Mature New Zealand wines from the cellar

New Zealand isn't generally known for its mature wines at present, but there are some gems worth trying if you can find them. Rebecca Gibb MW picks out 15 examples for drinking now...

The success of New Zealand wine has relied heavily on one variety that’s best consumed young for its flamboyant fruit and youthful vigour.

Sauvignon Blanc has been both a blessing and a curse, placing New Zealand firmly on the world wine map but also strengthening the perception that New Zealand wines are not ageworthy.

This perception, however, is a misconception that needs to be detonated.

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It’s increasingly apparent that Sauvignon Blanc – which makes up 72% of the country’s wine production – does not need to be ‘picked, pressed and pissed before Christmas’, as some of the cruder winemakers used to joke. The finer examples of the varietal can be cellared for five years or more.New Zealand’s best reds – from Pinot Noir to Cabernet Sauvignon – also have the components to be able to age gracefully: concentration of fruit, natural acidity, ripeness of tannin and a splash of ‘je ne sais quoi’.

Recent tastings of older vintages have shown that many producers have underestimated the drinking windows of their wines and, in future, will have to rewrite their back-label blurbs with the advice: ‘will drink beautifully for a decade or more.’

The rapid evolution of New Zealand’s wine scene has made it difficult to confidently predict the longevity of its wines, as there aren’t decades of vintages to use as a yardstick. The majority of New Zealand’s vines were planted after 2000. As a result, many vineyards have only recently attained a level of maturity that is considered conducive to making fine, ageworthy wines.

The evolution of New Zealand’s vineyard area:

Year / Total plantings (ha)

2000 10,197

2005 21,002

2010 33,200

2017 37,129

Nigel Greening of Central Otago’s Felton Road, which was founded in 1992, explains: ‘While there will be a few examples of mature wines from mature vines, they will be rare. The point here is that the way mature wines show now will not be any indication of the future, or the norm for that future. ‘

In the past decade, while young vines have matured, viticulture has improved dramatically and winemakers have gained a better understanding of their sites, allowing them to refine their techniques.

While there are a small number of mature wines today that were produced from mature vines in the early noughties – notably from Martinborough and Hawke’s Bay – New Zealand continues to break new ground with every harvest.

Fifteen mature New Zealand wines for drinking now:

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