I’m a New Zealand winemaker with a tiny vineyard on the outskirts of Auckland where I grew up, in the Muriwai Valley. I’ve learnt so much along the way, I wanted to blog about the process and things I’ve discovered and Substack now seems like an awesome way to do it. I have a lot more thoughts on wine and the wine industry (and other things) so I’m likely to extend a bit beyond the realm of my own paddock.
Flego Wines started in the late 2000’s when I spotted some grafted Nebbiolo vines being offered by a local grapevine nursery. My parents still live on the farm I grew up on, and it didn’t take too much to convince the family to use a bit of the land to plant a little vineyard, as long as I would do all the work! It’s tiny, just 300 vines covering a tenth of a hectare, or quarter of an acre. In fact, I did consider calling the wine Piccolino (Italian for tiny) but decided to do a bit more of a traditional thing and use our family name. The vineyard itself we called Val dei Fiori since we also grow flowers for the local market.
Nebbiolo is considered one of the most difficult varieties to grow, and Auckland one of the more difficult climates to grow wine grapes in New Zealand. Why did I do this to myself? Well there was a little bit of thought behind it despite still presenting plenty of challenges. I’ll get further into that process in the future.
It’s amazing to consider that the New Zealand wine industry was going through a little bit of a glut, when I got quite a good deal on those vines possibly because sales weren’t so good at the vine nursery. The industry has since doubled in size while still maintaining a global image of high quality which is reflected in the taste of the wine.
My production of 200 to 300 litres per year might as well be nothing. But I find it interesting thinking about the bigger picture of the industry while working on my mini vineyard and how to be relevant when developing a wine brand in the same environment as some very well resourced operations.
I’ll start out writing about my wine and vineyard and all the things I’ve learnt while developing it and making the wine. Since I have trouble sticking to one topic, my thoughts may continue to spill out over time and cover a lot more of the wine world too, touch on travel, food and philosophy, all the things you think about during those winter pruning days.
