The Churton approach to viticulture

Anthony Rose of Decanter magazine (UK) interviews Sam Weaver.

Please give a brief account of your viticultural methods, i.e. clonal selection, density, canopy management, pruning and picking policies

For Churton the key thing is site: hillside above Waihopai and Omaka Valleys ~200m above sea level, with North East facing slope, (14% in the best part of the vineyard) planted on a loess soil with clay subsoil. Vine density 4630 vines /ha, Canopy is narrow we aim for small vines trained to VSP (double guyot) shoot thinned to about 8/10 shoots /meter. Clones used include 5,667,777,114,115,Able,22 and mix of root stocks. (Actually, I believe, site, management and rootstocks are far more important than clone). Ideally don’t need to trim as growth in vineyard is stopped due to lack of water mid January however will trim once if necessary and remove laterals in fruiting zone whilst retaining about 50% leaf coverage of fruit. We use organic and biodynamic techniques (eg Compost and inter-row crops) in the vineyard but are not slavish adherents. Principally I’m interested in good soil health and diversity of microorganisms. We try to achieve a level of water stress in the vineyard prior to veraison and in the mature parts of the vineyard use no irrigation. Picking is 100% by hand with a triage in the vineyard, sometimes also in the winery.

Please give a brief account of your winemaking techniques.

100% de-stemmed, no crushing fruit transferred to tank by gravity. Pre- ferment maceration of 7 -10 days @ 10-14 °C , indigenous yeast ferment finishing warm 33-35 °C takes about 3 -5 days, warm post ferment maceration for up to 3-4 weeks. The long post ferment period is crucial to get the right balance of tannin and to achieve good tannin polymerization. Also means that the wines develop much longer palate with less emphasis on up front fruit. Free run and pressings are kept separate and settled briefly then go to barrel. MLF in barrel is natural usually in spring or summer. Wines are racked once only. And usually have 12 months barrel age. All French oak barrels are used 20-25% new fine grained oak medium toast. I don’t want toasty oak style in my wines.

To what extent do you think the natural characteristics of your location in Marlborough contribute to the quality and character of your pinot noir and to what extent do they derive from (a)viticulture and (b)winemaking?

I think our vineyard has a number of very important characteristics, North East facing slope, gives good morning exposure to sun and less intense sun in the afternoon.( cf Burgundy Grand Crus) This helps retain aromatics. This is also helped by the cooler night time temperatures at our altitude. NE slope also somewhat protected from prevailing Nor West winds (Pinot does not like windy conditions). The soil being a clay loess has good water holding capacity at the deep level which means we are somewhat protected from drought. The mechanical nature of the soil and the way its particles hold onto water also have a direct baring on the tannin metabolism of pinot.

The result is that we get much better more silky tannins (good tannin maturity and good levels of polymerisation) than the majority of vineyards. In most vintages this enables us to pick well balanced ripe fruit at lower alcohol levels, eg 05.The key viticultural aspects that maintain quality are those that achieve evenness in ripening across the site eg Shoot thinning green harvesting, removal of shoulders, etc. The other major quality influence is the balanced use of stress in the vineyards prior to veraison. (see above). Winemaking is really concerned with subtly underlining these characteristics of finesse and delicacy and not overpowering the wine with too much new oak and as I described above ensuring through things like long maceration that the focus is on length and not up front primary fruit and alcohol.

In what way do you think Marlborough differentiates you from (a) the other pinot noir regions of NZ (b) burgundy?

a) Marlborough has the benefit of being maritime influenced but at the same time being very well protected from N, W and S. This means that we can in almost all vintages get good well ripened pinot with very little disease pressure. The only exception is 95 vintage. Thus we have a level of consistency and can produce very good wines each year. Marlborough Pinots in general have a riper spectrum than both Central Otago, which is both ripe and green at the same time ( hence the high alcohols) and Martinborough/ Wairarapa which is a later growing season and quite a lot wetter. The better sites in Marlborough also are showing a lushness of fruit with really good silky tannins. Martinborough often produces more earthy rustic tannins.

b) Burgundy: our wines tend to be much fruitier than most Burgundy and this is related to the growing conditions particularly our cool nights. Also it has been stated but I’m not sure about the research the intensity and clarity of light that we have is so much greater than that in Burgundy that we have a much higher photosynthetic ability in our plants. This leads to faster sugar accumulation so the tendency in most vineyards is to have higher alcohols and less well ripened tannins. This is often indicated by both stem and seed maturity. In Burgundy they achieve far better lignification of both and can thus get good physiological ripeness at a generally lower alcohol potential.. This enables them to be more successful with whole bunch ferments. In Marlborough it is very rare to achieve good mature stems thus very little whole bunch fermentation is practiced. In our vineyard we are beginning to achieve good seed maturity through the management described above.