What is “Terroir”?
Serious wine talk inevitably arrives at the question of whether a wine honestly expresses its Terroir.
Terroir comprises all the unchanging physical elements of a place that can affect the character of wine made from it.
Terroir includes soil composition, latitude, elevation, contour, sun exposure and climate (but not vintage, as that changes every year).
It excludes human interventions like vine training, irrigation, leaf-plucking, and anything that happens after harvest, like winemaking, even though all of these things can and do affect the character of the wine.
Certain grape types, like Pinot Noir, express terroir better than most other varieties. Terroir can apply to a village or a region, not just a single vineyard. If it’s common for people to do things a certain way in a village or region, that can become what seems to be a constant characteristic of the wines from there. Some want to include “the work of man” in their definition of terroir. But that’s regional style, not an expression of terroir.
We say a wine has goût de terroir, a French term for tastes and aromas we expect to find in a wine made from a specific place.
We hope this blog post will address how our terroir makes the connection between our own site and the characteristics it produces in our wine.
How Location affects Flavour
The term “cool climate” is often applied to New Zealand Pinot Noir wines. Predictably, this term refers to the temperature at which our wine is grown; and this temperature range determines the character of the wine.
At 34 degrees South, the Waipara Valley in North Canterbury, New Zealand, is pretty much on the edge of Pinot Noir growing. And at just 10km as the crow flies, to the cold ocean currents off Pegasus Bay, Christchurch, Waipara’s climate is considered Maritime, albeit on the cool side compared with Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, Nelson and Marlborough.
Waipara is considered by many to be the warmest and driest of all the New Zealand wine-growing regions. Its secret, however, lies in the fact that this warmth does not refer to average temperatures, but to temperature spikes or peaks during the growing season.
The growing season is also relatively long. Snow falls intermittently on Fancrest Estate in winter. Frosts are a regular feature of spring in the valley below us, while in summer, our days are long and warm, rather than baking-hot. This allows our wines to retain their fresh acidity and relatively low alcohol.
Summer nights are cold, and it is this diurnal variation that slowly produces such pure but intense flavours in our wines.
The resulting complexity, poise, and balance make these wines a food lovers’ dream, helping to accent the flavours in food.
A mountain range between us and the ocean buffers us from the cold winds coming in off the sea. Also, our limestone fan tilts the whole vineyard towards the sun, which sits low in the sky in spring, bringing budburst forward by around 7-10 days compared to other vineyards on the flats.
Our black Rendzina limestone clay soils absorb the heat and radiate it up into the canopy to help ripen phenolics.
These factors make Fancrest Estate ideal for ripening Pinot Noir even in such a cool region.
How our soil affects flavour
We truly believe the secret behind the taste of wine, lies in the soil. It’s hard to name a truly great Pinot Noir that doesn’t come off limestone. Old soil maps helped us focus our hunt for the perfect limestone terroir. True Limestone derived soils in the Waipara Valley are considerably less common than one might think. This made our discovery of this site particularly exciting.
I think there's a reason why wine figures into so many religions. There's something transcendent about it. It's sort of the way that music is more than the sum of its parts. You have all these elements that make up the terroir that wine can communicate.
The slip that created our fan has mostly covered over the more common Waipara soils (although they still show up in patches on the western slopes and down in the paddock adjacent to SH1) with Rendzic Melanic (Black) Soils over 65-34 Million-year-old Weka and Amuri limestone and calcareous mudstone (marls).
The term glauconite refers to the blue-green sheen on some of these limestones. In North Canterbury, our glauconite is a friable greenish mineral containing the elements potassium and iron. The presence of glauconite tells us that these were certainly marine, rather than freshwater deposits, because the deposition of glauconite is influenced by the decaying process of organic matter degraded by bacteria in marine animal shells.
Potassium in these limestone clays has major implications for winemaking: it can influence the pH of the grapes and makes determining the optimal time for harvest critical.
Looking along the Limestone ridge that runs parallel to and above the Golden Mile vineyards, it’s possible to distinguish the segments of the hillside that have more limestone from those that have more glauconitic sandstone due to faulting. Fancrest Estate is formed mainly from a limestone section. Not far away, the glauconitic limestone reappears, and here, at the now abandoned Omihi Limeworks, it was quarried for some of the purest agricultural lime the South Island has ever produced. The works closed when the sandstone content of the lime made it uneconomical to quarry any longer.
Weathering and erosion of these two limestone types is what has built our vineyard soils, and is responsible for the dramatic changes in soil types across very small distances along this range of hills. It also helps explain the differences in the character of the Pinot Noirs from the different vineyards along the range.
The reason we were so excited about discovering this site, is that Rendzic soils are unmistakable: Rendzina is a dark, greyish-brown, humus-rich, intrazonal soil. Nothing else looks quite like it. On the crest of the fan above, and on the eastern side of the fan, where the limestone is closer to the surface, the soils are almost black (the word melanic is used to describe these Rendzinas).
Of all the soils, Rendzina is one of the most closely associated with the mother rock, and an excellent example of initial stages of soil development. It is usually formed by weathering of soft carbonate rocks like dolomite, limestone, marl, and chalk (mudstone).
The name Rendzina derives from the Polish word “rzędzić”, which means “to chat”: Rendzina contains rocks that click and screech on the plough i.e., “talk” to the ploughman. Th e term now is used for a class of shallow soils over chalk, limestone, or extremely calcareous unconsolidated material in which the topsoil is calcareous. This makes for a very distinctive and interesting soil.
Both Weka Pass Stone/Omihi Limestone and Amuri/Amberley Limestone weather to create Rendzic Soils. Like all real Rendzinas, some of our soils have only a thin topsoil around 15-30cm deep directly over deep marly limestone or mudstone. Here the topsoil is extremely high in Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg) and Potassium (K) with 100% Cation Exchange.
Immediately beneath the thin topsoil, in the marl or mudstone, where the vines roots explore, the pH rises dramatically from around pH6.6 to pH8.5.
This makes this soil perfect for growing Burgundian varieties, producing beautifully structured Pinot Noir with floral aromatics and a mineral, almost salty taste, that runs through the palate.
Our vines struggle to pull the minerals they need from these soils, and we often have to foliar feed them with a cocktail of the minerals they are deficient in, surprisingly, mainly Iron and Magnesium which are plentiful but too tightly held by the limestone clay.
At the edges of the limestone, the very dark grey-brown clay loam soils give our wines beautiful palate weight and lush aromatics. Viticulture on these particular soils is somewhat easier because there is less rocky material in the soil, but the vines really struggle with the soil alkalinity.
The remainder of our soils are lighter and sandier and appear to be a mix of Glauconitic Limestone, Sandstone and the original Awapuni Soil. Generally, they have a lower pH than the Rendzic soils. Pinot Noir off these blocks is fine and aromatic, and usually has bigger tannins.
How our Clonal Selection affects Flavour
Talk to anyone who grows Pinot Noir and you’ll get agreement on one thing: Pinot Noir is a tough grape to grow but far from tough itself!
Thin-skinned, temperamental, and an early-budder and early-ripener. You can’t take your eyes off it for a moment. If frosts don’t get it (fortunately our site is reasonably frost free), disease will.
It’s fussy about where it grows, delivering sublimely beautiful wines from only a handful of places in the world. Even in these unique places, only with care and patience will it express itself to the full.
Very few Pinot Noir clones, on their own, are able to deliver an age-worthy, silky smooth, balanced Pinot Noir that dances across the palate. The secret to creating a wine with poise and elegance, lies in blending wine from different clones.
In 2003 we began developing the vineyard with a selection of premium Pinot Noir clones. More about these later. Having mapped the soils across the fan, we knew where each soil sub-type began and ended. Our aim was to spread the best available clones across both main soil types on the Estate to exploit their full potential: to let the vineyard soils speak through them. Not quite a mixed planting, but close.
We followed up in 2004 and in 2008 with plantings that took us up onto the thin limestone at the crest of the fan.
Among our selection criteria were clones with moderate vigour, small bunches with small berries to concentrate flavour, and a typical Burgundian aroma and acid profile. We are not obsessed with colour and believe strongly that an increase in colour does not necessarily correlate well with an increase in wine quality. We also looked for clones able to ripen well with moderate alcohol levels. There is no such thing as the perfect clone, but some come close.
Interplanted between the Pinot Noir vines is a random planting of Berrysmith Pinot Gris accounting for around 1% of the total number of vines.
Dijon Clones (B series)
Also sometimes called “Bernard” Clones, their origin is primarily from Chateau Morey St Denis in Burgundy. Th ey are part of a wide range of French government selections.
Pinot Noir B113
Has the reputation of being either a dog or a star. A very small planting up in the limestone where we think it has the best potential to be a star. Clear and strong colour; fi ne fl oral bouquet typical of Pinot Noir; balanced; and moderate to high tannins. Moderate yielding but sometimes suffers from irregular production. Sometimes elegant and balanced but light wine according to French data.
Pinot Noir B114
Delivers strong colour with a purplish hue. Delivers perfumes with rich aromas of black cherry, blueberry and spice; good skin structure and low to medium tannins, lowish pH. Below average yields, medium fertility, may set irregularly; above average sugar/alcohol potential; tight bunches.
Pinot Noir B115
Capable of producing strong colour with a purplish hue. Moderate yielding, moderately vigorous, with regular fruit set. Good quality wines with a superior bouquet described mostly as raspberry or small red berry fruit, rose petal, anise; rich and fuller bodied than most according to French data; well structured, moderately tannic; long on the palate; age worthy. Above average sugar/potential alcohol but with good acidity.
Pinot Noir B667
Beautiful, strong colour; restrained, elegant and quality bouquet of black cherries, spice (nutmeg, allspice and cloves), black tea, and bark, sweet tannins, structured to cellar; rich, long. Moderate yielding; medium fertility; small bunches with earlier maturity than some clones. Tends to produce high sugar/alcohol.
Pinot Noir B777
Strong and intense colours; strong aromas of juicy black fruit like black cherry and cassis; good balance – round, good quality tannins. Moderate cropper; produces very good quality, complete and very typical, velvety wines with good keeping qualities according to French data. Slightly bigger bunches than average with some variation in berry size. Good producer, maturing earlier than most. Potential for high sugar/alcohol production.
California Clones
Also called “Pommard” in New Zealand
UCD5 & UCD6
UCD5 has performed well in New Zealand and is the mainstay of a number of top flight producers. Good producer, and setter, with potentially high yields which can be managed with careful fruit thinning if required. An early ripener with medium to large, tight bunches that require good Botrytis control. BothUCD5 and UCD6 produce lush, perfumed wines with UCD6 producing somewhat richer wines aromas of earth, dark fruit, mushrooms and allspice are typical.
ABEL Selection
Also called the “Gumboot Clone” the original cuttings are rumoured to be from DRC and are believed to have been imported in the 70s by a travelling rugby player, hidden in a gumboot. Saved from destruction by Malcolm Abel, a customs officer and Pinot enthusiast who paid for it to be put through quarantine at Te Kauwhata. Vines were first planted out in Abel’s vineyard in Kumeu (now long gone), but a young winemaker working with him, Clive Paton, took cuttings back with him to Ata Rangi in Martinborough. Abel is both fertile and productive, so yields must be carefully managed. The naturally vigorous nature of this clone suits our hard soils and its tendency to mature later helps spread out the harvest. Bunches are reasonably large and heavy. Abel is believed by many winemakers to be the most “complete” Pinot Noir clone.
How Native Vineyard Yeasts affect Flavour
Native yeasts are yeasts from the vineyard. They’re a component of terroir. That is, they determine if wine tastes like where it comes from.
Native wild yeast is how all wine was fermented before the 1980s. Synthetic pestides kill them, as does industrial grade hygiene in the winery.
A diverse relay chain of yeast families brings complexity. One of the things a natural wine maker must have as a microscope, because not all of the native wild yeasts are beneficial. The pH of the must has a strong influence over which strains of native wild yeasts come to dominate the ferment, but after around 4 degrees of alcohol Saccharomyces Cerevisiae inevitably becomes the dominant wine yeast.
It is therefore in the first 4 degrees of alcohol that native wild yeasts have their maximum imprint on the wine. For this very reason we don’t use any sulphites in the initial stages of the ferment, nor do we use cooling as both both of these have a detrimental effect on native wild yeast.
