50 years of Marlborough wine

WILLIAM WOODWORTH

In June 1973, Montana Wines asked Dick Simpson for a ma chinery demonstration to show the viability of growing grapes in the farming-heavy Marlborough region.

Dick impressed those in attend ance to the point the Ford tractor salesman was given an order of 19 tractors, and Dick’s contract ing business was bought out by Montana for him to start cultivat ing land on the 5th of July 1973. The now 86-year-old was an inte gral part of the early wine indus try and the establishment of the first Montana vineyard in Marl borough, despite the negative perception of winegrowing at the time.

“We had no specialised wine equipment, so we cleared acre after acre of lucerne and did all the preparation, spraying and harvesting with adapted farming equipment, home inventions and some number 8 wire mentality in just six weeks.

“The idea of wineries taking over was so hated, the two Montana sign-written cars ended up having the signs taken off!

“However they were ambitiousthe Yukich brothers set me a goal of harvesting grapes at 30 brix before we even had a vine in the ground!”

Dick was the vineyard manager of the only sauvignon blanc New Zealand was producing, and set the early standard of processing grapes for wine at 26 brix.

“Those early years were incredibly difficult to get started”, re- members Dick.

“We had no specialist equipment, and all of the cuttings from the North Island were propagated on their own roots but only about 4,000 of the 400,000 took root as the soil was too cold.

“In 1976 Montana sold 500 acres in the Omaka Valley they had wanted to plant, had two of their vineyards fail and almost completely pulled out of Marlborough during a massive drought, and we didn’t have irrigation for the first nine years.

“I had three Montana project managers come and go but refused to give it up despite the pay staying at $1.75 an hour from 1973 to 1980!”

Trial and error were the name of the game, such as having Marlborough’s first spraying runs done by helicopter and small fixed wing planes. However, unsuccessful attempts forced Dick and the Montana team to take things into their own hands. “The two-row sprayer we ended up manufacturing in house was huge, so even the largest vines would fit”.

However, the first crop of grapes came good in 1977 with sauvignon blanc grapes picked at 26 brix and riesling silvaner grapes picked at 33 brix.

“In those early days there wasn’t even a winery here, so the first crop of Marlborough grapes got picked into apple boxes and driven to a Hawke’s Bay winery. The truck ended up returning with a disassembled winery on the back!”

Dick understands times have changed but says techniques to grow grapes that built Marlborough’s reputation have been forgotten.

“I spent the first 10 years establishing Marlborough’s wine industry and burnt myself out because of the struggles that we faced, so I left for Australia before the reputation exploded.

“The original Brancott Road vineyard was planted east to west to harvest as much exposure to the sun as possible. Our original vines were also allowed more leaves, because the more sun they got more photosynthesis and the better the grape quality.

“The higher the natural sugar grapes and adding in sugar after.

“Brancott was the most difficult vineyard in Marlborough – un productive stones and clay – but with the right techniques it grew the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world.”

However, when vines were re placed in the 1980’s the surveyors, who were new to wine, organised

“That’s how growers started planting north to south rather than prioritising growing great fruit and growing east to west, which has taken over since.

“Having grapes on the vine longer was what gave Marlborough its reputation for worldclass sauvignon blanc – now, lots of wineries are riding off the coattails of that reputation with sour grapes and added sugar, and how we made wine is now ‘late har-

Now 50 years on, Dick challenges local growers looking to reformat their vines to return to the origi-

“Vines are planted in the wrong direction, trimmed too much, have too many buds and are harvested too early.

“The reputation of Marlborough sauvignon blanc came from these first findings, and I’d love to see someone test out our methods nowadays.”

Despite its rocky start, Dick is very happy to have watched Marlborough become synonymous with world-class wine and hopes to see it continue from strength to strength.

“People thought wine was a joke or a fad that would fade out, so very few people took pictures of those early days but I’m incredibly thankful to the late photographer Rhys Morris for everything he did in taking photos and documenting the first days of Marlborough wine.”