Initially interested in a career in the culinary area, Liz attended a Cordon Bleu course in London and found herself drawn to wine, which quickly became her passion and her career. Having been at Glengarry for over 20 years, Liz travels abroad regularly, meeting with our fine wine suppliers in Europe, maintaining strong relationships first hand and ensuring a continued supply of the rarest and the best fine wine.
Some of my fondest early memories of my time in the New Zealand wine industry are of going to Marlborough with my family for the Marlborough Food and Wine Festival. These visits would not have been complete without stopping into Te Whare Ra. A winery that has a history intrinsically linked with the region, taking its place as the oldest little winery and vineyard in the region.
Established in 1979, the 11-ha vineyard was planted with a wide range of varieties. Located in the sub-region of Renwick, their soil is predominantly loam over clay.
Te Whare Ra has always been a winery that has produced exceptional aromatics. Their Gewürztraminer has always had a cult like following and, in fact, is now sold on allocation - a pre-release type offer that is hotly snapped up.
Te Whare Ra lost its way a little until its current guardians, Anna and Jason Flowerday, took over the reins in 2003. I’m not sure they knew quite what they were taking on, the project was so immense, but gosh I’m pleased they did. Te Whare Ra had always had the best bones and needed the right team to guide it forward. Anna, an excellent winemaker from South Australia, and Jason, an accomplished New Zealand viticulturalist. In taking over Te Whare Ra, Anna and Jason started the transformation to certified organic and biodynamic. These principles are paramount for both Anna and Jason, unifying them and giving them a common purpose. The enormity of the task they were undertaking was made a little more complex when, not one, but two sets of twins joined the family.
Today there is a wide range of wines from Te Whare Ra, the single vineyard wines all bearing the number 5182, which is the Demeter Biodynamic number for Te Whare Ra. All the wines at Te Whare Ra are hand picked from meticulous vineyards and skilfully made with a minimal intervention approach. They are thus likely in some books to be called or referred to as Natural Wines. Though referring to them as such or referencing the term natural, that has no defined set of regulations that oversee production, will see you on the edge of a heated discussion with Anna and Jason. One that famously ended recently with Jason deciding…’ it’s all about Cows#t, not Bulls#t’. A slogan that now features on Te Whare Ra’s T-shirts and always sparks a conversation.
If you’ve not yet discovered Te Whare Ra, or you remember it from its grand old days, it’s well worth exploring the wines again and you’ll find the full range in store at Glengarry this month.
