Morton Estates

Morton Estates

Morton Estates Winery is based at Katikati toward the top of the Bay of Plenty. Formerly it was an orchard but now houses Mortons' state of the art winemaking system, as well as all their bottling, warehousing and distribution facilities. There is a small ornamental vineyard here but their grapes come from their vineyards on some of New Zealand's best sites in Hawke's Bay and Marlborough. The winery at Katikati operates a cellar door facility where you can pop in and taste their wines, and you're welcome to buy some of course. They've opted not to go down the route so many other wineries have followed of operating a restaurant or winery tour etc, (to part the customer from their cash) so don't plan to stop for lunch. But if you are hungry, half an hour south on the outskirts of Tauranga is Mills Reef, which is a boutique winery geared to the full lunch on the terrace in a spectacular setting - also doing some very good wines.

Morton's Riverview Vineyard just outside Napier in Hawke's Bay is regarded as THE best vineyard in all New Zealand, and is certainly one of the most spectacular. It's here that they grow the grapes for their top Chardonnay - the amazing Coniglio. There's a fantastic lookout point called Boar's Leap which really shows the unique rock composition which helps make this site so spectacular for producing premium chardonnay. They have a large winery here too where much of the fermentation is carried out, as individual parcels of grapes are graded then vinified separately and subsequently stored separately too as they have a myriad of storage tanks of varying sizes. The juice is kept here until it is required in Katikati for final blending. This allows Mortons to blend individual parcels of grape juice to achieve the desired style of wine. There are no visitor facilities here, but it's still a very pleasant drive out from Napier if you want to have a look at Boar's Leap. It's not easy to find from the road, and be careful getting over the barbed wire fence, as we very nearly had to rename it Jane's Leap!

Their other vineyards are in Blenheim and Awatere Valley. Stonecreek in Blenheim, which produces single vineyard wines including a superb Sauvignon Blanc, is right next door to Cloudy Bay. Personally I believe Morton's Stonecreek is a better wine than it's more famous neighbour, and it retails for about half the price, so is a really good buy. Top grade fruit from their Awatere Valley vineyard is used to produce their stunning Black Label Sauvignon Blanc. The Awatere Valley Road is a stunning drive although in Winter the link road through to Hanmer is closed so you would have to drive down it and come back again. Morton's vineyard is actually on the other side of the river to the road, and can be accessed by a minor road out of Seddon but the Awatere Valley road itself makes a more scenic drive - and there are a few small wineries to pop into as well for refreshment.

The whole operation is coordinated and run from Morton House in Auckland. Morton's production is on a large scale for a privately owned operation so there are cost savings from economy of scale. This way Morton's are able to produce some superb gold medal winning wines at very affordable prices. The emphasis is firmly on quality first for any wine bearing the Morton Estates label. They do also make some more mid market wines under different labels, but their best fruit goes into the Morton brand which is consistently excellent.

Mortons are making some excellent sparkling wines, and are constantly innovating looking for the next opportunity. They've declared a Coniglio vintage for the 2010 fruit - they only declare in exceptional years, the last one being 2004, so this wine will be one to look out for. It won't be released for several years yet of course. But a quick tip for Chardonnay lovers - the Black Label 2007 Chardonnay is a "baby Coniglio". The fruit was very close to being declared for Coniglio so get some 07 while you can, it's a bargain.

We stock some of Morton's wines "exclusively" in the UK - that is Mortons sent them over just for us (although the odd case may have found it's way into another retailer somewhere by now). These are their spectacular Stonecreek Sauvignon Blanc (Cloudy Bay's next door neighbour), their wonderful Black Label Sauvignon Blanc which is the hospitality wine for one of the leading F1 teams in the UK, and their fantastic Black Label Mercure Grand Bordeaux blend which John got me to try on my recent trip and is now on the water as I write this. With the rugby world cup attracting so much attention this is the perfect opportunity to try some New Zealand wines. As well as Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, they are producing some world class Reisling, Chardonnay and now Syrah, as well as some superb red blends - give them a try, you won't be disappointed!