An eruption of wine ideas
Since erupting onto the wine scene four years ago, the elegant European-inspired pinot noirs and aromatic whites flowing from The Crater Rim have swiftly established this Waipara-based winery as one to watch.
There may be no volcanoes in Waipara, but the winery's name reflects the provenance of its first vintage that hailed from the hills above Akaroa.
Since then The Crater Rim's range has come to encompass wines from across the Canterbury region, where its focus remains as well as a few from further afield with the label finally finding its home in Waipara, where it completed its winery in 2006.
Forming the core of the company is the Coles family, many members of which were involved with wine in their previous jobs. Its winemaker and viticulturalist is Theo Coles, who honed his craft with some of the big wine names of France, as well as working in Italy, Australia and here in New Zealand, where he was formerly assistant winemaker at Daniel Schuster.
He's joined by cousin Ben Coles. Before leading the winery's marketing, he spent time as a chef, as well as a bar and restaurant manager, fine wine liquor retail manager and, most recently, education manager for multinational wine group Fosters.
Responsible for managing the company's vineyard development is uncle Robert Coles, whose CV spans over two decades of wine retail management and wine education. Then finally there's Graeme Coles, Theo's father, who owns the label's Omihi Rise vineyard.
Before the planting of their own vineyard a couple of years ago, The Crater Rim's winemaking philosophy was solely styled on France's negociant system its aim to craft expressive site-specific wines with small parcels of fruit sourced from contracted growers, some of whom now own a stake in the predominantly family-owned business.
When the vines at Omihi Rise come on stream it plans to continue making wines from its regional growers, while grapes from its home vineyard go to make one of its Reserve label pinot noirs.
As well as pinot noir, the Omihi Rise vineyard has been planted with pinot gris and riesling, the latter being the winery's main white focus. This year sees the release of four rieslings made along Germanic lines with varying levels of sweetness and intensity.
The Crater Rim plans to take the somewhat radical step of planting the Rhone varieties of syrah and viognier rare to theWaipara region on a very warm hillside site within its estate. Already a favourite with The Crater Rim crew is syrah, which they've made this vintage from another site in Waipara they consider promising.
It was in the Rhone that the family first hatched plans for their own wine endeavour. "We got motivated while sharing a bottle of sweet Vouvray while sitting on a wall in Gigondas," recalls Ben in a comment that reflects the diverse European influence that runs through their wines.
They may be coming from Canterbury's cool climes, but The Crater Rim's wines are hot stuff indeed.
* Jo Burzynska is a New Zealand wine writer, a contributor to Harpers Wine & Spirit and Decanter, and an educator at Adventures in Wine school.