WINE PROFILE: Pyramid Valley

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Pyramid Valley is a limestone rock formation near Waikari in the North Canterbury region in New Zealand.

It lies 80 km north-west of Christchurch. On the foot of the valley is a swamp which became notable in 1939 as New Zealand's largest paleontological site for moa fossils. In 1938 the landowners Joseph and Rob Hodgen found three large bones of Dinoris giganteus while they buried a dead horse in the swamp. 

They opened this area for excavations and in the early 1940s fossil hunters began their research work at this site and unearthed the remains of long extinct birds including more than 183 complete moa skeletons and tens of thousands of fossil bone fragments from about 46 species of modern birds. The swamp was formed around 18,000 BC and became drained c.2,000 years ago. It provided a lush vegetation which attracted five different moa species.

Pyramid Valley is also well known for its biodynamic award-winning vineyard where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are produced. The Pyramid Valley Winery is run by Mike and Claudia Weersing and specialises in high density low cropped Burgundian grapes from their Angel Flower, Earth Smoke and Lion's Tooth vineyards. They also vinify other varietals from around New Zealand for their Growers Collection including Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc and Semillon.

The home vineyard has been established accroding to rules that Mike learnt during his time studying and working in Burgundy: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have been planted, on clay-limestone soils on scarp slopes, at a density of 10,000-12,000 vines per hectare. The vineyard has been biodynamically managed from inception.

Mike and Claudia came to New Zealand in 1996, when Mike began making wine with Tim and Judy Finn at Neudorf Vineyards in Nelson. After a long and intensive search to find a site for their own vineyard, they purchased a farm in the Pyramid Valley in 2000.

Mike studied oenology and viticulture in Burgundy, beginning at the Lycee Viticole in Beaune, and continuing at the Universite de Bourgogne in Dijon. He has worked extensively in the vineyards and cellars of Europe, for producers such as Hubert de Montille, Domaine de la Pousse d'Or, and Nicolas Potel in Burgundy; Jean-Michel Deiss and Marc Kreydenweiss in Alsace; and Ernst Loosen in the Mosel. He has made wine in France and in Spain for Randall Grahm of Bonny DoonVineyards, vinifying in the Rhone Valley, the Languedoc-Roussillon, and the Navarra. New world vintages include apprenticeships with James Halliday at Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley of Australia, and with Russ Raney at Evesham Wood in Oregon's Eola Hills.

At Ancestral we have available in the courtyard Pyramid Valley's Pinot Blanc by the glass - we recommend you try it and experience something quite honest and different.

Kerner Estate Pinot Blanc

2.1 tonnes/acre from this cool, strong-soiled site on Fareham Lane in the Waihopai Valley. 

Burnished yellow gold.

Beguiling nose of white blossom, wet stone, pear skin, pate brisee; youthfully pungent, but not without latent depth and nuance.

Great power and concentration, though manages to convey succulence: begins with a challenge of stone and spice, then offers a truce of fresh white peach and baked apricot, finishes with a resolution of fruit and extract. Still boisterous and new, it will be fascinating to watch this wine temper and settle with time. 

Huon Hooke, in the Sydney Morning Herald, August 2010: 

"Best Import, Pyramid Valley Kerner Vineyard Pinot Blanc, Marlborough 2008: Deliciously different. Honeysuckle, floral and mineral aromas. Delicate, crisp, and charming flavour, clean and dry to finish, and not over-sweet - like so many Marlborough whites. 92/100."Poor flowering yielded a very small crop of mostly tiny berries. Hand-picked, whole bunch pressed, no settling; indigenous yeast fermentation lasting 10 months, in used French oak, mostly 450L puncheons. Bottled March 2009. Alcohol 14.6%, pH 3.60, RS 1.9 g/l. Production 300 cases.