Feature | North Canterbury
NORTH CANTERBURY WINE REGION North Canterbury and particularly the Waipara Valley is home to some of New Zealand’s finest wine. Charmian Smith finds it’s a region of “terroir-ists” - winemakers for whom the terroir determines the style of their wine.
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ome of New Zealand’s earliest vines were planted in Canterbury in the 1840s by French settlers in Akaroa - their little sickle-shaped pruning knives can be seen in the local museum. However, the modern industry developed in the 1970s and ‘80s after Dr David Jackson of Lincoln University started planting trial vineyards around the region. Much has happened in the 40 years since the region’s first commercial winery, St Helena at Belfast just north of Christchurch, startled the wine community by winning gold medals for its 1982 and 1984 pinot noir. While several early vineyards were planted on the plains west of Christchurch and on Banks Peninsula, the Waipara Valley 45 minutes north of the city soon became the heart of the wine region. For many years the outlying vineyards languished in the
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WineNZ Magazine | Autumn/Winter 2022
shadow of Waipara, but are now brought together under the North Canterbury umbrella. The wine region officially stretches from the Waiau river near Cheviot south to the Rakaia, west to Waikari and east on to Banks Peninsula, giving a cohesion especially for the small producers outside the Wairapa sub-region. West of Waipara, through the Weka Pass in the Waikari area are the small but acclaimed Bell Hill and Pyramid Valley vineyards planted on limestone soils. North of Waipara, on the banks of the Waiau, is the large, exportoriented Mt Beautiful; south of Christchurch at Burnham on the original vineyards planted by the Giesen brothers in the 1980s are Straight Eight Estate and until recently Lone Goat. A handful of other small vineyards are dotted round Banks Peninsula, and on the outskirts of Christchurch are a few other producers which are mainly function centres with their own wine labels.
It’s the variety of soils, aspects and climates across the region that is so fascinating, according to Vicki Tutton from The Boneline. Her vineyard on the terraces of the Waipara river just after it emerges from the gorge, can ripen big reds such as the cabernets, she said. “At the other extreme you’ve still got all the racy vibrant whites. I think as a region we really have a lot of diversity.” Sheltered from the cool easterlies by the Teviotdale HIlls, heated by the nor’westers, the
