TE MATA WINERY

TE MATA ESTATE - A NEW GOLDEN AGE

Te Mata is one of the oldest and most respected wine producers in New Zealand and with a new generation in charge, it’s certainly not resting on its laurels. Charmian Smith reports on the new developments they are working on.

Despite surviving the 1931 Napier earthquake the atmospheric 1872 winery, now used for barrel storage, is to be strengthened.

The Bucks’ Athfield-designed house sits in the Coleraine vineyard on the slopes of the Havelock Hills.

Established in the 1880’s by the Chambers family, the original Te Mata winery and vineyard are the oldest Te Mata is still a family company - the fourth family to own the 140 year old estate, and the second generation of Bucks has taking over the governance, management and technical experience in the wine trade here and the UK, while his brother Jonathan, a man of the land, manages the company’s large Woodthorpe Terraces vineyard and grape sales. The continuously operating in Hawkes Bay, but by the 1970s it had fallen on hard times.

The Buck and Morris families saw the potential for producing fine, long-lived wine in the region and bought the estate in 1974.

With John Buck’s experience in the European wine trade and Peter Cowley as winemaker, they developed the run-down winery and vineyards and their 1981 and 1982 cabernet sauvignon/ merlots won trophies in the national wine competition.

Over more than 40 years Te Mata has continued to engender new ideas and expertise, establishing vineyards in various Hawkes Bay subregions and building an enviable reputation both here and overseas for their Coleraine and Awatea Bordeaux blends, Bullnose Syrah, Elston Chardonnay and Cape Crest sauvignon blanc. Te Mata aligns itself with some of the world’s great family wine estates such as Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux. aspects. “That gives nice continuity for all staff and our clients,” says CEO Nick Buck, son of John and Wendy. He joined the business after third Buck brother, Tobias, with a background in literature, is sales and marketing manager, establishing an office in Europe to manage northern hemisphere markets. The Morris family is still involved: Michael Morris’s son

The Te Mata “family” in 2013. From left: Phil Brodie, then assistant winemaker, Wendy and John Buck, Peter Cowley winemaker, Larry Morgan viticulturist, Jonathan Buck. In front from left: Tobias Buck, Nicolas Buck with his daughter Lucie-belle.

Te Mata Tasting Room.

Alistair is chairman of the board and daughter Fiona a director.

Even the third generation is now working there. Zara, Jonathan’s daughter after whom Zara Viognier is named, has joined the marketing team.

As children they were all involved in the family business, living in the remarkable Athfield house John and Wendy built in the Coleraine vineyard, helping in the vineyard and working in the bottling and packing shed during school holidays.

“Bottling is a major performance for us because we tissue wrap every individual bottle [of Coleraine] then put them into these wooden 6-packs and nail them all closed We were always in there over summer and on leave from school and whatever. We’ve all done it for years,” Nick said.

The winemaking and viticulture teams are also changing with new people learning from the old and bringing their own new ideas. Phil Brodie took over the chief winemaker role when Peter Cowley retired and viticulturist Brenton O’Reilly succeeded Larry Morgan when he retired. Both these ‘new guns’ have serious credentials - Phil now in his 30th vintage at the estate.

However, Te Mata is not resting on its laurels. Nick is leading a spate of new developments, buying new vineyards in the 1892 winery which survived the 1931 Napier earthquake.

They have also introduced a new wine, a pinot noir made from 20-year-old vines grown on the Woodthorpe vineyard.

“Hawkes Bay hasn’t been regarded as necessarily a pinot noir location and if we make one, we want to make a Te Mata pinot noir. We want it to have some of the characteristics of our other red wines - we want it to have very good structure, very fine substantial tannins and from that the ability to age in bottle. To achieve that we really need vine age,” Nick said.

There are plenty of great pinots and we don’t just want to be adding to the pinot noise. We want one that is going to be identifiably Te Mata and identifiably different and I think we’ve managed to achieve that in the first two vintages.

the Gimblett Gravels area, moving towards organics and regenerative viticulture, developing new irrigation technology and other research projects. They have also imported a special clone of cabernet sauvignon used by many of the most prestigious estates in Bordeaux and California.

A new state of the art crusherdestemmer removes leaves, bits of stem and abnormal berries to a higher standard and more efficiently than the old optical sorter. They have reworked the open-top fermenting tanks with a completely updated red wine cuverie and are strengthening

Barrels in Te Mata’s old winery.

Te Mata Awatea Vineyard 1896.

A set of Te Mata’s iconic Coleraine 1982-2009 at one of Webbs fine wine auctions.

Hand sorting.

They made experimental batches from the vineyard every few years, selling the rest of the grapes until they felt the right elements had come together.

“There are plenty of great pinots and we don’t just want to be adding to the pinot noise. We want one that is going to be identifiably Te Mata and identifiably different and I think we’ve managed to achieve that in the first two vintages.”

The first vintage of the Alma and the Estate pinot noirs, 2018, sold out in about two weeks, he said.

Te Mata, like many other fine wine producers, pride themselves as blenders rather than producers of single vineyard wines. They do about 70 or 80 different vinifications from their vineyards in Havelock Hills, Bridge Pa Triangle, Woodthorpe Terraces in the Dartmoor Valley and the two new Gimblett Gravel vineyards, which means there are lots of parcels, each with its own different character to give many options for various blends.

Years ago, John Buck told me that to evaluate a wine producer you should always look at the bottom end of its production as well as the top. While Te Mata’s named wines such as Coleraine, Bullnose, Elston and so on are at the top of their game, their more affordable Estate wines are well made, widely available, very drinkable and good value.

It’s a clever juggling act. While keeping the estate’s focus and reputation on fine, long-lived wine at the top end, their efforts filter down into the regular wine.

However, the Bucks are not complacent about their achievements.

“We’ve got to push way harder. We’ve got avenues we are exploring all the time, we’re going to take this business a long way forward,” says Nick. “We are very lucky. Mum and Dad did an incredible job, and Pete and Larry and all those guys did an amazing job with this business - and Michael Morris - they set up a great business platform and foundation. But we are selling out of our wines all the time and many markets want to take our wines on, but we don’t want to make more, we want to make them better. We’ve learnt an enormous amount over the years, but we’ve got way more potential still.” When I visited Te Mata last summer, they were just releasing the 2019s, one of a series of four superb vintages in Hawkes Bay, 2018, 2019, 2020 and now the 2021.

Nick says 2019 is unquestionably one of the greatest vintages for Te Mata.

“In the past the gap wouldn’t have been that great but in 2019 there’s a profound difference between [Awatea and flagship Coleraine]. It’s quite a step above. We are thrilled with that.”

He puts it down to the fine tuning they’ve been doing in the vineyard and winery which has enabled them to extract the very best more precisely.

CAPE CREST 2019 SAUVIGNON BLANC

Wonderfully complex with hints of grass and mineral, one of the fine, long-lived New Zealand sauvignons for those who are looking for something with more interest than the usual Marlborough style.

ELSTON 2019 CHARDONNAY

A beautifully balanced wine, fresh, slightly nutty, a hint of smoky oak and a long finish. In my experience, Elston is one of the longestlived New Zealand chardonnays if cellared well.

ALMA 2019 PINOT NOIR

One of few pinots from Hawkes Bay, this is a bigger style, oozing plums and other red fruits with savoury, toasty undertones, intensity and a fine structure.

BULLNOSE 2019 SYRAH

One of the early Hawkes Bay Syrahs, this hints of black pepper with bright fruit, savoury undertones and the characteristic structure of Te Mata reds.

AWATEA 2019

A cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc blend, this is satisfyingly dense, oozing black currant fruit, intense, textural but elegant.

COLERAINE 2019

Te Mata’s flagship is already delicious with dark, enticing fruit, lively yet savoury, soft but with fine, underlying tannins, with all the length and complexity you’d expect in an iconic wine like this.