The Balance: Jeremy McKenzie racing into vintage

He should know, because as Vintage 2023 loomed and Isabel Estate's vine hit veraison, Jeremy set off on the Coast to Coast, tackling 243 kilometres of running, biking and kayaking in the individual Longest Day event. "The bones of anything that needs to be at the pointy end - whether it's racing or trying to make top class Chardonnay - is the huge amount of planning that goes into it," Jeremy says in his 20th year of winemaking and 15th year of adventure and multisport racing. Meanwhile, both require a strong team for best results, he adds. "There are plenty of people involved and you can't do it all yourself."

Jeremy, whose Isabel Estate Marlborough Chardonnay 2020 won Champion Wine of the Show at the inaugural National Wine Awards of Aotearoa New Zealand last year - where he was named Winemaker of the Show - has found a good balance between his twin passions of winemaking and outdoor adventure. That includes two Ironman Events, a plethora of half Ironman races, three massive multiday Godzone Events, and several Coast to Coasts, including coming 6th in the Longest Day events in 2011 and 2022, and a team event a couple of years ago, which he and two friends won. This year's race was a chance to do some training with his 16-year-old son Finn, who came 5th in the two-day open men's event.

Jeremy's own 2023 race was stymied by a pulled hamstring on the Goat Pass section of a 30.5km mountain run. He slipped back from his 11th placing, but completed the arduous course in just under 14 hours, taking 36th place. Then it was straight back to prepare for vintage, excited by the potential of Chardonnay from Isabel's relatively old vines, including the 35-year-old Mendoza he knows are "just fantastic for making high end Chardonnay". The age enhances the expression of site, while also progressing a natural devigoration, he says. "You haven't got a teenager who's throwing out lots and lots of bunches. You have a very settled vine with deep roots into the soil, throwing out consistent quality year in, year out."

Isabel Estate has been making "amazing" Chardonnay since the 1990s, adds Jeremy. "We're so lucky here to have such great vine material." He's also working with 548 clone Chardonnay, "which is very youthful at the moment, but showing hallmarks of what could come in future years."

Those "building blocks" are key to the wine he makes, as is the careful management of vineyards in a challenging season like 2023, during which inclement weather required vigilance. "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear with Chardonnay," he says, comparing it to the far more robust and aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. "Chardonnay doesn't have the same resilience - you have to really take care of it." Rainfall can see bunches of Chardonnay "get pretty ugly" very quickly, and back in the winery good clean fruit is vital to an excellent product, he says. "The lens is on it with Chardonnay." Much of Isabel Estate's Chardonnay vineyard is organic or in conversion, which adds to the need for care in the lead up to harvest, particularly with powdery pressure, Jeremy says.

But despite the gloomy spring and summer heralding a tough 2023 vintage, they were blessed with an amazing run of dry weather, "allowing a smooth harvest and ability to pick on point with great flavour and acidity," he says, calling the resulting wines "fantastic" across the board. When it comes to Chardonnay, the building blocks are there for another "stellar" vintage.

Jeremy's winemaking career began at Allan Scott Wines, but it was at Villa Maria that he started thinking seriously about Chardonnay, working with fruit from the company's Taylors Pass vineyard, along with Wairau blocks. "That sort of set the scene for the love of Chardonnay, and a style which I thought would do well going forward in Marlborough." Sinc then he's worked in Burgundy and the Yarra Valley, "where great Chardonnay is made too", and has steadily built the "backbone of knowledge" that he calls on today.

There's "epic Chardonnay" made throughout New Zealand, including from those who seldom, if ever, enter awads, such as Kumeu River, Neudorf and Dog Point Vineyards. Those companies and other passionate producers have worked with the variety for many years, earning a strong reputation and helping catapult New Zealand Chardonnay into the limelight, he adds, noting a "coming of age" for the variety. "That's what I am hoping we can do at Isabel Estate too."

A lot of people think there's a lot of glamour associated with the wine industry, "and it is a great industry for sure", says Jeremy. But it is also a lot of work, "and it depends how much you put in to how much you get out as well."

Queue the comparisons between maker and racer, with vintage hours and pressure akin to a big adventure event. While Jeremy continues to push the quality of the company's wines, he's sure to be pushing himself on rugged trails and rampant rivers, including preparing with Finn for the 2024 Coast to Coast. Hard on the heels of that event, and on the cusp of vintage 2024, he'll likely be back at Godzon, on in Marlborough next year, tackling a gruelling course of more than 600km in a team of four.

The training required is good for his wellbeing but also his winemaking, Jeremy says. "A lot of thinking goes on when you're sitting on a bike for five hours training for those sorts of things."