|
The Vineyard, Winery and Cellar
The climate in Golden Bay is near ideal for grapes, with pockets of land at Clifton and nearby Hamama especially suited to growing not only Pinot Noir, but Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris varieties. Waiwera’s 20-year old vines cover a full hectare and have been meticulously tended.
The winery contains fermentation tanks, all necessary wine making equipment and testing facilities, a temperature controlled barrel room, along with fork lift, tractor and mower etc. Moulded around an outcrop of rock nearby , a ferro-cement and chunky rock-covered cellar now acts as the main drawcard of the winery. Many of the cast iron fittings for it were cast in France by craftsmen and no expense was spared setting up this remarkable ‘subterranean’ chamber. Annual production is around 3,000 bottles.
The tradition of wine-making at Clifton goes back to 1868 when Auckland was little more than a trading post and the bustling town of Collingwood in Golden Bay was being hotly tipped to become New Zealand’s capital. Enterprising Francis Henry Montague Ellis saw the writing on the wall for his struggling gold-mining venture and threw it in to plant his first vines amongst the limestone outcrops at Waiwera, now known as Clifton, in what must rate as one of the first serious wine ventures in what was then the British colony of New Zealand.
 The resulting ‘Muscadine’ wine from FHM Ellis & Sons vineyard, called Broxbourne, was exported to Australia where it won three gold medals, including top wine prize at the prestigious South Sea Exhibition of 1889. Ellis, at the reins of his horse and cart laden with barrels of wine, became a familiar sight along the six-kilometre track from the winery to the busy river-mouth port of Waitapu.
This early winemaking venture continued until 1925 and serious winemaking in Golden Bay then stopped until Dave Heraud planted vines on his hillside at Clifton in 1989 to produce Waiwera’s first vintage several years later. Initially the grapes were trucked to Nelson and Marlborough for contract processing, and it wasn’t until 1997 that Waiwera Estate could again boast making Golden Bay’s first Pinot Noir, from grapes grown and vintnered on the property.
|
|
|
|
