Monday, 20 October 2014 14:59

A Wine Industry Visionary

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Alexander Annis Corban was a 20th century visionary and a pioneer of the New Zealand wine industry.

 

The Corban name has long been synonymous with the industry and, as a grandson of the pioneering patriarch, Lebanese immigrant Assid Abraham Corban, Alex had winemaking deeply embedded in his DNA.

Alex grew up to make his own significant contribution to New Zealand’s wine scene.  He was a third-generation Corban winemaker, and the many positions he held include founding chairman of the New Zealand Wine Institute, president of the New Zealand Wine Council and director of five companies associated with the industry.

Recognition for his achievements came with an MBE, followed by the OBE in 1978, honorary life membership of the New Zealand Society of Oenology and Viticulture and the 1990 New Zealand Commemoration Medal. 

He was among the first to be elected a Fellow of the Wine Institute of New Zealand and an inductee of the New Zealand Winemakers’ Hall of Fame.  

Growing up among an extended family that worked the vineyard established in Henderson in 1902, his first ‘job’ was as a toddler following the hand harvesters to pick up berries that had fallen to the ground.

 “The primary lesson I learned about grapes,” he said of this experience, “was that the crops from each variety were hard-worked-for, once-a-year commodities needed for wine and were not to be wasted.” 

An uncle, Dr Corban Corban, influenced Alex’s decision to enrol for a Bachelor of Science (Botany) at the University of Auckland.  He interrupted his degree studies, however, to complete a winemaking qualification at Roseworthy in two rather than the four years usually required for the programme.  He was the first New Zealander to study at the highly-regarded Australian institution.   

The trans-Tasman experience convinced Alex of the limitations of New Zealand’s widely cultivated hybrid grapes and he considered the appropriate vinifera varieties would do well in our cooler climate.  And as winemaker for the then family-owned business A A Corban & Sons, he saw no future in producing bulk wine styles.

That put him in the vanguard of the push started in the early 1950s to make quality table wine for domestic and export markets.  He adopted an innovative approach to winemaking, working closely with his brother Joe, Corban’s vineyard manager.

In 1953, Alex claimed the top award in the Easter Show wine competition – the first such show in New Zealand – with Corbans Reserve Sauterne 1951.  

Influenced by German styles, he crafted Riverlea Riesling from Muller Thurgau grapes.  Characterising that as “a wine-Columbus pioneering endeavour”, he believed his vinifera wines from the 1957 vintage spearheaded New Zealand’s classical wine era and introduced many to the joys of table wine.

Alex introduced the Charmat process, employing secondary fermentation in the tank to create the sparkling wine Premiere Cuvee that was launched to celebrate 60 years of family involvement in the industry in New Zealand.  

Other innovations included the use of cultured yeasts, cold pressure fermentation to enhance flavour and aroma in table wines, back-blending and the use of stainless steel tanks for fermentation and storage.

Alex saw his drive for quality vindicated as this country’s reputation for making “bloody awful” wines gave way to international recognition for our increasingly sophisticated winemaking.  He insisted the much improved wines shouldn’t have European names or be promoted with images that included mountains and snow or dirt floors and cobwebs.  

“Our wines, with their own identifying names, have since earned a better and enduring oenological identity.  They have done and achieved more in a few decades than the estates of Europe had achieved in centuries.”

As an industry leader, he was committed to industry unity, although that wasn’t always forthcoming in a field of endeavour renowned for its individualism.  His leadership style was also to encourage wine education, international networking and peer comparison to benchmark and improve the quality and standing of New Zealand wine.      

Alex Corban died on September 7 aged 89.

Leaving his Mark

Terry Dunleavy

 My personal association with Alex began in 1972, when as a newly recruited senior executive at Montana Wines, Frank Yukich appointed me as the Montana representative on the Wine Council of New Zealand, one of the then three wine organisations in the country. The other two were the Viticultural Association of New Zealand, chaired by George Mazuran, with Mate Brajkovich as his deputy-chair, and the Hawkes Bay Wine Grower’s Association, chaired by Tom McDonald. 

As chairman, Alex, was the Wine Council’s principal link with politicians and government bureaucrats.  It was not unusual, on issues relating to the industry for the three chairs, Alex, George Maz and Tom to be together in a Minister’s office.  Alex decided that the time was propitious for an industry approach to the government for a review of the levels of import duties on overseas wines to afford more protection to our own New Zealand wines.  This led to a series of tri-partite meetings to prepare our case, and an appearance in Wellington before the then Tariff & Development Board. 

As a sideline to these meetings, there was a revival of discussions in years earlier about the formation of a single organisation to be known as the Wine Institute of New Zealand. One thing led to another, and by 1975, all three organisations agreed to a novel constitution that allowed for three categories of membership, small, medium and large, based on annual sales volumes, with a voting system that ensured that no one category could overpower the others.

Who was to become chairman among the three capable and strong-minded chairmen: Alex, George Maz or Tom?  Tom cast a quizzical glance across to George; George nodded, and I can’t remember which of them said: “It has to be Alex.”  

A year later, the legislation had been passed, the provisional executive became permanent; Alex was re-confirmed as chairman where he remained for the next three years.  

When the Government changed in 1975, and National introduced a system of industry development plans, Alex wrote ours in its entirety.  In retrospect, it had only one fault:  the forecasts that Alex calculated as to the volumes and values of wine that New Zealand would export in the future, though decried at the time as being overly optimistic, turned out to be much less than what we actually achieved. 

Another aspect of Alex’s character was his constant and ready willingness to help competing winemakers.  No one was better able to identify even the slightest defect in a wine; but it didn’t stop at that: he was able to explain in detail how the defect could be rectified, and avoided in future.

So now, Alex Corban passes into history.  But for those of us who had the pleasure and the privilege of knowing him, and working with him, and being the recipients of comments about wine that he was always willing to impart from his unfathomable well of knowledge, he will never pass from our memories.

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