Made By Hand
Huia Delivers Handcrafted Wines Expressing The Richness Of Their Marlborough, New Zealand Home.
(July 31, 2008) The year was 1996. Claire and Mike Allan, aspiring winemakers, had trained with the best from New Zealand's Marlborough region to the Champagne region in France. They had some definite ideas about winemaking -- ideas that cried out for the intense fruit flavors that have made Marlborough famous.
So with $60,000 in hand they founded Huia Vineyards in the Wairau Valley area of New Zealand's Marlborough region. In their wines, 85 percent of the grapes are grown organically in their own vineyards. The rest come from trusted growers using sustainable growing techniques. The result is fine, handcrafted wines at a reasonable cost.
"The owners first love is Champagne, so they're very picky," said Marie-Isabelle Devault during a recent visit to Kansas. "The 2005-2006 grapes were picked a little too early, so they sold off all the juice."
Huia wines are handcrafted wines, high quality wines with screw cap closures. To some wine enthusiasts in the U.S. it comes as a bit of a shock. In New Zealand, 70 percent of wines are bottled with screw cap closures. Screw caps let in far less air than cork, and that makes a difference in the longevity of the wine.
"It's evolving slower (in the bottle) so you can keep it a few more years before it starts going down," said Devault. "With screw caps you don't have to store your wine lying down."
Even for wines meant to be drunk right away, the screw cap has the advantage of reliability.
"Cork is a live product. There's lots of variation in the percentage of air going through. It changes the wine," said Devault. "In New Zealand, I don't know why but we were always sold the crappiest cork in the world. We work so hard to make the most beautiful wine we can and it all comes down to this little piece of cork."
"I'm a big advocate of screw caps especially in white wines," said Matt Coleman of Jacob's Liquor Exchange in Wichita.
"With the whites where you want the fruit flavors with cork you can lose that quite quickly," said Devault.
A few years ago, customers used to associate screw caps with cheap, poor quality wine. These days, as more top producers are turning to screw caps to improve their quality reliability, customers are increasingly more accepting.
"It's all a matter of education," said Gary Oborny of Auburn Spirits in Goddard.
The closure's one thing, but what really makes a superior wine is the liquid in the bottle. Huia has a distinctive style that consumers tend to like. It's a no nonsense style -- elegant, sophisticated, and ready to drink sooner rather than later.
Take the Pinot Noir for example. Many of the great Pinot Noirs in the world are made for aging, but at Huia aging isn't so much a factor.
"At Huia our philosophy is not to make Pinot Noir for aging," said Devault. "So you get this elegant complexity within a couple of years. We want to give as much pleasure as possible as soon as possible."
The 2005 Pinot Noir was hand picked at three different vineyard sites. The wine was aged in French oak, but the barrels were twice the normal size. More wine interacting with less barrel produces more subtle oak flavors.
New Zealand's Marlborough region is famous for intense fruit flavors, and Huia's Gewurztraminer is a fine example of the winery's take on that intensity. It has all the fruit the region is known for, all the elegant restraint Huia is famous for.
"It's very full flavored, the type of wine you can mix and match with a lot of foods, especially Asian foods and spicy foods," said Devault. "And it ages well."
Ages well? Gewurztraminer? That's right, a well-made Gewurztraminer can age beautifully, and the Huia Gewurztraminer fills the bill.
"Gewurztraminer can age if it's done right," said Devault. "Every vintage is different. This vintage tasted lovely from the beginning. But it will be terrific in two years."
The intense fruit flavors -- especially in the Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc -- are emphasized by the wines' natural acidity. It's so common among New Zealand wines it's become almost cliche. So common, in fact that it risks becoming boring.
"I'm getting a little bored with tart, bright acidity. It's like hitting the same nail over and over," said Coleman.
The folks at Huia hear you. Their wines are known for a taste profile a little outside the well-worn groove of typical New Zealand wines. Restrained acidity would be one way to characterize it.
"We try to keep the acidity down, try to tame it," said Devault. "Like using natural yeast. You get a softer texture, it tones down the acidity. Also lower yields. We pick the fruit a little riper. That's one reason why it's a little more expensive."
There are still those customers who flock to the New Zealand wines -- especially Sauvignon Blanc - specifically for that bright, high acid style. But for customers looking for something a little different, Huia's the perfect choice.
"Our Sauvignon Blanc has always appealed to the more sophisticated consumers," said Devault."There's a shift in tastes."
Huia's Sauvignon Blanc is harvested from seven different sites throughout the Wairau Valley, some in the cooler areas, some in the warmer sections.
"The warm areas give us less acidity, lots of tropical fruit flavors," said Devault.
Noted wine critic Robert Parker was so taken with the Huia Sauvignon Blanc that in April 2008 he wrote an article singing its praises. The result was 20,000 cases sold immediately. That's half the winery's annual production leaving the other half to be divided among their distributors worldwide. That's why you won't see many big wine awards for Huia wines -- they don't submit their wines for judging.
"If Wine Spectator gives us a good rating there can be a run (on the wine)," said Devault. "Demand isn't that easy to fill."
Rather than looking for awards, Huia opts to create wines for consumer tastes and partner with retailers who can communicate that to their customers.
"We don't enter wines (in competition) because these are not big show wines," said Devault. "We need people who can hand sell the wine in retail shops."
Huia wines are available in Kansas through Standard Beverage.