Mission Complete: Winemaker steps down after 45 years

“It was a vintage that called on all 45 years of experience,” says the winemaker in the wake of his retirement. “The least satisfying vintage was 2003, after the devasting frosts the previous spring.”

Paul was was 24 years old when he became Assistant Winemaker at Mission Estate in 1979, bringing a science degree, a year as a technician on subantarctic Campbell Island, and a love of food and wine to the task. For the next three years he learned as much as he could from Brother Stuart Cuttance, the Bordeaux-trained winemaker known to the industry as Br. John. It was “great fun”, Paul says, noting that in 1962 his mentor had been the first New Zealand winemaker to produce a méthode traditionelle sparkling wine in New Zealand – Fontanella – with a special tool created locally to make the riddling racks.

Br. John introduced him to whole bunch pressing white grapes and the principles of barrel fermentation, and Paul went on to barrel ferment Chardonnay in 1983, in what he believes is another New Zealand’s first. When Br. John left in 1982, Paul stepped up to winemaker and continued his learning, devouring books and technical journals, while growing his expertise. Winemaking, for him, has been a process of continuous improvement, with experimentation, refining techniques, and finding more efficient and cost-effective methods of production, he says.

Paul, who was awarded a Lifetime Membership of Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers in 2019, has seen plenty of changes in the past 45 years, including the acquisition of high quality Gimblett Gravels vineyards, and the subsequent specialisation in premium red wine production, as well as the purchase of the Cable Station vineyard in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley. He also oversaw a major winery expansion in 2007, from 800 to 3,000 tonnes, with the new facility designed to deliver maximum energy and water efficiencies, helping satisfy his environmental ambitions.

On Campbell Island, the “several hundred thousand penguins, tens of thousands of albatrosses and many thousand seals” had no carbon footprint, while the 10 people living there trod a 300-tonne footprint each year, he says. His subsequent job, before joining Mission, was for a French-American oilfield services company with innovative technology and “brilliant engineers”. The two roles were a world apart, but Paul says both influenced his thinking at Mission, “where sustainability and our environment management system are some of our top priorities”.

The improvement in fruit supply and equipment led to higher quality wines that speak of their French heritage. As an example, the 2009 Jewelstone Cabernet Merlot came third in a blind tasting hosted at Club Lusitano Hong Kong in 2011, in which experts tasted eight 2009 vintage Gimblett Gravels blended red wines alongside eight 2008 vintage classed growth Bordeaux. The first two spots went to Mouton Rothschild (priced at NZ$1350 per bottle) and Haut-Brion (priced around NZ$1000), but the next best was deemed to be the $39 Jewelstone. “The next two wines in the rankings were also famous French First Growths,” says Paul, who loves to hear comparisons between Bordeaux wines and Mission’s Gimblett Gravels Annual Vintage Selection, relishing the connection with the French Catholic Marist missionaries who founded the winery in 1851, and with the French techniques Br. John instilled in his time there.

Alex Roper, who takes over as Mission’s Head Winemaker, moved to Hawke’s Bay to study a bachelor of wine science in 2007, and recalls cold-calling into the Mission asking for work. A weekend cellar door job rolled into cellar hand, then Assistant Winemaker in 2011, and Winemaker in 2017. Now, 17 years since he joined the company, he shares Paul’s satisfaction with the cyclone-struck 2023 vintage. “Anybody can make good wine in the good vintages. Experience comes into play in the wet vintages. Paul knew how to think outside the square and taught me a lot of tricks.” He sympathises for those that suffered losses from Cyclone Gabrielle. “We were fortunate to have our vineyards come through unscathed. And yes, it is satisfying to see some beautiful wines come through.”