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The law of unintended consequences can change the course of history – even if it takes decades to unfold.
All it took was one throwaway remark from a professor at a German university and 60 years later we’re sipping on a rich, golden Nelson chardonnay and marvelling at the way things turn out.
It’s no exaggeration to say that the very existence of New Zealand’s eighth-largest winegrowing region comes down to a hypothetical answer thrown the way of an undergraduate called Hermann Seifried in the 1960s.
Hermann’s family name is on the 2021 vintage of the eponymous chardonnay that leads The Australian Wine Club’s mixed dozen deal of the week. It’s one of a trio of classy New Zealand chardonnays discounted by a total of $60 across the dozen.
The tale behind the Seifried family winery is as beguiling as the wine itself.
Hermann was an Austrian winemaker who travelled to New Zealand to make apple wine and was told the South Island – particularly the Nelson region – would struggle to grow quality grapes because of the climate.
But ringing in his head were the words of Professor Kleink, one of his lecturers at Weinsberg University in Germany, who had announced to his students one day that irrespective of what convention might tell you, “if you can grow apples and you can grow hops and you grow tobacco, then you can grow grapes”.
As he looked around at the apple harvest, the tobacco crops and the hop bushes across South Island, a determination took hold.
Hermann met a local girl, Agnes, and in 1973 they started planting varietals to see what would take.
“It was pretty rustic in the early days – I don’t want to say fighting for survival necessarily, but we had very little money,” says Hermann’s son, Chris, who as a toddler would snooze under the vines as his parents tended them, but now is the head winemaker at Seifried.
“The banks were pretty difficult to deal with. They just thought that growing grapes in the South Island was not really possible.
“In the first years, Mum and Dad had to do everything. We didn’t have contract bottling or contract warehousing or contract harvesters down the road.
“It was all done on a shoestring and, as we were growing, we didn’t really have colleagues down the road to call on to ask questions of.”
As it turns out, the long hours of sunshine in Nelson more than make up for the prodigious rainfall, while the mountains that surround it on three sides temper a climate that can be much colder further down the South Island.
In fact, at almost exactly the same time, on the other side of some of those mountains, Montana was planting the first grapes in Marlborough. “It was winter 1973, there’s a friendly debate as to who was first,” jokes Chris.
While Montana grew rapidly and was eventually bought out, Seifried has remained a family concern, with Chris’s two siblings also now playing leading roles in the business, and his own children playing among the vines just as he did.
“As a family we’re not the biggest winery and we don’t want to be, but we’re quite methodical about the way that we expand. It’s quite thought through, we like long-term relationships.”
That’s music to our ears at the wine club when it presents opportunities to share with you wines such as Seifried’s 2021 chardonnay, a recent gold medal winner at the New Zealand International Wine Show.
“It’s not a spring chicken, it’s got a few years in the bottle and had 15 months in oak,” Chris notes.
“Also, 2021 was a very interesting harvest, extremely light because we had quite a lot of frost damage, a little bit of hail and quite a wet December.
“So there’s really good concentration in the ’21 chardonnay … It’s a lovely wine, and I think, with age, it’s really matured.”
Bright gold with hints of green in the glass. The nose is awash with gooseberry, honey dew, citrus and green apple, underscored with oak-influenced aromas and hints of ginger and nutmeg. The palate rises to the challenge – rich and full-bodied, it sings with the tang of grapefruit, stone fruit, green apple and oak. Good, clean acidity on the finish. 91 points, Wine Orbit. 13.5% alc, RRP $28 a bottle.
SPECIALS $25.99 in any dozen; $25.99 in NZ chardonnay dozen.
Floral notes emerge first from a nose that lures rather than lassos the senses, with streaks of citrus and stone fruit, a hint of capsicum but also an edge of flintiness. Take a sip and the intensity lifts instantly through a rich palate, lush with butterscotch
and toffee, some very ripe stone fruit and toasted nuts. There’s textural pith and a lovely, balanced acidity. 12.5% alc, RRP $30 a bottle.
SPECIALS $25.99 in any dozen; $25.99 in NZ chardonnay dozen.
You can almost feel the warmth of the sun as you breathe in white flowers, herbal notes and the sweetness of buttered popcorn, honeydew melon and crisp pear. In the mouth there’s a wash of creaminess too, partly from the oak, and just a lovely mouthfeel thanks to some chalky notes, a touch of grapefruit on the finish and really good acidity. 13% alc, RRP $30 a bottle.
SPECIALS $26.99 in any dozen; $25.99 in NZ chardonnay dozen.
NZ CHARDONNAY SPECIAL Four bottles of each wine above for $25.99 a bottle. SAVE $60.
Order by simply clicking the links to our online store or telephone 1300 765 359 Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm AEST. Deals are available only while stocks last. The Australian Wine Club is a commercial partnership with Laithwaites Wine, LIQP770016550. Stockhead is partnering with The Australian Wine Club on this offer.
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