Meet the Marlborough men

We have a longstanding love affair with Marlborough Sauvignon in this country, and we are not alone. Sales worldwide have quadrupled over the past decade, making this one of the great success stories of the wine world.

It is sometimes hard to believe the first vines were planted in Marlborough (by Montana, now Brancott Estate) only 40 years ago. Cloudy Bay, the regions most famous winery, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Marlborough’s success is down to its instantly recognisable style of Sauvignon; fresh and aromatic with vibrant, bright green fruits and zesty lime flavours. It helps that the overall standard of winemaking is high – the wines are consistently good and therefore able to attract high prices, the envy of the rest of the wine world.

In many ways, Marlborough Sauvignon is New Zealand wine. The region accounts for almost 80 per cent of production and more than 80 per cent of what Marlborough produces is Sauvignon Blanc. This seems unfair on the rest of New Zealand, which produces some excellent wine, including some equally good Sauvignon. This week we have four very different producers, each with their own take on Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

Peter Yealand, with his long flowing grey locks and beard, looks more like a religious prophet than a wine man. “I am not a wine person,” he says. “I have no palate at all.” Not the sort of thing you expect to hear from a wine producer, especially one who owns the largest private single vineyard in Australasia.

But then Yealand does a lot of things differently. A third-generation Marlborough man, he operated the first mussel farm in New Zealand, and was one of the earliest to set up a deer farm. He runs a lime quarry and a large forestry operation, as well as the largest compost business in New Zealand.

On his 1,000-hectare vineyard he keeps hens, miniature pigs and rare-breed sheep, and plays music to his vines from solar-powered stereos.

The huge vineyard rolls up and down hillsides, interspersed with local shrubs, running down to the seashore with some spectacular views. The winery has won awards for being environmentally friendly, although it is not organic.

Yealands is in the Awatere, the southernmost, coolest and driest of the valleys that make up Marlborough. The wines tend to be drier, more mineral and less exotic in style. Yealands markets a large range of wines (including Lidl’s Cimarosa Sauvignon Blanc), some of which are very good.

Haysley MacDonald is also a native son of Marlborough, a Maori, born and brought up at the mouth of the Wairau river, close to the Wairau Bar, where the Maoris are believed to have first landed in New Zealand in the 11th century.

MacDonald is another born entrepreneur. When he was growing up, the family grew potatoes, selling to the local co-op.

When prices fell, he and his father set up a business supplying frozen potato chips, expanding to become one of the largest suppliers in New Zealand. They eventually sold to a large corporation and turned to dairy farming.

By the turn of the century MacDonald saw that viticulture was becoming a lucrative business. But their farm lay on the wrong side of the tracks – literally.

Land east of the railway tracks was too rich and wet for vines, but the average rainfall in Marlborough dropped dramatically over the past 20 years, and this is now among the most sought after vineyard territory. MacDonald has 300 hectares in the Wairau valley, and has just bought another 300 on the hillside next to Awatere. In addition, he runs a business planting vineyards and harvesting grapes (with 10 state of the art harvesters) for other producers.

Framingham is a smaller producer, renowned for its Rieslings, but I was taken by its Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. Now owned by Portuguese company Sogrape, this is one of the grand old companies of Marlborough with vines more than 30 years old.

Winemaker Andrew Hedley and his team are also punk fanatics, a fact often reflected in their marketing material. Founded a decade ago by two men instrumental in the success of the Cloudy Bay winery, Dog Point has quickly earned itself a reputation as one of the best producers in the region with a series of excellent complex wines.