Over the years there have been many great names that have appeared in this annual acknowledgement. Even a wine made it there one year. Last year, the Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc contract growers were honoured for their commitment to getting back to managable crop levels, following the 2008 blow out.
As Terry said last year, sometimes a candidate stands out and the choice is easy to make. 2011 is one of those years. Kim and Jeanette Goldwater deserve full credit for establishing Goldwater Vineyard on Waiheke Island back in the late 70s. They brought the Island of Wine to the national and international media.
But it is for something else that we honour them this year – for their philanthropist actions in gifting their vineyard and winery to the University of Auckland Wine Science Department.
Kim and Jeanette are truly worthy recipients of the New Zealand WineGrower Personality of the Year award, as Joelle Thomson explains.
'Giving back’ is how Kim and Jeanette Goldwater describe their $4 million gift to the University of Auckland Wine Science Department this year.
On the face of it, such a gift might look like forfeiting everything this family-oriented couple have worked hard to build up from scratch but, since four generations of their family studied (and still do) at the university and since their winery is destined to be a wine training facility, they say they took the most logical option.
It began around the family dining room when the couple’s daughter, Gretchen, who works at the university at the Law School in public relations, told her parents that the Wine Science department was about to build a new building in the back blocks of Glen Innes.
“I thought it was absurd having a wine science department in Glen Innes and suggested to Randy Weaver, head of department, that he run the wine science department from our place. He got quite excited by this offer and over the following two years – 2009 and 2010 – it grew into a formal arrangement.”
That formal arrangement culminated this year in the gifting of $4 million to the University of Auckland, which includes about 14 hectares – including both vineyard and bush - and the winery, which the Goldwaters set up on Waiheke Island in the 1980s. A further, undisclosed sum, is being treated as a long term loan “with extremely favourable terms for them” says Kim, of the money the university is paying back to complete the transaction.
“We never had a second thought about our idea to gift it. We have benefited from three generations of graduates from Auckland University and now the fourth generation (our grandson) is at Auckland Engineering School. The first three generations never had to pay for their education there, so now we are giving something back to say thank you – and to develop a positive future for the winery we began,” says Kim.
“It allowed us to take a step back, which is probably better at 75, which we both are. The timing and the continuity for the vineyard and staff seemed to be such an optimistic future,” says Jeanette.
Their journey into winemaking began as a weekend hobby to sate their own appetites for red wine, which had been developed on their travels in Europe.
“When we came home from living and work in Spain, in 1966, it was like landing in East Germany. There were many times I was tempted to just throw it all in and go back to Spain to work,” says Kim.
“Instead, we had Mate Brajkovich deliver wine to us once a week – San Marino Dry Red – and we left money under the doormat. It was the only red wine we could find at that time, apart from Bakano, which was enormously more expensive and we certainly weren’t wealthy when we got back,” says Jeanette.
Wealthy they may not have been, but they had fallen for the charms of the southern European lifestyle; meals were usually eaten very late and always accompanied by red wine and children around the dinner table.
“It was certainly very difficult adjusting to life back here. Our time in Spain was two magical years where children were treated like royalty and people had wine with dinner every night,” says Jeanette.
When they first returned to New Zealand Kim worked as an engineer but a growing desire for a change led him into photography, then winemaking.
“Kim had always been a good photographer and one day somebody bet him that he would never give up engineering, even though he was unhappy, so he handed in his notice and became a photographer. I planted lots of vegetables,” says Jeanette, with a wry smile.
When he wasn’t building up his small photography business, Kim gradually built a yacht at home, which the couple used to sail around Waiheke, eventually discovering a piece of land, which they bought, planted in grapes and established with a winery.
“I remember going to a lecture that Mate Brajkovich gave in West Auckland and asking how much vineyard land could you look after just at the weekend. He said about two acres would be maximum and so that’s about how much we put in. There were five adjacent land holders which we got together with to run some of our joint land as a big farm with cattle and a few sheep,” says Kim.
They planted their first grapes in 1978 and moved to Waiheke Island in 1983; initially spending the weekends there.
“We had to support our habit by working in the city. We obeyed the information from the so-called wine experts of the day and didn’t produce wine for three years. Just as we were about to produce the first wine, Jeanette’s mother passed away – in 1981 - and we had to up anchor and tear down to Christchurch and support her in the last hours. When we got back, the birds had eaten our entire crop. The first wine was made the following year,” recalls Kim.
Word spread quickly all round New Zealand about their first wine.
“I have no idea how it happened. We only had a few people on our mailing list. We had not contacted any wine writers or disseminated any information but news travelled via the grapevine and we had people in the South Island, on the West Coast and in several towns all over the country asking to be on our mailing list to buy our wine. Then one day we were out in the vineyard working and a dark blue van with black windows came down the drive. I thought it was the Mongrel Mob but out of the van emerged Roger Price, a TV One news and current affairs presenter, asking if they could do a short film about us. He did a 10-minute film on us, which was on Monday night; a maximum audience watched it after the network news. It was absolutely incredible luck and finished up with a close up shot of the bottle on prime time on television.”
Within two days their first vintage was sold, bar 10 cases they kept for themselves. Shortly afterwards, they had to part with most of that, due to a botched courier delivery. And from there the winery, its production and its name for high quality grew. These days Kim has another vision.
“I was talking to Randy Weaver at the university the other day,” he says, when being interviewed for NZ Winegrower, in November 2011, “and he told me every decision they make now in relation to the development of a study facility at the winery is predicated on them turning it into the Southern Hemisphere’s pre-eminent school of winemaking,” says Kim.
“They’ve decided right from the outset that is their goal rather than just carrying on the way they are doing because the wine science programme up until now has been a post-graduate course. They are planning to introduce an under graduate course some time soon, so there is a lot of potential,” he says.
“It sounds audacious but you don’t get anywhere without aiming high,” says Jeanette.
“We never had any other thought in mind than to produce the best and one should always aim for the top.”
From NZWine CEO Philip Gregan.
The international reputation that New Zealand wine has developed over the past generation has been founded on two key drivers – New Zealand’s unique grape growing environment and the skills, passion and drive of our people.
In future years New Zealand will be even better placed than previously to produce high quality graduates because of the extremely generous gift by Kim and Jeanette Goldwater to the University of Auckland. The Waiheke pioneers have gifted land, buildings and vineyards valued in excess of $4 million to the University.
The gift is an outstanding example of philanthropy. It is a major investment in our people and in our future. The gift is one that will keep on giving – it will provide a wonderful environment for students to experiment and learn, all within the context of a commercial operating winery.
Kim and Jeanette this is a wonderfully generous gift that will benefit our industry for years to come. Thank you ν
