Sam Weaver is a man who has done what many of us would love to do, but would never dare. He left his 9 to 5 job in London, set off to the other side of the world with his young family, and learnt how to make wine. His labour of love is only now just coming to full fruition after 20 years of planning and hard work.
Sam joined "La Reserve", the Walton Street fine wine shop, from Oddbins, in 1983. His colleagues there included Stephen Browett and Jonathan Stephens. He was the manager of "La Reserve" until 1988 when he decided that he didn't want to go to Chelsea any more and instead of selling wine, he wanted to actually make it. Yet, with no wine making experience, he knew that he would have to start at the bottom and learn from scratch. With wife Mandy and a newly born baby in tow, they headed for New Zealand.
Sam and Mandy Weaver
|
For the 1989 harvest Sam managed to find work as a cellar hand at Hunter's winery in Marlborough. The following year he was taken on full time as assistant winemaker. He learnt fast and for the next 10 years he worked two vintages per year, working first on the New Zealand harvest and then heading on to Europe in September to do it all over again. His European stints included "vendanges" in Bergerac, Burgundy (Comte Lafon), Languedoc, Moldova and Bulgaria. In these exhausting years as a flying winemaker he built up a huge knowledge of the intricacies of winemaking and in 2000 planted the first block of his own "Churton" vineyard on the Tummil Flat high above the fertile,wide plains of the Wairau River basin. At that time, these were the highest vine plantings in the whole Marlborough region. Whilst the rest of Marlborough focussed on growing high-yielding Sauvignon Blanc on the valley floor, Sam planted Pinot Noir on undulating rough terrain on top of a dramatic cliff. These slopes look remarkably similar to vineyards that I have visited in Burgundy.
Churton Vineyard
|
With his own vineyard not ready to produce fruit, Sam continued to work as a consultant winemaker for many well known producers in Marlborough, Martinborough, Nelson and Canterbury. His winemaking skills in these new wine regions were highly demanded and before long he was working as chief winemaker for Stoneleigh vineyard and also made the first vintage at Isabelle Estate.
All the time, Sam, on his slopes in the hills, was planting more vines as and when time and money permitted. He continued to plant Pinot Noir and of course Sauvignon Blanc. In recent years he has added Viognier to the vineyard (which will crop in 2010 for the first time) and this year he finally filled the final block with Jurancon's Petit Manseng variety. It's taken 20 years since he left London, and 10 long years of planting, but Sam's dream has now become a reality.
The "Abyss" Block of Pinot Noir planted in 2000
|
The first crop from Sam's Churton vineyard was harvested in 2003 and now, with those vines reaching 10 years of age, the vineyard is gaining maturity and the resultant wines get better and better with every vintage. Sam's Sauvignon Blanc avoids the strongly grassy, exotic fruit style of many of his neighbours and resembles, to my mind, a top class Sancerre or Pouilly Fume. The Pinot Noir is rapidly becoming very serious indeed and the 2007 completely fooled me recently when served blind next to an Emmanuel Rouget Burgundy.The vines are grown organically and according to bio-dynamic methods (Sam's a bit of a hippy at heart), with yields at around a third of those of some Marlborough vineyards. The Pinot is aged in French oak barrels for around 15 months. This is Pinot Noir of great purity with a lovely nose of fresh red fruits - strawberries, raspberries and red cherries - and a long palate that has hints of woodsmoke and wild herbs. This is the most Burgundian Pinot Noir that I have tasted from Marlborough.
A barrel of Churton Pinot Noir
|
Whilst visiting Sam in mid January he confessed to me that he had a problem. Threshers, the late and unlamented British high street chain, had rapidly sold out of their first consignment of Pinot Noir (labelled for them as Tummil Flat). Fortunately, they paid for it but ordered another parcel which was half way to Britain in a container when they went spectacularly bust a few months ago. The wine has now arrived in Tilbury and Sam needs to find another buyer fast. Anyway, his problem can be our gain and we are pleased to offer this parcel at a special price of £105 per dozen bottles in bond. This wine is identical to the now sold out 2007 Churton Pinot Noir that was £125 per case last year. It's certainly highly recommended by me and remember that this is a wine that took 20 years to make.
