Doco looks at Nelson as ‘unsung hero’ of wine
Two Nelson vineyards are pouring their stories on to the big screen in a documentary featuring in the New Zealand International Film Festival.
A Seat at the Table tells the story of French and New Zealand wine producers, with Seifried Estate and Neudorf Vineyards grape growers showing they’re a bit of a big deal when it comes to the country’s wine industry.
A Seat at the Table director David Nash said the two families were regional pioneers who were still producing topquality wines.
When Seifried Estate founder Hermann Seifried told people of his plans to grow grapes in Nelson, ‘‘everyone told him that Nelson would be a terrible place to grow wine, but he knew and had been educated that wherever hops grew well, grape vines would grow very well’’.
Seifried’s Austrian and German training and methods proved to be groundbreaking in New Zealand, Nash said.
And it’s no coincidence that Seifried and Neudorf are still at the top of their game in the region. Nash said Seifried helped Tim and Judy Finn of Neudorf establish a lot of their vineyard before they went on to carve their own path in organic growing.
‘‘They’re one of the only producers in the country to be awarded a 100-point perfect wine by (wine critic) Bob Campbell – which is quite an accolade when you’re farming in a non-irrigated, organic way.
‘‘Nelson is a bit of an unsung hero in the New Zealand wine industry.’’
The film may sound very viticulturefocused, but Nash said most of the positive reviews so far had come from viewers who wouldn’t know the difference between a sauvignon blanc and a pinot gris.
‘‘The most feedback we’ve had is from people who actively say they don’t really like wine and they’ve gone along and watched the film and they’ve gone, ‘This is fantastic, I never really thought I was a wine person but watching this, I kind of get what it’s all about’.’’
This was the point of the film, he said – it wasn’t about wine, it was about the grape growers on either side of the world ‘‘who are all just trying to do the best they can with their spot and the place they’ve been given’’.
Nash’s brainchild has been about five years in the making, and was created with a crew of five and a tight budget, self-funded until the final stage of postproduction, when the New Zealand Film Commission helped to get it to cinema quality.
He said that after the NZ Film Festival had wrapped up, the documentary would be off to the Vancouver Film Festival. The New Zealand Film Festival is on in Nelson at the Suter Cinema until August 28.
A Seat at the Table will be screening on August 18 and 21. Visit statecinema.co.nz for tickets.