Central Otago

When you think of New Zealand, perhaps it conjures up visions of rugged landscapes, kiwi birds, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For me, of course there’s the rugged landscape and kiwi bird mental images, but I also envision beautiful vineyards, charming wineries, and, obviously, wine!

New Zealand produces only 1% of the world’s wine, but it produces wine with a distinct identity and world renowned reputation. In this post, we’ll take a look at the Central Otago wine region in southern New Zealand. I may have chosen this specific region because it happens to be home to one of my favorite actors of all time, and proprietor of the Two Paddocks winery in Central Otago, Sam Neill. You may recognize him from his role as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, arguably the best movie of all time (yeah, I said it). I could go on and on about my love for the cinematic masterpiece that is Jurassic Park, but this is a wine blog, so I’ll try to stay on topic.

New Zealand is located about 1,000 miles to the southeast of Australia. An island chain in the middle of the Tasman Sea consisting of two large islands, known as the North Island and South Island, and surrounded by hundreds of much smaller islands. As you may know, New Zealand is incredibly geologically active, with rugged mountain ranges, active volcanoes, and geothermal areas of sulfur pools and erupting geysers. So, of course we can’t talk about New Zealand without talking about geology.

Parts of the New Zealand island chain formed over 500 million years ago as a piece of the huge land mass called Gondwanaland, as evidenced by some rock outcrops that have been dated to that time in geologic history. Gondwanaland was mostly located in the Southern Hemisphere and included Africa, South America, Australia, India, Antarctica, and New Zealand. This supercontinent began to break up during the early Jurassic and has been on the move ever since. Much of current-day New Zealand is the result of the collision of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates. The North Island and the northern portion of the South Island were formed from uplift and volcanic activity from the Pacific plate subducting beneath the Australian plate, and in the southern portion of the South Island, it’s the other way around. As it sits now, the North Island is located on the Australian plate while much of the South Island is on the Pacific plate. Whoa.

Thanks to the trajectory of the travelling plates, New Zealand has found itself directly within the 30- to 50-degree latitude range that’s ideal for producing wine. In fact, Central Otago is the southern-most wine producing region in New Zealand, and arguably in the entire world (there is a region in Argentina that challenges this title).

Much of New Zealand experiences a cool maritime climate, with no vineyard further than 80 miles from the ocean. Central Otago, however, is the only NZ wine region with a continental climate. Continental climates are found in inland areas and are generally characterized by cold, wet winters and hot, dry summers, with a high variation between daytime and nighttime temperatures.

Central Otago vineyards are protected from sea breeze by the soaring Southern Alps mountain range and experience distinct seasonal changes. Some of the hottest and coldest temperatures on record in New Zealand were recorded here. This area experiences a large diurnal shift during the growing season with hot days (temps often in the upper 80s) and cool evenings. This allows grapes to fully ripen while retaining a desirable amount of acidity.

Soils in the area are variable but well-draining, weathered schist, clay, loess, and sandy loam, as well as alluvial gravels, are prevalent throughout the region. Central Otago was home to New Zealand’s gold rush in the 1800s; subsequently, some vineyards are planted in the old gold mining tailings. Iron-rich red rock and soil outcrops, that lie beneath the loess and gravel deposits are also characteristic of the region. In fact, “Otago” translates to “place of red earth” in Maori, the language of indigenous people of New Zealand.

If I asked you to name one type of wine from New Zealand, I’m sure the majority of you would pick Sauvignon Blanc, and rightfully so! According to the 2023 edition of the New Zealand Wine Textbook (I wish every wine growing region had one of these textbooks), about 77% of all wine produced in New Zealand is Sauvignon Blanc, and it accounts for 86% of wine exported out of New Zealand, taking up about 64% of all NZ vineyard space. That’s a lot of Sauv Blanc! Most of this comes from the Marlborough region on the northern end of the South Island, where the first Sauv Blanc grapes were planted in 1975. As popular as this grape is in NZ, though, you may have a harder time tracking it down in Central Otago, where it accounts for only 2% of vineyard space in the region. The flagship grape variety here is Pinot Noir, and it’s damn good. Expect these Pinot Noirs to have characteristics of vibrant fruit flavors (cherry, raspberry, strawberry), sweet spice aromas, and a silky texture. The region is also home to several white varieties, primarily Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling, and also rosé of Pinot Noir.

Fun fact! Beloved actor and star of Jurassic Park and numerous other films and TV series, Sam Neill, planted the first Pinot Noir for his Two Paddocks winery in 1993… the same year Jurassic Park was released! What a year 1993 was! The first wine from his vineyard was bottled in 1997 and his winery has been producing Pinot Noir ever since. He now owns three vineyards, each in a different valley of Otago, and has added Riesling to the label as well. He's also an advocate of sustainable and organic agriculture and runs a small farm with lavender fields and animal friends - his Instagram page is absolutely delightful. I had the joy of tasting Two Paddocks’ 2020 The Fusilier Pinot Noir recently and it was worth the time and money to have it shipped over to good ol’ Spokane, WA. I had been wanting to get my hands on Two Paddocks wine for years and it just hadn’t been available in Washington until very recently. This wine was elegant, with a silky texture and dark fruit and floral flavors. In my head, I picture the bottle with little hearts floating around it. Pure joy.