Winepress - October 2023

Vantage Point

More than 50 years of Sauvignon Blanc

BILL SPENCE

THE IDEA for new and different grape varieties was seeded by my brother Ross, who was studying at Fresno State University in California. In the university vineyards he found many European grape varieties that were not grown commercially in New Zealand. When he returned from the United States, and with a loan from our grandmother, land was purchased in Huapai. This land was used to grow and propagate root stock for other varieties to be grafted onto, which were sold to wineries around New Zealand, to make enough funds to be able to start a winery of our own.

In the mid-1960s, while sourcing scion wood, Ross and his wife went to the Government viticultural research centre at Te Kauwhata and found many of the new varieties he had dealt with when studying in the US. These were grafted at Huapai and then planted out in the trial vineyard at the Matua Rd block, nicknamed the fruit salad block. Unfortunately, many of these varieties had viruses, with leaf mosaic, yellow and red blotch, and leaf roll.

Some of the trial varieties produced small amounts of fruit and some didn’t produce fruit at all. At this time Ross was working as a winemaker at Villa Maria and I was working at Corbans Wines. With the small parcels of fruit that were harvested, Ross made small batches of wine in the lab, including around 6 litres of Sauvignon Blanc. 

The small parcel of Sauvignon Blanc showed refreshing green grass characteristics, with hints of melon, which we later found was characteristic of North Island fruit. These flavours were a total contrast from the largest variety planted in New Zealand at that time, Müller-Thurgau, which produced a soft semi-sweet medium-bodied wine that was popular at the time. 

Unfortunately, the vines had leaf roll virus, which inhibited a viable crop, but with this small amount of virused vines (250) to work with, we persevered and made our first commercial Sauvignon Blanc wine in 1974. This started our adventure with this great variety. 

While working at Corbans Wines I knew of a government trial block on the Kumeu vineyard. The block was going to be pulled out as it was no longer needed and Joe Corban, viticulturist at Corbans, said we could take what we liked. After some research, we discovered there were clones of Sauvignon Blanc, but only two plants were left after some vigorous vineyard management destroyed the rest. There were also vines of Semillon, from which we took cuttings, and many other varieties we had no interest in. These clones were brought in by Frank Berrysmith, viticulturist for the Department of Agriculture, with the Sauvignon Blanc clone imported from Davis University coded TK09156.

This was the break we wanted, as it showed no viruses. We grafted this clone and planted three and a half hectares at our Waimauku vineyard. This clone showed more varietal characteristics as well as producing a commercial crop, so ticked all the boxes we were looking for.

We found setting up Matua a costly exercise. After purchasing tanks, pumps and all the machinery you need to start a winery, we were quickly running out of money and mortgaged to the hilt. Ross had left Villa to work full time in the company, and I was working for Nathan Liquor division during the day and would help Ross weekends and nights at the winery.

The property we were renting was getting surrounded with subdivisions, and we were being squeezed out. At this stage we had to make the decision to get partners or to sell. I explained our situation to old family friends, the Margan family, and Noel Margan said he would purchase 50% of the company for his two children, Maureen and Ian, with the remaining 50% split between Ross and I, with the provision neither family would own any more than 50% for the first 20 years of the partnership’s existence. The deal was sealed with a handshake and that is exactly what happened. This enabled us to purchase and build our Waimauku vineyard and winery.

Trying to sell Sauvignon Blanc to the trade proved to be a little harder than we anticipated, even though we had received accolades from wine societies and wine appreciation groups. Varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Riesling were known, but not Sauvignon Blanc. When trying to get customers to stock Sauvignon Blanc, many thought it was a White Cabernet Sauvignon.

While visiting New Zealand, Robert Mondavi came to our winery and I explained the plight of trying to sell our new-found variety. He said he had had the same problem in the US, so suggested we do what he did and call it ‘Fume Blanc’. He created this name because of the smoky haze which hangs over the Loire Valley after harvest, where Sauvignon Blanc is grown in France. We took his advice and renamed it in 1977-78.

Two years on, the name Fume Blanc became confusing also, as many Australian produces were calling any white wine that had been in oak casks Fume. Sauvignon Blanc had established a small but growing place in the market by this stage, so we reverted back to labelling the wine Sauvignon Blanc. We kept spreading the word on this new dynamic wine experience — we knew we had a style and flavour that was exciting and different from any other white wine available in New Zealand at the time.

Many other New Zealand and overseas wineries started to be interested in Sauvignon Blanc, the first being Peter Hubscher, the winemaker for Montana. He sent Wayne Thomas, Montana’s viticulturist, to purchase cuttings from our Waimauku property to be planted in their new venture in Marlborough. Corban’s, Hunters and the Giesen families showed interest in planting Sauvignon Blanc in their respective areas and cuttings were supplied to them as well. In 1980, Montana Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough exploded on the market, both locally and internationally. The wine style was so much more intense in asparagus and gooseberry – different from the softer styles coming out of the North Island – and this unique style changed the face of the market. Later David Hohnen, of Cloudy Bay, made the New Zealand wine brand a force on the international market, creating demand throughout the world for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Many of the early plantings of Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough were of the clone TK09156, often called the ‘Spence clone’. This intense style of wine is due to Marlborough’s cool temperate climate, together with the stony, boney, lean soils of the region, blended with passionate growers and winemakers.

Every person who has worked for the Spence brothers, and Matua, should take a bow, as it was them who helped Ross and I fulfil our vision to make this new unique style of Sauvignon Blanc world famous.

Long May it last.