The Focus
Wine Evolution Boneline poised for change SOPHIE PREECE
PAUL GOODEGE thinks a lot about evolution, from the change in wines and vines at Boneline, to the ancient geology beneath them. “Everything about this place is variable,” says the Waipara company’s Winemaker. “The people who work here, the varieties, and the soil in particular.” Now he’s considering the evolution of their model, as Covid-19 crashes down on the restaurant trade they’ve relied on. “I believe the biggest impact on us is coming,” Paul says. “It will play out very slowly and we are going to have to adapt and engage with the local community.” He sees a “huge opportunity” in the growing appetite for Farmers’ Markets and local connection, and the Boneline team hope to lure more people for rich cellar door experiences, while perhaps “thinking outside of just wine”, to grow the likes of citrus. The Boneline sits on the south bank of the Waipara River and is owned by Paul Tutton and Olga SienkoTutton, who live in the UK, and Vic Tutton and Lindsay Hill, who live on the vineyard.
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They began planting 30 years ago, fetching cuttings from growers in the valley and around the country, “so we have a fruit salad of clones”, says Paul. Planting took more than a decade, with some vines on their own roots while others are grafted, adding to the complexity of the operation. Their brand is named for the nearby exposed K-T Boundary line, a geological signature that marks the end of the Mesozoic Era and extinction of the dinosaurs, and for the fossils found in the Waipara River, dating as far back as 65 million years. There are moa bones here too, relative newcomers, and the geological legacy of a
glacier, and of terraces chiselled out by the river. That combination gives the property its contrasting soil profiles, says Paul, talking of swift transitions from silty soils to “bone of your arse gravel with no loam in it at all”. Vines are managed according to clone, soil and wines, and hand harvested clonally and carefully, to be processed individually in the winery. “We are only a small producer, but like to make as much work as possible,” says Paul, who joined the company as Assistant Winemaker in 2015. Since then Boneline has converted to organics, with certification due next year,
A passion scheme The last of Boneline’s Cabernet Franc came off the vine on 30 April, around three weeks after the rest of the harvest. It’s grown on a lower terrace, in an eddy carved out by the river eons ago, providing a perfect heat trap in the silty soils. Winemaker Paul Goodege says there can be some pre-harvest-holiday impatience waiting for the Franc, a “passion scheme” for the company, but the bright and pure blackcurrant characters he’s seeing in 2020 - reminiscent of purple jet planes - make it all worthwhile. Boneline’s 2018 Amphitheatre Cabernet Franc won the 2019 New Zealand Wine of the Year awards Champion Other Red Styles trophy.
NZ WINEGROWER JUNE/JULY 2020
and reduced inputs in the winery, with a philosophy of “minimal intervention with maximum care”. Tank and barrel fermentations run alongside small lots of hand plunged Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah, and successive vintages show stylistic development, “guided by the seasons and the progress in bottle of our wines from previous vintages”, says Paul. Nothing remains static, he adds. “There’s a lot of evolution in the way we approach winemaking and growing grapes.” Boneline’s 2020 harvest rolled out two weeks earlier than typical, with a gentle “grazing” of the vineyard. They’d been bitten by both hail and bronze beetle in early November, resulting in “some pretty good haircuts on the vines”. But with great flowering and good fruit set, and “the weather playing ball completely”, it is a “stand out” season, says Paul. “It’s one of those years where I think it’s a beautiful balance of crop loads, with excellent quality across all of our varieties.”