Today I'm talking to Huw Kinch, Winemaker and Estate Manager at Pyramid Valley, a biodynamic winery in beautiful Waikari, North Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. I usually speak to chefs but I'm doing a series of special edition features showcasing New Zealand suppliers and producers to celebrate the launch of New Zealand Trade & Enterprise's 2022 Made with Care campaign in Australia. A global initiative designed to raise awareness of New Zealand's superlative produce, Made with Care shines a light on thoughtfully created and ethically manufactured food and beverages the country is famous for. New Zealand is recognised all over the world for its commitment to creating environmentally conscious, sustainably minded food and wine. This is not a sponsored or remunerated piece, but when I was asked if I was interested in something a little adjacent to Conversation with a chef and I read about the campaign, I jumped at the chance.
Pyramid Valley has been a labour of love for two partnerships. Mike and Claudia Elze Weersing followed by Steve Smith MW (Master of Wine) and investor and wildlife conservationist Brian Sheth. The wines of Pyramid Valley are born in the dramatic limestone and clay-derived soils of North Canterbury. A unique, high-altitude site that is home to some of the most profound Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines in the world. Grown biodynamically and following natural principles in its winemaking with the use of indigenous yeasts, natural fining and minimal, if any, filtration. I first became aware of Pyramid Valley wines about 13 years ago when I went to a tasting and Mike Weersing spoke. It was one of the most memorable events I have been to. Mike spoke about his wines and his global journey to find the perfect place to make them with a passion that was palpable and everyone in the room was hanging off his every word.
Hi Huw, how are you? I'm calling from Melbourne, but where are you?
Hi Jo. I'm in North Canterbury, just about an hour north of Christchurch near a small town called Waikari.
What's the weather doing there now?
It's getting dark now, and cold. We had a beautiful, sunny, blue sky day with a high of about 14 or 15 degrees.
It doesn't sound that high to me. I'm out of practice. I'm from Christchurch originally but I have lived in Melbourne for 11 years and I have a very special place in my heart for Christchurch and for Canterbury.
I was looking over your background and what is your role at Pyramid Valley?
I'm the winemaker and estate manager. I look after the property in Waikari and look after all the winemaking in the valley. I live onsite at the vineyard with my family and Im a caretaker at the property. My background is in winemaking.
I see you were at Charles Sturt University.
Yes. I did the opposite thing to you. I grew up in Australia and came to New Zealand in about 2007, so I guess about 15 years ago.
I'm a French teacher as well as a food writer and I see you spent some time in France, which seems like the best thing to do if youre a winemaker. I lived near Avignon for a year so I love that area around there.
Nice. Yes, it is a beautiful part of the world. I lived in a little town in the hills between Carcassonne and Perpignan. My French isn't very good.
But you managed to get by on wine language, I suppose.
Yes, the language of wine. It was good. I had about two or three months notice before I went and had some French lessons with a colleague who was working in the winery with me in the Hawkes Bay and away I went. It was a baptism by fire, but it was good. There was an old guy in one of the wineries I worked at; there were two wineries, one was basically in the garage on the family property and the father lived above the winery and he was about 80 years old and didnt speak a word of English and I didnt speak much French but we communicated by chalk on concrete tanks and got by.
How long were you there?
Two to three months. Just for the harvest.
It must be different in each country and each wine region?
Definitely, to do with challenges in the weather and climate. That's the thing with what the Old Worlds discovered over generations; what works well with their climate and what varieties grow well. But I guess now with climate change, there are more challenges. It was a real cultural experience; good food, good wine. In France, well this was back then but I am sure it is still the same, you just go into the supermarket and buy some food and wine and it is relatively cheap and always pretty high quality.
I miss that as well.
The property in Central Otago is an interesting property because it has a lot more organic matter than most vineyards in Central Otago; its up to about 8% organic matter and it has been farmed for 150 years. The health of the soil is a reflection of the human interaction with the place. It used to be a market garden for the Chinese gold miners. They irrigated it and built organic matter on that site versus degrading it, which I think is a pretty powerful story. Humans can be a positive influence on the land rather than a negative.
How long have you been at Pyramid Valley?
We moved down in the winter of 2018. Mike and Claudia sold the property to Brian and Steve in spring 2017 and stayed on for that growing season and then they left the property in the winter of 2018 and we took over managing it.
How big is the property?
It's an 80 hectare property. The original planting was 2.5 hectares but super high density; 22 000 vines in the original 2.5 hectares. In the last three and half years we have planted another 4.6 hectares, so we are up to 60 000 vines now. It's not a huge area but a lot of vines. It's very intense.
And you have vineyards in Central Otago as well?
Yes, Brian and Steve not long after buying Pyramid Valley bought property in Lowburn, the old Lowburn Ferry vineyard and we planted more of that as well, another seven or eight hectares of high-density Pinot Noir and Chardonnay over that same time frame from 2018 to 2020, so over 3 years. It's a pretty special property and was bought on soil, like Pyramid valley. The purchase was all about the soil beneath us. At Pyramid, it was the clay limestone soil that Mike searched for over ten years to plant Pinot and Chardonnay in the New World. He wanted to bring a new voice to the world of wine. He was very much committed to that soil type because that was the type of soil he worked with in Burgundy. The property in Central is an interesting property because it has a lot more organic matter than most vineyards in Central Otago; its up to about 8% organic matter and it has been farmed for 150 years. The health of the soil is a reflection of the human interaction with the place. It used to be a market garden for the Chinese gold miners. They irrigated it and built organic matter on that site versus degrading it, which I think is a pretty powerful story. Humans can be a positive influence on the land rather than a negative.
Exactly. I met Mike a long time ago. I went to a tasting that he was doing in Christchurch. The flights of wine were paired with food from The Mediterranean Food Company. I remember paying something like $30 and there were five flights of wine and amazing food, but listening to Mike, I would have paid hundreds of dollars because the way he talked about his journey and going to different places around the world and putting handfuls of soil in his pocket and then sending them off to Burgundy and then you know, his biodynamic philosophy as well, it was like listening to poetry and it was one of the best things I have been to.
He was an amazing person and such an inspiration and he could communicate his passion so well. I remember going to a workshop in Hanmer Springs not long after I came to the country. It was 2010 and a Pinot workshop. They have it very year and everyone brings a barrel sample. This guy stood up and started talking and the whole room was captivated with what he had to say and that was Mike Weersing. It's a bit surreal sometimes to think I am looking after the property and vineyard that he founded.
Then it was lucky to find another property with equally great soil and location. It's carrying on his legacy in a way, even though it was the new owners who found that. Im interested in the biodynamic and environmental aspects of Pyramid Valley. Is it all Pinot and Chardonnay?
Yes, and it's the same in Central Otago. At Waikari, Mike's plantings were originally three quarters Pinot and one quarter Chardonnay. Now the plantings are three quarters Chardonnay, one quarter Pinot Noir and then the majority of the plantings in Central Otago are Pinot, with 10 to 15% Chardonnay.
Being part of Made with Care is a cool situation and we are happy to be part of that like-minded approach. It’s opening up to a whole group of people who have a passion for where their food comes from and the story behind it and it’s not just coming from a factory. It’s really good to be part of that community. To me, it’s the idea that people care where their food comes form, where their wine comes from and the people who are growing it are looking after the land so its in a better place for the next generation to come.
I really love Central Otago Pinots. I've been to a thing called a Pinot Palooza here in Melbourne and there were all the different states of Australia on one side of the room and then Tasmania and New Zealand on the other and I think our Pinots are so distinctly different and I say our, meaning New Zealand to Australian ones. What is it about our Pinots?
I think New Zealand as a place to grow anything has an amazing intensity of flavour and a freshness to the food. It's to do with the UV and high sunlight hours and a good amount of water and a good amount of heat, but not too hot. Central Otago, out of all the regions probably has one of the shortest growing seasons but during that growing season, it has the longest day length. The sun doesn't go down until about 10 oclock at night in the middle of summer and then back up early in the morning, so it is a very condensed ripening period. The growing season probably starts a couple of weeks after us in Canterbury and will generally finish earlier than the Waikari property. I think New Zealand, and obviously wine in general has been influenced by the Old World and what has worked over there. But I think everyone wants to show their place and reflect the places we work in.
There's that whole terroir thing in the Old World and reflecting where it's from rather than reflecting the features of the label, so rather than saying, oh this tastes like a really great savvy, its actually about where it's from.
Yes, because that variety grows well there and it's down to the reflection of that place and to that reflect that place as best as you can, I think it's about respecting the place and looking after it which is where I think biodynamics comes in and then regenerative farming. You're looking after the land and the soil you're farming, and it all builds up from there. If you have good soil health, you will have good vine health and good fruit health and good wines. Or it doesn't matter what you are growing, you could be growing potatoes or broccoli. It comes down to what you are growing it in and if you are growing it in something that is diverse and healthy and resilient, then what you are going to grow is going to be better and healthier than if you are growing it in something inert where you have to feed lots of fertilisers and chemicals. What you are growing won't be as resilient, because your soil is not resilient.
The biodynamic aspect, I don't know much about it. Is it about the time you plant and also how you look after the plants?
Yes. I think the number one thing for me, is it's about observation. With biodynamic farming, you can't just grab a book and put it there, you have to watch how everything interacts. Its about observing and trying different things. It's a holistic approach where everything is interconnected. To me, it's about observation and sensitive farming and the observation of the moon cycle and when the right time is to do certain things. Nick Paulin is our chief vine gardener who is based on the central Otago property but he comes up here quite a bit as well and he has put a lot of cover crops in; a 27-species cover crop and it's about bringing more biodiversity into the soil. Different plants and different roots so that the microbes under the soil are more abundant and then above ground there are more plants, so more diversity of insects. He has done a really interesting experiment down in Central trying to show how that diversity can help the microbes in the soil. He buried two pairs of cotton undies; one pair in a cover crop row where he has the 27 different species and another pair in just a grass row. He buried them for about a month and then dug them up and then looked at how many holes were in the cotton. The cotton in the cover crop row had degraded a lot more than the grass row.
I love the science of that.
Yeah, it's trying to show how much the diversity matters to what is beneath us.
Of course. And what does it mean for Pyramid Valley to be part of the Made with Care campaign?
It's a cool situation and we are happy to be part of that like-minded approach. It's opening up to a whole group of people who have a passion for where their food comes from and the story behind it and it's not just coming from a factory. It's really good to be part of that community. To me, it's the idea that people care where their food comes form, where their wine comes from and the people who are growing it are looking after the land so its in a better place for the next generation to come. For me, personally, anything that is promoting that is great.
I felt so proud as a New Zealander, reading through that booklet and thinking that it is showcasing those products and suppliers to Australia and it's amazing to be able to a shine a light on those.
We will be over in Australia later in the year so it will be great to see that in action and how it is all working.
And I'm going to be looking out for bottles of Pyramid Valley. Thanks so much for your time, Hugh.