Growing Legacy
Thirty-six years after Dave and Chris Macdonald followed a vineyard dream to Marlborough, and 28 years after they named a wine label for their children Blair and Deni, the family is devoted to Bladen, says Deni Hopkins
Homoclimes is a geographical term meaning ‘similar climate’. Anyone prospecting for a vineyard site in their quest to make serious Pinot Noir probably takes more than a passing interest in Burgundy’s climatic credentials. Michael Cooper describes in his Wine Atlas of New Zealand (second edition) how the founding partners of Martinborough Vineyards at their first meeting were invited to enjoy a glass of grand cru burgundy and were told, “this is the objective”.
It helped that the partners included a soil scientist, a pharmacist, and someone with a background in horticulture and viticulture. Their scientific minds must surely have addressed the extent to which Martinborough and Burgundy were homoclimes. Martinborough rapidly become New Zealand’s Pinot Noir capital thanks in no small part to the region’s similarity with the world Pinot Noir capital, Burgundy. “Homoclimes are typically sought using temperature and rainfall data” explains the OCW. “For example, Tamar Ridge Vineyards has used this approach to identify new vineyard regions in Tasmania with the same climate as distinguished the Marlborough region of New Zealand.”
Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. Tassie Savie anyone?
