THE NEW OLD NORTH CANTERBURY

Not many people know that the oldest Pinot Noir vines are planted right here in Canterbury. In fact, the first award-winning Pinot Noir from New Zealand was made by Danny Schuster for St Helena Winery in 1982. 

Those pioneers knew that the hot, dry Norwest winds and long autumns were the perfect conditions to grow Pinot Noir. Other pioneers, such as the Donaldson family, trialled growing grapes in the Kennedys Bush area to benefit from the shelter of the Port Hills in the 1970s.

In 1979, my father, Geoff Mavromatis, helped with trial grapevine plantings out at Waipara on Bruce and Jill Moore’s property and established Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and some Cabernet. One of those blocks is still called ‘The Mav Block’. The success of these grapes in Waipara led to more plantings, although it was tough going in the dry, bony soils of Waipara. In the 1880s, a farmer of Alsace origin in Scargill noticed the limestone in North Canterbury and tried to establish grapevines there. Presently the vineyards of Bell Hill and Pyramid Valley have been focussing on similar limestone soils to create some of New Zealand’s greatest wines. 

Greystone (where I work) was originally growing on the flat gravels of Mckenzies Rd before establishing the current vineyard in 2004 on the limestone hills of Omihi. These soils are the perfect clay and limestone mix for growing fantastic wines and are incredibly rare in the world. A fact not much appreciated by people living in Canterbury. In 2020, after four years of legal wrangling, North Canterbury, has finally been recognised as a “G.I.” – basically a unique grape-growing area like Champagne or Burgundy. So Cantabrians can now be guaranteed provenance of the wines of our area that covers all the way from Akaroa to Pyramid Valley to Waipara and everything in between. It is an exciting time as people around the world recognise the potential that so many of our forebears knew was there.