HYDERABAD: New Zealand is best known for its rugged mountain peaks, deeply carved fiords and sweeping white sand beaches. Now, this land of natural contrasts is home to luxury wine experiences in locations as diverse as the sides of cliffs and beside picture-perfect lakes.
When I heard of Mt Difficulty I thought, “Wow!! What a strange name! Must be very difficult to scale the mountain hence the name.” It’s only later I came to know that it is the winery that is named so and not the mountain. As we approached the Mt Difficulty winery, then I could see what an irresistible place it is, with dramatic views of rugged rock and thyme landscapes.
It is indeed really difficult to resist spending a few hours at this beautiful place, where vistas over wineries through a broad valley with snow topped mountains in the distance steal your heart. I sat outside on their outdoor terrace and enjoyed the amazing panorama of their vineyards and Bannockburn’s terrain.
Central Otago, the land most Americans came to know via The Lord of the Rings is home to some great wines as well as spectacular scenery. Established in 1992, Mt Difficulty Wines is home to some of Central Otago’s oldest and most revered vineyards. Mt Difficulty Wines is located in Bannockburn, well within an hour’s drive of both Queenstown and Wanaka. The place boasts a beautifully appointed cellar door and restaurant with superb wine and food to match.
Mt Difficulty’s Cellar Door offers an interactive wine tasting, catering to individual tastes and level of wine experience, while the Restaurant serves lunch daily. My wine tasting session was filled with interesting information, tasting lovely wines accompanied by complementary foods that go with the stylish wines.
Winemaking and vine growing go back to colonial times in New Zealand. Vines, which produce best in low moisture and low soil fertility environments, were seen as suitable for areas that had previously been marginal pasture.
The end of the 1960s saw the end of the New Zealand institution of the “ six o’ clock swill”, where pubs were open for only an hour after the end of the working day and closed on all Sunday: the six o’clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed.
During a significant part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public bars at 6 pm. A culture of heavy drinking developed during the time between finishing work at 5 pm and the mandatory closing time only an hour later.
The same legislative reform saw the introduction of BYO (bring your own) licences for restaurants. This had a profound and unexpected effect on New Zealanders’ cultural approach to wine.
Finally, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw the rise of the “overseas experience”, where young New Zealanders travelled and lived and worked overseas, predominantly in Europe. As a cultural phenomenon, the overseas experience predates the rise of New Zealand’s premium wine industry, but by the 1960s a distinctly Kiwi (New Zealand) identity had developed and the passenger jet made the overseas experience possible for large numbers of New Zealanders who experienced first-hand the premium wine cultures of Europe.
Central Otago with the second highest area planted, has strong, sweet plum and cherry flavours and thyme notes. It is the most southerly wine-producing region in the world. The vineyards are also the highest in New Zealand at 200 to 400 metres above sea level on the steep slopes of lakesides and the edges of deep river gorges, often also in glacial soils. Central Otago is a sheltered inland area with a continental microclimate characterised by hot, dry summers, short, cool autumns and crisp, cold winters.
The initial focus for the industry’s export efforts was the United Kingdom. The late 1970s and early 1980s were not only pioneering times for production but also marketing and as with many New Zealand products, the wine was only really taken seriously at home when it was noticed and praised overseas and in particular by British wine commentators and critics.
For much of the history of New Zealand wine exportation the United Kingdom market, with its lack of indigenous production, great thirst and sophisticated wine palate has been either the principal or the only market.
In the last decade the British market’s overwhelming importance has eroded; while still the single largest export market, it now makes up only one- third of total exports by value, only slightly larger than the American and Australian markets. Japan is a particularly strong importer of high-end New Zealand wines.
After exploring the history and the uniqueness of Central Otago wines and tasting some exquisite stuff along with some great food, I realised that Mt Difficulty wines are indeed cool stuff!
(The author is a documentary filmmaker and travel writer; she blogs at vijayaprataptravelandbeyond.com)