As our small group of wine writers and the wine trade visited Saint Clair Family Estate's vineyards and tasted the wines from them, chief winemaker Matt Thomson and senior winemaker Hamish Clark kept checking the vines and tasting thefast-ripening grapes.
Thomson worried about the forecasts: one promised heavy rain in a couple of days and another said it would be dry. If it was going to rain, he'd need to get as many grapes as possible picked in the next day or two.
At the Benmorven vineyard in the southern valleys, a harvester moved slowly along the rows while we stood overlooking the wide Wairau Valley tasting Saint Clair's vibrant, tropical sauvignon blanc.
Saint Clair, established by former Dunedin man Neal Ibbotson and his wife, Judy, in 1994, has become one of the country's leading winemakers, known for its exemplary whites and its fruit-forward reds, which have won a constant stream of awards and trophies.
It has some of its own vineyards, and a host of long-term contract growers dotted around the region and as far south as the Ure Valley. Grapes from each vineyard are fermented separately and then assessed to see which of the several tiers of wines they will go into, Ibbotson said.
At the top are the reserve wines, usually, but not always, from a single vineyard.
Then come the Pioneer Block wines, each with a number and a name identifying each vineyard.
A Pioneer Block label is keenly sought-after by many growers.
John and Robyn Hedges, who run luxury accommodation at Maison Grange, are proud to have made the grade for the first time with their silky, blackberryish Pioneer Block 22 Barn Block Pinot Noir 2010.
However, the Saint Clair range accounts for only about 60% of what the company produces.
Wine that doesn't make the grade or is not needed is sold under other labels or to other companies.
Keeping each batch of grapes separate means the winemakers learn about what each site is capable of, Ibbotson said.
For example, it became clear sauvignon blanc on the Benmorven vineyard did not suit the pure-fruited, tropical style of wine Saint Clair was after, so it is being replanted with pinot noir because its heavier soils are better suited to that variety.
We tasted some new varieties, two new gruner veltliners, a mouthfilling, textural premium 2011 from John and Lynne Walsh's vineyard, which also produces the rich, stylish Godfrey's Creek Reserve Pinot Gris 2011 and the steely Block 9 Big John Riesling 2010.
The wonderfully aromatic Pioneer Block 5 Bull Block Gruner Veltliner 2011 comes from Robert Goulter's vineyard in Omaka Valley.
Omaka Reserve Chardonnay, Saint Clair's finest chardonnay, comes from its own Omaka vineyard and is fermented and aged in American oak, but Matt Thomson said they'd always wondered what it would be like in French oak, so they have produced Pioneer Block 10 Twin Hills Chardonnay from the same vineyard using French instead of American oak. It is a slightly more refined, silky wine, but both are delicious.
Among the 14 Saint Clair pinot noirs I tasted, I thought the best were the savoury, textural, lively Pioneer Block 16 Awatere 2010 and the fragrant, complex Omaka Reserve 2010 from the limestone Ure Valley.
- Charmian Smith visited Marlborough as a guest of Saint Clair.
