Benfield & Delamare 2000 Newsletter

Like just about all New Zealand vineyards, we started by putting grapevine sticks in the ground. We had done lots of research, looking at climate data (there wasn't much), what other people were doing, and reading about overseas practices. In 1987, there was a lot less knowledge about than there is now, but looking back, we got some things amazingly right, and some, well, we just have to plead ignorance. However, we did some things that at the time may have seemed unusual, we trialled different rootstocks, on our ground, with our rather unique (at the time) viticulture. We trialled fruit wire height, and experimented with vineyard management practices. It took a while, but by the early 1990's, we were getting answers.

 

Benfield & Delamare
35 New York Street
Martinborough
New Zealand
Telephone and fax:
(after hours)
(06) 306 9926

Email: bendel@xtra.co.nz

 

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In 1989, Sue and I took advantage of introductions arranged for us to visit a couple of well known wine producers near Libourne in Bordeaux. It was an enlightening experience, in that the French were very curious about what was going on in the "New World", they were also quite forthcoming about their own practices in the vineyard, (but much less so about those in the winery). We found in several ways we had replicated their practice, such as close planted vines, but there were areas where we found rationales for things that we had never thought about, Ie. an iron pan ( the famous "crasse de fer" of Pomerol) as a control to vine vigour. "Don't you rip or break the pan?" I innocently asked a scandalised Frenchman. "No you don't, it is le Terroir".

We were then able to refine our management techniques, and of course, no more breaking or ripping the pans. We did not try to replicate a French Vineyard, because we were not in France, not in a French climate, or in French soils; but to try and create the best conditions for our varieties that could be achieved in the climate and soils of Martinborough.

By the mid 1990's we were getting the benefits in the bottle, and despite some pretty variable seasons, we have been able to achieve a consistently good wine. We have done this, partly, through the ability of smaller vines in unirrigated vineyards being able to cope with climatic variation, and partly by using a second label to strengthen and refine the premium wine.

Vintage 2000 demonstrates the point. The harvest is finally whittled down to four barrels (just under a 100 cases) of the best, the rest being put into Osiris. Aside from trial plantings, none of the vines that contributed to the four, were in the ground in 1991. Our newer plantings of grafted vines were so much more able to cope with a cool vintage, the wine so superior to the wine of the ungrafted vines that selections were obvious. This year Merlot barely features due in part to rain at flowering drastically reducing crop, and as a final blow to its chance of inclusion, rot became a problem for this thin skinned variety.

Picking was 18th April, sugars at 23 Brix, but acid still at 7.27 gr/L, very good fruit considering the cool conditions. The balance of the finished wine very similar to the 1999 at around 13.5% Alc, and pH of 3.6. The cooler vintage gives a wine of no less intensity, but oddly, slightly more open, probably because we were trying harder for ripeness. The wine has been held in Taransaud barrels (75% new) from 16th May, 2000 till bottling on 21 st Nov 2001.

At this stage I would describe the wine as having a clear blackish red colour, nose still a little closed, but with warm cassis scents, on the mouth, generous new oak, blackcurrants, complex and long, yet well rounded, reflecting the (comparitively) high proportion of Cabernet Franc.

We regret there is not much of this wine available.