Ep 212: Central Otago, NZ with Simone Madden-Grey
Wine for Normal People
Wine for Normal People
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2017
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Central Otago is known among wine dorks as a Pinot Noir mecca. We're lucky that regular podcast guest host Simone Madden-Grey is from this region! In this episode, she gives us the skinny on climate, soil, top wines, travel tips, and what's next for the wines of the region.
Here are the show notes:
- Simone gives us a bit of background on the region and talks about its origins in 1975 – 1980 when pioneersRipon, Chard Farm, Gibbston Valley Wines started
- We get into detail on geography:
- Southernmost growing region in the world with Patagonia – at 45˚ south latitude
- Climate: Alpine climate, with short and hot summers and really cold winters, great day to night temperature swings
- Southern Alps: Run down middle of South Island. Rain shadow from the wet weather from West.
- Gorges, lakes, rivers mean abundant water for viticulture
- Soils: ancient glaciers, quartz and silica in the soils but when the gold rush happened, the soil was stripped and now producers are trying to restore it
- We discuss New Zealand's dedication to its Sustainable Winegrowing Program, biodynamics, and organics and the "Clean and Green" mentality of New Zealand
- We talk about the main grapes and wine profiles of Central Otago – Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, Tempranillo (Brennan Wines is mentioned)
- We discuss aromatic whites and their potential in the region: Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Gris, white field blends
- We discuss the subregions and how they are new and just starting to define themselves
- Wanaka – arrived, Ripon
- Gibbston, Bannockburn – up and coming
- Bendigo – Prophet’s Rock, Quartz Reef (vineyards)
- We do a deeper dive into Pinot Noir, discussing it's unique character when it's from Central Otago. Famed Pinot Wineries mentioned: Rippon, Quartz Reef, Chard Farm, Gibbston Valley Felton Road, Mt Difficulty
- We finish up with some travel tips from Simone and a plug for anyone interested in applying for the New Zealand Wine Growers Sommit –a scholarship for those working in the wine industry in the USA!
Please follow Simone:
Instagram: Happy Wine Woman
Thanks to this week's sponsor who makes the podcast possible!
The Great Courses Plus -- who makes you smarter and more well rounded! With thousands of outstanding video lectures that you can watch or listen to any time and anywhere, The Great Courses Plus is an easy way to stimulate your brain and make you smarter! For a free month trial, go to thegreatcoursesplus.com/wine
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thanks for |
| 0:08.0 | downloading Wine for Normal People Radio, |
| 0:10.0 | the podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm Elizabeth Schneider, a certified Silmaier and certified specialist of wine. |
| 0:20.0 | And I'm MC Ice, just a wine-loving normal person. |
| 0:23.2 | Simone Mading Grey is back and in action, |
| 0:26.5 | and she is here to talk to us about another place |
| 0:29.6 | in her homeland of New Zealand, |
| 0:32.2 | even though she is residing in Australia now and what are we |
| 0:36.0 | talking about today Simone we're talking about the fabulous central Otago region |
| 0:40.3 | in the South Island of New Zealand I I am so excited. So you are from this area, right? |
| 0:46.0 | I am. My family emigrated from Scotland at the turn of the 20th century and they settled in Dunedin and a few sort of wandered |
| 0:55.5 | around but most of us stayed in Dunedin and so that's where my family is and they |
| 1:00.0 | head into Central Otago for the summers and for the winters just for the holidays, the skiing and the |
| 1:07.0 | opportunities that are in that region to relax. |
| 1:10.0 | Here's a question for you. Central Otago seems like it is a little bit newer as a wine region than Marlboro. Is that true? |
| 1:18.0 | Marlboro sort of, it's in the early 1970s that Marlboro's, something on Blion Blanc vines were planted and in actual fact in |
| 1:25.9 | 1975 at the Ripon Vineyard in Wannocker there were some experimental vines that |
| 1:31.8 | were planted there and but it wasn't really |
| 1:33.8 | till the 1980s that those new plantings really got underway at Ripon at Chard Farm |
| 1:41.2 | and at another a number of other producers in particular |
| 1:45.0 | Ellen Brady of Goodstone Valley Wines he was quite important in terms of |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wine for Normal People, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Wine for Normal People and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.