Te Mata Estate

Te Mata Estate is New Zealand's oldest winery.[1][2] Coleraine is their most famous wine, a cabernet/merlot blend regarded by many as New Zealand's greatest red.[3][4]

A thirty year collection of Te Mata Estate Coleraine at auction

Since 1896 Te Mata has continuously made wine from its own Hawke's Bay vineyards, from the same original sites and in their original winery buildings. Te Mata is family-owned. It is a boutique winery that hand-harvests its vineyards, and is based in the 'Te Mata Special Character Zone' near Havelock North, in the Hawke's Bay Region of New Zealand.

History

Planted in the nineteenth-century, the 'Te Mata Special Character Zone' is the first vineyard area in New Zealand to be recognised and protected for its unique heritage value.[5] Te Mata Estate was established in the Havelock Hills in 1896 by Bernard Chambers, after he returned from France, on Te Mata Station, a large area of farmland the Chambers' family bought in the 1850s from the Ngāpuhi Iwi.[6][7]

Three vineyards were planted in the 1890s and incorporated into this early development - Eighteen92 and the Elston vineyard, the oldest chardonnay planting in New Zealand. These vineyards are still in use today.

Te Mata Estate's original winery buildings and cellar still in use today

With the help of the Marist brotherhood, and the Beecham family in Central Hawke's Bay, the early vineyards were recognised for their export quality by Romeo Bragato in 1905. Since 1905 Te Mata Estate wines have been available, and won praise, in Europe, including a Gold Medal at the International London Wine Exhibition in 1909.The winery's original buildings and cellars have been in continuous use for winemaking since then. The main cellar is made from local hand-fired brick with a matai and rimu roofing. These were augmented by a first-year barrel hall in the 1930s.

Coleraine house and vineyard

Modern History

Under the direction of the Buck and Morris families since the 1970s, the Te Mata Estate winery complex was significantly modernised and extended in the 1980s by New Zealand architect Sir Ian Athfield. In the 1990s An underground barrel hall, cuverie and office buildings were added. These buildings use the region's prominent Art Deco and Spanish Mission architecture as deliberate influences.[8]

Opposite the winery, the distinctive Coleraine House (formerly known as Buck House and also designed by Sir Ian Athfield) is a private residence that has gained much attention as a significant work of New Zealand architecture.[9][10] Three generations of the Buck family have lived here and work at Te Mata Estate. The wine Coleraine, and the vineyard it comes from, derive their name from the Buck family's Northern Ireland origin.

Te Mata Estate currently runs three distinct areas of Hawke's Bay vineyards surrounding Havelock North: the original 1892 planting in the Havelock Hills to the west of the town, covering 15 hectares (37 acres), the Woodthorpe vineyard, covering 75 hectares (190 acres) to the northeast of the town, and two vineyards, each covering 15 hectares (37 acres), in the Bridge Pa Triangle to the west of town. Te Mata's vineyards are situated on the north-facing, elevated slopes around the winery and in one of New Zealand's sunniest and hottest regions. Their vineyards use free-draining, silt loam soils, and at Bridge Pa a mixture of red metal soils over river gravel.[11] Since 2001, from the fruit grown on these vineyards only half is made under the Te Mata label.

Te Mata was the first winery to have both its wine production and vineyards accredited under the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand programme.[12] In 1994 Te Mata Estate introduced viognier to New Zealand. They also pioneered gamay noir, and have the second-oldest planting of syrah in the country.

The winery and its vineyards are run by the Buck family - John Buck OBE, a former chairman of the Wine Institute of New Zealand and member of the NZ Wine Hall of Fame,[13] his son's and Directors Jonathan Buck, CEO Nick Buck and Tobias Buck - a senior management team, and winemaker and Technical Director Peter Cowley.[7] As part of their training, members of the Buck family and Te Mata staff have worked in Burgundy, Mendoza, Chile and the Médoc Aoc wineries in Bordeaux France, including Château Margaux, Château Léoville-Barton and Chateau Mauvesin.

Production

In a typical year Te Mata Estate produces 30,000 cases of wine, most of which is sold internationally.

Unlike many wineries Te Mata Estate undertakes every step of production entirely on its own property, with some wines travelling only 100 metres within their lifetime - from grape to bottle.

Te Mata Estate is regarded as New Zealand's finest producer of cabernet and merlot blends,[14] and produces a variety of other well-known wines including Bullnose Syrah (from Bridge Pa), Awatea Cabernets/Merlot, Estate Vineyards Gamay Noir, Zara Viognier, Elston Chardonnay and Cape Crest Sauvignon Blanc - a barrel-fermented sauvignon blend similar in style to a Graves region, or southern Bordeaux white wine.

Continuing the initial vision of Bernard Chambers, Te Mate Estate's wines have gained acclaim both within New Zealand and overseas.[15][16] Te Mata Estate wines have been served at Noma in Copenhagen, Raffles in Singapore, and the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. In 2014 a Te Mata Estate wine dinner was held at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant in London.[17]

Recognition

Te Mata Estate's Coleraine is one of the only wines to receive back-to-back '100 Point' reviews from WineOrbit.[18]

It was named in Decanter Magazine as Bob Campbell MW's 'Favourite Wine of 2015'[19] and in 2015 listed in 'New Zealand's Top Three Wines' by Lisa Perotti-Brown MW .

Only a limited amount of Coleraine is available from each vintage, when it is made, and the wine sells quickly.[20]

In a 2008 article, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate's 'Great Wine Producers of The World', Te Mata Estate was awarded the highest classification - 'Outstanding Wine - 5 Stars'.[21] Neal Martin of Wine Advocate wrote of Te Mata's Coleraine: "I conjectured whether this is New Zealand’s greatest wine? Well, let me put it this way, it is the front runner. I would have no hesitation placing it within the class of Bordeaux Second Growths."[21]

In 1994 Te Mata Estate was responsible for founding the New Zealand Poet Laureate award, with the title in its first decade being the 'Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate'. The position is now administered by the New Zealand National Library. Each new New Zealand Poet Laureate still receives support from Te Mata Estate and is inaugurated near the winery at Matahiwi Marae.

Chairman John Buck and Technical Director Peter Cowley have an extensive history as critics and judges of wine competitions. Today, Te Mata Estate seldom enters wines, though there have been exceptions.[22] In 1991 the International Wine Challenge awarded the 1989 Elston Chardonnay the trophy for 'Best White Wine in Show'.[23]

In 2016 a thirty-year vertical collection of Coleraine sold at auction for over $5,000 NZD. It is the first time any collection of New Zealand wine has been sold in this way.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Te Mata". www.glengarrywines.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  2. ↑ "Explore the Wine range of Te Mata Estate - Berry Bros. & Rudd". www.bbr.com. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  3. 1 2 "30 years of wine up for auction". Stuff. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  4. ↑ "2010 Te Mata, Coleraine Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand | Matthew Jukes". Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  5. ↑ District Council, Hastings. "'The Te Mata Special Character Zone'" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Home - Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngapuhi". www.ngapuhi.iwi.nz. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  7. 1 2 Te Mata Estate: History Te Mata Estate website. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Te Mata Estate: Architecture Te Mata Estate website. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Moroney, R., "Arts building picks up award", Hawke's Bay Today, 3 November 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  10. ↑ (www.bka.co.nz), Site designed and developed by bka interactive ltd, Auckland, New Zealand. "New Zealand Institute of Architects - - Architecture Awards recognise the year's best buildings". www.nzia.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  11. ↑ Te Mata Estate: Vineyards Te Mata Estate website. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  12. ↑ "Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand • NZ Wine". www.nzwine.com. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  13. ↑ "Te Mata’s John Buck inducted into NZ Wine Hall of Fame • NZ Wine". www.nzwine.com. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  14. ↑ James Halliday's Australian and New Zealand Wine Companion, 1997 edition, p. 446
  15. ↑ Moroney, R., "Wine lovers licking their lips", Hawke's Bay Today, 10 January 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  16. ↑ Moroney, R., "Triangle wines mark their success", Hawke's Bay Today, 10 December 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  17. ↑ Buck, Nicholas. "Te Mata 2014 Trip Report" (PDF).
  18. ↑ "Te Mata Coleraine 2014 in Wine Orbit". Wine Dogs Imports. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  19. ↑ "Favourite wine of 2015 so far: Decanter Wine Awards judges". Decanter. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  20. ↑ Moroney, Roger (2016-01-10). "Wine lovers licking their lips". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  21. 1 2 "Te Mata Alongside World's Great Wine Producers | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  22. ↑ Estate Vineyards Syrah '14, Gold Medal Winner. "New World Gold Medal Winners" (PDF).
  23. ↑ Cooper, Michael (2011-09-05). Wine Atlas of New Zealand. ReadHowYouWant.com. ISBN 9781459627963.

External links

Te Mata Estate Winery Official Site

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