New Zealand's Gimblett Gravels district was almost dug up for use as a quarry. Now, its red wines rival the best of Bordeaux.

By Elin McCoy
Bloomberg Markets, February 2009

"To make new world wines of character and quality, you have to find the right terroirs, the special pieces of land with unique soils and microclimates," Steve Smith, a top New Zealand viticulturist, says over dinner at Craggy Range Winery, where he's part owner and managing director. "One of them is the Gimblett Gravels district."

Smith, 46, who has a taste for pink shirts, skiing and Bordeaux, is one of several dozen ambitious vintners who claim that Gimblett Gravels is the country's hot spot for world-class merlot and cabernet and maybe syrah too. That hardly seemed likely 20 years ago, when this 2,000-acre (800-hectare) rock-strewn area in the North Island's Hawke's Bay region was home to a stinky refuse dump, a rifle range and a speedway where drag-racing fans gathered on Saturday nights.

Even more unlikely for its chances of producing top wines, the whole area was underwater 150 years ago. On day two of my October visit, John Hancock of Trinity Hill winery drives me to the grassy top of a small hill for a panoramic view. Pointing out a winding blue stream, he says, "In 1867, after a flood, the Ngaruroro River shifted its course. It left behind gravel 90-120 feet deep." That's why a local division of Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd. bought land in 1988 and applied for zoning permission to quarry it.

Soil scientist Alan Limmer, who founded pioneering winery Stonecroft in 1982, vowed to prevent the digging. He was convinced the land would be best used for growing fine wine grapes. Never mind that only a few tiny vineyards were in the area and no great wine had ever been made from their fruit.

When I stop by his modest winery office, Limmer appears to me to be too laid-back to have won a quixotic battle that made legal history in New Zealand. He's lounging barefoot at his desk, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and walking shorts. The walls are plastered with Porsche posters -- Limmer owns three Porsches, including a race car he bought in a Japanese Internet auction -- and thick stacks of legal papers are piled in a corner.

Limmer recruited plenty of experts to testify to the area's vineyard potential. After he prevailed in court, boutique wineries started to buy. "We were all undercapitalized cowboys," says Tony Bish, a law school dropout who's winemaker at Sacred Hill Wines.

When Holcim put its land on the market in 1997, Smith advised Aussie businessman Terry Peabody, who wanted to get into the wine business, to buy most of it -- sight unseen. "When he first saw it, he said, 'Holy crap, I've bought a desert,'" Smith says, laughing. They joined forces and created Craggy Range. And now, land that once sold for less than $3,000 an acre costs $40,000 an acre.

On a drizzly afternoon, Craggy Range winemaker Rod Easthope and I bump around in his Toyota Highlander. Wherever I look, dark-gray stones cover the ground. They go deep into the earth, which makes the soil drain quickly and reduces the vigor of the vines. The low grape yields concentrate the fruit's flavors. "The stones absorb sunlight and heat and radiate it at night, so the grapes ripen fully, but it never gets too hot," Easthope says. "Wines keep intense aromas and don't have high alcohol." Though it's 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the cooling South Pacific Ocean, Gimblett Gravels is sheltered by a string of small hills, giving it a maritime climate similar to that of Bordeaux and parts of the Rhone.

So maybe it's not surprising that the district is turning out to be ideal for Rhone grape syrah. Bish is even pulling up cabernet to make room for it. Hancock is trying everything, including tempranillo.

Seven years ago, about three dozen wineries agreed on Gimblett Gravels' boundaries and name. All vintners in the district boldly aim for rich, ripe reds on par with those of France, and they're eager to go bottle-to-bottle.

On a warm Saturday evening, I accompany Smith to the city of Taupo for a blind taste-off: six 2005 Gimblett Gravels reds versus six top 2005 Bordeaux. We sit at long tables in the whitewashed cellar of one of New Zealand's best wine shops, Scenic Cellars. The matchup seems pretty unequal to me, considering that 2005 was the best vintage in Bordeaux in more than 20 years and the unmarked wines in front of us include first growths from chateaux Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild and Haut-Brion. The six Bordeaux (at a combined price of 7,600 New Zealand dollars or US$4,000) cost more than 26 times the price of the six New Zealand wines (NZ$290). To my surprise, I put three Gimblett Gravels wines in my top six -- along with the three first growths. My No. 1 wine is New Zealand's Sacred Hill Helmsman Cabernet Merlot, ahead of the Chateau Lafite.

Wines from the long, cool 2007 vintage, which I tasted from barrels, are even better. "We're finally beginning to get it," Smith says. "We can get richness along with the floral notes and the refreshing lift that you only find in Australia's Margaret River and Bordeaux." He'll get no argument from me.

Columnist Elin McCoy is based in New York. emcwine@aol.com

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