{"id":5014,"date":"2022-02-01T16:33:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T03:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=5014"},"modified":"2022-02-01T16:52:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T03:52:35","slug":"winemaker-series-duncan-mctavish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=5014","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker series: Duncan McTavish"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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For the first \u2018proper\u2019 WineFolio Field Trip to Waiheke Island, I wanted to call in and see some of the headline names on the island. With that in mind, day one saw the WF-mobile heading over to the eastern side of the island and an early morning catch up with Man O\u2019War winemaker Duncan McTavish. We pull up outside what looks like a pretty big, new building \u2013 only to be told \u201cpower\u2019s out, hopefully the generator holds\u201d\u2026<\/p>

Duncan McTavish<\/strong>: New winery, bottling line etcetera, makes for comfortable digs. I\u2019ll give you a quick look around. We\u2019ve just got the 2021 Bordeaux laid out for a taste, topping and test if they\u2019re going through malolactic or not. That\u2019s all late malos \u2013 most of them haven\u2019t finished. Some of them haven\u2019t even started \u2013 but we don\u2019t mind that. These will all stay in barrel through to next September or October. And that\u2019s a pretty amazing vintage. We\u2019re lucky to have three in a row.<\/p>

It\u2019s nothing flashy but we\u2019ve got everything we need. Bottling helps with the scheduling as we\u2019re flying by the seat of our pants sometimes. We get to absolute full capacity by the end of harvest. Then it is juggling things around, trying to get the scale of the blends. The pressure for us right now is to decide the Chardonnay blends for 2021 so that they can be cold-stabilising over Christmas break. Then we get back, we can get those into bottle. Get the 2020 Ironclad into bottle and start picking grapes. Happy Days.<\/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 have seventy-odd vineyards all over this end of Waiheke and Ponui Island as well. The scale is enormous, the diversity is enormous. The varieties that we grow are pretty diverse, so we have a lot on our plate. It\u2019s also reasonably unusual for the New Zealand landscape that we are Cabernet Franc and Merlot dominant for our Bordeaux blends. John Spencer<\/strong> didn\u2019t really drink \u2013 it was more his wife that enjoyed a good Pomerol. In conjunction with that I think it fair to say that the drive towards Cabernet Franc Merlot blends was also driven by the clay soil and cool climate which favoured those Pomerol style wines (Neal Martin<\/strong> considers Cheval Blanc a Pomerol wine rather than a St Emilion wine) and that direction was developed in consultation with Jim Vuletic<\/strong> of Providence and Kim Goldwater<\/strong> of Goldwater Estate.We do have one Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard which is excellent, but the majority of our Bordeaux is Cabernet Franc.<\/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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WineFolio<\/strong>: It\u2019s good to have that vision, right from the start. To have something to aim for.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: And looking through generations as well. Not just about the here and now, which probably goes some way to explain the scale of the place. We\u2019ve got really good direction.<\/p>

I was in North Canterbury \u2013 I\u2019d been at Pegasus Bay for four years, and went to a little place called Waipara Springs where I was Head Winemaker for four vintages. I was really looking for something a bit different – I\u2019d studied winemaking in Canterbury as well. Going overseas was my OE \u2013 four to six week stints here and there. I saw a winemaking job on Waiheke advertised. I\u2019d never been to Waiheke before, and after thinking about it I realised I\u2019d never actually had a job interview in my life.<\/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 thought \u2018to hell with it, I\u2019ll apply\u2019 and wanted to see what would happen. Came up here \u2013 met the owners \u2013 had an interview with an HR Consultant, which was reasonably painful.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Oh God. I hate that sort of thing. I\u2019ve walked out of one of those before \u2013 I just can\u2019t wear the mask you need to, to pass that sort of thing. I do think you need to be fairly honest with yourself, of course \u2013 but also be comfortable in your own skin.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Next thing I know I\u2019m heading to North Shore Airport, then up in the air. Flew over here, and over the vineyards. I thought to myself that there\u2019s nothing of this scope and diversity in New Zealand. When I arrived there were 98 vineyards. I was continually getting lost driving around this place. A huge array of vineyards, and one of my first jobs was to really evaluate the landscape. It is hard to make a business in the wine game, and there was a really strong desire to focus on quality. That\u2019s what we had to do, and we selected our best sites, the weakest sites, the most vigorous sites. We removed the ones that produced more leaf than fruit! But then, 8-10 years later, the rise of ros\u00e9\u2026hahaha \u2013 and those are the ideal vineyards for ros\u00e9\u2026. high cropping, low brix.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: So being asked to make a big Bordeaux red, alongside Syrah\u2026 daunting?<\/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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DM<\/strong>: Well I\u2019d done a couple of harvests at Napa. Came from a Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot background, but backed myself to make some wine! A lot of the Pinot techniques relate well to Syrah. Also with Cabernet Franc and Merlot \u2013 there\u2019s no massive amounts of crushing, rack and returning \u2013 that kind of stuff. It was all pretty gentle from the get-go.<\/p>

Whilst we\u2019re chatting away, we can have a look at Chardonnay. I thought the best way to show what we\u2019re up to is to look across the tiers. We produce our Estate, the flagship Valhalla, and the new gold label. We have a good understanding of all our vineyard sites, and these are vineyard selections, which correlate with picking decisions. The earlier picked stuff is the Estate, and then the Kulta is a selection of barrels.<\/p>

We\u2019ve evolved and moving into that real, positive, herbaceousness in Chardonnay. Trying to capture that and showcasing classically ripe characteristics in wine, but also highlighting some of the more interesting aspects of the green notes. Whether that\u2019s like a fleshy green nectarine, picked from a tree, crisp and clearly ripe \u2013 but it is a hell of a lot different from something that\u2019s been sitting in the fruit bowl for a week. Both technically ripe, but one\u2019s crisper and showcasing some of those crunchy green notes. That\u2019s an interesting proposition for Chardonnay \u2013 particularly since Valhalla has always been looked at as \u2018a big style\u2019. That\u2019s where we\u2019ve been channelling ourselves.<\/p>

Everything is full-solid ferments, wild yeast and then nothing else. There\u2019s no malolactic or lees-stirring, just trying to keep it very direct.<\/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 you\u2019re not after malo?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: No, we\u2019re a very ripe environment, so one of the pillars of wine structure, alongside acid and tannin, is alcohol \u2013 or sweetness \u2013 and alcohol will provide all the mid-palate that we need. And it is our job to manipulate the structure. 2021 was a very ripe, low-yielding year, and they are very expressive already.<\/p>

These are all 2019s, which was a terrific vintage, albeit the highest yields we\u2019ve ever seen. Not overcropped by any stretch, but certainly from a historical perspective we had some really good yields. And we\u2019d come off the back of a couple of tricky, cyclone-hit vintages. \u201919 was the last vintage down in the old winery and it was huge. Then we came up here and we had a couple of nice, dry, calm, modest-sized vintages, which was good. And I think we\u2019re in for another big one.<\/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, the Estate Chardonnay \u2013 this is picked for this style that you\u2019re after?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Yes, they are earlier picked for sure. Some of the reasons might be that those particular vineyards can be prone to botrytis if they are left hanging out too long. Other reasons are that they are right up here on a volcanic plateau and quite exposed to the Pacific Ocean. They get to a level of ripeness and that\u2019s it \u2013 there\u2019s no point pushing them along any further.<\/p>

You\u2019ll notice these huge boulders strewn across the hilltops as the result of volcanic activity, and we have a unique soil type up here. A lot of our Chardonnay is planted on those sites and it is pretty mineral, and salty as well.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: You can taste the salinity in there. It doesn\u2019t look like limestone though, for example?<\/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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DM<\/strong>: No, it\u2019s clay but iron-rich. There\u2019s a very small deposit of volcanic material, but the main feature is the exposure to the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: and do you experiment with different clones, or is that not thing for you?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: No, these are all the same clone \u2013 Clone 15.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: That\u2019s got an almost briny, green olive character to it.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: It\u2019s a great feature of a wine. We had a Master of Wine come through at harvest, tasting Chardonnays that had just finished ferment, and talked to me about Succinic acid. It\u2019s a sensation of salt \u2013 they call it the winemaker\u2019s acid.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: And do I recall you saying that with oak, you\u2019re often looking for low, or even un-toasted oak?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: The Estate Chardonnay has maybe 10% new oak in it, and, funny, the French don\u2019t like sending out barrels with zero, zero toast \u2013 no matter how we stress that we don\u2019t want any toast. We use 500 litre puncheons. We\u2019d love to get our hands on some 3000 litre big boys, but we\u2019re a way away from that. Our stock barrels would be the Medium + but we work with a couple of coopers who have moved into light toasting which is pretty discrete. For me, and our wines, brings out even more of that greener, herbaceous notes and you get that really lovely oak aromatic\u2026 just not toasty. We\u2019re trying to understand how those barrels work with the 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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Everything is full solids and not reduced in terms of a yeast reaction. I call them fruit sulphides \u2013 that flintiness. It is a by-product of the levels of solids that we leave in the juice. Whole bunch pressed, we probably get about 5% solids. If you macerate, either by feet or by pump, you get about 10% solids. You get far more of that flinty complexity with more solids, than you do the fruit expression with less solids. Obviously you get a lot more tannin and then you\u2019ve got to work out how to fit that tannin into a wine. Tannin and acid are old mates from way back, and then you\u2019ve got the power of the alcohol. We don\u2019t want anything to add width to the palate \u2013 just trying to be nice and linear. We\u2019ve never done any malolactic.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I do feel that the Valhalla<\/em> has changed over the last ten years.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: The thing with the early Valhalla<\/em> and Dreadnoughts<\/em> is that it\u2019s about making a statement. You want to capture people\u2019s attention and stand out from the crowd. The move to low or no toast is in the last three years. It actually started in reds \u2013 doing it in Syrah first, then pulled it into Chardonnay. The biggest difference between the earlier vintages and now is botrytis. The early vintages, the vineyards were young, getting very ripe, and incidents of noble botrytis. We did full solids, with or without the presence of botrytis and made these big, funky, rich wines \u2013 into that apricot spectrum. And they were cool. They were killer 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>: They were noticeable wines.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: But that came with a compromise, and, for those, it was their longevity. I could open one now and they look like Noble wines \u2013 they are deep and dark in colour. And if you served them in a black glass you would still find them incredibly youthful expressions of Chardonnay. But. You taste with your eyes a lot as well. The movement towards a more linear and focussed style of Chardonnay is very much around protecting our crop, because we\u2019ve got to be economically sustainable as well as everything else. Early picking and avoiding botrytis at all costs, because if we want to be an iconic producer, people have to be able to pull your wine out after ten, fifteen years are be able to really admire and enjoy them. It\u2019s not good enough for them to be awesome when they are young and then fall over five or six years later.\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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If you want to aspire to be up there with the best, then you\u2019ve got to be able to showcase your skills at making wines that can last ten, fifteen, twenty years.<\/p>

That\u2019s hard when vineyards are inherently young, and you\u2019re still working out flavour profiles and winemaking styles. You\u2019ve got to aim for something. We learnt a lot from those cyclone-hit vintages, in \u201916 and \u201917, because prior to that we were picking ripe and it was all about power and being really expressive. Now we\u2019ve learnt a lot about picking earlier and building restraint into our wines.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Is that something that came from you, or was it decided by \u2018the company\u2019?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: No, I have free range to do whatever I want. Again, it comes back to a need to stand out from the crowd and make a mark. Styles of wines like Exiled<\/em> \u2013 sweet Pinot Gris, from New Zealand? If someone came to me twelve years ago and said \u2018would you like a glass of sweet Pinot Gris from New Zealand?\u2019 I\u2019d have said \u2018no thank you\u2019. Which is what our Sales people at the time said to me. And I said \u2018that\u2019s fine but I\u2019ve just made 5000 cases\u2019. And that\u2019s grown to be one of our biggest areas of production \u2013 Pinot Gris in that off-dry style, with around 20-30 grams RS. We own that little spot. Now we have a style, with Exiled<\/em>, that can live for fifteen years and be incredible.<\/p>

With picking earlier, greener, and the wines are fresher and all the better for it. Then we are able to layer in more interesting things like tannin \u2013 fruit tannin from the solids – and all that sort of stuff.<\/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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Similarly, with dry ros\u00e9 \u2013 we\u2019ve managed to get ahead of the curve, with Bordeaux varieties and a dry style, in New Zealand. Ros\u00e9 in New Zealand was, still is, all about Pinot \u2013 quite often saign\u00e9ed Pinot \u2013 so potential alcohol is high, and leaving a bit of RS in the wines so they don\u2019t get too high. Just that style. And we wanted to make something that\u2019s bone dry. And that\u2019s been incredibly popular. We hope that the customer understands what we\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I think that both the Exiled<\/em> and the Pinque<\/em> are becoming iconic wines of their type, which is great for the Man O\u2019 War brand \u2013 so it\u2019s not just Valhalla<\/em> and Dreadnought <\/em>in those classic \u201cfine wine\u201d styles, but going through a whole range. Good on you for creating wines of personality that you\u2019re not even sure that the market will embrace.<\/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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DM<\/strong>: Sometimes it is a blessing and a curse to be making wine in isolation as we are down here. Also lucky that we drink a lot of wine! And to me it is as much about deconstructing styles of wine and figuring out ways and means of re-constructing them. It\u2019s not like going to France and seeing how they make wines, and coming back to New Zealand and doing the identical techniques. Because that quite often doesn\u2019t even work. If you can taste a wine and go \u201cwow, I really like that tannin profile\u2026 or that line of acid\u201d and then work it out and play around.<\/p>

This is the first release of Mathilda<\/em>. These are named after family members. This is a selection from two or three of our very best vineyards, and then some of the more avant-garde barrels that we have I the cellar. We use a bit of acacia as well which is quite distinctive \u2013 it gives a real \u2018green smoke\u2019 to a wine. There\u2019s not a huge amount in here. We do put some in the Sauvignon-Semillon.<\/p>

We\u2019re using a Coopers called Billon, and a lovely lady called Roberta who is their agent in New Zealand. She has got amazing knowledge, and we talk to her about what we want, what we\u2019re tasting and what we dream of where our barrel profiles could go. She makes suggestions about barrels they\u2019re working on, and they will create bespoke barrels for us. They\u2019re happy to make one or two of these barrels for us. It might seem like a pain in the arse, but it is of interest to them, and certainly to be able to work with someone like that, is awesome.<\/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>: Do Coopers ever ask for samples of the wines you have made, or do make, with their barrels?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: No, hahaha.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: And is it 100% new oak in this wine?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Probably closer to 60%. A lot of those puncheons are incredible after one year. So, seasoned. That\u2019s where we\u2019re actually seeing the real bang-for-buck out of them. A lot of the new barrel portion will sit in Valhalla or Dreadnought or Ironclad \u2013 and then, the following year, they\u2019ll be straight into our top wines. It\u2019s all pretty new.<\/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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The vineyards we use for these wines are naturally low-yielding \u2013 we might get one kilo per vine. We have a lot of hen and chicken as well. It is a challenge when you\u2019re making a Chardonnay that sits on the shelf for $28-30 and you\u2019re utilising those kind of yields.<\/p>

Hopefully there\u2019s a lineage and you can see the guiding hand of the winemaking team and the style of the house, so to speak? Clear steps. We want to appeal to a good, broad range of winelovers with Valhalla \u2013 that\u2019s where our reputation has been forged. The Kulta \u2013 we only make 100 cases of that wine, and it is getting people on to that journey as we figure out what that wine should be, and how it should taste – and age. We get a lot of feedback \u2018I love Valhalla\u2019 \u2018We had it at our wedding\u2019 and things like that. And that is awesome. We try to offer as much value as we can \u2013 the Estate level are all really cool wines, and good value for money. A lot of companies \u2013 that Estate would be their top level Chardonnay.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: What about the top end? How\u2019s that been going?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Again, it is really small production. With COVID it has been hard as we would normally have done two or three tastings where we explain what we\u2019re up to. We\u2019ve got a good following so that people can trust to spend $100 on a bottle of Chardonnay and know it is going to be pretty unique. For us it is about trying new ideas and pouring it into a bottle. We will try and do a Mathilda every year. It might be 50 cases or 100 cases, but it is a bit of a journey in terms of figuring it out. We\u2019ll find what really excites us. It would be awesome to be getting 100 points for those wines but that\u2019s not the reason we do it at all.<\/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 guess that\u2019s something I wanted to ask about. At some point these wines are going to be harder for Joe Public to get. So there\u2019s a the Man O\u2019 War Family Membership thing, and Kumeu River have their Cru Club as I suppose they\u2019ve seen that the wines will be become harder to get \u2013 so to ensure an allocation \u201cjoin the club\u201d. So, Felton Road, Kulta, Mat\u00e9s are going to be internationally recognised and hard to get wines.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Yes, but first and foremost they have to be really exciting for us to make, to drink. We want to be really excited in 2028 when we open it again and it has really got to where we wanted it to be.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I got hold of a few and certainly have no intention of opening them for a few years. What do you think about New Zealand Chardonnay and ageing? Is there anything that warrants going beyond that 8 year sweet spot do you think?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: For a start it is hard to find a New Zealand Chardonnay with age on it. People just drink them. I know from our experience that it is a real focus for us. From what I see, and not just New Zealand wines, is that wines peak at 8-10 years. After that you get all these tertiary characters coming in and whether you\u2019re a real fan of those depends on what you like. I bet a lot of people would like to drink their Cheval Blanc young, and if they tried a 20-year old one it wouldn\u2019t be their cup of tea.<\/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>: Do you think that winemakers are also getting smarter at presenting wines on release so that that freshness is very appealing without needing age? Within 45 minutes of a bottle being purchased, it has been opened \u2013 so the majority of people who get a Valhalla are drinking it immediately. We don\u2019t really have wine cellars now?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: the other point that needs to be made on that – is that our vineyards would, on average, be 18 years old. So the seven year difference between a 2012 and a 2019 \u2013 that\u2019s a lot of time in that vine\u2019s life.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: So, are we in a sweet spot \u2013 with vineyard age, winemaker, vineyard managers age (and experience)?<\/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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DM<\/strong>: Certainly we are seeing that in the vineyard team \u2013 everyone is getting more skilled. Unbelieveable knowledge about specific blocks within vineyards. That level of understanding goes so far towards making wine, than a winemaker. We do give feedback, so something like our top Syrah vineyard \u2013 called Madman\u2019s \u2013 we get great communication back to say something like \u201cBin 16 is coming in hot\u201d. That makes a huge difference for us. That\u2019s what, in my mind, is becoming the difference.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Do you live on the island?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: I live twenty minutes away, above Onetangi. I roll down my driveway and then it is just all farmland.<\/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 been tempted to do designated wines \u2013 single vineyards \u2013 like a Madman\u2019s Syrah? Because if you\u2019re doing 100 cases \u2013 that could be 100 cases of Madman\u2019s?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: We are blenders as much as anything. We\u2019ve such a range of sites that our natural inclination is to blend. Single vineyards was part of the thought process, but I believe that as we move forward, in ten or twenty years, the desire to understand more about producers just gets more and more. And that\u2019s where single vineyards come in. But that\u2019s a fraction of the wine community that is interested in that. We\u2019d love to one day be able to showcase the twelve different expressions of Chardonnay that go into Valhalla, and then present the finished blend\u2026 Imagine an Enomatic machine and an iPad \u2013 touch this screen and there\u2019s the winemaker talking about what you\u2019re tasting \u2013 and then you move on to the next one, and the next one\u2026<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: That\u2019s interesting, because I suppose that the Tasting room is a big part of what the public think of as Man O\u2019 War. Is that still a very vital part of the brand?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Yes, because that\u2019s the gateway to the property. Everything has its own set of challenges. The Tasting Room is a business, and it is open door, so not like \u2018Reservation Only\u2019, and our season starts just before Christmas and goes to Easter, and that period of time is so intense. You want to give a customer a good experience, but often that is a plate of food delivered with a nice glass of wine. It\u2019s not a half hour discussion about the intricacies of what we do.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Can we try something out of barrel?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Sure – we\u2019ve racked a lot of the Chardonnay into different components. We\u2019re really thinking about our Chardonnay needing to go back to barrel for another 6 to 12 months. We kept some 2020 in barrel for an extra year and it looks amazing. Not sure we\u2019d be brave enough to do that to a 20,000 litre blend just yet. Here\u2019s the same wine, 3 different barrels. Racked off gross lees.<\/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 is our top vineyard site, at about 24 brix, and it is nice and tight \u2013 gives us our classic \u201cKiwi style Chardonnay\u201d. Absolutely beautiful, but when we get into the selection for the Kulta \u2013 one of the insults we throw around is \u201coh yeah, that\u2019s pretty normal\u201d We\u2019re trying to do something here that is distinctly Man O\u2019 War.<\/p>

All three barrels are one year old, so you can see the difference there that you don\u2019t need to have brand new oak \u2013 they are unique characters. That impact from the barrel just completely changes the wine. That\u2019s just one parcel.<\/p>

We head back to try more wines\u2026on the way passing by \u2018the vintage wall of shame\u2019. As Duncan explains \u201cto get us through the day\u201d. They drink wines blind every day, and some have \u201cmore experience and bigger cellars, and you get some really interesting stuff \u2013 part of getting ready for vintage is everyone finding awesome wines to bring as mystery wines\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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We start with a 2013 Valhalla \u2013 from a very hot vintage. It\u2019s a darker colour –\u00a0 golden straw, with toast and honey on the nose.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: We do verticals of our wines every year, and re-release wines from our Library stock \u2013 and this is one of those wines. Goes real well out of a magnum. People perceive Valhalla as being this big, toasty, funky monster, but it still has that freshness. That\u2019s the challenge with Chardonnay. Those tertiary flavours of apricot, toast, muesli and honey are really nice, but can you drink a whole bottle? You can easily drink one when it\u2019s seven years younger.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I think one of the key things in a good bottle of wine is the last glass out of it. Does it make you yearn for another? And regretting that that is the last drop out of 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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DM<\/strong>: That\u2019s an essential to when you\u2019re sitting tasting blends. You come up with a\u00a0 blend and then take that blend to different settings. At home, at work, mate\u2019s places, out of a plastic cup on the ferry to the city. The mark of a good blend is something that you feel like from the first taste you can understand that wine. But then pour another taste and go \u2018hang on, what\u2019s that \u2013 I didn\u2019t see that before..\u2019 And then you\u2019ve got that complexity all the way through the bottle of wine, where you think you understand it, but there\u2019s something more each time you go back to it. And then, as a result, there\u2019s nothing else you can do \u2013 except open another bottle.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I can see elements of the Kulta Chardonnay in this 2013 Valhalla, sitting in there. The tightness at the front, the acacia, the piercing drive and a saline phenolic structure. So, how long were you working on the Kulta project before you decided it was ready to go, and bottle it as that?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Since the get-go. The only way to approach a place like this where you\u2019ve got 70 vineyards, and it is something that I took from Pegasus Bay, is to look at it as one great viticultural trial. Of all those vineyards, you are making that wine as if it is on contract and that vineyard was the only one that person owned. Rather than thinking \u2018I\u2019ve got 70 vineyards, I can get one wrong\u2019. So you make the best wine you can from that vineyard and then you\u2019ve got to blend that together, and understand how they all relate to each other. That takes a decade at least.<\/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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2012 is the year we started putting stuff aside. Most of them just got put back into the main blend. Some we bottled! I\u2019ve got some 2015 in there that is just covered in dust, but it\u2019s an awesome wine. That\u2019s the first Syrah we did in an untoasted puncheon. Which we could taste after we do the Dreadnought if you want. The rationale behind that was that we were getting into stems at that stage and some vintages you can\u2019t \u2013 you have to do 100% destemmed. So the idea with the untoasted barrels was to get the vibrancy and woodiness out of oak rather than stems. It goes back to that deconstruction \u2013 whether it is Cornas or Crozes Hermitage that has lots of stems, and you wonder \u2018how the hell can I do that in my wine?\u2019 And that\u2019s how it came into Chardonnay \u2013 it all came from Syrah!<\/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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Before we go to red, I\u2019d like you to try this \u2013 this is Sauvignon-Semillon, so\u00a0 Bordeaux Blanc. This is made the same way we make Chardonnay, it just comes off gross lees earlier. So it is 100% full solid, wild ferment \u2013 hot ferment \u2013 we ferment our Chardonnay and Sauvignon, hot, hard and fast. Helps build the glycerol and helps minimise over fruitiness. And we are just about to release this wine. I almost feel sorry for it \u2013 that it is called Sauvignon Blanc, because most people wouldn\u2019t be releasing a 2019 Sauvignon Blanc based wine with any degree of excitement.<\/p>

For me it is just a really awesome dry white wine. It\u2019s irrelevant what it is made from. It\u2019s thought provoking \u2013 with those salty, saline elements. It\u2019s got the green notes that I love. I love this wine, but it is a tough, tough one to get out there and get other people to love.<\/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 with the right food \u2013 that\u2019s just a great wine. Waiting for grilled salmon and asparagus.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: Moving on to Syrah \u2013 and we find the serving temperature of Syrah really important \u2013 the cooler the better. And for powerful, complex wines \u2013 if they are too warm you just don\u2019t enjoy them. We have a selection of sites that are Dreadnought, and anything else, depending on the vintage will either be ros\u00e9 or go into an Estate Syrah. 2013 has an element of stems in this wine, but, to me, after this vintage it was something that we really wanted to start homing in on.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: I like the ying and yang in this \u2013 delicate on top, but robust at the back, and that peaty note through the middle is fabulous.<\/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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DM<\/strong>: We saw that in the early Syrahs. As the vineyards have matured we\u2019re seeing a lot more primary fruit characters. I think it is a bit of a vine age thing. We were very smoky bacon, peat bog, scotch whisky, kind of complex notes. Now we\u2019re getting complexity from other aspects, depending on what we do.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: It\u2019s as much about those other things, like tannin, and green stem notes, as it is about the fruit. That\u2019s what makes it have personality.<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: All of our fermentation ideals, whether it is Sauvignon Blanc in barrel, or Syrah, is about trying to coax out those savoury elements, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re after. (Brings out the dust-encrusted Syrah from 2015 refered to earlier). I\u2019m not sure what this will be like \u2013 this is Bruno Lorenzon<\/strong>, the Head Cooper at Mercurey \u2013 he designed these untoasted barrels.\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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Marcel and Sherwyn bring these barrels in, and I don\u2019t know who else is using them, but we\u2019ve been trying them since 2015. This is 100% whole berry, destemmed. The thought is that we get some of the energy from the barrel that we couldn\u2019t from the stems, because of the vintage.<\/p>

In answer, in apart, to your question about how long have we been playing around with Kulta \u2013 this is part of that process. Could have bottled it and released it, but I thought it was more of a useful experiment to understand those types of barrels for Syrah. I think we bottled twelve bottles and then clearly forgot them.<\/p>

WF<\/strong>: Any thoughts on things like 100 point scores, and stuff like I do \u2013 giving my thoughts on wines?<\/p>

DM<\/strong>: The scores almost don\u2019t matter. It can be 88 or it can be 98, but if the words describe exactly what I\u2019m tasting, then that is worth it \u2013 because I know the wine. One of the coolest things about people writing about wine is that there is space for everyone. The points are almost a distraction. You know people have what is called \u2018shower thoughts\u2019? I was at the locked gate the other day, and I swung the gate open, and I was about to get back in my truck\u2026 and I suddenly thought \u2018how does anyone, ever, score a wine 100 points?\u2019 And I stood there, and I thought about it. And I fucked around, thinking about it. And then I got back in my truck and drove through the gate. I just don\u2019t get how a wine can be perfect. But\u2026 if the wine critic writes \u2018absolutely sublime\u2019 \u2013 then I want to drink 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\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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For the first \u2018proper\u2019 WineFolio Field Trip to Waiheke Island, I wanted to call in and see some of the headline names on the island. With that in mind, day … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5007,"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-5014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews-with-nz-winemakers"],"yoast_head":"\nWinemaker series: Duncan McTavish - 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=5014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Winemaker series: Duncan McTavish - WineFolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the first \u2018proper\u2019 WineFolio Field Trip to Waiheke Island, I wanted to call in and see some of the headline names on the island. 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