New Zealand Wine: Waipara/Canterbury – Part II

In the second part of out trip to Waipara/Noth Canterbury, we visited Pegasus Bay's vineyards with owner and founder Ivan Donaldson. Ivan explained that the intensity of fruit, characteristic to Kiwi wines results from the slow ripening of the grapes. The intense light and moderately cool climate are responsible for the lengthy hang time of New Zealand's grapes. Ivan however, believes that while the fruit is there, Cantebury wines also have a great structure to them. James agrees and adds  that the fruit rather than appearing at the beginning it does at the end, highlighting that the wines also have fine tannins and beautiful acidity.

 In the second half of the video Claudia Weersing, owner of Pyramid Valley Vineyards, explained the reasons that brought her to New Zealand to plant Pinot Noir. One of the main reasons is that the soil in this part of Canterbury is made up of a unique mix of clay and limestone. In order to maintain the clay limestone character in the wines, at Pyramid Valley they try to intervene the least possible with what comes from the vineyard. In fact, nearly every part of the process is done by hand. 

 One of Pyramid Valley wines made it to James' top 10 winea in 2012. Check out the tasting note here:Pyramid Valley Canterbury Pinot Noir Angel Flower 2010. 

If you are interested in the wines of the Waipara/North Canterbury region you should check out Rebecca Gibb's recent article on the South Island region.

Enjoy the video!