Martinborough and the Abel clone

Martinborough is a sub-region of the wider Wairarapa wine region, which also includes Gladstone and Masterton. The first vines, planted in 1883, fell victim to the temperance movement just a few decades later.

Today, at 527ha (according to New Zealand Wine), Pinot Noir makes up about half the plantings in Wairarapa as a whole, another third are Sauvignon Blanc, followed by Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and 23 other varieties. The Martinborough sub-region enjoys cool, windy springs and warm, relatively dry summers, buffeted by strong southerly winds. Soils are deep, free-draining gravels, with a mixture of shallow sandy/clay loam topsoils.

The Martinborough Pinot Noir style is expressive, structured and savoury – the best very ageworthy. Most plantings are of the Abel (‘gumboot’) clone – purported to be from an illicit cutting from one of Burgundy’s most famous vineyards [said to be Romanée Conti], hidden in a wellington boot and confiscated by customs officer Malcolm Abel.

Abel, a winemaker himself, thankfully realised the cutting’s significance and sent it to be put through quarantine at Te Kauwhata, the then-government viticulture research station, and subsequently planted cuttings that resulted from this in his own small vineyard in Auckland (now long overrun by the city). He died a few years later, but not before becoming friendly with Clive Paton, who worked a vintage with him and took cuttings of his own back to Ata Rangi, which became the vines of its Home Block.

The Abel clone is now planted throughout New Zealand, but is arguably at its very best in Martinborough, Wairarapa.