A lesson on the similarities between Hawke’s Bay and Bordeaux

Sometimes in the winemakers game we tend to take things for granted in terms of what people know about wine. It is a careless error, even those of us who have been involved in making wine since leaving high school, have not, and never will, fully understand wine. That is part of the attraction. Wine is not a beverage concocted on the laboratory bench by smart food technologists, it is made from grapes, and that is about it. How can something made so simply be so different when grown in different places? Why do we as makers and marketers of wine make the understanding of something so simple, so complex?

I was reminded about this the other day when I was having a glass of 2009 Te Kahu, our proprietary blended red wine from the Gimblett Gravels, with a bunch of Hawke’s Bay locals. They enjoy a glass of good red, know what they like but are not sure why, and are generally un-impressed by how complex I make the understanding of it. I mentioned that the Te Kahu blend and the style of good Hawke’s Bay red was similar to the wines made in Bordeaux, when someone piped up, “You always say wines are unique, yet now you say this is similar to Bordeaux. What makes it so similar when they are on the other side of the world and we are over here?” It made me think that for most people in Hawke’s Bay, Bordeaux is a place they have never been. So what exactly is our link to France's Atlantic Coast and the wine region of Bordeaux?

First, a lesson on what matters to a vine in terms of the wine it makes.
Grapevines react to the environment around them, and each grape variety reacts differently. Some are very sensitive such as Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer, some are hardy and more tolerant such as Chardonnay and Syrah. The soil matters mostly because the soil type controls the availability of water to the vine when it is growing between summer and autumn. Too much water means poor wine, too little means no wine. Soils are therefore very important in areas that get rain during the summer, such as Hawke’s Bay and Bordeaux, and the best vineyards that make the best wines in these areas are soils that are free draining. In Hawke’s Bay and Bordeaux this means, almost without exception, gravels. The gravelly soils of the Gimblett Gravels and around Ngatarawa were formed by the Ngaruroro River in ancient times. The gravels of Bordeaux's great Medoc and Graves region were formed by the Gironde River during a similar period in ancient history. They have a similar impact in making sure the vine doesn't get too much water, doesn't grow and crop too much, and because these soils are nice and warm, the grapes ripen earlier on the gravelly soils compared to neighbouring vineyards. In Bordeaux, these richer soils are used for cropping and grazing. In Hawke’s Bay, they should be.

Hawke’s Bay and Bordeaux also share a lot of climatic similarities, particularly during the summer and autumn. We might think that Hawke’s Bay is hot in the summer, when in fact compared to a lot of the wine world it is (at best) moderate and tempered significantly by a close and relatively cool ocean. Bordeaux is similar, the Atlantic is very close, and just south of the Medoc you can be on the beach at Arcachon eating local oysters and taking a swim, both activities will tell you how cool the ocean is. The closeness of the cool oceans temper the excessively high temperatures and keeps the humidity levels in the ideal zone for vines. Both factors help in ensuring the red grape varieties that we grow are in their ideal elements to produce fine wine.

Like Bordeaux, our best red wines are blended from different red grape varieties. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are almost always the base of the blend, however Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot also play a very significant part in the style of wines from any one estate, whether in Bordeaux or Hawke’s Bay. This blending is the art of the vigneron, reflecting the season, the estate and his or her personal views on what is the very best wine from the estate.

You can then throw in the cultural elements of human habitation. Bordeaux is a glamorous farming district, made beautiful by humans with the wonderful architecture of the Bordeaux chateau and the city itself, and the great farming estates that surround it. Hawke’s Bay doesn't have almost 2,500 years of human settlement, but in its own right, our farming estates and wonderful architecture of our wine estates and our city, there is certainly a sense of similar ambition. Both regions have significant ports and both have long ancestral ties back to England, or Aquitaine as it was known for Bordeaux. Both regions have a great love of rugby!

Bordeaux is my favourite wine region in the world bar none. In my grandchildren's generation I hope Hawke’s Bay is seen on the same stage.

Steve Smith MW, Wine and Viticulture Director