Ep. 989 Map 18 New Zealand | Jumbo Shrimp Maps

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally International Academy, announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine Ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong. From the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding course? Do you want to be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Learn more and apply now at viniti international dot com. Welcome to jumbo shrimp wine study maps. We have specially created this free content for all our listeners who are studying for wine exams. This has been a journey of development since Stevie Kim discovered Rosie Baker's hand drawn maps on Instagram through two years of work by our in house editorial and graphics team, and now the maps are available to purchase in beta form while they undergo the final briefing and editing by our expert advisory board. It's a three layered project because we know everyone learns differently. We now offer the complete box set of thirty nine maps. This series of podcasts with the maps narrated by our crack team of wine educators. And finally, the study guide book, which will be published later this year. Our map project is in no way a substitute for the materials set out by other educational organizations, but we hope all the wine students out there will find our map project a new exciting and useful tool for learning. For more information and to buy the maps, please visit our website at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. I'm Jill Gordon Smith, and this is the Jumbo shrimp wine study map guide. Today, we're going to be talking about New Zealand. New Zealand is a wine producing country that's probably best known for its fresh pungent vibrant sauvignon blanc, and it's a style that it's inspired winemakers in many other wine regions. However, it has a reputation for making premium quality pin and wire, chardonnay, Sarah, and border style blends. So there is far more to New Zealand than just one grape variety. It's located in the Pacific Ocean, It's around two thousand kilometers from Australia, and that means it experiences a maritime climate overall. In the south, the climates cool, whereas in the north, it's slightly warmer. There are long sunshine hours, nights cooled by sea breezes, and a long ripening period, which allows grapes to reach very high levels of sugar, and also flavor ripeness while retaining acidity. The vineyards of the south island are mainly on the east side, and they're protected from those rain bearing westerly winds by mountains in the center of the island. However, many of the vineyard areas still have lots of rainfall. And that can be problematic during ripening. Fortunately, the soils are very free draining, so don't experience waterlogging, whether those on flat land can be overly fertile, which can lead to excessive shoot and leaf growth. New Zealand Vidicultists have become experts in trellising and other canopy management techniques, which have been sent out to many other areas of the world. The New Zealand wine industry is very strongly committed to reducing the environmental impact of their vineyard management and winery practices. So sustainable Viticulture is something that sets winery standards and helps growers achieve these aims. Since the early nineteen nineties, Seven Young Blanc, has been firmly established as New Zealand's flagship grape And it accounts for majority of wine production. It's pungent, it's intense, and it has racy acidity. There are subtle differences in the styles of the north and south islands. In the north, you have sauvignon blog with more tropical flavors. And in the south, you have higher acidity and lots of green capsicum, otherwise known as bell pepper, and gooseberry notes. It's usually fermented in inert vessels at cool temperatures to keep those fruity flavors, but some producers are also making some oak produced styles. Chardonnay's widely planted, and a number of winemaking techniques are used. However, the general style tends to be led by concentrated citrus and tropical fruits with subtle hints of toast and sweet spice from new French oat riesling gewurztraminer, and the semi aromatic pin agree have also been widely planted. You've got dry autumns, cool night temperatures to make sure that those aromatic compounds have plenty of time to develop before the grapes are harvested. The wines range from dry to sweet, but off dry tends to be the most prevalent. Pinanhua is the second most planted grape rider in New Zealand after sauvignon blanc. It's widely grown throughout the South Island and within a few selected sites in the North Island. The profile would be vibrant fruit, fine ripe tannin, soft texture, and quite high levels of alcohol. There are some distinct regional styles that are emerging. Thank you for listening to Italian wine podcast. We know there are many of you listening out there, so we just want to interrupt for a small ask. Italian wine podcast is in the running for an award, the best podcast listening platform through the podcast awards, the people's choice. Lister nominations is from July first to the thirty first, and we would really appreciate your vote. We are hoping our listeners will come through for us. So if you have a second and could do this small thing for us, just head to Italian wine podcast dot com from July first to the thirty first and click the link. We thank you, and back to the show. Merlo and Cabernet sauvignon are also planted, and they make up some fantastic border style blends. Sara is another great variety that performs best in warmer summers. And produces elegant wines closer installed to those of the Roan than the hotter climates of Australia. The plantings are small, but they're increasing. In the North Island, we have Auckland, and this is where the wine industry in New Zealand started off. And there are still many large wineries based there. It's warm and it's wet and fungal diseases can be an issue. Shardonay, merlot, and Surah would be the most planted varieties here. You could take a ferry to Waahiti Island, and that has a growing reputation for top quality wines, particularly reds. Hawks Bay, this vineyard area is located close to the Twin towns of Hastings and Napia, and that's situated on the East Coast of the North Island in an estuary plain. This is the warmest of the main grape growing areas and has the longest sunshine hours. This area, which is second only to Malborough, In the extent of its plantings is particularly diverse with regard to its soils, and wind styles can vary greatly. One area that is, in particular, of note, would be gimlet gravels, which is a parcel of well drained heat absorbing gravel soil on the valley floor, and it has a high reputation for black varieties. Some premium Sarah is produced here as well as cabernet and merlot that goes into border blends. Waipara is made up of a number of small vineyard areas spread over a wide area at the southern tip of the North Island. The most important area is around the small town of Martembroke, which is often overlooked, but it has a global reputation for pinot noir. There is a wide diagonal range of temperatures here, which makes it suitable for the grape variety. Coming down to the South Island, we come to the most famous region, Malborough, and this is the major center for grape growing in New Zealand and seven Young Blanc makes up the majority of the plantings here. Most of the vineyards lie in two valleys, Wairou, which is the largest and our terre. The climate in the Wairu valley is very similar to Martembroke with long, sunny days, but this large valley is far from uniform. In particular, there are a number of side valleys on the southern side that give producers a range of aspects and altitudes to work with. The Oatara valley is drier, cooler, and windier. So sav blogs from here have a higher acidity with a pronounced herbaceous character, and lack the tropical fruit flavors that can be found in some of the wines from the Warau valley. Coming down to Nelson on the northwest of the Warau valley on the north coast the South Island, Nelson's cooler and wetter than Malborough, so seven year block, pin and war and pinot greet dominate the plant teams here. If we come down to Canterbury, it has two main centers of Viticulture, one west of Christchurch, and a larger one, the Waipira Valley, to the north. So the plain area is exposed to the cooling influence of the Pacific, though there is a slight warming effect from the north westerly winds. And that's more marked in Waipara, which is less exposed to the ocean due to a range of hills. Sabignan blanc and Pineaua are the most part of varieties. But Waipara's also noted for high quality rieslings. One of my favorite areas would be Central Atago, and that's located inland in the foothills of the Southern New Zealand Alps. So this has a continental climate compared to the maritime climate of a lot of the New Zealand areas. The climate being continental means frost damage is a real risk in spring and autumn. Some as a warm, but the diurnal range in the growing season is very large. The intensity of sunlight is very high, which accounts for the high levels of alcohol. Pin and wire here, you will find is very often more like a red wine than pin and wire, but still has some classic characters. The wines tend to be full bodied, juicy, and vibrant, and have very concentrated right red fruit flavors. Other important varieties here would be pin o ghee, riesling, and chardonnay. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast brought to you by Vineetli Academy, home of the gold standard of Italian wine education. Do you want to be the next ambassador? Apply online at the Italy international dot com. For courses in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Remember to subscribe and like Italian wine podcast and catch us on sound flat, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods. You can also find our entire back catalog of episodes at Italian wine podcast dot com. Hi, guys. I'm Joy Livingston, and I am the producer of the Italian wine podcast. Thank you for listening. We are the only wine podcast that has been doing a daily show since the pandemic began. 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