This news service is provided by Truewines, the online portal to what's going on with the New Zealand Wine Industry.
Karikari declares its 2008 wines to be amongst the best yet.
Karikari Estate winemaker, Ben Dugdale, has declared himself “very happy” with the results of the 2008 vintage at New Zealand’s most northerly winery. Karikari Estate, located on the one time Pacific island off New Zealand’s north eastern coast, escaped the more extreme climatic conditions of the growing season in the region, and both red and white wines from the property have strong flavour, balance and aroma.
Currently the wines are all in the early stages of their maturing and settling process, which will take as long as 2 years in oak barrels for the reds, where Ben holds high expectations for the quality of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and pinotage. He is also especially happy with the quality of the syrah, which he says is looking to be “the best so far” from Karikari.
Also coming into the top drawer category is the chardonnay, with typical steel and bouquet already apparent. Currently in large French oak the wine is due for release later this year.
Karikari Estate 2005 continues Far Northern revival
The gold medal for Karikari Estate 2005 Chardonnay at the recent Bragato Awards continues the new winery’s restitution of the Far North’s winegrowing reputation. The original home of winegrowing in New Zealand, Northland has suffered from being the original, as subsequent generations of winegrowers have moved south, with the new regions inheriting improved knowledge and technology and leaving the old with reputations for substandard wines.
The impressive Karikari Estate was created to make the best of winegrowing conditions on the beautiful Karikari Peninsula, and in 3 vintages has demanded the attention of wine drinkers throughout the country with a sequence of medal winning wines. These cover all the modern New Zealand planted mainstream varieties, with the exception of Riesling, sauvignon blanc and pinot noir, but gold medals for Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage, Cabernet/Merlot and Cabernet/Merlot/Malbec have sent the message that Northland is a winegrowing region to be reckoned with.
The dry climate of the far north-eastern coastline on the fringe of Doubtless Bay is a key to the Estate’s success, and shows that with careful site selection Northland has the potential to make wines every bit as impressive as those grown in other New Zealand regions.
The 100 hectare Karikari is not an industrial estate, producing just 3.6 hectolitres of wine per hectare of vineyard in its first years of production, which is just 10% of the production of France’s top winegrowing estates. While this will increase as more of the vineyards reach maximum production, Karikari is never destined to be a bulk wine producer, its future carefully planned to eke the best possible quality from its spectacular location.
Which is great news for wine drinkers, although you are unlikely to ever find Karikari Estate wines in your local supermarket.
New winery is at the centre of New Zealand’s oldest food stories.
The opening of Karikari Estate winery and vineyard was more than just a geographic first, as the northernmost winery in New Zealand. It was also a return to the source of New Zealand’s food history for wine, as the Muriwhenua region is out the foundation of the country’s culinary tradition.
It was in the Muriwhenua region, which covers the northernmost tip of the country, that the first gardening is most likely to have occurred. Indeed, so deeply ingrained in the idea of food is the Karikari peninsula that Maori myth has Kahukura discovering the secret of net making on the beach here, a technology that transformed Maori fishing.
One of the greatest food gathering festivals of Maori was also held here, the great shark hunting expeditions on Rangaunu Harbour that drew iwi from south of Auckland under a peace covenant that lasted until they had returned home with their catch. Wine also has a brief moment in Muriwhenua’s past, as it was here that the earliest attempts at viniculture were made by immigrants from the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
With first Maori and then European settlers introducing their cuisine to this glorious area of sparkling seas, white gold sands and deep forest, it seems appropriate that the new wine landmark of the Far North, Karikari Estate should be the concept of an outsider who has quickly fallen into step with the local spirit. Paul Kelly is an American investor with a vision of what fine wine can do for a community.
In spite of a New Zealand wine industry mindset that the North is no place for growing fine wine, Kelly’s adventure has already been something of a miracle. Grand in concept and delivery, complete with a luxury lodge and golf course, its first wines provide firm evidence that there are the bones to make great wine here.
Keen winedrinkers will be eagerly watching future vintages from winemaker, Ben Dugdale, to see if the promise of firm structured, rich flavoured Syrah, Cabernet and Chardonnay is to be realised with the elegance apparent in the first wines. If so, it could soon be that New Zealand’s oldest culinary home could also be its youngest wine region.
