Letter from Martinborough
A small town with big successes, Joelle Thomson explains why Martinborough is such a special spot for Pinot Noir devotees...
Martinborough is a small town that has made a big impact in the wine world. Pinot Noir is its flagship and makes up about 40% of the 1,090 hectares of producing vineyard land in the Wairarapa wine region in which Martinborough sits.
The vast majority of this planting is in and around Martinborough, including Te Muna Valley, which is situated nine kilometres east in a windswept, majestically beautiful area and itself home to a hefty 330 hectares of the region’s total.
The first modern wines in Martinborough were made in 1984 by the earliest wineries, which were Ata Rangi, Chifney Wines, Dry River Wines and Martinborough Vineyards. Much has changed since then, with an ever-growing number of new wineries, cellar doors, tasting rooms and restaurants, but Martinborough’s small size and somewhat “under the radar” profile remain.
“The first modern wines in Martinborough were made in 1984 by the earliest wineries, which were Ata Rangi, Chifney Wines, Dry River Wines and Martinborough Vineyards.”
Interestingly, even the physical size of Pinot Noir grapes grown in Martinborough fall on the smaller side. Strong winds in the region tend to ensure that crops of grapes remain small but high in quality, as they have to develop thick skins to withstand the battering they receive from Mother Nature each year. This means that “bunch architecture”
(the shape and size of grape bunches) in Martinborough vineyards can be smaller than that of Pinot Noir grapes grown in less extreme weather conditions, says winemaker Helen Masters of Ata Rangi.
Pinot Pioneers
Technical wine information aside, Martinborough itself is a remote rural village and it’s not exactly on the beaten track. Nor is it home to easily marketable majestic snow-capped mountains, ski fields or precarious bungy jumps over eye-wateringly blue rivers.
It has lacked a powerful bunch of personalities to constantly push its wines out to an appreciative audience, but it is certainly not short of its own charms. Visitor numbers in Martinborough grew more swiftly than in any other region post-lockdown in 2020, and don’t seem to have abated since. Cycling culture has
taken off in a big way and it is the only wine region in New Zealand where visitors can walk between most of its wineries, which are situated conveniently in a circuit around the town’s famous Union Square (named after the Union Jack, with streets coming off it in the same fashion as the famous flag).
Committee members from Wairarapa Wine Region (the official marketing
body for the wider Wairarapa wine region) are keen to build on this and see Martinborough gain an even higher profile for its wines, given Martinborough Pinot Noir remains one of the great successes of the New Zealand wine industry.
To this end, the first “Pinot Pioneers” dinner will be held in Martinborough in July, to celebrate the role that the first four Martinborough winemakers played
in the 1980s. Three of them will be attending the event on Thursday 27 July at local restaurant Union Square. Tickets are scarce but may be available by email from marketing@wairarapawine.co.nz
Joelle Thomson is a journalist, wine writer and author.
