The Wine CEO Episode 34: Beginner's Guide to New Zealand, Part 1

Hi friends and welcome to the Wine CEO podcast. I'm your host and certified Somalia Sarah and I'm so excited you're here. Do you ever feel like wine is totally intimidating? Maybe you get overwhelmed shopping in the wine aisle and have no idea what to buy for that recipe you're cooking. Or maybe you have to bring a bottle of wine to a dinner party with your in-laws and you're nervous to pick one that will taste awful. Well, I'm here to tell you that wine does not have to be stressful. Each week on this podcast we chat about fun and relatable wine topics that help you learn and feel more confident as a wine consumer. Friends after a decade in this industry, I know Somalia's can make wine feel snobby or overwhelming and the average person truly just wants to know what wine will go with my pizza, how many glasses is too many at a work-lension, or how do I know if a wine is sweet. So join me each week as we dive into exciting topics like these and learn about all things wine related. And don't forget to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode. Let's dive in. Hey friends and welcome to episode number 34 of the Wine CEO podcast. I'm really excited about today's show because I'm doing my first ever wine region spotlight. A lot of you have been asking for more episodes and content on specific wine regions you can learn a little more about particular countries and different regions around the world. So I'm excited to begin a lot of various series where we will dive into specific regions. So for two episodes, we're going to be talking all about New Zealand and the amazing wine regions that make up this beautiful country. I am so excited. I've never been to New Zealand. It is on my bucket list, but one of my very, very dear friends who I worked with at Disney for a time, she lives in Christchurch and I've just heard so many wonderful things about the country. So definitely on my bucket list, a place that I hope to visit soon. Lots of amazing wine regions, a lot of amazing wines coming from here. So I've studied it for a few years and I'm really, really excited to share with you all today. So many more episodes like this coming, but we're starting with New Zealand because I think it is one really simple wine region to digest. It's not overly complicated like some wine regions around the world can be and I think that the New Zealand wines that they're mostly famous for which we'll talk about in just a little bit are really perfect for summertime drinking. So let's go ahead and dive into a little bit more about New Zealand. So New Zealand is located in the southern hemisphere. So it's between the 35th and 47th parallels. And if you remember all major grape growing regions around the world lie between the 30th and 50th parallels. So these are the most temperate climates for growing grapes. So it's not too hot and not too cold. And you have the 30th to 50th parallels in both the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere. And so starting at the equator and then moving south into the southern hemisphere, you start at the 35th parallel and that's where the beginning of the New Zealand wine regions are going to be. So because of the earth's tilt as it moves around the sun, you know, the seasons are opposite right in the northern and southern hemispheres. So it's winter in the northern hemisphere when it's summer in the south and vice versa. So what this means is that while the northern hemisphere is harvesting grapes in like late September or October and early November, the southern hemisphere is harvesting in late March, April and early May. And as part of the southern hemisphere, this is when New Zealand then has their harvest. Now New Zealand is a country made up of two main islands in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. And the two islands are simply called the North Island and the South Island. In fact, the vineyards in the South Island are actually the most southern vineyards in the entire world. And because of how close they are to the international date line, they're actually the first grapes to see sunshine each day. Pretty cool. Now New Zealand is a bit of a younger wine region by most standards. So although there have been grapefines planted there since 1819, it wasn't until the 1980s that New Zealand wines began to receive world acclaim. And the popularity of New Zealand's subany on Blanc really rose. So a lot of people attribute this to the prohibition culture and social movement against wine drinking that was really a part of New Zealand's culture for decades. Believe it or not, it wasn't until after World War II that wine bottles were sold in shops. And it wasn't until the 1960s that wine was sold in restaurants. So really recent, right? I mean, there was a long history of deterring wine production, wine sale and wine consumption, which probably kept New Zealand from getting on the map a lot sooner. But as this prohibition culture started to dissolve, great wine producers began sprouting up all across New Zealand, and the world acclaim for New Zealand wines made all of the wineries in the region jump from around 30 to over 700 between the mid 90s and mid 2000s. But even with this number of wineries, the country's still very small compared to a lot of others, and it accounts for less than 1% of the world's wine production. So it's still fairly small on the scale of our major wine producing regions. But the wines have become very, very popular around the world and it has an amazing, amazing reputation. So now that I've alluded to the fact that New Zealand was put on the map by Sauvignon Blanc, let's talk about varietals because it's not the only grape varietal that's grown there. There are actually around 25 different varietals that are grown throughout New Zealand. But there are two that really reign king in the country. My far New Zealand is most famous for Sauvignon Blanc and Pina Nour. And one of the reasons for this is the unique climate. New Zealand is a very cool maritime climate. It's southern enough that they actually have more cool days than warm, and it's surrounded by water because it's an island, they're two islands, right? And so this means that they have that really maritime climate, so the influence of the ocean, the salt water, that whole weather movement on the land. So thinner skin grape varietals like Sauvignon Blanc and Pina Nour grow perfectly in this type of a climate. If you remember way back to episode number two on wine 101, grapes need sunlight to mature. Just like any other fruit or crop rate. So the thicker skin, the grape, the more sunlight hours it actually needs to mature. So in a climate like New Zealand where there aren't as many hot sunlight days throughout the growing season, a lot of thicker skin grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon don't tend to ripen fully before they would need to be picked. So the majority of wine makers are planting thinner skin grape varietals throughout New Zealand. Now, that's not to say that you won't find Cabernet Sauvignon or other bold varietals in New Zealand. We're actually going to talk a lot in today's episode about the North Island and the regions in the North Island because they're farther north, right? They're actually much warmer, and so these hotter climates do have the ability to produce great Cabernet Sauvignon, great Chardonnay, great Merlot and Sarat. But really, what we've found is that the majority of wines that have really reached international acclaim are the Sauvignon Blancs and the Pinot Noirs. And that's because they're grown in the regions of New Zealand that have these really moist climates that have a lot of rain, really fertile soil, and they have such a unique flavor profile because of the soil and weather and pattern in New Zealand that the wines that are made here truly cannot compare to any other region around the world. They're so true to the terroir of New Zealand, and so they are just so special and so they've grown in this incredible reputation that's specific to New Zealand, Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Noirs. So I would say that for the most part, a lot of these other great varietals have really been declining over the last like two decades because of the acclaim for Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. You know, folks around the world want Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir from New Zealand. When they think of New Zealand, those are the two varietals that they really think of. So wine makers have realized that there's a little more cash in those varietals, so they've started pulling out some of the other varietals that they used to grow and planting a lot more in Sauvignon Blanc. But again, still lots of those other varietals that are found throughout the islands and I will talk a little bit more about those in just a moment. So I'm not going to touch on every single wine region in New Zealand, but I'm going to cover a lot of the main ones so that you'll recognize names when you're looking at wine bottle labels. I want you to be able to go into a wine shop or your grocery store, grab a bottle, and you can tell that it's from New Zealand because you look at the label and you recognize that name and you can say, "Oh, I remember Sarah talking about this. This is in the North Island of New Zealand or this is in the South Island of New Zealand," etc. So I'm going to break these two islands up. We're going to spend the rest of today's episode chatting about the North Island wine regions and then next week I'm actually going to cover the South Island as well as great food parings to go with New Zealand wines and the unique thing about New Zealand wines that they do differently than most of the rest of the world. It might surprise you. So be sure to listen to next week's episode. It's definitely one that you are not going to want to miss. But really quickly, before we jump into the rest of today's episode, I want to take a quick moment to thank the sponsor of today's show, Wash and Wik. Wash and Wik is a candle and soap company located here in Orlando, Florida. What I love about Wash and Wik is that they have hand-poured soy candles made with quality essential oils and fragrances. And some of you may remember when I interviewed one of the co-founders Ariel a few weeks ago. And if you remember, Ariel is a certified sommelier and she made some amazing wine-centred candles you guys. They are so authentic to the proper aromas. I was just absolutely blown away. Like where else are you going to find a sommelier who is behind a wine-centred candle? They are legit. So Wash and Wik is offering 20% off for all of our podcast subscribers. So head over to their website washandwik.com. That's W-A-S-H-A-N-D-W-I-K dot com, and enter the promo code TheWineCEO. No spaces, just THE, W-I-N-E-C-E-O for 20% off your purchase. And also if you guys haven't signed up for my newsletter, head over to my website, TheWineCEO.com, and do that today. I send about one email a month, so I promise I'm not going to spam you, but what you will get is exclusive access to know what's coming to TheWineCEO podcast and community before anyone else. Additionally, I'm going to be doing some giveaways coming up soon just for my newsletter subscribers, so you don't want to miss those. And when you sign up, you get my free beginners guide to food and wine pairings. It's an awesome tool. I've gotten so many great compliments on it from folks who found it to be a really, really useful thing to save to their phones. So head over to TheWineCEO.com today to sign up for that newsletter. So let's get back into the show. So we just did this really quick overview of New Zealand as a whole and chatted about some brief fun facts about what the country is known for and the history of TheWine industry there. So now we're going to dive into the North Island and the specific wine-producing regions in this area. Now, if you're a visual person, I recommend that you click the link in my show notes to go check out my blog post on New Zealand. I have a map there and that will help you follow along and see the location of each wine region I'm talking about, and so you can look at it as I'm describing it. So it may help just a little more with that visual memorization. So the North Island is predominantly known for the regions of Hawks Bay, Gizborn, Auckland and Wyra Rapa, and I'm probably butchering a lot of these names, but the whole island is slightly warmer throughout the year than the South Island because naturally it's closer to the equator, it's more north. So it's much easier for the winemakers in this region to make some Sura, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and some of these other wine bridles that require a little bit more sunlight like we spoke about just a moment ago. So the first region that we're going to talk about is Auckland. And Auckland is the most northwestern wine region in New Zealand. It's mostly known for Chardonnay and some red blends from Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon so like some Bordeaux blends. There has actually also been an increase in Sura plantings here over the past few years and a lot of folks are really excited about what they're going to be bringing to the industry soon. The region spreads out all around the city of Auckland and although it doesn't produce the most wine in New Zealand, it actually has the largest number of wineries in the country. The climate in Auckland is pretty warm but it's also really rainy and humid so they get a lot of cloud cover in the region that will help moderate the sunlight hours but there's also this intense amount of rain that can create a lot of problems with rot. For a smaller region though, they're really producing some amazing wines and it's one place that I definitely want to visit someday. There's actually a really interesting story from Auckland. I guess it's more of a legend kind of because no one can really validate any of the facts but it's circulated in wine circles all around the globe and I think it's a really fun one. So allegedly in the 1970s there was a New Zealand rugby player who went to France and stole a small vine cutting of Pinot noir from one of the top burgundy wineries, Domain de la Romani Conti and he apparently tried to smuggle this grapevine into New Zealand by shelling it into his rain boot. Well as fate would have it one of the customs workers caught him and commandeered this vine cutting. Adley coincidence all that this customs agent named Malcolm Abel just so happened to also be a winemaker in Auckland seems a little fishy but he apparently took this vine cutting and planted it in his own vineyard well karma is a you know what and he died shortly thereafter but before he died he shared some of his Pinot noir cuttings from his planted vines with one of his dear friends who also made wine. This friend planted these vines in Martinboro which is in the north island and we'll talk about it a little bit later in the show and he became famous for making some of the best Pinot noir's found in New Zealand. All of the coincidence but I have to wonder if there's some truth in this story I would like it to be more than a legend because honestly I'm a little bit of a romantic anyway but the best part of the story is that they named this specific grape clone the gumboot which is the New Zealand term for a rain boot so still giving credit back to that awesome rugby player who had the guts to steal this super famous French Pinot noir cutting and then try to smuggle it into the country so didn't get to plant that vine and then make incredible Pinot noir and make a ton of money from it but still part of the story so kind of an interesting legend. Okay so enough legends and fairy tales so moving on to our next region so the next region we come to is Gizborn and Gizborn sits along the northeastern coast and it's known for Chardonnay and Pinot Greek. Now they're mostly known for the unique Chardonnays though these have a lot of like tropical fruit and really honey notes so they make for really unique tasting Chardonnays. Gizborn gets a lot of rain along the coast but it's still actually warmer than most New Zealand regions which makes it this perfect climate for growing Chardonnay. Overall though it's a fairly small region it has a really low number of wineries compared to a lot of the other North Island regions. Next up is Hawks Bay which is along the central eastern coast of the North Island and it's by far one of the more famous regions within the North Island. It's known for Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Greek and a small amount of Sera. It's actually the second largest wine region in the country and also the driest of all the regions in the North Island and it's this dry climate that gives it some really unique flavors to a lot of those varietals I just mentioned. The leading variety here is Chardonnay but there's a long history of red wine as well. Cabernet Sauvignon put this region on the map actually due to the really fertile and gravelly soil that reminded a lot of wine makers of Bordeaux. Now today Merlot and Sera have actually overtaken Cabernet Sauvignon in the number of vines planted but all of these are still used in many delicious red blends that are coming out of this region. And speaking of wines coming out of this region, did you know that New Zealand actually exports 90% of their wine? It's a pretty big percentage when you think about it, only 10% of their wine actually stays within the country and gets consumed by New Zealanders. Pretty interesting. Okay, so last but not least is Wairapa which is in the southern tip of the North Island where the country's capital of Wellington is located. This region is mostly known for Pinot noir, Sauvignon Blanc and some Pinot Greek. The most important sub region within Wairapa is by far Barnboro which I mentioned earlier in that cool legend of the Gumboot Pinot noir clone stolen by the rugby player. So you'll see the name Martin Burrow listed on a lot of wines coming from the Wairapa region as it has gained global acclaim specifically for the Pinot Noirs that are produced here. The region is compared often to Burgundy which is also known for Pinot noir so remember the rugby player stole the Pinot noir plant cutting from one of the top wineries in Burgundy and we'll talk more about Burgundy in the future for sure but this is a pretty big complement for Martin Burrow. There's to be compared to Burgundy you know the place that's attributed with making the best Pinot Noirs in the world by most standards you know it's a big compliment. Now one of the main reasons that these two are compared is for similar climates. There's a large mountain range that helps create a really dry climate in Martin Burrow that's absolutely perfect for growing Pinot noir that's pretty similar to Burgundy. Overall there surprisingly aren't a ton of wineries throughout Wairapa but the few that are here make really really delicious wines and again are for the most part attributed to the Pinot Noirs. And those are the four main wine regions throughout the North Island so it's a little bit smaller than the South and not quite as well known but there are still some really amazing wines coming from this region. I'm super excited to tell you all a little more next week about the South Island and then also talk about some great food pairings and so much more so definitely be sure to tune in next Wednesday so that you don't miss that episode. I hope you all enjoyed listening to today's show as always I will include tons of notes from today's show in my show notes for this episode but again remember that I also created an awesome blog post that's a great tool for all of my visual learners out there that has maps so that you can go ahead and look at all of the wine regions throughout the North Island and have a little bit of that visual memorization. If you love today's show please share it on your social media and tag me at the wine CEO so I can hear all about it share this episode with a friend who loves New Zealand wine or maybe needs to learn about New Zealand wine drink some yummy peanut noir from Martin Barrow this week friends and I will catch you all next Wednesday on the wine CEO podcast. [Music]