03:40:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T03:40:56","slug":"winemaker-series-matt-connell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=1839","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker series: Matt Connell"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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If you keep an eye on who is winning awards in New Zealand for their Pinot Noir, then you will know the name of Matt Connell<\/strong>. Moving from a successful career at Akarua, and with a load of experience from over in Oregon, he has started his own label off with quite a bang \u2013 winning the Trophy at the NZ International Wine Show, and quietly winning medals with a range of the wines he makes on contract. We couldn\u2019t not make time to catch up with Matt when down in Cromwell earlier in the year.<\/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>: Can you fill us in on a bit of background?<\/p>

Matt Connell<\/strong>: I\u2019ve done my corporate winemaking thing \u2013 to a degree, but my big thing is probably helping people too \u2013 to do their own projects. I do a bit of consulting for a few companies and I do contract winemaking \u2013 so that\u2019s my main business. I lease a winery in Alexandra and I currently make about ten companies wines. So that\u2019s my day to day and I really enjoy that as I get to deal with different fruit and different people. And some of those don\u2019t know a whole heap about wine so I try to steer them in the right direction, with some sage advice. My own wines are not a side project, because they are equally as important to me \u2013 but I don\u2019t have aspirations to grow them into some massive business. I want to keep them a bit harder to find. I\u2019ve been lucky because I have done well with my winemaking in New Zealand over fifteen years. So I\u2019ve got quite a good following for my wine regardless, and I sell a lot of it through the Cellar Door and just a few select fine wine shops. A few restaurants, but I don\u2019t want to be in too many of those.<\/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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I\u2019m a one-man band, so making a whole lot of wine for other people, doing my own thing; and I sell barrels for Francois Fr\u00e9re<\/strong>. I also do cross-flow filtration for the whole of Central Otago, so I\u2019ve got a lot going on. My contract winemaking and my clients are my focus, and I want my own project to give me a lot of enjoyment and deal with vineyards I really want to deal with on a personal basis. And make the wines that I love drinking myself \u2013 so that\u2019s what my project is about.<\/p>

I draw a line in the sand \u2013 if my wines not good enough, I won\u2019t produce them. 2016 was my first vintage for myself, so I made that at Aurum Wines<\/strong> because they had a bit of space. Then by \u201917 I was too big so I went to another location and leased that building. Picked up a few more clients and made a bit more wine. But \u201917 was a fantastic vintage with small berries and heaps of concentration like 2005, which was my first year of being based here full-time.\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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You don\u2019t see those vintages too often, so I\u2019m grateful to have seen two! \u201917 was a phenomenal vintage and then \u201918 we had the hottest vintage we\u2019ve ever had. My chardonnay came off 5 weeks earlier than the \u201917 pick. The wines in \u201918 tend to be a bit lighter and a lot of flavour got blown out of them to a degree. I didn\u2019t do a Bendigo Single Vineyard, which I would aim to do every year, but I won\u2019t if it\u2019s not there to be made. There was nothing in the barrel that screamed \u2018single vineyard\u2019 so I made more barrels of Rendition – that\u2019s my main cuvee.<\/p>

Because I\u2019ve been here for a long time, I do have fantastic relationships. I don\u2019t own a vineyard, so I buy fruit. People are really important to me and I want people to be treated fairly. Like wine \u2013 I won\u2019t put one out if I don\u2019t think it\u2019s at the level I expect, I won\u2019t produce one. I do about 1000 cases of my own wines. It will grow a bit more with some new varietal wines, but it\u2019s not going to get a whole lot bigger than that. Then I can really concentrate on 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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I work in the Cellar door a bit at weekends so I can talk to people about my wines, and it\u2019s nice to know where they are going and who\u2019s drinking them. The Bannockburn Hotel has my wines on their list and we drink up there regularly, and if someone\u2019s there drinking it, I\u2019ll go and have a yarn with them.\u00a0<\/p>

Because we are still quite small as a winemaking community, it\u2019s quite collegiate. I made wine in Oregon for a few years, and my wife\u2019s American, and they look after each other quite well\u00a0there too. I think maybe because with Pinots – because you\u2019ve got to really work on them \u2013 especially in the vineyard and you\u2019re trying to understand it all \u2013 you tend to share information. Instead of trying to understand something in isolation, you\u2019ve got to talk to people to try and get some ideas happening. So maybe Pinot is a bit different like that.\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\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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In Burgundy it\u2019s an interesting one too \u2013 a lot of the producers there don\u2019t share a lot of information with each other \u2013 they\u2019ve just chipped away; but you see a range of wines in Burgundy too \u2013 and some of them are pretty ordinary, some of them are very good.<\/p>

If you talked to Central Otago winemakers about different vineyards, I think it could come down to which are the \u2018Grand Cru\u2019 sites and which are the \u2018Villages\u2019 sites now, and in a couple of hundred years. Central Otago in my time here has been evolving a lot. Some of the larger companies have stylistically changed what they were doing and brought a lot of smaller vineyards into the fold. There\u2019s been a lot of that happening in recent years. So some of the individual stories of Central Otago have disappeared a bit. There was a broader range of those stories compared to now. But we\u2019ve had new people coming in as well, so those stories continue on. People that are coming in now have a bit more money behind them, which is a good thing as it\u2019s not cheap to make wine. Or to pay for sales and marketing teams and do all the rest of it \u2013 it\u2019s expensive.<\/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>: Is that why companies like VinPro and contract winemakers exist \u2013 to help people down that road?<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: I think so, yes. It\u2019s like me making multiple clients wines is giving people an avenue where they don\u2019t have to have their own winery. And then getting the resource of my knowledge I guess? To help them get a bit of a jump up. If you don\u2019t have that I think it can be a bit deflating, but also it costs a lot of money. You need to sell wine, to make wine \u2013 that\u2019s just the brutal reality. Wine is a very romantic ideal, but if, at the end of the day, you don\u2019t sell it then you don\u2019t have a business.<\/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 if you don\u2019t have a business, you can\u2019t make it. I\u2019m very focussed on what I do, but I\u2019ve also been the General Manager at Akarua, as well as the winemaker, for example \u2013 for eight years. So I had business experience there and I\u2019ve been doing my own business now for four years, that\u2019s been going really well. There\u2019s a lot to wine. But if you\u2019re getting into it with romantic ideals and haven\u2019t thought it through, that can be bit of a trap. In the past Central Otago\u2019s had a lot of wine sitting in warehouses, even though they are good vintages, because there\u2019s only so much wine can be bought – within New Zealand \u2013 so if you haven\u2019t got international distribution\u2026<\/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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And because it\u2019s farming as well, you\u2019re dealing with the weather. There\u2019s a huge amount you can\u2019t control. The economics of the world economy \u2013 the dollar drops, then that has big impact. A whole range of things. It\u2019s a tough old business. Fun \u2013 but tough. I wouldn\u2019t do anything else. The challenge makes it\u2019s interesting.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Would you say it\u2019s scientific or artistic \u2013 making wine?<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: For me it\u2019s probably more artistic. I definitely rely on numbers \u2013 I think you have to. You need to know if your pH is at a level where that wine is going to be happy in a bottle for a long period of time. But I don\u2019t get too wound up about those things. I think it\u2019s more artistic, and more of an experience thing. I\u2019ve always worked for companies where I enjoyed the wines. I applied for those positions because I liked the wine. I wanted to learn. How did they get it to where it was? And take away the key points for myself.<\/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>: is there a point in the year that you get \u2018a feeling\u2019?<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: The big moments in the year are putting wines together. That\u2019s always exciting. Blending is one of the things I\u2019d say I\u2019m pretty decent at. That\u2019s the exciting part, and also the part where you have to be hypercritical. You\u2019ve got to back yourself. The worst thing you can do is listen to other people at that stage. I never pin a wine down on the spot. I take it home and sit on it for a couple of days, and go back to it and try a few new things.<\/p>

I look at wine over the whole year once it goes to barrel. It\u2019s like different colours, like putting a painting together. I like to see finished wines quite early \u2013 so a lot of my wines will go through Malo early, and that gives me time throughout the year to get quite familiar with those different barrels. Or those different blocks, different vineyards. The wines will start to show themselves; and what needs to be with what, to a degree. And you\u2019ll have a mental picture of what you\u2019ve tasted throughout the year. Maybe that\u2019s \u2018the feeling\u2019?<\/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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And Vintage is really interesting because it does come down to the vineyard. You can stuff it up as a winemaker, but if you don\u2019t get it right in the vineyard, you haven\u2019t got a base to work with really. The big difference is, everyone has got different tastebuds, right? So we\u2019d all be looking for something different. You put every Central Otago winemaker in the same vineyard at the same time \u2013 we would all choose to pick on different days. It\u2019s just how you taste things yourself. You can\u2019t replicate that \u2013 it\u2019s just the way it is. A critical decision right there, but it\u2019s a great feeling \u2013 when you push the GO button \u2013 it\u2019s exciting. Because you\u2019re into 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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My Chardonnay 2017 was in the top five for Bob Campbell \u2013 he gave it a pretty good score \u2013 95 or 96 I think \u2013 Rendition is a blend of Bendigo and Lowburn \u2013 the \u201919 will probably have some Bannockburn in it too. Bendigo because it\u2019s a bit more masculine structure \u2013 Lowburn because its always more floral and a little bit more soft richness, not full-on in your face. So a nice foil for each other. If you\u2019re not careful with Bendigo it can be a bit tough for a while. It\u2019ll soften and age beautifully but there is definitely more tannin out there, as it\u2019s a warmer site and coming on quicker. You do have to temper that with something that can smooth the road a little bit.<\/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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My single vineyard wine \u2013 the Bendigo wine is big by New Zealand standards, but its rich \u2013 and that\u2019s what I like. Partly because when I was in the States, that\u2019s what we did; but also I just love drinking that style of wine. I don\u2019t like those edgy, green Pinot Noir in the slightest. People like it like that, but it\u2019s not for me. I don\u2019t use a lot of whole bunch in my wines, a lot of the time I think it just adds green character to your wine.<\/p>

Stemminess in wine is like if you put 50% new oak with your chardonnay \u2013 the oak becomes the wine, not the fruit. If it\u2019s ripe – I can chew it in my mouth without spitting it out, and its got cinnamon characteristics, then I might put some in. But because I\u2019m quite small I\u2019ve got to be careful. It\u2019s difficult for me to do a cuvee with whole bunch in it without potentially losing a portion of my crop \u2013 because if I don\u2019t like it, I\u2019m not putting it in. If you\u2019re large enough and you do one tank; you can blend it away.<\/p>

Because in New Zealand a lot of our Pinot vines are still quite young, I don\u2019t think the wine can hold up to it a lot. So I avoid it like the plague. It\u2019s not something I\u2019m interested in that much. The best use of whole bunch, for me, around here is Lucie at Aurum Wines who does a 100% whole bunch \u2013 Mathilde I think \u2013 it\u2019s beautiful, integrated, floral, spicy \u2013 but they\u2019ve gone the full hog, not 10-15% in. So then it IS the wine, and more than just an artefact in the 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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Rendition is my cuvee, but really, Single Vineyard is where the story is. That\u2019s why I tried to do a Bannockburn from this vintage \u2013 \u201919 but I haven\u2019t pulled that one off. And that\u2019s OK \u2013 I mean, it\u2019s not through lack of trying; it\u2019s just that I\u2019m not happy enough with it. For me that\u2019s where the interest is going to be. That\u2019s what I\u2019m going to concentrate on \u2013 like Grant at Valli \u2013 they\u2019re a good model I think, and one I\u2019d try to emulate. I\u2019ve thought about making an Oregon Pinot because I lived there, and bringing that back to New Zealand under my own name. I want to do a few things like that. It gives me that scope and I think those are stories that people are going to be interested 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

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WF<\/strong>: So what happened with the \u201918 \u2013 you didn\u2019t win the Trophy? The shine\u2019s come off!<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: Yes, I have to say, that competition has been good to me. I do like that there\u2019s a nice variety of judges in that competition. And a good variety of wines from across the country, so I think you get a fair look at the wines in there.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: What do you think of Climate Change and Global Warming?<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: I think it is going to prove tough for the world of wine, including us. When I was in Oregon we had some pretty stable vintages, but from 2003 on it starting getting a bit wacky really. Here it\u2019s changed quite a lot in my time. The first few years were stable, but the last three or four have been quite varied. We\u2019re still getting heat; and Central Otago always does well if we get a block of heat in the growing season. That will get us through. So we were all worried pre-Christmas because it was pretty cool, but then we\u2019ve had a good run of weather just recently.<\/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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This year will have a bit more variation potentially because flowering was a bit longer. But those Viticulturalists and Vineyard Managers who manage those vineyards for that variation \u2013 so they\u2019ll take off a bit more crop; they\u2019ll even out the bunches; they\u2019ll take shoulders off; open it up and get as much sun as they can. But that\u2019s the same every year. But someone who does that 5% better than their neighbour \u2013 the wine should be 5% better than the next wine.<\/p>

That never changes, but Global Warming here has presented challenges. It\u2019s been wetter at times, and our snowfall has changed quite a bit. We\u2019re lucky because we\u2019re amongst the mountains so we do tend to get a bit of rain \u2013 and at the right time, mostly. For grape varieties, we\u2019ve always been on the edge, climate-wise anyway; so traditionally it\u2019s been a bit cooler than we needed it to be. I\u2019d like it to stay like that.<\/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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I don\u2019t know if it will, but at the moment we\u2019re getting blocks of heat \u2013 it\u2019s not constant heat. If we started seeing vintages like \u201918 \u2013 with constant heat \u2013 it will become tough. We\u2019ll have to start planting something else, like Syrah. 2018 was really too hot for Pinot. We had a couple of months where it was in the 30s every day – didn\u2019t change \u2013 and at night time we didn\u2019t get a lot of cooling. So that really changed the profiles of the wines.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I always think if you\u2019re growing Pinot Noir, then the neighbour should be Chardonnay. And I think the Chardonnays I\u2019ve had from Central show really well.<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: Yes, I\u2019ve concentrated on Chardonnay as well. I\u2019ll do Riesling and I\u2019ll make a bit of bubbles. Because I did that at Akarua and enjoyed making bubbles. But that\u2019s for me, here; I\u2019m not going to have that widely sold anywhere. I like those wine styles and I want to have some for myself.<\/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 say you\u2019re making wine for other people \u2013 is that something we should be looking out for? Do they ever score higher than your own brand!?<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: One of my clients won the Cuisine Top 10 Pinots last year \u2013 8 Ranges<\/strong>, I make their wine. Theirs is a nice vineyard \u2013 it\u2019s in Alexandra, which is where my winery is. Alexandra is an interesting place and hugely under-rated in Pinot, in Central. It\u2019s a bit more floral and a little bit lighter \u2013 more Burgundian in structure. So I like it. It\u2019s the sub-region to watch. Antony Worch<\/strong>, of Alexandra Vintners<\/strong>, is a winemaker down there who makes very good wine. I\u2019m making a range of them now for people in Alex, and those wines are doing well. There are some sites there \u2013 I\u2019m dealing with a new vineyard called South Edge whose vines date back to \u201982 but the vineyard is being rehabilitated. I want to do a single site Alex wine.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I love what you\u2019re doing with the labels!<\/p>

MC<\/strong>: Yes, it\u2019s a bit different, but that\u2019s because it\u2019s a personal project. I happen to be quite interested in New Zealand art, and street art in particular. I get bored with regular wine labels, but also, because I love art, I\u2019ve commissioned art for the Rendition label. Then I get the original, and the idea is that in some time to come I\u2019ll have my own tasting Room, and the art will be on the walls. The art has been a lot of fun. <\/p>

The first one in 2016 and \u201817 is Andrew J Steele<\/strong> who is from Taranaki, which is where I was born. He does a few interesting things and I commissioned him to do my first label which represents things I\u2019m interested in and my life. And another artist called Component<\/strong> did my \u201918 and \u201919 label, which is a representation of the Southern Alps. And I\u2019ve got a new artist on board who is working on a label for \u201920 and \u201921.<\/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":"

If you keep an eye on who is winning awards in New Zealand for their Pinot Noir, then you will know the name of Matt Connell. 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