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.
Dispute over world’s most southerly wine region resolved
Aurum vineyard in Central Otago
UK wine writer Tim Atkin MW is a definite inclusion in my list of the world’s top five wine writers. He’s extremely bright, very competitive and is a tireless traveller in the world’s wine regions. He’s a great wine taster with an ability to communicate his impressions clearly and effectively.
When Tim took me to task for describing Central Otago as the world’s most southerly wine region I didn’t argue. Patagonia in southern Chile, he explained, was further south. It’s been two years since we had that conversation and I’ve made no claim of Otago’s southerly status since.
Today I downloaded the latest version of Google Earth and was messing around with the new features when it occured to me that I could easily check how much further south Patagonia was than Central Otago. It was a simple matter to find a list of Patagonian wineries and select the one, Vina Canata, that claimed to be the world’s most southerly winery. It’s located to the north of the Bio Bio Valley. Google Earth pinpointed it’s southerly latitude at 36 degrees 47 minutes. I then found Black Ridge winery in Alexandra, the most southerly district of Central Otago. Its southerly latitude is 45 degrees 16 minutes – significantly further south than Vina Canata which, according to my calculations using Google, is on about the same latitude as Auckland.
That’s it then, Central Otago is the world’s most southerly wine producing region and is likely to remain that way unless someone in Chile figures out how to grow grapevines in permafrost … or someone pinpoints a flaw in my calculations.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:34 am
Hi Bob, we were quite confident that we were in fact the most southerly and would apopreciate it if you forwarded this through to Tim, whilst we will have a chat with Vina Canata – pointing out how Central actually is!
Cheers
Matt
March 30th, 2010 at 2:55 am
Diego Bigongiari in his Austral Spectator guide wrote: “I was able to taste the Primera Partida 2006 Merlot by Patagonian Wines. This almost experimental cellar, created by Weinert in Hoyo del Epuyén, Province of Chubut, Argentina,(GPS -42.08218 y -71.49699) is not only the most southern of the country, but also of the American continent: for this first vintage, the wine is of average quality, though the effort worthy of interest. Hence, with the white grape types being resistant to the cold, wine-growing in Patagonia could extend right up to the banks of Buenos Aires Lake in Santa Cruz (-46.9249 y -70.7881): these wines would thus be the most southern of the planet, leaving those of Otago in New Zealand farther north. Having said that, it is not really necessary to go quite as deep: the 39° latitude is enough. Indeed, despite the terrible early and late frosts, Río Negro and Neuquén are warm lands … cooler than those in the north. They constitute an ideal land and climate type for white grape vines and such nouveau red wines as Pinot and Merlot. Malbec and Cabernet are also well suited, though being subject to frosts before the start of grape-picking.”
March 30th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Very interesting. Bigongiari makes the point that Central Otago is further south than the most southerly vineyards although they have the potential to go further south than Central Otago – even down to -46.9249 degrees south. If we’re talking potential we could go as far south as the southern end of Stewart Island where we would gazump the South Americans with a latitude of 47.1625. Ice wine anyone?
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January 7th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Hi Bob,
There are several vineyards further south than those around Alexandra. There is a vineyard at Ettrick and two in Roxbough. I have sourced chardonnay from the Top Meadow Vineyard in East Roxborough for my winery in Dunedin, which is The World’s Most Southern Winery (Recognized Guinness record since 1992). I have made a small parcel of Pinot from the vineyard at the westerly end of Roxborough some time ago. And certainly William Hill vineyard has sourced a small amount from there also. And there is another a few miles further on. There is also a new vineyrad just north of Dunedin near Waitati on the hill. But I don’t think it’s producing yet, and may be finding it very difficlut in the cold misty conditions that prevail over the motorway in summer. So, the upshot is that, lower Alexandra is the World’s Most Southerly wine region. (Roxborough Region) Alexandra has neither the Most Southerly vineyard or winery. The only way for this to occur, is if the lines of Longitude and latitude are shifted).