Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/751131
MARLBOROUGH produces over half of New Zealand's wine. FOUNDED in 2002, New Zea- land Winegrowers organization is the only unified national winegrowers in- dustry body in the world. JAMES BUSBY planted the first modern day vine- yard in the 1830's. This southern most 125 country for wine growing, the land of the kiwi produces equally unique wines, wines which hover the old-world, new-world line. Long sunshine hours due to southern lati- tude—despite lower temperatures, they have longer days— allow the grapes to fully ripen, but they yield wines of lower alcohol, more structure and more delicate fruit than many other new-world producing regions. While most known for racy Sauvignon Blanc and struc- tured Pinot Noir produced in the shallow stony soils and deep sandy loams of Marlborough, Pinot Noir also shines in the gravely subsoils of Martinborough and in the broken schist and clay soils of Central Otago. New Zealand also offers fine manifestations of Bordeaux varieties and Syrah from the deep shingle soils of the Gimblett gravels region of Hawkes bay. The wine regions rely on the Tasman Sea rain clouds which move east, dropping all precipitation in the mountains, re- sulting in a rainshadow effect for the eastern coast, where the majority of vineyards are planted. Passionate farmers, a high proportion practicing biodynamics within their vine- yards, are taking advantage of this island country to make wines identifiable by taste as distinctly New Zealand. NEW ZEALAND