Building on a long history
When Braden and Gabrielle bought an historic vineyard in Martinborough, they were very conscious of its place in Martinborough’s wine heritage. By Susan McLeary. Photos by Lucia Zanmonti.
Gabrielle Crosby vividly recalls an Alsace wine experience that shaped her and husband Braden’s Martinborough vineyard, On Giants’ Shoulders.
“We loved the intimacy of sitting round a table, tasting wines with fellow wine people and sharing the highs and lows stories about a wine way of life,” she smiles, eyes alight with the memory.
To create that personal connection with visitors, Gabrielle and Braden have built a stylish, sunny tasting room sitting on a slight rise amongst some of Martinborough’s earliest grapes. In many ways the four-hectare site summarises the wine village’s story.
The Princess/New York streets corner site was originally planned as a small farmlet when Martinborough was sub-divided in the 1880s. A hundred years later, pioneering wine investor Jack McCreanor planted grapes, excited by the prospects revealed in a DSIR soil study.
The mix of stony soils, warm summers, cool winters and low rainfall were described as echoing Burgundy’s growing conditions, especially for the challenging pinot noir variety. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jack McCreanor made his original cottage available to wine industry people, and over the years it has been a temporary home to many new Martinborough winemakers. Nowadays, Braden, Gabrielle and their young children Atticus and Constance (pictured below) own it and live there.
They wanted to live “in the middle of the vines” and with the vineyard right beside the house, and the garden Gabrielle loves, they have their dream. The site’s legacy inspires them daily.
They say “we are stewards of a viticultural legacy. Our family, mentors and founders of our craft have lifted us up to produce our own series of single-vineyard wines, and we acknowledge we stand on the shoulders of earlier giants.”
Tastings of their Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris are by appointment, seated, with either Gabrielle or Braden. It’s personal. The wine in the glass came from grapes from those vines right outside the large windows.
Gabrielle shares the reality of wine families: like having to do the leaf-plucking on Christmas Day “because the weather waits for no-one”.
“The ideal number for a tasting is four, but anywhere from two to eight works fine. Some visitors are not used to having to book, but with our small and personal approach it provides the best experience.
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“We all talk together about the wines, the seasons, the food matches – generally, the people who book a tasting are genuine wine enthusiasts, and we love that,” she says.
Guests can join the Wine Club for special prices and priority for events like dinner at Field & Green in Wellington.
In a recent innovation, Braden has invited other young winemakers to join his Collaboration series. Up-and-coming 27-year-old winemaker Ben McNab (Matahiwi Wines) was ‘gifted’ pinot noir fruit over two years in return for working with Braden in the vineyard, and making his own personalised Collaboration wine.
“We are paying it forward,” says Gabrielle.
“We’re grateful for the support and opportunities many people gave us, so this is our way to say thanks.
“Ben is a very good winemaker with a strong understanding of growing grapes – he was Wairarapa Young Viticulturist of the Year 2017. We can help him get his name out there, and we benefit from his talented winemaking.
“Wine is not an easy life. Braden sometimes calls grape-growers and winemakers ‘the masochists of horticulture!’ But when the grapes are ripening beautifully or that first taste of a new vintage is wonderful, we feel we really are living the dream.”
