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Now Viewing: Craggy Range Winery
It's a great story. The genesis of CRAGGY RANGE WINERY began in 1987, when Steve Smith was smitten by a small parcel of land in the Tukituki Valley, part of the Hawkes Bay winegrowing region. With one of New Zealands most beautiful (and best stocked) trout fishing rivers to the East and the massive symbolic escarpment of Te Mata Peak to the West, this place was indeed very special. The Craggy Range formed the backdrop to the site and close investigation of the soils showed a parcel with stony clay rich soils that were just perfect for producing a high quality single vineyard Chardonnay wine. This piece of land had it all and more - Craggy Range was a great name for a winery. About this time in another part of the world, Terry Peabody and his family had made a decision. With an extremely successful international business group and a burgeoning interest in wine, the family decided that they should put their pleasure of wine and business acumen together in a new winemaking business. After nearly a decade of research throughout the world, it was the great white wines of New Zealand that, in early 1998, lead them to New Zealand for their investment in the wine business. With a brief to select only the very best land, Steve Smith, now Master of Wine and one of the world's leading viticultural authorities, advised Terry Peabody to tender for the last parcel of high quality winegrowing land in Hawkes Bay's Gimblett Road sub region. With Steve playing a key role in protecting this land from international gravel mining interests in 1989, it was somewhat symbolic that Terry did get the land, and Steve has the chance to let that land produce the great wine it always promised. The Peabody family also fell for the charms of the "Tukituk" and the name CRAGGY RANGE. On their first visit to Hawkes Bay in 1998, they purchased Steve's special piece of land for the home of their CRAGGY RANGE WINERY, and planted the Chardonnay vineyard that will surround a technologically and aesthetically inspirational winery. Steve Smith MW joined the company as Wine and Viticulture Director and General Manager in mid 1998 and was immediately successful in purchasing a most significant parcel of land in the Martinborough winegrowing region. The property has two wonderful terraces, one of older stony soils identical to those where the famous Pinot Noir wines are produced in the area. The other has soils geologically and texturally associated with, and is climatically almost identical to, the famous Sauvignon Blanc region of the Rapaura area of Marlborough. This land will be the home for the CRAGGY RANGE WINERY Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc vines, however one must wait until 2002 for the true potential of the vines to show. From the beginning, CRAGGY RANGE WINERY has some great land and vineyards and a wonderful home in which to weave the strands together. The first wines made in the 1999 vintage are from small parcels of mature vineyards in Marlborough and Hawkes Bay. The wines show the character of the vineyards and the Craggy Range philosophy of wine both inside and outside the bottle. In time, as the vines mature on their own estates, the wines of CRAGGY RANGE WINERY will without doubt express their origin and the commitment and skill of their people.
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