A taste of the terroir

BOB CAMPBELL

IN FOCUS : Marlborough winemaker and photographer Kevin Judd on the lookout for another great shot.

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New Zealand's wine export industry is less than 30 years old but already the quality of many of its labels is world-renowned. Photographer Kevin Judd, himself an internationally recognised winemaker, is publishing a book to celebrate the places and people who make wine in New Zealand. He talks to ANGELA CROMPTON.

Marlborough wine buffs will know Kevin Judd has left the Cloudy Bay wine company he made internationally famous. He plans to launch his own label later this year.

The first vintage of his new label, Greywacke, will be sold in September shortly before a book Judd has produced to honour New Zealand wines will be published.

In the meantime, people can view an exhibition of photographs on canvas included in the The Landscape of New Zealand Wines book in an exhibition at the Gibbs Vineyard Restaurant on Jacksons Rd.

"I have been eating here for years," Judd says by way of explaining why this is a good place to promote the book. It's been 10 years in the making, and Judd hopes it will help the world celebrate what makes wines in this country so special.

Its opening chapter looks at wines from Marlborough, and the following chapters focus on each of New Zealand's other wine regions.

"I couldn't work out whether to go from north to south or south to north," Judd says. "Then someone said European wine books usually go from the biggest, most famous, to the smallest, least well known."

The best visual image of a vineyard, however, was an early-morning sunrise shot over a hilly vineyard near Waipukurau in central Hawke's Bay. It will appear on the cover, luring prospective buyers to pick up a copy.

"I've tried to make something that people can pick up, say in New York, read and, whether they know a lot about wines or just a little bit about wines, they will pick it up and look at the pictures and know what makes New Zealand special and what makes the wines special."

Judd concentrates on what makes each region special. He uses the French word "terroir" to explain it. Translated, it means climate, soil, geology and landscape.

Some people consider they are part of the terroir, and perhaps they are, Judd says. "The lay of the land and the mountains is what makes the wines particular and what makes the grapes taste the way they do. But, of course, humans are involved in what makes the wines taste the way they do, too, so that's why they are part of the terroir."

Aware of his own influence in New Zealand wines, he left all comments about their qualities to independent wine writer and critic Bob Campbell.

Campbell joined him on some photo shoots, and access to vineyards was always easy because the property owners knew them.

The book was 10 years in the making, Judd says. "Every now and then, I would pack up the car and go on a trip and take photographs."

He picked up the hobby from his father, who moved from Britain to Australia as a "ten-pound Pom". Then in 1990, he was visited by British photographer Mick Rock, the owner of an international stock image source for wine pictures, the Cephas Picture Library.

"I've always been extremely inspired by works I'd seen of his, so I picked his brains, showed him a few pictures I had taken, and he said to me if I wanted to go out and take photographs and they were good enough, he would put them in his library."

Judd's first book, The Colour of Wine, was a photographic essay of Marlborough vineyards in 1999. Ten thousand copies were sold in New Zealand, and Judd hopes his new book will venture past these shores so it can become an "ultimate" source of information about New Zealand wines.

Asked if he received any financial support to put it together, he shakes his head.

"No, not a cent. And I wouldn't want to, anyway. It turns people off."

- The Marlborough Express