Haere Ra 2024: Wairau, Marlborough
On her return from Wine Spectator’s 43rd Annual New York Wine Experience, Greywacke Winemaker Richelle Tyney looks back at a busy year.
Included in the line up are some spectacular guest speakers. Over the next few issues we get the thoughts from some of them.
Matt Kramer
Matt is a full time wine writer, and has been working freelance since 1976. He is the author of nine books and in his words “thousands of columns”. He considers it a privilege to do what he does and says he strives “to never lose sight of that”.
One of the first and greatest advocates of a sense of place or terroir, Matt has been described by Hugh Johnson as “an intellectual guerilla among wine writers”.
Where in the line up of Noble wines does Sauvignon Blanc sit?
I don’t know. I don’t think in such hierarchical terms. The highest role for any fine wine and any grape variety is to help tell us some truth about site. Different grapes have different capacities. Some are intrinsic to the grape while sometimes it’s a matter of an otherwise right grape in the wrong place. Believe me, the world would not be going on endlessly about Pinot Noir if it had been planted only in Bordeaux and not in Burgundy. Grapes, like children, need encouraging circumstances in order to fully reveal their capacities. It’s no different with Sauvignon Blanc.
What role has New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc played in the popularity of this variety internationally?
Obviously, New Zealand has played an outsize role in bringing Sauvignon Blanc to popular attention. But it’s a classic “Be careful what you wish for”. Today, New Zealand is overly reliant upon, and identified with, Sauvignon Blanc. This makes it harder to broaden the acceptance in the public mind of other, equally deserving, grapes or wine blends from New Zealand.
What are your thoughts about the upcoming Sauvignon Blanc 2016 Celebration?
I’m looking forward to it! It will be an original experience, I believe, for everybody present if only because it will be a first for everyone.
What are you hoping to take away with you from this event?
I look forward to taking away what I always hope for when I participate in events such as these: insight. Really, that’s the only thing that matters. What have you discovered that you didn’t previously know? Above all, did it allow or encourage you to go beyond the superficial “been there, tasted that”? That’s what really matters.
How important is it for the variety to be the subject of such a celebration?
It all depends upon where you’re sitting. If you’re a producer seeking a higher price or greater recognition it’s clearly very important. For outsiders, it depends upon what emerges from such an event, doesn’t it? Marketing is one thing while enlightenment is something else again. Each serves different masters.
What are you most looking forward to, as a guest?
Seeing Kiwi friends and renewing my long-term love of New Zealand and its extraordinary landscape. You know, I first came to New Zealand in 1974 when I hitchhiked around the South Island for three months. It never left me. I do visit with reasonable frequency with, I surely hope, open eyes and an open heart. Really, I look forward to New Zealand itself. Wine isn’t everything, you know. The sheer purity of the place is what really makes New Zealand what it is. Its wines reflect that. Purity is New Zealand’s terroir.
