Quality central.

Central Otago on New Zealand’s South Island is home to dramatic scenery and world-class wines. And for Dave Brookes, nostalgia too.

SOME WINE REGIONS resonate. For me, Central Otago falls into that category, being one of the handful of wine regions with geography, people and wines that speak to me. The moment your plane squeezes between peaks on its approach and lands at Queenstown airport as you stare up at The Remarkables, you ground out. Airport activity calms, the buzzing of helicopters flitting in and out of the ranges subdues, and you are immersed in the landscape. It’s a pretty special place.

I’m a Canterbury lad. I grew up in Lyttelton, went to school in Christchurch, and now my parents own a small property in North Canterbury. My mum and dad kick themselves for not buying an expansive lakeside Queenstown home in the 1960s for what seem like ridiculously low prices today. My life trajectory might have been a bit different, but what I absolutely love after many years of traipsing back and forth to Central Otago is seeing how the region has evolved. And if there is one thing, one word, that sums up the region and its wines, it would be just that: evolution.

We tend to think of Central Otago as a relatively recent addition to the world of wine, but by the 1870s a Frenchman named Jean Desire Feraud was producing wine from his farm near Alexandra. Alas, it was hard work trying to sell wine to the beer-drinking locals, so Jean sold his farm in 1882 and moved to Dunedin.

Shortly after the Frenchman’s departure, the newly appointed viticultural consultant to the New Zealand Government Romeo Bragato arrived in the region and declared, “There is no better country on the face of the earth for the production of Burgundy grapes than Central Otago…” He tirelessly promoted wine as the future of New Zealand before resigning in despair in 1909 due to lack of funding from a government more interested in investing in sheep and cattle farming. A period of stagnation followed, and it wasn’t until the 1970s that the region’s pioneers sprung into action – Rolfe and

Lois Mills in Wanaka, Ann Pinckney in Queenstown, Alan Brady in Gibbston, Verdun Burgess and Sue Edwards, and Bill and Gill Grant in Alexandra. They formed the Central Otago Winegrowers Association, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the region rapidly gained momentum. Today, Central Otago is considered one of the world’s premier wine regions.

On paper it looks like a hard place to grow grapes. It is surprisingly arid with a high diurnal temperature range, low humidity and low rainfalls. Alexandra consistently records the highest as well as lowest temperatures in New Zealand, plus the lowest rainfall at around 250mm. Up past Cromwell and onto Bannockburn, the rainfall is around 300mm. Head towards Gibbston or hop over the Pisa Range into Wanaka and the rainfall doubles – around 600mm. Continue south over another couple of ranges and the rainfall can top 6000mm a year in Milford Sound and parts of Western Fiordland. It is a land of extremes. Yet pinot noir, chardonnay, riesling, pinot gris and a number of other varieties thrive here. These mountain ranges also mean the region is quite fractured.

The individual subregions spread out over an area broken up by these geographical features. The subregions of Gibbston, Wanaka, Cromwell/Lowburn/Pisa, Bannockburn, Bendigo and the Alexandra Basin are indeed very different in a terroir sense.

One defining feature of Central Otago’s landscape, imposing mountains aside, are the terraces formed by glaciation, perhaps

The moment your plane squeezes between peaks on its approach and lands at Queenstown airport as you stare up at The Remarkables,

you ground out.

most noticeable around Lake Dunstan at Cromwell in the form of the Lowburn terraces and Chinaman’s Terrace, which sits above the subregion of Bendigo.

Most of the grape-growing in Central Otago takes place on these glacial sediments. Derived from schist, it appears in many forms. Gravels from fine to coarse, wind-blown loess, ground up into a flour-like consistency from glacial movement. Add in mudstones, river gravels, greywacke, quartz, mica and pedogenic limestone and you have a moderately young, though complex, system of soil types. How do these complex soil and geographical elements manifest themselves in the wines of the individual subregions? I’m glad you asked, but keep in mind the following is a criminally abbreviated synopsis of differences between the region’s pinot noirs; you can go much deeper.

First up, what I see from Gibbston is red fruits, dried herbs and a distinct savoury/meaty note reined in by vibrant acidity and fine, powdery tannins. In Bannockburn expect darker fruits and spicy complexity, with a sense of refined opulence and, again, finely honed tannins. There is perfume in the wines of the Cromwell/ Lowburn/Pisa subregion, higher-toned aromatics with fruit tending from red to dark with a silky subtlety to the tug of their fine tannins. “You can expect darker fruits from the wines of Bendigo,” says Paul Pujol from the excellent winery Prophet's Rock. “A little more power and tension with ripe structural tannins.”

In Alexandra, the wines tend to be riper with aromatic plummy fruit, plenty of spice and ripe, luscious tannin pulling the wines into line, and a sense of retrained opulence across their length.

And finally, from Wanaka you can expect wines that are delicate, savoury, red-fruited and vivid with fine lines, sapid mouth-watering acidity and subtle tannin structures.

As the vines have aged, the winemakers have benefited from increased clarity into the intricacies of their subregions. And since the region was thrust into the international spotlight, most notably with the 2002 vintage, the wines have become noticeably finer and more savoury. The farming has also improved. Blair Walters from the stellar Felton Road recently said that nearly a quarter of all vineyards in the region are now organic, a figure that increases every year.

Central Otago enjoys a close relationship with Burgundy, with winemakers flitting between the regions for harvest and even collaborations such as the epic Cuvee Aux Antipodes by Paul Pujol and Francois Millet from Burgundian rock-star estate Domaine Georges Comte de Vogue.

The stylistic boundaries are also morphing, including adventures with carbonic maceration and whole bunches, while gamay looks promising. There are also some ripping skin-contact white wines appearing in the region from the likes of Lucie Lawrence at Aurum, Francis Hutt at Carrick and Jen Parr at Valli.

The French have the word ‘terroir’ to sum up a sense of place, but there is a beautiful Maori term, ‘ Tūrangawaewae’, that translates as ‘a place to put your feet’ – a place where you feel most deeply connected and one that forms part of your identity. It is a word that captures the sense of belonging and connection with the earth that you get when visiting this special slice of New Zealand, tasting the wines and speaking to winemakers. It comes through in the region's wines and it's a beautiful thing.

The French have the word ‘terroir’ to sum up a sense of place, but there is a beautiful

Maori term, ‘ Tūrangawaewae’, which translates as ‘a place to put your feet’ – a place where you feel most deeply connected and one that forms part of your identity.