{"id":3283,"date":"2021-04-09T20:48:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T20:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=3283"},"modified":"2021-04-09T20:51:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T20:51:38","slug":"winemaker-series-helen-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=3283","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker series: Helen Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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It is now 40 years since Clive Paton<\/strong>, the founder of Ata Rangi, bought 5 hectares of bare land in the village of Martinborough with the idea to create a vineyard. A report from Dr Derek Milne<\/strong> made suggestions that the area would be excellent for grapes, comparing the site to Burgundy. Land was plentiful and cheap. However, the report did spur others to jump on board and Paton\u2019s Ata Rangi vineyard was planted at around the same time as Dry River, Chifney (now Margrain) and Martinborough Vineyard \u2013 founded with others by Dr Milne himself.<\/p>

The \u2018Martinborough Terrace\u2019 as the golden stretch of land came to be known is an old river bed, with free draining alluvial soils, in some places overlaid with clay pans. A variety of grape types were planted in the beginning \u2013 and the Craighall Vineyard<\/strong> that Ata Rangi has always been famous for their Riesling and Chardonnay wines. However, Martinborough was quickly to develop a reputation for the quality of the Pinot Noir \u2013 Ata Rangi winning three Champion Pinot Noir trophies in the \u201890s at the IWSC.<\/p>

Although the region \u2013 and, indeed, Ata Rangi \u2013 produce top quality Sauvignon Blanc, white aromatics and other red varietals, it is undoubdtedly Pinot Noir that Martinborough is known for. Craggy Range are again planting over several hundred hectares out on Te Muna Road \u2013 but are including Sauvignon Blanc in their new plantings alongside Pinot Noir. <\/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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Perhaps the most famous Pinot Noir clone of all – the \u2018Abel\u2019 clone is amongst the mix at Ata Rangi. Paton got his cuttings directly from Mr Malcolm Abel<\/strong>, the Customs Officer responsible for intercepting the vine cuttings that were being smuggled into the country in a gumboot. It\u2019s part of the legend of the clone, and probably one reason that it is so favoured, that it was taken from Domaine de la Roman\u00e9e Conti<\/em> in Burgundy. Wherever it was actually from, it has been a feature of New Zealand\u2019s Pinot for long enough now to be recognised as producing distinctively flavoured wines that are at the top of many wine fan\u2019s favourite lists.<\/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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At the end of last year, I caught up with winemaker Helen Masters<\/strong> – chief winemaker here since 2003 – at the Ata Rangi Cellar door, to talk about the 40th<\/sup> anniversary and look forward to what\u2019s in the future for the company. It\u2019s the last appointment on a Friday and as staff drift in, and out, at the end of the week, Helen has time for a word with everyone. It feels like an extended family. When we turn to talk about the wine however, there\u2019s a sense of focus and purpose that is passionate as well as personal.<\/p>

We began by discussing the new wine that they released to celebrate the occasion. It\u2019s an Abel-clone only wine, and it comes in a magnum size \u2013 only one barrel of the Pinot was made.<\/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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Helen explains: \u201cWe had a great discussion because this year it\u2019s our 40 years on the land, and we released 129 magnums of old vine Abel from 40-year old vines. And it started a classic discussion about price. \u201cOh we can\u2019t go too high\u201d \u2013 and I\u2019m like \u2018\u201dthere are all these people who charge $150 for a 750ml haven\u2019t been around for long \u2013 so let\u2019s put $450 on this as it is 40 years of work\u201d. So we did. And it was the right thing to do for that special wine.\u201d<\/p>

No fancy packaging, just the bottle. It\u2019s about offering something to our mail-order customers who\u2019ve been on the journey with us. We offered it to our mail order first, and they all gone. It\u2019s about offering something to people who have supported us over the years. And it\u2019s not about going \u201cLook at this, this is fancy\u201d It\u2019s just us \u2013 we\u2019re not trying to be iconic. Maybe we are iconic because we\u2019re not iconic, if that makes sense?.\u201d<\/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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They have not just simply \u2018been around\u2019 for forty years \u2013 they were awarded the first title of \u2018Tipuranga Teitei o Aotearoa\u2019 in 2010 \u2013 essentially our first Grand Cru, alongside Felton Road, so have been successful <\/em>for forty years. When people talk about the very best of New Zealand wine, they include Ata Rangi in those conversations. I ask if the crown is heavy to wear \u2013 do they feel the weight of that reputation?<\/p>

Helen: \u201cNot really. This is just who we are. We\u2019re not being too cool for school. As long as we make wines we like – that to me is the bottom line. If everybody here can go \u201cI love this\u201d then I\u2019m happy. It\u2019s about making a wine that we feel represents the work in the vineyard. Also, I\u2019ve been here seventeen years, so it\u2019s kind of like, maybe I felt that at one stage, but not any more.\u201d.<\/p>

What about their niche in the market. They make simply strive to make wines that people love, and there\u2019s talk about the \u2018spirit\u2019 of Pinot, and how that\u2019s expressed at Ata Rangi. But are they also one of those labels that, as Larry McKenna puts it, \u201chave an aura\u201d. I ask Helen if they fall into that \u2018cult wine\u2019 drawer?<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re so busy just doing what we do. I don\u2019t think about it at all, because it\u2019s like if we make the wines that we love here, and that really represent all the work that we\u2019re doing in the vineyard \u2013 people are either going to love it or they\u2019re not. We\u2019re more interested in being \u2018the people\u2019s wine\u2019 and being part of a connection. We don\u2019t want it to be a cult wine, or stuck in somebody\u2019s cellar and put on an auction site. You want it to be a living thing, that is part of how people experience life. You want to hear \u201cOh I had Ata Rangi at my 50th<\/sup> and I remember it vividly, and I\u2019m going to have it at my 55th<\/sup>\u201d And it\u2019s because they love the wine.\u201d.<\/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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Over forty years, styles will come and go. Varietals will fall in and out of favour. It\u2019s not that long ago that the grape varieties weren\u2019t even listed on bottle labels. Helen asks about my background and I explain that I\u2019ve lived in New Zealand since 2003 \u2013 effectively in search of wine! I went to University in Bristol, where a couple of the old classic wine trading companies \u2013 Averys and Harveys are based. And I can remember the first time I had a Pinot Noir in the UK \u2013 at least the first time I knew it was Pinot Noir. Before that we\u2019d just drunk \u201cBurgundy\u201d and enjoyed it, without realising the grape variety. And it was certainly before I\u2019d ever heard of New Zealand Pinot Noir. If that makes any sense\u2026 But I knew that New Zealand and Australia made wine, because as well as all the European wines we\u2019d drink \u2013 there was a section in Oddbins wine shop where I\u2019d look at these labels with names like \u2018Wairau Valley\u2019 on them and wonder where that was. I ask what makes Martinborough wines so different?<\/p>

\u201cOur Sauvignon is a bit of fun, because you know what \u2013 if you\u2019re going to make Sauvignon that\u2019s not in Marlborough, then don\u2019t make it Marlborough style \u2013 there\u2019s no point. Sauvignon\u2019s such an amazing variety but our cropping level is naturally about a third of what Marlborough gets. If you look at where Marlborough is on a map \u2013 it\u2019s so protected from the South, whereas Martinborough is completely open to the South. And also the soil\u2019s quite different. We just don\u2019t have the power of the soil in Marlborough. It\u2019s much more free-draining here and we don\u2019t have the fertility and water holding capacity. Also, we can get very cool, wet weather during flowering, which results in very loose, light and open bunches.<\/p>

So the Sauvignon isn\u2019t big crops, small crops, more riper skins and much more concentration. So here, what I\u2019m doing is completely the opposite in terms of winemakeing. It\u2019s completely hand picked, 10% is de-stemmed and fermented with skins. 5% is completely whole bunch fermentation, like a red wine fermentation. There\u2019s ginger, lemongrass, mandarin rather than those overt herbaceous characters you\u2019ll see from Marlborough.\u201d<\/p>

Then of course, there\u2019s the question that no writer about New Zealand wine can seem to avoid. If I had a dollar for every time I\u2019ve been asked whether I prefer Central Otago or Martinborough Pinot, I\u2019d be retired by now. For me there\u2019s more at play than just what\u2019s in your glass, but even so, really it\u2019s just personal preference. I ask Helen what she thinks defines the difference in their wines, and how that might refer to Central?<\/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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\u201cI think the Pinot has the character that shows in the skins exposure, about the bunch architecture that we see in Martinborough. I think the Pinot has the character that shows in the skins exposure, about the bunch architecture that we see in Martinborough. \u201918 is a very kind of ethereal year. It wasn\u2019t necessarily that hot, but the nights were not that cool. The skins were a lot softer than we have normally. There\u2019s almost a more ethereal character to the \u201818s.<\/p>

There\u2019s not this big volume of fruit sweetness and alcohol. You can see this layering and length which is more about acid and tannin \u2013 we don\u2019t have a lot of alcohol sweetness bringing roundness. The tannins are different, rather than making the wines bigger, they\u2019re making the wines tighter, with more length, and more nervous. Because there\u2019s no sweetness.<\/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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We\u2019ve been making the Crimson and the Ata Rangi off the alluvial gravels. The first two are from similar sites but this is all about vine age selection. Crimson is all the younger vines, and Ata Rangi is older vines from all the gravel terraces. Because the younger vines roots are only a metre or two metres, they generally reflect the season, rather than necessarily the site. The soil gets warmer because it\u2019s a hot season, it absorbs more water if it\u2019s a wetter season. And if Autumn comes in strong and it cools down, the plant gets the message to ripen earlier. Whereas the older vines, because they\u2019re at three to four metres, there\u2019s much more constant down there. There\u2019s more constant humidity, moisture, temperature. So they tend to ripen at a fairly similar time, because the message is not so reliant on heat or rainfall. It\u2019s more about what\u2019s happening in the soil.<\/p>

The McCrone is a single vineyard project. It\u2019s only about 500 metres away but it has a layer of clay within the gravels. This makes for quite a different expression. Here we\u2019re getting quite a bit more baking spice, and bigger \u2013 rather than being tight and long. It\u2019s also richer in the mid-palate. The Terrace is 5kms by 1kms, but even within that, although most of it is this very free draining alluvial gravels, there are some sections that have more clay. The clay really changes the aroma and structure. The McCrone is always released a year later.<\/p>

With all the wines, it\u2019s all natural yeasts; with not SO2 added to the juice. So it\u2019s very minimal. I love that there\u2019s this whole conversation around natural wine, but we make wines with out additions \u2013 we just don\u2019t talk about it. We talk about the vineyard. I think that age is essential for a lot of our wines because there\u2019s a lot of concentration, so there\u2019s a lot of layers of fine tannins. Sometimes they\u2019re not that accessible on first release.\u201d<\/p>

No winemaker is ever sitting still though. With vineyard sites that change subtley over the years; and the change, and challenge of expressing each vintage. Helen explains the vintage\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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\u201cReally we\u2019re all about trying to interpret the vintage that we\u2019ve had. Understand that if it\u2019s a cool year, what does a cool year mean? Warmer year \u2013 what does a warmer year mean? Because we don\u2019t add yeast, we\u2019re not using enzymes, not adding any additions, it\u2019s a real understanding about the best picking date. So for each vintage, understanding where ripeness intersects with everything else. Sugar, tannin, seed,<\/p>

It comes down to experience. That\u2019s the big thing. You might go \u201cI\u2019m going to pick slightly earlier to get more vibrancy, more acidity\u201d But where are you going to go with those tannins? Are they going to be more sappy? It\u2019s easier to pick fruit riper. That\u2019s simpler. Trying to get that fruit bang on, so there\u2019s a tension, a kind of on-the-cusp ripeness is where I need to be.\u201d<\/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 suggest that on the edge is where the good stuff is. Being in the middle is not that interesting. We talk about Tony Bish \u2013 who I just seen in Napier a couple of days before, and how he has struck out on his own, doing just what his passion is. I wonder if Helen will ever feel that it is time to go off and do \u2018her own thing\u2019?<\/p>

\u201cI like the fact that he\u2019s decided to do that. And he\u2019s been through a lot, and when people go through what he\u2019s been through \u2013 you\u2019re quite prepared to say \u2018No, this is not negotiable \u2013 this is what I\u2019m going to do\u2019.<\/p>

I have my own vineyard, and I sell the fruit to Ata Rangi. I get to see it in barrel and maybe ultimately I might have a label that is under Ata Rangi which is my vineyard, but it\u2019s about the vineyard. My children might do it, but\u2026 here it\u2019s about community and making a wine that everybody feels really proud of. There\u2019s so many characters that make it successful. It\u2019s not just the vineyard or the winemaking, it\u2019s everybody. The more passionate all these people are about the wine in the glass. So it\u2019s about making a wine that they all go \u201cOh this is so great\u201d And if they all do that, that\u2019s going to come through in everything they do. How they pack up an order, how they sell the wine, how they look after the vineyard. Let\u2019s make wine that moves us and that we feel proud about.\u201d<\/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":"

It is now 40 years since Clive Paton, the founder of Ata Rangi, bought 5 hectares of bare land in the village of Martinborough with the idea to create a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3284,"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-3283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews-with-nz-winemakers"],"yoast_head":"\nWinemaker series: Helen Masters - 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=3283\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winemaker series: Helen Masters - WineFolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is now 40 years since Clive Paton, the founder of Ata Rangi, bought 5 hectares of bare land in the village of Martinborough with the idea to create a …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=3283\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WineFolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wine.folio.1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-09T20:48:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-09T20:51:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Helen-Masters-Ata-Rangi.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1062\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Walker Bell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Walker Bell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=3283#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=3283\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Walker Bell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b8706e15ba32f9782222c431fa75d9f\"},\"headline\":\"Winemaker series: Helen Masters\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-09T20:48:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-09T20:51:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=3283\"},\"wordCount\":2464,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=3283#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/Helen-Masters-Ata-Rangi.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Winemaker Series\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=3283#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=3283\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=3283\",\"name\":\"Winemaker series: Helen Masters - 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