Black Barn is one of the smaller wineries in Hawke’s Bay on New Zealand’s North Island. It celebrated its twentieth-anniversary last year and has developed a strong and interesting portfolio of wines. Dave McKee is the winemaker at the estate, which is co-owned by Kim Thorp and Andy Coltart. They have won awards both for their wines and for the wine tourism experiences they offer at the winery.
Hawke’s Bay is beaten only by Gisborne, its northern neighbour, to being the world’s most eastern wine region. It’s on the North Island of New Zealand. It extends over 4,800 hectares, which means that it accounts for just over 10 % of New Zealand’s vineyard acreage. Sauvignon blanc is by far the most planted grape in the whole of New Zealand, with 65% of the total surface. In Hawke’s Bay, though, it plays second fiddle to chardonnay, each having a bit less than a quarter of the vineyard plantings.
However, Hawke’s Bay has more than forty different grape varieties, according to the vineyard register, so there are a lot of things to explore here, as you can tell from the range of wines at Black Barn. After the two popular white varieties, we have merlot, pinto gris, syrah, pinot noir and cabernet. But you can also find the odd chambourcin, lagrein, touriga nacional and many more. It is one of the most diverse wine regions in the country.
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This is a longer version of an article published on Forbes.com.
Black Barn’s focus on the local market
Black Barn is a winery that is perhaps not one of the most familiar names in Hawke’s Bay. But that has a perfect explanation. An impressive 60% of what they produce is sold on-site, and most of the rest goes to restaurants and specialised wine shops. Very little is exported, and not much can be found on supermarket shelves.
In other words, Black Barn is one of the smaller wineries here, a boutique winery. They harvest somewhere between 70 to 100 tons of grapes, which means around 60,000 bottles from roughly 10 hectares.
In early 2022, they suffered a devastating fire that burned down their very charming bistro, which had beautiful views over the vineyards. It took them a year to rebuild it, but it opened just in time to celebrate the 20 years of the restaurant and winery.
When it comes to wine, they don’t make life easy for themselves. They have a dozen different wines (and some gin) on their list, plus a few “research and development” wines only available on-site, and grow fourteen different grape varieties. Their vineyards are split into 28 different plots within a radius of some eight kilometres. They work with traditional “international” grape varieties like chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah, and they also have some more unusual and no less exciting grapes: sangiovese, Montepulciano, cabernet franc and pinot gris.
A conversation with Dave McKee, the winemaker
A while back, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Black Barn’s winemaker, Dave McKee. The first thing I was curious about was why there is such a diversity of grapes and wines on a fairly small estate.
“Well, it organically grew from first a very defined area. We’re in the Te Mata zone in Hawke’s Bay, in the zone of Havelock Hills. So, north facing slopes (*), a clay base, very old soils. 100 years ago that’s where a lot of the original vineyards would have been planted, because its frost free and didn’t require irrigation. We actually have one vineyard that was first established in 1948 but replanted in 1994, along with three other sites here. And then, over a period of time it grew.”
“And then we moved over into the Tukituki Valley. Those were more white aromatic varieties, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay. Through connections in the wine industry, we’ve also got a couple of leased blocks. One which is on river terraces with tempranillo, montepulciano and syrah. So, the vineyards have kind of just organically grown.” ( (*) North-facing here in New Zealand means sunnier and warmer.)
Dave is one of the veterans in Hawke’s Bay, at Black Barn for over twenty years and in the region for more like thirty. It is a region that has changed a lot over these decades. I asked Dave what the most significant changes have been, as he sees it. Looking back, he points out that there was a time, before New Zealand became known as a quality wine country, when there were a lot of vineyards planted, but mainly focussed on producing grapes for bulk wine. “There was a lot of mueller-thurgau (riesling-silvaner) and less of the premium grape varieties. There’s been an evolution. In the 90s, some of the Villa Marias and Church Roads (*) moved towards more premium varieties, for example, syrah.” ( (*) two of the early starters and, today, big producers.) But also for the established varieties, the focus has turned more towards quality, for example, choosing the best-suited clones for each grape.
Syrah arrives in Hawke’s Bay in Gimblett Gravels
Dave talks about Dr Alan Limmer as the man behind the revival of syrah in Hawke’s Bay. But Dr Limmer played an even more fundamental role in Hawke’s Bay. Today, the different sub-regions in the bay area are getting more and more recognition for different characteristics. The first and most famous one is Gimblett Gravels, an old riverbed. In the 80s, this particular piece of land was well on its way to becoming a stone quarry, but Limmer saw a potential for growing quality wine there. He managed to acquire the land and planted syrah on it, thus saving it from becoming a stone pit
But it’s not only the grape varieties that have changed, but also where the vineyards are planted. Today, they are less on fertile soil and more on terrain better suited to quality grape growing. “I think there’s that saying that the grapes should grow where a plough can’t go.”
What future for Hawke’s Bay?
Some regions in New Zealand have carved out a worldwide reputation for specific grape varieties. The most famous is, of course, Marlborough with its sauvignon blanc (although they do make other wines there too). The other example is Central Otago, which has become one of the world’s top regions for pinot noir. (Read more on New Zealand pinot noir in this BKWine Magazine article.)
Dave responds, “Yeah, we have producers now at the top end of the market for syrah. And cabernet sauvignon-based wines, like Villa Maria. They produced an absolutely amazing 2013 Cabernet off the Ngakirikiri Gimblett Gravels. Church Road have the top tier Tom, which is a tribute to Tom McDonald, what you’d call the father of red wine in Hawke’s Bay, and that’s $200 plus bottle of wine”
That’s certainly something I can agree with. It is worth looking out for cabernet sauvignon from Hawke’s Bay and perhaps even more, the syrahs. However, the overall diversity is greater in this region than in the two mentioned above. There certainly isn’t a lack of awareness here that some of the wines are world-class: “We shouldn’t be scared of (saying that) the wines that we make stand very, very well against producers like, for example, those in Bordeaux and Burgundy.”
Balance and purity of fruit
Dave’s “philosophy” in creating his wines is focused on balance: “Balance and seamless palate texture, to show that wine does not have any elbows, that it is an expression of its vineyard. It is less about me and more about how those varieties are expressed off the heavier soils, because I think they give the wine weight and texture. The most important thing about wine is the balance, so that there’s a seamlessness and ripeness that will fleshen-out the tannins, purity of fruit flavours.”
So, if I want to get acquainted with the Black Barn wines, which ones should I taste? “Oh, I think our chardonnay. It convinces people that they do actually like chardonnay. We’ve got a sparkling that’s fresh and aromatic. The merlot-cabernet, it’s always merlot dominant, that sort of lovely fineness of tannins. And we also just do a very small amount of riesling because I just love riesling and it has an excellent balance.”
Key wines to taste from Black Barn
But then, personally, I think one should move on to some of the more “ambitious” wines from Black Barn. For example, their syrah, that is made in a comparatively light and aromatic style that Dave describes as “a double-shot pinot noir”.
Another very exciting wine is their cabernet franc, a top-of-the-range single-vineyard cuvée. Dave seem to agree with me on that, “We’ve got a fabulous block of cabernet franc. We’ve produced several single vineyard, single vintage cabernet franc since 2013. It was the champion of the grape variety at our local wine show. I think cabernet franc is underrated and that the wine will be around for a lot longer than what I am, to be honest.”
Or if you want something different, why not their sangiovese (!) or a curious blend of montepulciano, cabernet and sangiovese called Concetta.
Whichever you chose, it will be an excellent wine. And the good thing is, for anyone who cannot go to Hawke’s Bay to meet them, that they have a shipping service that works for the US, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore and Japan.
The 2020 vintage
As this conversation took place at the time of the harvest in 2020 (just when covid struck, if you remember), I took the opportunity to ask how the 2020 vintage was looking. Dave explained, “It’s looking really exciting. We’ve started early, but the fruit is in pristine, amazing condition. The fruit is just coming in all fantastic. The picking is very, very easy. We’re not having to sort out any rot or anything. So, it’s going very well. And we’re quite excited. Looking forward two or three years’ time, 2020 will be really exciting. And for Hawke’s Bay, as a rule, I think the ‘20 wines will be fantastic.”
Well, I am soon going back to Hawke’s Bay, now in 2024, so I look forward to seeing how it has turned out. I expect to see some excellent wines!
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