Mastering Wine: Emma Jenkins' MW Musings

I worked there for five years from the end of 1999, initially planning to take just a year-long break between my undergraduate degree and intended postgraduate studies. By this time Peter had dug not one but two underground cellars, one of them substantial enough to seat 100 or more people down a long central table, the scene of many raucous, wine-soaked dinners and tastings.

Peter was a remarkable man, a true wine lover, whose work ethic and energy levels could at times make him pretty uncompromising. But his attitude to getting the most out of each day was inspiring, and alongside his drive was incredible generosity. He was firmly of the view that to sell fine wine, you had to have tasted it, discussed it, understood it; as a result, staff tastings were often mind-blowing. Because of him my nascent interest in wine, piqued in my university years at Dunedin’s Robbie Burns Wine Club, became a full-blown passion. I am in absolutely no doubt that he changed the trajectory of my life.

Peter was a strong personality; his interests were broad – gardening, fishing, horses and pigeons, triathlons – all of which he pursued with characteristic vigour, including competing in dozens of Ironman races around the world. His approach to business was old-school, fierce and idiosyncratic, he was a man of his word and handshake, who ran a tight ship, driven by a genuine love of wine and an underlying respect and passion for the industry.

There will be many ‘Peter stories’, a large percentage of them unprintable, almost all of them hilarious. Peter’s wife Colleen is an excellent cook and between them they hosted innumerable lunches that stretched into dinners and dinners that turned into the wee hours. These almost always involved the opening of many incredible international bottles but also a great many from the early days of New Zealand wine, including a 25-year-old bottle of Hunter’s Sauvignon Blanc, which blindsided us all with its aged deliciousness. Never any pomp or ceremony, just the profound joy of sharing and discussing wine of all stripes with friends, be they old or new.

Peter taught me fundamental lessons about character and where the true value of wine lies. I have the strong sense of another chapter closing on the important early years and characters of our industry, and I am so grateful I got a glimpse of them via Peter.