The Culture of Wine: New Zealand
Polynesian culture is found in a series of islands in the Pacific Ocean, spreading over 3,000 years of maritime exploration. Tribes sailed from island to island, settling and establishing a culture before moving on to the next island. That culture stretches to the islands of Hawaii, now a US state, to New Zealand, whose head of state is still the British monarch.
New Zealand styles itself as the youngest country in the world, and there’s a certain truth to that claim. It was only in the 1200s that a Polynesian tribe, the Māori, settled in what is now called New Zealand: no humans had previously lived on the island. As with all Polynesian tribes, they did not farm their land as their culture was purely maritime, hunting and fighting all conducted on water. It wasn’t until Europeans came to New Zealand in the 1800s that the land was first farmed: the soils may be old, but they are fertile and, in contrast to Europe, relatively untouched.
James Busby is famous for bringing Shiraz to Australia, but he had a small influence on New Zealand wine and politics too. He was sent from Australia to New Zealand to negotiate with the Māori. He planted a vineyard north of Auckland, just as he had in Hunter Valley in Australia. That vineyard was destroyed by the Māoris in 1841, and in wine terms we never hear of James Busby again. But he was part of the treaty that the British signed with the Māoris which, to put simply, screwed the Māori over and led to years of war and rebellion during the course of the nineteenth century. Now, Māori culture is a proud part of New Zealand identity and culture, but it’s still an uneasy relationship between European and Māori past.
In the 1800s, New Zealand was considered the wild west of the Pacific, uncontrollable. That’s in part because it’s in the middle of nowhere, no country near it—eastern Australia is 1,900km away. New Zealand has two main islands, North and South, and is a country defined by water. To the west, rain comes in strong and hard. On both islands, there are mountains which protect the east from the rain, mountains which define New Zealand’s viticulture, although in different ways from Europe where it’s often about aspect. Instead, the mountains provide a rain shadow with vineyards often planted on flat, fertile land beneath the mountains.
In 1985, New Zealand beat Australia at cricket for the first time in their history. Although New Zealand is a significant distance from Australia, it was under the shadow of the much bigger country. The language is shared, the accent hard to distinguish by outsiders, and Australia was more powerful, and better at cricket. And better at wine—New Zealand wine was a joke, if it was even considered. 1985 was also the year that Cloudy Bay was first released—only twelve years after Sauvignon Blanc had first been planted in Marlborough. Made by an Australian, it transformed perceptions of New Zealand wine and Sauvignon Blanc. It took international recognition to make New Zealand to understand its own potential.
When I visited New Zealand, I went to a winery in Waiheke Island which is off the coast of Auckland. In the tasting room, we were served by a woman from Oldham in the north of England. She had just received confirmation of her residency permit. She was so happy, the tranquillity and remoteness of the island gave her a sense of release. We stayed in an eco-boat house, where all the water was recycled (on the South Island, all energy is powered by water). The owner’s ex-husband let us in. In the 1960s, he had sailed from California to New Zealand and never returned. New Zealand is remote, distant, and isolated, and that’s what those live there love about it.
New Zealand is a country not defined by city culture; instead, it’s a place people visit for its beautiful landscapes of mountains and water. But that sense of remote tranquillity doesn’t mean that New Zealand is a country where nothing happens. In wine terms, the understanding and appreciation of Sauvignon Blanc has been transformed by New Zealand winemakers: New Zealand is a country which punches well above its weight. New Zealand can seem a sleepy country where nothing much happens, far away from anywhere, but its modern wine history shows a dynamic, innovative country not afraid to do things its own way.
