‘A lot of potential for Syrah in Marlborough’, says Kevin Judd

One of the Marlborough’s most celebrated winemakers, Kevin Judd, has said that he sees “a lot of potential for Syrah” in the famous New Zealand region.

Kevin Judd came to London last month to present his Greywacke wines to the UK trade but also to take part in a masterclass with Ronan Sayburn MS to promote the diversity on offer from Marlborough

At a masterclass during London’s Flavours of New Zealand tasting on 16 January, Judd, who is the founder of Marlborough’s Greywacke winery, and was Cloudy Bay’s first winemaker, stressed the quality attainable among a range of noble varieties in the New Zealand region, before singling out Syrah as one that presently appeals to him the most.

However, at the event, which was co-hosted by Ronan Sayburn MS, Judd also mourned the fact that the market only seems to want Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough.

Following a tasting featuring a range of grapes successfully grown in Marlborough, such as Viognier, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah – along with barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc from Greywacke – Judd confirmed that the conditions in this part of New Zealand were ideal for a broad array of varieties.

“We have this amazing climate that allows us to do other varieties,” he said, referring to grapes beyond Sauvignon Blanc.

Continuing he said, “It is hard to get Cabernet ripe – we just don’t have the heat summation – but anything that doesn’t need that level of heat we can do, because we have a sunny, cool climate, which are conditions that give incredible intensity of fruit and real varietal character.”

He then added, “It is such a frustration that the world doesn’t recognise anything we do other than Sauvignon Blanc, and to some extent, Pinot Noir.”

Speaking further on this topic, he said that sales from his own brand were hugely skewed towards Sauvignon.

Having tasted during the masterclass a Viognier from Staete Landt, he said that it was a good example of Marlborough’s affinity for aromatic grapes, but asked rhetorically, “Is there a market for it… we don’t even sell much Chardonnay, and that’s hardly a leftfield variety; we sell 10,000 cases of Sauvignon Blanc and just 80 cases of Chardonnay, even though we got 93 points for it.”

The event also included a Riesling from Zephyr, which Judd also said was a grape that gave excellent results in Marlborough.

With 8 g/l of residual sugar in the wine, he initially pointed out that “The use of RS in Riesling in New Zealand is common, and makes it distinct to Australia, where you have to get to 2g/l or lower – it has to be dry.”

He then commented, “Riesling in Marlborough makes really good wine with great longevity but like all other varieties, Riesling lives in the great Sauvignon Blanc shadow – so it’s hard to entice people to buy them; it’s frustrating.”

Addressing the attendees of the masterclass, which was designed to encourage the discovery of the broad range of grapes on offer from Marlborough, he said, “But that’s why we are here; one day the world is going to discover all these other varieties from Marlborough.”

As for a grape that’s currently barely planted in the region, but has the possibility to produce first-rate results, Judd singled out Syrah, having shown an example of the variety from Te Whare Ra in Marlborough, which had been chosen by Sayburn for the event.

“If you have the right clone of Syrah, and you plant it on the Southern Valleys [a warmer sub-region of Marlborough], and you treat it like a Pinot Noir, then it has a lot of potential,” he commented.

When asked by db what variety other than Sauvignon he’d back for the future, he mentioned the already-recognised excellence of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris from Marlborough, before recording, “We are making top class Rieslings but the market is tiny”.

Then, he concluded, “But the grape that I’m most tempted to plant is Syrah, I’m toying with the idea, because I do think it has potential.”