Pegasus Bay Riesling: A unique New Zealand style

Only a handful of New Zealand producers dedicate themselves whole-heartedly to the niche sport that is Riesling, and Pegasus Bay is one of them.

Over the past 40 years, the Donaldson family has honed a style of Riesling that is both unusual and rich. Ed Donaldson was in London to present the latest new and library vintage releases.

Scroll down for eight current and library vintage releases of Pegasus Bay Riesling

It all started with Wine, the first book (published in 1966) written by long-time Decanter columnist Hugh Johnson. Ivan Donaldson, an eminent neurologist from Christchurch, New Zealand, received it from then girlfriend (and now wife) Chris ahead of a European sabbatical in the early 1970s.

Being based in the UK enabled them to travel to European wine regions which resulted in Ivan ‘falling in love with the cool-climate regions like Burgundy and Mosel’, said their son Ed.

Back in New Zealand, following the sabbatical, Ivan continued practising neurology but in 1976 planted a few rows of vines in their Christchurch suburb, teaching himself how to make wine from books.

It would take another decade before he prospected for suitable land to plant vines on a commercial scale – which he did in 1986 alongside his and Chris’ four sons, then aged between eight and 14.

Today, eldest son Mat is Pegasus Bay’s winemaker, Paul is general manager, Mike is sales manager and Ed is marketing manager. Ivan and Chris are also still fully involved and Ed’s wife, Belinda, has joined as events manager.

Since those vines were planted 37 years ago, with the inaugural release of Pegasus Bay wines in 1991 (made in the garage of their Christchurch home), the family has honed a style that relies heavily on botrytis cinerea, or noble rot, for their dry, off-dry and sweet Rieslings.

The botrytis bounty

The spot Ivan chose in for his vineyards and winery, in the Waipara Valley of North Canterbury on New Zealand’s South Island, allows for exactly the kind of extended growing season that enables Riesling to ripen before developing botrytis.

‘It is tucked up right into the lee of the Teviotdale Range,’ Ed says. ‘On the other side, there is the Main Divide [a local name for the Southern Alps] which provides a rain shadow.’ So the now 40ha vineyard is protected on either side. The Glasnevin gravel soils are free-draining pebbles mixed with loam and silt.

Pegasus Bay makes five different styles of Riesling ‘to cover the full spectrum’ of sweetness, says Ed, and all are ‘very rich, full and unapologetically concentrated’.

‘We let the grapes hang for a long time and wait for a little bit of botrytis, but we want really nice, clean botrytis,’ he adds.

Grapes are harvested in several stages, and each wine has some botrytis influence. This ranges from about 10% in the Main Divide Riesling (a sister label to Pegasus Bay that includes purchased fruit) up to 100% in the lusciously German TBA-style Encore Riesling.

Only the off-dry Main Divide and the medium-dry Pegasus Bay Estate Riesling are made every year, while the Reserve-level wines – the dry Bel Canto, medium-sweet Aria and sweet Encore – are only made when the botrytis levels are right. Their names reflect Chris’s passion for opera.

‘My brother Mat deliberately does not measure the residual sugar in the fermenting wines,’ says Ed. ‘Once the right balance is reached, the ferment is stopped by cooling down and sulphuring the wines. We do not filter or cold-stabilise, so you will see some tartrates and some solids with time.’

Pegasus Bay Riesling: new and library vintages

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