Pioneer - Sioban Harnett

Industry Pioneer

The challenge and privilege of mastering Marlborough vines

BRENDA WEBB

MARLBOROUGH VITICULTURIST Sioban Harnett enthuses about the young people entering the wine industry today. “I’m impressed and invigorated by them - there is great heart in the industry with the calibre of people coming through,” she says. Sioban did her first vintage back in 1993 with John Belsham, who was “marvellous” to work with - “really encouraging and very smart”. In the years since, she has worked for long periods at Villa Maria, Cloudy Bay and most recently Whitehaven, until after the 2020 harvest.

Sioban loves Marlborough and the wine industry. “People come into the industry thinking it’s romantic and glamorous, and parts of it are. But most of it is sheer hard work requiring steady patience and the ability to tune into your environment and your vines,” she says. “For me it is still very deeply satisfying and enjoyable even after 30 years.”

Kaikōura born and raised, Sioban did an agricultural science degree at Lincoln University in the late 1980s and then won a reciprocal scholarship to the US for the third year of her degree. She was unsure about which direction to head in, but one of her soil chemistry lecturers, Dr Rob Sherlock (a great wine enthusiast and formative contributor to the emerging postgraduate oenology/ viticulture course at Lincoln) offered sage mentoring. “He said the UC Davis faculty was highly regarded for oenology and viticulture and kind of pointed me in that direction,” she says. “I quickly and naturally gravitated toward the vineyards and my grades were good.” After doing a vintage at a sparkling wine facility in the Sonoma Valley, Sioban spent a year travelling around the States, working in a ski resort in Colorado and a summer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

When she returned to New Zealand, it was back to Lincoln to do her Masters of Applied Science, after which she was approached by Villa Maria to take up a role as a vineyard cadet. Sioban did the 1994 vintage in Hawke’s Bay at Esk Valley, in both vineyards and cellar, and the following vintage in Gisborne before heading to

Photo by Kevin Judd

the Auckland cellar. “It’s wonderful to follow fruit right through from growing, harvesting, winemaking and finally blind assessment,” she says. “It’s such an opportunity to gather information and experience.”

An opportunity soon came up in Marlborough. It was during challenging times, with phylloxera starting to take hold, and the young viticulturist turned her attention to both replanting with grafted vines and dealing with rapid vineyard expansion in new subregions. Part of her responsibility was managing Villa Maria’s “quite new” Seddon vineyards. “It was initially 40 hectares and was then a ‘big block’ in a rather untried location,” she says. “There was no cell phone coverage. It was all quite new and experimental at the time. I was working with Steve Smith and looking back, man, we fasttracked a lot of good work together.”

Sioban spent seven years at Villa during which time the company expanded from having fruit processed at the Vintech site on Rapaura Rd, to opening its own large modern plant at Fairhall. She left Villa to do an MBA

at Victoria University - “best decision ever” - and upon graduating learned that viticulturist Ivan Sutherland was leaving Cloudy Bay. Interest piqued, she applied for the job and was interviewed by winemaker Kevin Judd, founder David Hohnen and Ivan. “I was there with the ‘founding’ team … and, after a time, worked with Dr Tony Jordan too. I saw how they were not only good practitioners, but also such capable leaders, and could bring the best out in people who were so very differently put together. Tony was one of the most razor-tongued, ultra-direct managers I’ve ever had. You really needed your shoes on the right feet around that man and he taught me if I was going to make a proposal, I had to have my argument rigorously thought out.”

Kevin Judd was the polar opposite, she says. “He would silently take everything in – scanning, reading a situation, processing, reflecting - then at some point he would burst out with a short statement that summed everything up, setting the adjusted course, giving everyone an idea of what was important and where we were going. Kevin taught me the power of detail and how it can culminate in a wine to great effect.”

Ten years ago, Sioban moved to Whitehaven, owned by Sue White. In recent months, Samantha and Josh (Sue’s daughter and son-in-law) have joined the business. “It’s genuinely exciting for them and for Sue - a real culmination and realisation - and again, another example of young people coming into the industry who will be genuine contributors. You’ve got to be excited about that,” Sioban says.

After nearly 30 years in the job, she doesn’t feel any different. “I was the young cadet in the earlier years and now I’m part of the ‘mature’ crowd. I try hard not to sound like an old fart when I explain that 15 years ago we tried what they are suggesting and it didn’t work back then,” she says. “But really, age makes no difference. I work with a lot of young people and I’m very impressed – so many of them are smart and well raised and pretty much guaranteed to help you with your tech issues. What’s not to love?”

During her years in the industry, Sioban says one of the biggest changes she has noticed is the increasing professionalism and the giant leaps in technology. She enjoys the cohesive and positive atmosphere amongst viticultural professionals, describing it as a sharing and positive and very collegial group of people.

Her role hasn’t essentially changed too much over the years, she says. “My job is to distil what the winemaker seeks for each variety and transform that into the right amount of fruit, with the right flavours, at the right price. I need to know what is desired and make sure we have the tools in the toolbox, get that information out to the team and growers and try to enhance and deliver year in, year out. It’s always a challenge but it’s also a real privilege.”

Licensed Agent REAA 2008

Producing vineyard

Located in the highly regarded wine region of Omaka Valley in Marlborough, this 9.209 hectare vineyard offers the opportunity to secure an established vineyard either with, or without a Grape Supply Agreement. Planted in 2004, there are 5.5 hectares of close planted Sauvignon Blanc and 1.5 hectares of Pinot Noir. Situated in a sunny private basin with complex clay soils, this vineyard produces high quality, premium fruit with intense flavours and consistently meets yield targets. Along with a staff amenity building and a workshop, the vineyard comes with nine paid-up shares in the Southern Valleys Irrigation Scheme and an approximately 4,000m3 storage dam. With no overcapitalised dwelling, this is an opportunity to invest, diversify or expand your your current viticulture portfolio, or for new entrants into the wine sector.

317 Brookby Road

| 9.2 ha

Price: $1,400,000 +GST (if any)

www.firstnational.co

Mark Tschepp | 021 573 622

markt@firstnational.co