{"id":3079,"date":"2021-03-07T20:56:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T20:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=3079"},"modified":"2021-03-08T00:13:21","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T00:13:21","slug":"winemaker-series-steve-skinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=3079","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker series: Steve Skinner"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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One of the labels that has been on my radar for a while now \u2013 not just because friends will often say to me \u201cDavid, have you tried this Elephant Hill wine, it\u2019s amazing\u201d or regale me with tales of idyllic lunchtime sessions down at the restaurant \u2013 but because they have a range of wines that climb through tiers to reach icon wines and seem to have something for everyone, but presented in a new way? I\u2019ve been fascinated by the idea of the coastal vineyards along at Te Awanga and what part the location will play in the wines from that sub-region. So I\u2019m thrilled when Marketing man Simon Swa can fit me in for a late afternoon visit and chat with winemaker Steve Skinner (a person that I hear on the grapevine is an elusive interviewee). We stick to two varietals \u2013 Chardonnay and Syrah.<\/p>

Simon Swa<\/strong>: We just recently launched a vineyard series \u2013 a limited edition range which tells the story of each of the three sites, but we really want to tell you about our philosophies \u2013 winemaking, stylistically and approach to vineyards to give you an idea of what Elephant Hill is about.<\/p>

Steve Skinner<\/strong>: Chardonnay has made a comeback from where it was a few years ago which is good to see. Chardonnay for us is predominantly this site. It\u2019s particularly good for whites because of the cooling breezes. We do have a little bit of Syrah planted right at the back on clay, where it\u2019s a bit more sheltered from the breeze, but it does work best for whites. And we\u2019ve got quite a lot of new plantings coming along at Bridge Pa. We\u2019ve planted Chardonnay out there \u2013 slightly warmer, a richer style coming through. And we don\u2019t have any Chardonnay on the Gimblett. I don\u2019t really like growing whites on very stony soils, particularly. I don\u2019t think you get enough palate weight and richness coming through for what we like.<\/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>: When was the vineyard planted here?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: in 2003, all of it except the viognier which was 2004. 16-17 years old. Reasonably mature vines now. We\u2019ve got Clone 15 which is probably my preferred Chardonnay clone for this site. We tend to retain quite a lot of acid. You get nice sugar ripeness but you don\u2019t lose the acidity, whereas the other clone we\u2019ve got which is Clone 95, and tends to the opposite. It loses its acid quite rapidly on this site, so we often pick it earlier and don\u2019t get to quite capture the full expression of the site. Clone 15 is quite a citrus dominant variety, and Clone 95 is more into those white fleshed fruits like nectarines and peaches. They can be quite complimentary. And our new plantings at Bridge Pa we have three quite new clones to New Zealand, and they\u2019re all Entav clones from Burgundy, and still young enough that we don\u2019t quite know what we\u2019re dealing with yet. We\u2019re looking forward to getting some stability with those over the next two or three years.<\/p>

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Here at Te Awanga we get slower ripening which I like. The ideal vintage for me is long, dry and not overly hot. And that way you\u2019ll be able to take lot of little selective picks at various points. If a vintage is too warm it tends to race through maturity quite quickly. Chardonnay from 2019 is pretty smart in Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Yes, we were all looking forward to it. I tend to talk from a consumer point of view, and there was an excitement when it was declared to be \u201ca great year\u201d. Cleared space in our cellars\u2026 but then they\u2019ve come along and they seem, on the whole, to be a bit shy?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: A lot of the better 2019s have just been bottled \u2013 we bottled our top chardonnays six weeks ago, and won\u2019t be released until next year.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: The Beachhead that\u2019s just won everything. I wasn\u2019t sure that was a multi-award winner when it first came out. It’s winning me over now though.<\/p>

Simon<\/strong>: The acidity gives it a freshness and they\u2019re not necessarily all together yet \u2013 they\u2019re very young wines. I don\u2019t know whether the acid is just because it was cooler year.<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: 2018 was a warmer year, and with whites they can often lose that acid while you\u2019re waiting for the flavour profile. Most winemakers have given up on adding things these days. Vintage variation is the story of cool climate winemaking.<\/p>

Simon<\/strong>: We have four tiers. The first tier is Elephant Hill Chardonnay \u2013 I guess we\u2019d call it our Estate<\/strong>. Then we have Reserve<\/strong>, and then the third level up is what we call our \u2018Element\u2019 Limited Edition series<\/strong>. And that is this story of the vineyard. I\u2019ve got a Chardonnay from this vineyard, and the wines from here are called \u2018Sea\u2019. And the Gimblett Gravels vineyard is called \u2018Stone\u2019 and from Bridge Pa is \u2018Earth\u2019.<\/p>

And a lot of the fruit from there end up in the \u2018Icon\u2019<\/strong> series which is a very top series \u2013 \u2018Salome\u2019 and \u2018Airavata\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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Steve<\/strong>: We\u2019re top down. The Estate Chardonnay ends up being all the chardonnay that we\u2019ve cropped for, or anything that we\u2019ve dropped in tier from the better projects we\u2019ve got going on. Inevitably it ends up being a Te Awanga dominant Chardonnay. It will capture some of the Bridge Pa \u2013 in 2018 it had quite a lot of the fruit from there, so it\u2019s probably a slightly riper style than normal. In \u201918 it ends up as a richer Chardonnay \u2013 but that\u2019s also vintage variation speaking. It\u2019s the style of wine that \u201918 gives you.<\/p>

As you go up we\u2019re often selecting for more refinement and elegance, and try to encourage a bit more acidity. So by the time you get to the \u2018Sea\u2019 which is only from this site and it\u2019s all Clone 15. It\u2019s all vineyard-managed to make this wine, and you\u2019ll start to see a slightly different style of chardonnay peeking through.<\/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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All the chardonnays sit around the 25-35% new oak. We\u2019re not overly heavy-handed with oak. Whole-bunch pressed, natural yeasts from the vineyard and winery. The Estate gets about twelve months on lees and is usually blended up just before the next vintage and bottled then. Whereas the two top tier wines get blended up but then stay on lees in tank for another six to eight months depending on vintage. Just so we can build more texture into the wines.<\/p>

The Estate we aim to have a wine that is ready to drink when it\u2019s released. It will improve with cellaring but it\u2019s fruit forward and an expression of Hawke\u2019s Bay. Nothing too challenging or intellectual about it, but as you go up the tiers they are probably more influenced by European winemaking. We have a theme in mind with each of the four tiers we make.<\/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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The site here is stony for the first two hundred metres into the property, and then it becomes a mix of sandstones and silt, and then as you back it becomes clay and there\u2019s a heavy pan a few metres down. The Chardonnay and Syrah are all on clay.<\/p>

The 2017 Reserve shows from one of the most tricky years in Hawke\u2019s Bay, since Pinatubo erupted in \u201991 \u2013 the coolest vintage in Hawke\u2019s Bay history. A season of two halves, and it didn\u2019t affect the Chardonnay so much, with it being the first variety to come into the winery. And only the best fruit makes it into the fermenters anyway. This Reserve spent six months on lees in tank to build weight, and also for the first time got some fruit \u2013 just 3-5% – from the Bridge Pa site \u2013 the clone called the \u2018Muscat clone\u2019 and I think you can see that coming through \u2013 almost a Turkish Delight flavour. The top Burgundy houses put that amount into their wines \u2013 you wouldn\u2019t want to overdo it.<\/p>

We normally keep well away from Malolactic Fermentation, but there\u2019s about 10% in the 2017, being such a cool vintage \u2013 to build a little texture in the wine.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: is that right? Because consumers start to pick up on the terminology \u2013 malo, wild ferment, lees, handpick.. and they start to associate that with \u201cbetter quality\u201d or \u201cbetter winemaking\u201d? They learn these words and try and use them and look for them on labels.<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: All of our Chardonnay is barrel fermented, and it would go through Malo \u2013 if I inoculated for it, but also because I don\u2019t want it, I keep the Chardonnay room quite chilled. Chardonnay being a white has a naturally low pH and at 10-12 degrees celcius nothing\u2019s going to happen.<\/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\u2019re not looking for the reductiveness?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: I\u2019m not a big fan of that heavy reduction in Chardonnay. I don\u2019t mind seeing a bit of flintiness coming through and savoury notes \u2013 I think it helps bring the wine together and accentuate fruit. You might see that a bit more in the top tiers but it will never be in-your-face, full-on reduction. I think it steals too much from the quality of the fruit. The work you\u2019ve done in the vineyard to actually showcase the fruit, and then the winemaker puts a stamp of reduction 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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WF<\/strong>: I think the mark of a good wine, is the last glass out of the bottle \u2013 not the first.. so you get one of those really heavily reductive chardonnays \u2013 and can you drink a whole bottle of that?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: You have one glass and move on. And some of them don\u2019t age particularly well. You can alter the turbidity of the juice going to barrel and play around with that kind of thing, and timings of certain sulphur additions. But we don\u2019t actually sulphur our chardonnays until about now, so they spend the best part of eight months unsulphured in barrel. In a cool room, topped, and stirred regularly. Lees is all the antoxidant we need until the summer and it gets too warm. And we get a lot better integration of oak with wine if you don\u2019t sulphur. If you use sulphur in wine you retard it\u2019s evolution \u2013 slow it right down, so we try and keep the wines as unsulphured for as long as possible. It also means you get bone dry. These wines have got zero grams per litre of residual sugar. These wines have had ten months to ferment through to this, and I think you get better wines for that.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: There seems to be this perception, internationally, that New Zealand whites are sweet \u2013 because of the fruit-forward flavours.<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: As you go up the tiers, and this is probably true for most wineries, you are cropping low. Getting more extract, even in whites \u2013 dry matter and extract count, and that always comes across on the palate as weight, texture and, to some people, \u201cthat must mean sugar\u201d. Sugar and ethanol give volume. Because of our cropping levels I think we get quite full bodied characters coming through. The further up the range you go, the more longevity the wines will have.<\/p>

\u2018Dry extract\u2019 – you would normally talk about it with red wines, because with reds you\u2019re fermenting with all the skins and seeds, but you can measure extract of any wine. So if you take a litre of wine and you boil it down \u2013 carefully –\u00a0 and then you weigh the sediment, the ash left at the end of it \u2013 that\u2019s dry extract, and it\u2019s measured in grams per litre. Theoretically, the better a wine, the higher dry extract it has. It\u2019s things in the wine that appear on your palate \u2013 tannins, phenolics.. And in wine, there\u2019s a range of sugars that aren\u2019t reducing sugars, so when we say a wine is dry we mean no glucose or fructose left in them, but there\u2019s a whole lot of long-chain sugars that don\u2019t have any sweetness factor, but have a texture factor.<\/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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The last of the Chardonnays is the \u2018Salome\u2019 so that\u2019s our top tier. It\u2019s the opposite philosophy I guess of the \u2018Sea\u2019. This is always going to be a blend of the vineyards \u2013 basically the best fruit from the two vineyards that produce Chardonnay.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Who says what the best fruit is? Whose responsibility is that?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: After 14 years we\u2019ve identified what that is. We\u2019ll have pruned these vines quite differently, and we\u2019ll leave pluck them at different times, and cropped at different levels. So they get a completely different level of management to the Reserve or Estate. We do over 120 picks across 250 tonnes every year. Our average ferment size is two and a bit tonne. Where we were aiming for a degree of purity with the \u2018Sea\u2019 \u2013 to showcase that vineyard\u2026 the \u2018Salome\u2019 probably gets a bit more winemaking intervention. You\u2019ll see a bit of reduction coming through. More power of oak, and a bit more weight and texture being built into the wine. And because the fruit is so concentrated it can stand a little bit more, without, hopefully, it not being too heavy handed. There\u2019s no more oak as a percentage than in the \u2018Sea\u2019 but we\u2019ll go for a heavier toast. The cr\u00e8me brulee taste in a white wine can come from having the oak charred quite heavily.<\/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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Simon<\/strong>: Stylistically they wines are different expressions, but there\u2019s a common \u2018fineness\u2019 to them all<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: This is where the vineyard combinations start mattering, because you\u2019ve got Bridge Pa which is a warmer zone than Te Awanga. So even with the same clones you\u2019re getting different ripeness and different levels of flavour that come from that ripeness. You get 2kg of fruit per vine at this level, it\u2019s just the difference in the vineyards that flows through to the wines.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I can see why they\u2019re designated the way they are \u2013 it fits.<\/p>

Simon<\/strong>: The last two wines are at the same price point for both wines, so it\u2019s interesting to see who likes what, because there isn\u2019t a right answer. They\u2019re two very different expressions.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Can I just take a look at the labels? Because although at first glance they look similar, and very classy, they are different for each tier aren\u2019t they? With the blue-green, then the silver and the gold. And the blue-green is like the colour of the building. I\u2019m staying up at Millar Road, and can see the building from the terrace there. Gregory was telling me that when the rivers are in full flow, the water in the bay is the same colour as your building \u201cIt\u2019s so clever \u2013 so beautiful\u201d he said.<\/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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Steve<\/strong>: And it\u2019s reverse ageing. When it first went up, a couple of the locals were quite anti it, because it was solid green, there was no defining copper to it. But if you look around, the vineyard building, which is the oldest building where it\u2019s weathering \u2013 you can now see large swathes of the copper coming through where the green is coming off. So now it\u2019s reverse ageing back to what it\u2019s supposed to look like.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: speaking of age \u2013 how do these chardonnays go? What\u2019s the best, oldest one so far? And are they always under screwcap<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: Well, we\u2019ve only been making the \u2018Salome\u2019 since 2016, but I feel easily 5-10 years. The whites have always been under screwcap. The reds, some of them started as cork, and then we\u2019ve started to do half cork, half screwcap depending on the market demands. I prefer screwcap if I can get away with it.<\/p>

Simon<\/strong>: So these are a single vineyard story, without using those words because you see that everywhere, and what does that mean? A single vineyard can be a 1000 hectare.<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: A single vineyard means to me that you are letting the vineyard do the speaking. These get different oak, different temperature ferments, different amounts of whole cluster if they are Syrah. So we are tailoring the winemaking to what we think the strengths of the vineyard are. So, they are single vineyard, but they\u2019re interpreted differently in the winery. When you come and look at the average amount of whole cluster in one wine compared to another \u2013 there\u2019s four times as much whole cluster in that because I wouldn\u2019t dare to it to the Gimblett because it would get too tannin and stalky. But I need to do it to that\u2026 to tailor down the richness of the fruit. If I was just being a single vineyard winemaker I\u2019d do the same thing with the same yeast \u2013 because the defining thing is the vineyard. When this whole idea came out in 2015 it was very much \u2018this is not a single vineyard story\u2019 \u2013 it is a \u2018single sub-region story\u2019. As long as that\u2019s the message that gets to people.<\/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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Simon<\/strong>: Earth, Sea and Stone are easier to remember from a simplistic perspective than Crownthorpe, Bridge Pa, Te Awanga, Mangatahi. We want to be able to translate the sub-regionality in an authentic but easily recognisable way. In 2023 we will launch a \u201cSea Syrah\u201d, so a 2020 vintage Syrah from this sub-region.<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: And they\u2019re not required to be made every year. They\u2019re made in years where they represent the vineyard, and the idea of what we\u2019re trying to do with the wine. So in \u201919 there\u2019s a \u2018Stone Syrah\u2019 but there\u2019s probably not an \u2018Earth Syrah\u2019, and in \u201920 there will probably be all three. There\u2019s no compulsion to make them.<\/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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Simon<\/strong>: As a Sales and Marketing person, my job is to translate the work we do in the vineyard and winery into the marketplace. And the easiest thing to say is \u201cthis is from this vineyard, in this region, with these soils and this clone etc\u201d. But sometimes that\u2019s a foreign language to a lot of audiences. Not being patronising to the audience, and I think this is a really smart way of telling that story.<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: If you came through the winery 6 months after harvest, we might have done 35 different picks across the Syrah. With 3 vineyards across all of the clones, across whole cluster, and viognier and co-fermented \u2013 and so you have 35 different batches in barrel.<\/p>

This Reserve Syrah is a 2017 – looking at the worst vintage in 30 years! Really, it was a very tricky vintage. We estimated going into it that we would get just on 300 tonne of fruit. We picked 180 and I\u2019d estimate we sorted another 30-40 tonne out. So we produced less than half, but doing that enabled us to make our top wines. Less volumes and obviously a style that reflects a cooler, challenging year. But they were still good enough \u2013 to make them. We put in a lot of work. We had people sorting in the vineyard, then an optical sorter, then a sorting table. Every step of the way taking out what wasn\u2019t going to help the wine.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: is that a reflection of the year \u2013 or do you not need to go to that much trouble in normal years?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: We always use the optical sorter for Bordeaux varieties. We don\u2019t tend to do it with Syrah as much because we do a lot of whole cluster with Syrah. And then in that really cool year we pulled that whole cluster component right back. You get a lot more red fruit in this vintage \u2013 that\u2019s the vintage talking. We pull back on the temperatures of the ferments; we pull back on the amounts of whole cluster we used, and the amount of new oak we were using. It depends, in good years when you get to this level, you can put 50% new oak into a blend and you don\u2019t even see it. Our 2015 Airavata was about 75% new oak but you wouldn\u2019t know it. It\u2019s looking at the fruit coming in and saying how do you make it, so you don\u2019t push it where it doesn\u2019t want to go. There\u2019s a corridor where the wine is happy to go, and if you push it, or turn off that corridor, the wines become clumsy.<\/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 do find though with Hawke\u2019s Bay that often the good wines from a cool year are better than the good wines from a warm year?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: well, you work a lot harder and think a bit harder. In a good year the challenge is how to elevate really good fruit, because you already know that\u2019s good fruit, so it\u2019s going to make great wine. What\u2019s the stretch to take it to the next level? When it\u2019s raining outside for the third week in a row, you\u2019re thinking how am I even going to make a Syrah?<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: How does that make you feel \u2013 let\u2019s say there are three bad years out of the last ten \u2013 that\u2019s 30% of your ability to make outstanding wine, either taken away, or at least, toyed with?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: You learn how to make great wine in those bad years. Hopefully you learn a couple of things and think to yourself \u201cwow, if I do that with great fruit\u2026\u201d Nothing against Napa or California\u2026 but when I first turned up for a harvest there \u2013 there was a big whiteboard up on the wall. And they had all the picking dates for the coming year. It was too easy. So, in three weeks and two days time, we\u2019re picking our top Cabernet. Not because it\u2019s tasting fantastic, but they just knew it would be ripe. They might be out by a day, but pretty much they\u2019d scheduled it. We can\u2019t do that here, can\u2019t even dream about doing 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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WF<\/strong>: it must be hard though to know \u2013 let\u2019s say, a top golfer \u2013 has hundreds of holes of golf to play the best round, or shoot a hole in one and really nail it, just in one year \u00a0\u2013 you\u2019ve only got 30 or 40 vintages in you.<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: That\u2019s why you do over 100 picks in a year. Since we\u2019re one of the youngest Hawke\u2019s Bay wineries, that was one way of catching up \u2013 with the knowledge of our vineyards. Make more wines per vintage \u2013 don\u2019t wait for the vintages to just roll around.<\/p>

A 2015 Bridge Pa \u2018Earth\u2019 Syrah \u2013 this had 35-40% whole cluster, and the thing is with the ripeness of Bridge Pa \u2013 if you don\u2019t add that in, you end up making little Shiraz lookalikes. Because they do have a lot of natural sweetness in the fruit. The wine is bone dry, but the fruit sweetness comes through. And if you didn\u2019t pull it back with the texture you get\u2026<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: So you could make a Syrah as good as the Aussies \u2013 is that what you\u2019re saying?!?<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: Almost.<\/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>: it\u2019s funny though \u2013 because if you speak to an Australian \u2013 they are absolutely making the best expression of Syrah or Shiraz that they can make. And they think that\u2019s the best expression of Syrah in the world \u2013 they\u2019re making the best version of it, anywhere \u2013 the pinnacle. And we do something else, and we think that\u2019s the epitome of what you can do with Syrah!<\/p>

Steve<\/strong>: \u2018Airavata\u2019. 2017 again. This is actually all Gimblett fruit. It was by far the strongest vineyard that year. A bit less crop \u2013 we went in thinking we would be cropping at 1.5kg per vine, so we got plenty of concentration in the grape. It was just a matter of nursing them through the wet weather, and Gimblett does that a lot better than most sub-regions in Hawke\u2019s bay. The water is drained away before the vine can suck too much up. If you get solid days of rain at Bridge Pa or here, with saturated soils, the vine sucks up so much water that the thin skins of Syrah can split. Start getting splitting then you\u2019ve got botrytis issues, so you\u2019re really obliged to start picking.<\/p>

For me, it\u2019s important that, if you can, you should make wine in these tricky vintages. Hawke\u2019s Bay can\u2019t be a great Syrah region if it only makes it in great to good years. The wine might be a bit lighter, or simpler, or whatever, but it should still have texture, concentration and all the things that make good wine. I think Hawke\u2019s Bay can do it with Cabernet dominant wines too. The best fruit we got in in 2017 was Cabernet Sauvignon.<\/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":"

One of the labels that has been on my radar for a while now \u2013 not just because friends will often say to me \u201cDavid, have you tried this Elephant … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews-with-nz-winemakers"],"yoast_head":"\nWinemaker series: Steve Skinner - WineFolio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=3079\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winemaker series: Steve Skinner - 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