Larry McKenna Inducted into the NZ Wine Hall of Fame

An honour given to a small but impressive group of people who have made major contributions to the NZ wine industry has been recently conferred on Larry McKenna of Escarpment Wines. His induction into the NZ Wine Hall of Fame recognises his extraordinary achievements in grape growing and winemaking, both locally and nationally.

Larry was the first professional winemaker in the Martinborough area, and is arguably the man who introduced New Zealand to quality Pinot Noir. Originally winemaker at Martinborough Vineyard, Larry was pivotal in achieving four gold medals and champion wine of the national show in 1988.

He continued to make exciting wines into the 1990s, and then in 1999 established the now legendary Escarpment vineyard on Te Muna Road, with 14 of the 20 hectares planted in Pinot Noir.

Throughout his winemaking career, Larry has believed in open exchanges between winemakers. He has headed a number of workshops and conferences, and these help to ensure that the healthy flow of ideas and sharing of knowledge continues and is open to anyone in the business.
Emerging winemakers as well as established ones have benefitted from Larry’s willingness to share his time, expertise and opinion and he is widely seen as being as generous as he is knowledgeable.

In many ways Larry McKenna put Martinborough on the wine map, and has continued to not only make superb wines himself but to champion this region and its wine over nearly 30 years. This honour is most definitely well deserved.

Rachel McCahon

My Two Heavens, or A Tale of Two Kitchens

Everyone has their dreams. Everyone says, “Wouldn’t it be lovely if…? One day I’d like to…”. The difference is that Stephen and I do the things we dream about. These are the words of Jo Crabb in her eminently readable and engaging new book, My Two Heavens (although Jo prefers A Tale of Two Kitchens and has a limited run of copies under that title).

Known to most of us through cooking rather than writing, Jo says she believes everyone thinks of writing a book but they don’t do anything about it. She says that she broke several pens and “there was one point where it almost didn’t get there”, but it is clear how delighted she is that she persevered and completed it. … Continue Reading

The fruit is in

Martinborough’s winemakers are smiling. They talk about “fantastic fruit” and the sheer delight of having back-to-back “excellent seasons”.

TS Eliot said “April is the cruellest month” and viticulturists may agree this year. Fortunately, with a few exceptions, most wineries brought most of their 2014 harvest in before the April rains did much damage. There were frenetic days of picking with one eye on the weather, and long nights in the wineries.

“Everyone was pretty much done in Martinborough as picking started early and it was warm and dry for most of harvest,” commented Martinborough Vineyard’s Paul Mason, chairman of the Wairarapa Winegrowers. … Continue Reading

Making Our New Martinborough Community Centre a Reality…..

Plans for a new Community Centre in Martinborough were shared with around 120 people attending a public meeting held in the Town Hall last month.

The meeting was chaired by Mayor Adrienne Staples and an introduction was made by Max Stevens, Chair of the Martinborough Town Hall Working Group before presentations by Steve Bramley of SGL (professional leisure planners and funding advisors), Victoria Read on behalf of the SGL architects and Paul Crimp (SWDC CEO). … Continue Reading