The characters who blazed a trail to the future

History is full of bit players who are no less important for simply being minor characters on a stage that gets larger every year.

Last week we reviewed Chancers and Visionaries by Keith Stewart, the new history of wine in New Zealand, and made the comment that no history of the New Zealand wine industry is exhaustive.

This is largely due to the many offbeat historical gems that are peculiar to their own place and time.

In the Marlborough context, this is borne out by the omission of two characters who grew grapes and made wine around the Main St area.

Harry Patchett and Monsoor Peters had Blenheim wineries – they grew grapes and made and sold wine. While production was limited, there was, nevertheless, a thriving business.

While writing of omissions, it's interesting to read that Romeo Bragato, (the man whose late 19th-century recommendations form the basis of modern viticultural practice) bypassed the earliest Marlborough winemakers completely when he was doing his survey of New Zealand with a view to the establishment of an industry.

There were two established producers in the district – Freeth and Company at Picton, producing 4500 litres a year (although less than a third of this was grape wine), and David Herd at Auntsfield, who was in the middle of one of the longest-lasting early winemaking operations in the country (it ran from 1873 to 1931).

Stewart ponders whether this omission was because the Department of Agriculture was unaware of Freeth's and Herd's activities, or was it because neither had influence in Wellington?

He acknowledges these men, but Patchett and Peters were simply too small to register on the national radar.

When Graham and Cynthia Brooks produced their book Marlborough Wines and Vines, they took a detailed look at what had happened locally and documented the history of our first two town wineries.

Some time around 1896, Monsoor Peters emigrated from Lebanon and chose to settle in Marlborough. He went into business as a general store keeper on the corner of Main St and Sutherland Tce. Along with his shop, he had a licence to make and sell wine – customers couldn't buy less than two gallons or 12 bottles at a time.

The grapes were grown on fences and over a big shed on his property, while additional fruit was bought from the produce market.

The Depression stopped Monsoor's small operation, but fired up Harry Patchett, turning him from a grape grower into a winemaker.

Demand for his Black Hamburg grapes, grown in his greenhouse, and Albany Surprise, grown on the back fence, had dwindled in the Depression years. The grapes were sold by a local fruiterer, but during the Depression they were making just one shilling per pound, if they sold at all.

Ad Feedback Patchett decided to send away to Te Kauwhata Research Station in Waikato for a recipe to make grape wine.

After securing some oak Deacon Brodie Scotch whisky barrels from the Marlborough Club and gathering some rudimentary winemaking tools, he was away. At five shillings a bottle, his wine delivered a better return than the fruit.

Patchett's clientele included servicemen living at the Delta Camp in the Wairau Valley, and the Commercial Hotel (now the Grove Tavern).

His vineyard was on a quarter-acre section, the vines trained on wires strained to concrete posts. Business must have been good, as he bought more land and planted another vineyard, but this was severely hit by frost in its first year, and he didn't replant.

The vines were extracted and the greenhouse demolished in the 1960s. Harry Patchett died in 1974, the year after Montana Wines began planting at Brancott Estate.

The recounting of these small entrepreneurial endeavours is as much a part of New Zealand's wine history as the main events. The magic of wine is in the stories it ultimately tells – every wine is a tale of people and places.

References: Marlborough Wines and Vines by Cynthia and Graham Brooks (1992); Chancers and Visionaries: A History of Wine in New Zealand by Keith Stewart (Godwit, 2010).

Tohu Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 09

Aroma: Soft, sweet, tropical, with some gentle grassy notes. No classic pungency here.

Taste: Crisp tingly acids combine with some classic sauvignon blanc flavours in what is overall a sweeter style that also delivers some luscious tropical fruitiness right across the palate. A weighty wine that delivers some pleasing stalky, herbaceous notes towards the finish, which manages to be crisp and drying – yet there's some lingering passionfruit that's rather mouthwatering, too.

Price: A very enjoyable easy-drinking wine for $19.

Bladen Marlborough Gewurztraminer 08

Aroma: Powerful aromas of lychee, Turkish delight and nougat. Rich, syrupy, some confected nuts and a lovely whiff of marmalade.

Taste: The glorious aroma sets the scene, and the palate doesn't disappoint. An unctuous, weighty gewurztraminer delivering spicy ginger, some tropical fruit and lovely peach and caramel meringue flavours. The lip-smacking finish and lifted aftertaste are classic gewurztraminer thanks to that lick of lovely rose-scented Turkish delight and lychee.

Price: Excellent buying at around $24. Bladen wines cellar well, in our experience.