Bob Campbell is one of only 264 Masters of Wine in the world. An international wine judge, Bob judges wine professionally in ten countries and contributes regularly to publications around the world. His specialty is New Zealand wine which he reviews from an international perspective.
Destiny Bay and the 2011 Waiheke vintage
An aerial view of Destiny Bay's winery (mid-left) and vineyards
Destiny Bay is a relative newcomer to Waiheke, established by the American family of Mike and Ann Spratt and their son Sean. They selected a wonderful site on the western side of the island in a north-facing ampitheatre. The winery is a red wine specialist with the vineyard planted predominantly with Cabernet Sauvignon but also Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
Destiny Bay makes three wines; the entry level Destinae ($75 or $45 for “Patron Club” members), Mystae ($115 or $70 for members) and the flagship Magna Praemia ($275 or $165 for members). It’s easy enough to become a Patron Club member, simply log onto the site www.destinybaywine.com and register. The winery sells first to members with retailers and the export market getting whatever is left over.
2011 has been a tough year for Waiheke producers, in fact it seems to have been fairly tough for most North Island regions thanks to a fairly wet ripening season driven by La Nina weather patterns. Rain encourages rot while water-swollen berries tend to dilute flavours. Here’s a fairly typical photo of some Merlot grapes shortly before harvest.
While flavours, sugar level and colour appeared to be pretty good there are a number of rotten and bird damaged berries that will threaten quality if they are included in the ferment.
Destiny Bay’s effective but expensive solution is to reject as many defective berries as they can when the fruit is picked and then to have a further and even more rigorous selection process on a vibrating platform that allows small berries to drop though a grill before nine studious workers remove any further sub-standard material by hand. Look at the concentration on the faces of the nine sorters in the photograph.
Hand-sorting Merlot grapes
Although the ultimate wine is not likely to be as good as the impressive wines from the great 2010 vintage (I tasted barrel samples and can confirm that this is a “once in a lifetime” vintage) they should still be pretty good. Producers who don’t sort their grapes are likely to struggle.
Sean and Mike Spratt
April 24th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
Hi Mike & Ann:
Sorry to hear 2011 will not be remembered as one of the great ones by you guys. It’s funny though how much harder the artisan winemaker has to work in a challenging year than in the great ones. You look like you’ve come through it relatively unscathed….
All our love and warmest regards
Ian & Di
Fancrest Estate