From rugby to wine

 Before then, his experience of the product had been pretty much restricted to Cold Duck and Blue Nun.  Playing in France on his first international tour in 1977, he sampled a Pinot Noir so outstanding that “it went to my toes”.  

The former prop explains that this was before the professional era, when New Zealand’s rugby representatives had more freedom to enjoy the countries they were touring.

At the time, his palate wasn’t educated enough, he says, to appreciate a Bordeaux-style wine.  “Pinot Noir just hit the spot.  It’s been hitting the spot ever since really.”

The toe-tingling revelation triggered a lifelong passion for wine and ultimately it was to lead to John and wife Jo establishing The Junction Vineyard, a 10ha block and cellar door they operate on their cattle, sheep and cropping farm in Central Hawke’s Bay.   

Serendipity has also played its part in their venture.

The couple started their married life on a small farming block in Canterbury, where John made big money as a freezing worker for 10 years while Jo ran the property.  When Jo’s parents retired to Feilding, she and John started looking for a better farm, preferably in the North Island.  In 1986, they bought in Takapau, on the corner of Highways 2 and 50 west of Waipukurau.

As it turned out, it was also great country for grapes.   

A neighbouring farmer, Sir Richard Harrison was among the first to recognise the area’s winegrowing potential.  Well-travelled, the former Speaker of the House and local MP enjoyed wine, particularly bubbly.  He backed his belief that it could be grown on the Takapau Plains in developing his own small vineyard.  

Drawing on his knowledge and guidance, the Ashworths put in Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Noir cuttings around their homestead.   At that stage, the couple were strictly hobbyists.   “We wanted to see if we could grow our own Pinot Noir basically,” says John, but he and Jo soon found they couldn’t keep pace with the volume of wine produced.   

So the Ashworths, Sir Richard and Malcolm Johansen and Shirley Stubbs – also locals trialling grape growing – joined forces to form The Three Sisters wine company, a brand inspired by three prominent hills behind Takapau. 

“And we would find a winemaker each year and try to improve on the year before’s quality and then attempt to sell it around the area.  So it was very much hands-on and we were all doing a bit,” John says.

Montana too, had shown interest in the Tikokino and Ongaonga areas of Central Hawke’s Bay but ran into resistance from farmers who raised concerns about the effects of their thistle-spraying on the vines with local government.  

Eventually, deaths and retirements saw The Three Sisters’ partnership fold, but in 2000, the Ashworths expanded their plantings onto red metal soils on the other side of Highway 2, opposite their farmhouse.    

Free-draining and gently sloping or terraced in two directions, the block catches good sun.  John says it is also spared Central Hawke’s Bay’s crippling spring frosts.

“I do tell the story that if I hear the choppers go over, I take a bottle of Pinot Noir around to Dot, a very good friend and our local minister, and she’d do the praying and I’d have a glass of Pinot Noir and it seemed to work.”

At 250 metres above sea level, the growing conditions are unlike those more generally experienced on the Heretaunga Plains or even nearby.  

“The climate changes very dramatically every kilometre down this road,” John points out.  “You get to the Waipukurau Golf Course and you hit that lower area there and it’s either foggy or very frosty.  Waipukurau is three degrees hotter in summer than here, and they also get some pretty good frosts in springtime.  So we don’t tend to get those frosts or get the damage here.  That was a bit of luck.” 

The looming Ruahine Range attracts regular rain, growing days are hot, and cool nights slow ripening, helping the grapes retain their flavours.     

Over the years, curious motorists who regularly travel these roads have seen the rows increase.  Production is now 40-60 tonnes.  The Ashworths’ choices of varieties have been guided by soil and other tests undertaken by Villa Maria during a partnership that ended after three years.   

The Junction’s single vineyard range encompasses John’s favoured Pinot Noir and other cool-climate loving varieties – Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris – as well as the ubiquitous Chardonnay.  Styles include a methode traditionelle, a Rosé and a late harvest wine.

Harvesting is late at this relatively high altitude – the second week in April – but picking is a relatively easy process with the different varieties ripening in close order.   

For the last seven years, The Junction’s winemaker has been son Leith, who studied oenology and viticulture at Lincoln University and is based in Hawke’s Bay making wine for The Wine Portfolio, formerly Morton Estate.

“His winemaking skills are very good for a young person and he’s been consistently getting medals for our varieties,” says Jo.  “So he’s helped us along the journey, which has made it special.”

The Ashworths are happy to continue selling their wines into selected bars and restaurants and welcoming visitors to their picturesquely rustic cellar door.  An extension of their home, it includes a “rugby room” where sport enthusiasts can sift through memorabilia collected by John as they sample wines that, like Possession Pinot Noir and Runaway Riesling, take their names from the national game.  

“We’re just saying we’re this unique little area that can actually grow eight different varieties at a very high standard,” says Jo. “At this stage we love it, it would be nice to keep the quality of the wines going on, just continue on what we are doing I think.  

“You do farming in the morning and open the cellar door in the afternoon.  The quality sells itself.”