New path for Kiwi trailblazers

In much of the world, winemaking is often a family enterprise, handed down from generation to generation.

But the two men who introduced Sauvignon Blanc to New Zealand and, in so doing, put that country on the global wine map for the first time, did so despite family -- and with more than a little help from California.

Bill and Ross Spence’s grandfather started making wine in New Zealand in 1918, and their father took over the family business 27 years later, at the end of World War II.

Both men made highly fortified sherries of the sort then favored in New Zealand, Bill Spence recalled recently on a visit to Los Angeles.

When, in the 1960s, Bill and Ross, the younger generation, got interested in winemaking, they went off to school in California -- not UC Davis, but Cal State Fresno -- where they learned how to grow and make Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Riesling.

“When we came back to the winery and tried to get our dad to let us do that, he said no, and he kicked us out of the winery,” Spence says.

From what he says, it wasn’t one of those father-sons blowups so common in the ‘60s. It wasn’t a matter of politics or lifestyle, just radically different winemaking philosophies -- and a bit of old-fashioned stubbornness and adherence to tradition on the part of dear old dad.

After their father showed them the door, the brothers went to work for several years at other wineries, but, Spence says, “Our dad’s name and reputation kept us from advancing very far.”

And none of the wineries were any more receptive to planting new varieties than their father had been.

“New Zealand had long been thought of as too cold to grow almost any kind of wine grapes,” says Harvey Steiman, who covers New Zealand for Wine Spectator.

But the Spence boys didn’t give up. They flouted conventional wisdom and started growing their own grapes and, in time -- with money loaned to them by their grandmother -- they started making their own wine.

The first vintage of the Spence Brothers Matua Valley Winery Sauvignon Blanc was 1974. It was New Zealand’s first Sauvignon Blanc, and, suddenly, serious wine drinkers began to look to the southern hemisphere.

A decade later, Cloudy Bay Vineyards -- which takes its name from the bay named by Capt. James Cook at the eastern end of New Zealand’s Wairau Valley -- took Sauvignon Blanc to the next level. Almost overnight, Cloudy Bay became the best-known winery in New Zealand and its wine the standard by which the country’s Sauvignon Blancs were judged.

“That was the germ that turned the industry around and made the world pay attention,” Steiman says. “Until then, New Zealand was a real wine backwater.”

Somewhat to my surprise, Spence does not seem at all troubled by having been eclipsed. He continues to take comfort -- and pride -- in knowing that he and his brother were first and that if they had not blazed the Sauvignon Blanc trail, there may have been no Cloudy Bay.

Besides, he says, “Cloudy Bay is the product of brilliant winemaking, and it’s done great things for the New Zealand wine industry. The people who run Cloudy Bay have also helped other winemakers excel.”

Matua Valley Sauvignon Blancs have continued to do well, especially in New Zealand. One reason for that has been the friendly, easygoing manner of the Spence brothers and the loyalty it inspires. Wine sellers and restaurants liked to sell “Bill’s wine” or “Ross’ wine,” says Michael Coper in his definitive “Wine Atlas of New Zealand.”

Consistent quality

With the 2004 release, the Spence brothers are celebrating their 30th anniversary as winemakers. Although the brothers sold Matua Valley Winery in 1999 to Foster’s Group, the giant Australia-based beverages and spirits company, they remain involved. Bill Spence, 53, is general manager, and Ross, 63, is mostly retired and serving as “brand ambassador.” The winery now makes 18 different wines, including Riesling, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as its three trademark Sauvignon Blancs.

Matua Valley wines have remained high quality and reasonably priced. All are in the $12-to-$25 range, and Steiman says Matua Valley is among the four or five New Zealand producers whose Sauvignon Blancs he consistently scores in the 88- to 91-point range. From 340 cases of that first ’74 Sauvignon Blanc, the Matua Valley Winery now produces about 130,000 cases of wine a year, including 52,000 cases of Sauvignon Blanc.

And Spence has welcomed a new generation to the winemaking fold. The winery’s best Sauvignon Blanc these days is called Paretai (“Maori for ‘river bank’,” he says) and is the special project of one of Spence’s two winemakers, Jo Gear.

The grapes for Paretai come from stony soil with large boulders that hold the afternoon heat and transfer it to the soil. That makes the wine bigger, with more body than Matua Valley’s two other Sauvignon Blancs.

That difference was obvious when Spence and his wife, Eileen, and I drank several of his wines over lunch at Lucques on Melrose recently.

We started with the ’04 Pinot Gris and some crab fritters, then moved on to the Paretai and Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs with red snapper.

Although many California Sauvignon Blancs have improved considerably in recent years, I’ve generally found most of them too grassy and vegetal, but the Paretai had a fruity, almost spicy quality that reminded me of a good Pouilly-Fume from the Loire.

Spence is excited about the progress he’s made with other varieties and says his favorite of the Matua Valley wines is the Judd Estate Chardonnay, made with grapes grown in Gisborne, on the east coast of New Zealand.

Based on the one bottle I tried, I don’t share Spence’s enthusiasm for that wine. I found the Chardonnay too light and flat, especially alongside the sauteed Copper River salmon my wife served it with. It’s a reserve, limited-release wine, though, and unlike most of the other Matua Valley wines -- which are sold in various local wine shops, restaurants and some grocery stores -- it’s not available in Southern California (although Spence hopes to have it here later this year).

Apart from the Paretai Sauvignon Blanc, my favorite Matua Valley wine is the Marlborough Pinot Noir. You’re not likely to mistake it for a good red Burgundy, but unlike several New Zealand Pinots I’ve tried in recent months, it doesn’t have that overripe fruit taste that I’ve come to associate with many lesser New World Pinots.

The raspberry and cherry notes are there but in proper balance, and the wine was a perfect companion to a simple supper of broiled chicken.

Steiman says that Matua Valley, with its expanded wine portfolio, is in some ways representative of the entire New Zealand wine industry, which he characterizes as now being “about where California was in the early 1980s, just coming together, making great strides, learning how to work with what they have.”

Despite early skepticism, Sauvignon Blancs turned out to be a “natural home run” for New Zealand, Steiman says. “They have great potential for Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot, even Syrah. But they’re not as easy.”

Meanwhile, the Spence brothers have a new vision, perhaps as radical as their original Sauvignon Blanc vision.

In addition to expanding the Matua Valley wine portfolio -- and, like many in New Zealand, shifting their wine closures from corks to screw caps -- they have been busy trying to turn the winery, which is near the northern tip of New Zealand’s north island, about 35 minutes northwest of Auckland, into a tourist destination.

Bill Spence supervised the construction of a hunting lodge, a restaurant and vineyard cottages and also plans to build a cooking school and conference center.

I wonder what his dad would say.

David Shaw can be reached at david.shaw@latimes.com. To read previous “Matters of Taste” columns, please go to latimes.com/shaw-taste.