DIVERSITY

Climate

In the narrow landmass that is the South Island, Central Otago is still relatively close to both coastlines. However, locked in deep valleys surrounded by snow covered mountains, the vineyards have very low rainfall, (40cms per year at Bannockburn), though just 120 kilometres to the West, Milford Sound is the second wettest place on Earth with around 28 feet of rain being often seen in a single year. Inland Otago has s distinctive semi-continental climate found nowhere else in New Zealand; it is one of the hottest, coldest and driest regions in the country.

This proximity to very heavy rainfall means that we have large amounts of water available, but not a lot of it comes from the sky. The very low humidity (30-40%, typically) means that Botrytis rarely causes problems and gentle anti rot regimes can be easily achieved.

Long days and very little cloud add to the heat summation. Sunshine exceeds 2000 hours annually and solar radiation is much higher in Central Otago than in Northen Europe. Peak temperatures are often around 31-32º in the summer, but the nights are cool – we can easily measure a 33ºC maximum and 3ºC minimum in one 24 hour period!

Soils

“Some people talk about “terroir”. We think we’ve got some pretty good dirt.”

Our soils are moderately old (often windblown Loess), formed over successive ice ages as the glaciers ground Schist rocks to a fine flour. Layers of Loess of various depths are interspersed with river gravels. Add to these sandier soils, formed by water erosion and the viticulturist has a spread of challenges and opportunities.

Loess is highly prized in every winegrowing region where it is found: it seems to bring out complexity in many varieties, but there is no question that Pinot Noir and its relatives thrive on it. While it is very fine and heavy,the SchiSt particles from which it is made are glass like, and do not readily form clays.

The soils are therefore free draining, even when they are heavy in texture. The low rainfall has kept leaching effects low, so there is a good level of mineral compounds present, but the low rainfall has kept plant growth sparse, which means the organic content of the soils tends to be low. The result is a soil low in vigour, but high in mineral richness, with the ability of the viticulturist to use irrigation as a finely tuned control; keeping vines at exactly the desired degree of controlled stress, to provide optimum fruit quality.

Interestingly there often seems to be a correlation between favoured planting sites and abandoned gold mines: possibly some of the geology that attracted the miners also suits the vines.