Cloudy Bay winemaker praises Kiwi dark horse

Cloudy Bay’s winemaker Tim Heath has referred to Chardonnay as New Zealand’s “dark horse”, recommending that the trade pay greater attention to the country’s expressions of this international variety.

While Cloudy Bay’s legendary Sauvignon Blanc remains 50% of its total production, the Marlborough producer released its first Chardonnay in 1990 and Heath feels this corner of the portfolio deserves a higher profile.

“For me, it’s the Chardonnay especially which stands out as a very good expression of serious, crafted wine,” he observed during a tasting of the range last week. More generally, Heath’s advocacy for Kiwi Chardonnay as a whole leads him to suggest: “It’s not Burgundy, but it’s leaning more that way than Australia or California – and it’s the same with our Pinot Noir.”

Pointing to Veuve Clicquot’s ownership of Cloudy Bay and the decision by Champagne Deutz to invest in New Zealand in the late ‘80s, Heath also extended this support for Kiwi Chardonnay to the country’s sparkling wines.

For Heath, New Zealand’s Chardonnay presents a particularly useful tool for highlighting the country’s ability to produce more elegant, restrained styles of wine, helping it to diversify its image beyond a well-proven ability to supply aromatic blockbuster Sauvignon Blancs.

“At the pointy end of Marlborough people are doing the right thing and there’s a massive diversity of styles,” stressed Heath, adding: “The industry’s growing up. Certainly these days people are more aware of yields, something we’re pleased to see.”

In short, Heath paints a confident picture that both New Zealand and Marlborough itself are moving in the right direction to redress the devaluation that followed in the wake of its bumper 2008 harvest.” After all, he pointed out, “Lots of regions of the world have bigger wine problems than Marlborough.”

Gabriel Savage, 10.11.2010