Cental Otago: six names to know
Rippon The Mills family, owners of a sheep station on the poor schist soils of Wanaka, were pioneers of Central Otago viticulture. What began with a few rows of vines in 1975, led to the first commercial vintage in 1989. Their 1990 vintage, made by a young Rudi Bauer (now Quartz Reef), lured the Dicey brothers of Ceres Wines and Blair Walter, winemaker at Felton Road, to Central Otago. The vineyards are farmed biodynamically. Older Rippon vintages are spectacular.
Ceres Wines This is the family project of Matt and James Dicey, who until recently were winemaker and viticulturist, respectively, for Mt Difficulty, where they’d worked since the 1990s. Here they’re able to focus on single sites in Bannockburn and have dialled extraction and oak right back to make expressive, elegant wines.
Lowburn Ferry This estate has recently come under the ownership of Smith & Sheth, a new project by Kiwi Steve Smith MW, co-founder of Craggy Range, and US billionaire investor Brian Sheth. With proper funding, especially into the vineyards and conversion to biodynamic farming under star viticulturist, Nick Paulin, this is set to blossom. Akitu Planted in 2002 at an elevation of 380m in Wanaka, these vineyards are marginal. But you know that all the frost risk is worth it when you taste the wines. After a career in investment management, founder Andrew Donaldson waited 10 years after planting before launching his Akitu label in 2012. ‘ I’m from Otago and always needed to return,’ he says. ‘ I was just lucky, I guess, that it became one of the most interesting places in the world to grow Pinot, my favourite variety.’ Mount Edward Winemaker Duncan Forsyth has been pushing boundaries for a while. His flair for Pinot Noir is well known; his mastery of Riesling is evident. He continues to fine-tune both: there is more whole bunch in the Pinot while Riesling gets more skin contact. He’s also now having fun with sulphur-free Gamay, pet-nat Albariño and orange wines. Recently he’s also dabbled with vermouth, based on Riesling and Chenin Blanc, with elderflower as the primary botanical.
Burn Cottage This biodynamic venture in the Pisa Range, owned by the Sauvage family from Kansas, has Pinot legend Ted Lemon from California as its consultant. First planted in 2003, the wines are now made by Claire Mulholland. ‘ The vines are now well established and have been showing wonderful individual block characters over the years,’ she says. She’s excited about a new site, christened Burn Cottage Sauvage Vineyard. ‘ It’s a 5.8ha Pinot Noir vineyard along Felton Road. We’ve started biodynamic practices already and envisage the possibility of making a singlevineyard Pinot from there.’