Pinot pioneer Neil McCallum retires

When he corked his last bottle at Martinborough's Dry River winery recently, pioneer winemaker Neil McCallum was sticking to the old-fashioned approach that has made Dry River stand out from the rest.

As more than 700 wineries crawl over the New Zealand landscape, producing millions of litres of wine destined for supermarkets and bottle stores here and overseas, it's unusual to find a winery like the one he set up in Martinborough more than three decades ago.

There's no cellar door - in fact, it's easy to miss the front gate - and you won't find a screwtop on the property. There are 12 hectares of vines striding up and down the dry, flat land, about half as many as other vineyards. Stainless-steel vats squeeze into a handful of buildings on the property, and there's no sign of a harvesting machine or a bottling machine for that matter. While other vineyards typically boast irrigation systems, Dry River doesn't have a hose or tap in sight, believing that drier vines give more intense wine flavours.

If you want to buy one of the 26,000 bottles of wine the winery produces each year, you'll have to get on its mail-order list, or you might be lucky to find a Dry River riesling or pinot noir in a specialist wine store. But you definitely won't find one in a supermarket.

The reason Dry River is so strikingly different from most other New Zealand wineries is due to McCallum, its founder and a scientist. For the past 32 years, this winery on the edge of Martinborough has consumed most of his working hours. A month ago, he retired.

He laughs now: "If I had known what I was in for, I wouldn't have started."

In 1979, McCallum and his wife, Dawn, bought a piece of land near the town, planted 100 vines on the free- draining gravel, and launched Martinborough's wine industry.

He is also one of the founding fathers of one of our most successful wine varieties, pinot noir.

The 68-year-old speaks slowly and thoughtfully about the career that has helped put Martinborough on the wine trail. His own career journey is interesting for what it tells us about the evolution of our wine industry here, too.

When the McCallums first hacked into the land, the only grapevines were in Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and Auckland, but there were moves into Marlborough too. The industry was dominated by big labels such as McWilliams, Montana and Villa Maria.

Why winemaking?

McCallum discovered wine while doing a PhD in organic chemistry at Oxford University, and at an exclusive food and wine club at Oxford's Lincoln College. On his return home, he joined a group of friends at a weekly wine club brought together by winemaker Danny Schuster.

Holding down a day job at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, he was a self-taught winemaker. McCallum headed into a scientific library and pored over every English-language paper that had been published about viticulture, being particularly drawn to the German way of doing things.

"Learning is part of being a scientist. It was quite good that we didn't have access to winemaking courses, and it was really important to adapt to the region we were working with."

McCallum was joined by three other pioneer winemakers in Martinborough a year after he started planting - Clive Paton, at Ata Rangi; Derek Milne, at Martinborough Vineyards; and the late Stan Chifney, at Chifney (now Margrain). They became affectionately known as "the gang of four". Now there are more than 30 wineries in the region.

Says McCallum: "In those days, we were looked at rather strangely both by the Martinborough locals and by the wine industry in general. That mood prevailed till 1986, when Martinborough Vineyard put their wines in the (National Competition) and got the top red and the top white. The silence from the rest of the industry was deafening."

That's another area where McCallum rebels. Wine awards. They've never been for him or his winery. From the outset, he focused on producing quality wines. "I don't feel there's a connection between wines that show well and those that taste well on the dinner table. We prefer for people to vote with their feet and their wallets.

"Awards are a handy shortcut to being known. The slower way is for people to discover you and to become ardent followers."

That has been the case with Dry River, and they now sell most of their wine to thousands of clients via mail order, sending wine around New Zealand, and to Australia, Britain and the United States. That cuts out the middle man and helps the winery survive. "A surprising number have been buying for more than 20 years."

At a time when you can get a bottle of Marlborough sauvignon blanc for a rock-bottom $5.99, Dry River wines are at the other extreme, costing $85 for a bottle of pinot noir. They're released twice a year, in spring and autumn, and are typically sold out. They're unashamedly exclusive.

Philip Gregan, chief executive of New Zealand Winegrowers, says: "They're one of our iconic wines ... It's strange though that there are probably now more expensive wines than ever before on the market, and that's because after 30 years of learning, the quality of the wines has gone up dramatically."

In the early days, Dry River produced 5000 to 10,000 bottles of wine, starting with their debut wine of sauvignon blanc in 1983. A year later, McCallum crafted a 1984 gewurztraminer and a 1984 sauvignon blanc. "But there was never a feeling that you've made it, and it's a long road along the way. It's good to have those wines and they were good wines, but you're aware that you're just a fledging."

For the first decade, he was also holding down a full-time job across the hill in the Hutt Valley at the DSIR as a chemist, studying the effects of marijuana, and returning to the winery each day to tackle his second job. Renowned for being obsessive, fanatical and a workaholic, he says: "I was working four days a week and driving the harvest, so working about 18 hours a day. Other people took in partners but we didn't here."

Says Gregan: "Dry River wines are based on a formula that Neil has worked hard to perfect. He's produced incredibly methodical and detailed wines which reflect the fact that he is a chemist."

Nine years ago, this workaholic had an epiphany. His wife was concerned he would burn out. He was walking across to the office when he realised it was time to sell up. Julian Robertson, an American billionaire businessman, bought him out for an undisclosed sum. Since then, McCallum has been working half-time for Dry River as chief winemaker and a consultant, which has given him time to run, swim and pursue other study.

Today, McCallum says that Robertson takes a keen interest in the commercial side of the business. "Mr Robertson takes pride in the quality of the product but stands aside from anything to do with the actual production  he is happy to see us just make the best possible wine."

The pioneer winemaker delivers a few parting shots. "I think it's sad that many wineries, to survive, have adopted the attitude of making more wine and cheaper wine, which doesn't further the aim of creating a quality New Zealand brand. It seems to me that Dry River has always embraced the cause of concentrating on quality wine and weathering the storm.

"Cheaper wine can serve no-one any good and the behaviour of supermarkets has not helped New Zealand wine at all. They force prices down and they therefore force vineyards to cut their costs which reduces quality."

When asked to name his favourite wine variety, McCallum can't single one out. He's not a wine snob: "I'll drink anything that's technically acceptable with interest. It's like you don't seek out the most beautiful person in the room. You look at people and enjoy them for who they are."

- © Fairfax NZ News