6 minute read
Gunfields to vineyards
WHEN WE THINK OF THE settling and development of colonial New Zealand, we generally look to the United Kingdom and the steady stream of migrants who came from there. There is, however, one group of migrants who are regularly overlooked in that narrative and yet have helped to build an industry that has probably been more influential in raising our international profile than any other; Dalmatians - and wine.
It’s hard to believe in 2024 that New Zealand’s award-winning wines were once referred to as ‘Dally Plonk’ and owe a sizeable debt to a region that most Kiwis can’t even find on a map. Dalmatia is an historical region of Croatia located on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, and like much of Europe, it was stricken by conflict - particularly being seized by the Austro-Hungarian empire - and a struggling economy; driven by poverty and politics, many Dalmatians chose immigration.
“They were starving, with only small areas of farmland, largely on rock,” says Kaye Dragicevich, author of the Pioneer Dalmatian Settlers of the Far North. “It was very hard to support their families. With each new generation family plots became smaller as land was divided amongst the children. In the 1700s the Venetians exported nearly all the timber from the mountains taking it to Venice. Without the forest cover what little soil there was simply washed away. Also, the young men were being conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army - the army of their occupier - so many of them left to avoid being called up. Some looked to the United States and South America as the lands of opportunity, others to Australia. New Zealand was considered a good option as they could dig for kauri gum with minimal outlay working together in groups and they didn’t have to learn English.
Kiwi service men and women who had been sent to Europe were introduced to drinking wine there, and suddenly the concept of accompanying food with a bottle of wine instead of beer didn’t seem quite so strange.
“In wine regions in old Europe, if you wanted to drink wine then you had to make it yourself.”
“It was very hard work and particularly hard on them as they weren’t used to the cold and damp of the gum fields but couldn’t afford to go home till they had made some money. About 80% returned home, some returned to New Zealand several times. When the gum ran out, they looked to new opportunities, bought cheap land, they developed farms or, orchards and vineyards to make New Zealand their permanent home.”
One of those who stayed was Joe Babich. He had arrived in New Zealand in 1910 and immediately set to work digging gum, but the young Joe had no intention of being waist deep in clay for the rest of his life.
“My grandfather came out to join his brothers,” says David Babich, the CEO of Babich Wines. “He was just 14 and it was likely that he would be conscripted at 16, so it was basically a one-way ticket to avoid fighting for the AustroHungarian empire.”
“In wine regions in old Europe, if you wanted to drink wine then you had to make it yourself. It wasn’t that it wasn’t for sale, it was that 80-90% of the population were poor, often subsistence farmers. Most of old Europe was like that - and that’s probably why most of old Europe was keen to get out of old Europe!”
“My grandfather would make a bit of money and use that to plant vines, then go back to digging gum while they established. Once he was making wine it was generally sold to other Croatians and Mediterraneans because New Zealand was very much a beer and whiskey
market in those days. So it was pretty tough for a good 30 years. I remember him saying that it was 26 years before they managed to take a single pound off the mortgage they’d taken out to buy the land!”
“Part of it was because there were restrictions on selling wine in those days - very much politically motivated. There was a thing called the ‘Two Gallon Rule’, which said you could only sell two gallons of wine to anyone! Of course, not everyone wanted to buy a twogallon jug, but I think the beer and whisky lobby made sure that law wasn’t changed until 1958.”
Laws were changing, and so were people’s tastes. Many Kiwi service men and women who had been sent to Europe were introduced to drinking wine there, and suddenly the concept of accompanying food with a bottle of wine instead of beer didn’t seem quite so strange; fortunately, Kiwi wines were more than able to match what had been sampled back on the continent.
“Right from the beginning there was a constant push to improve, to make wine that could compete with the imported stuff, and so when (noted wine writer) Jancis Robinson praised New Zealand Sauvignon in 1985 it helped kick off something of a boom which saw more and more Kiwis choosing to drink wine. It also put us on the international map, and from the late 80s exports really started to take off as new world wines were rightly recognised as being of really great quality.”
The rest, as they say, is history. New Zealand is now generally the largest supplier of Sauvignon in most overseas markets and our wine industry was worth an incredible $3.3 billion last year. Not bad going for group of young Croatian menboys really - who just wanted to escape conscription in someone else’s army.
“My grandfather died in 1983 and I’ve always wondered what it would be like for him to see how his endeavours turned out. Close to the end of his life he did get to see our first exports rolling up the road in a 20ft container. It was headed to Europe, the old Europe he’d left 70 years earlier.”
