◆ You joined Neudorf in July 2011. How do you come into a winery that the first generation have set up and built over many years?Todd - I came in from Felton Road in Central Otago so I bought in a different view point from my experience down there. I think initially, more than anything you sit on the side line and do some listening. And once you’ve had time to listen, look, and get a feel for a few changes you can make, go ahead with making them in conjunction with Tim, once you’ve laid out your ideas and the reasons for it. So it takes time and you do it with a bit of courtesy. They are just tweaks and modifications which comeback to the way you view wine and the way you understand the raw material you are getting from this place. So it isn’t a huge transition, we just made a few changes. At the same time, were spond to what each season brings us, to the market trends a little bit, and also your ever-increasing understanding of what you are getting from the sites.In my early days we spent a lot of time on Pinot. I had to be careful I didn’t apply my Central Otago palate to the Upper Moutere, because they are basically different. It took a bit of recalibration to consider what was coming off the sites here, and the way the wine was being made. I started to make a few changes because in your mind its right, and ultimately I get paid to make those decisions and you have to stand by them and pursue it.The biggest change we made with Pinot Noir is we felt it was getting a little bit heavy, rustic and tannic at times, and the Moutere had this long-living tradition of it being a structured wine that benefited from aging. However, not many people are aging wine, and with a screw cap on it, it is not going to age quickly. We are not keeping them 5 or 6 years and then going to market ‒ we are selling it as a current release and so how does that work with a sommelier selling it in a restaurant tonight? It was joining the dots and saying we have a lot better raw material, and I think we can make a more finessed wine, that rolls off the tongue very easily now, but that is with 7 years of experience under the belt.However, at the time, for the first year and a half it was coming to grips with everything, and deciding whether it made sense to go down that track or not. Tim and Judy are amazing in that they allow you to say ‘this is what we should do and the reasons why’, and they will think about it. Tim was the winemaker for 25+years and still involved, but he is such a great man he will hand over the reins to you, and say he’s got to go off and explore this new approach. He doesn’t just say no even though he has the right to do that.Todd Stevens(left), Rosie Finn＆Tim FinnIn 2018, Tim and Judy Finn were recognized for their outstanding contributions to the New Zealand wine industry with the prestigious Sir George Fistonich Medal, the highest accolade in the New Zealand wine industry.◆ What were the major differences for you between Central Otago and Nelson?Climate is the single biggest variable. Central Otago is a bit of an anomaly in New Zealand terms with its pseudo-continental climate, so very dry during the day and cold during the night. Coming to a more moderate temperate climate, where it can rain at times, requires understanding how that impacts fruit and what is ripe and not ripe takes time. You just can’t apply the blanket Central Otago here in Nelson. Central has a shorter but more extreme growing season, where as in Nelson it is slightly longer, but more temperate and moderate. We don’t have the highs, peaks and troughs that Central does.As a result, we don’t see the higher sugars but we don’t have frosts either, and we have to jump in and out of rain events a little. You can’t wait for that perfect picking moment, I don’t think it exists in Nelson ‒ there is always something to consider. Down on the plains and the low-lying parts of the valleys we might get a frost event, but nothing significant like Central Otago and Marlborough.◆ What quantities are you producing of the different varietals?We are approximately 40 per cent Chardonnay, 30 per cent Sauvignon Blanc,20-25 per cent Pinot Noir, with the rest in aromatics ‒ Pinot Gris, Riesling, Albarino. From a profile point of view the Pinot and the Chardonnay dominate our brand recognition.◆ Do you dry farm all the vineyards and how did they handle the drought-like conditions this year?We’ve been dry framing for a very long time. We get sufficient rainfall in Nelson, in between the long dry sunny spells, but on the Moutere clay gravels we have great water-holding capacity, so dry farming is a natural fit for us at Neudorf. But in a season like this, with our conversion to organics with more competition by way of grass cover, there is always a little concern about how you fare. I was quite surprised how everything stood up, probably because of the vine age. We’ve got a good chunk of old vines that have had a long time to establish their roots, so they are not seeing it up the near the surface where the drought is really affecting you, their roots are further down where there is more regulated moisture. The conversion to organics has been about six years now, so they have got over their little sulking period as they adjusted to competition. If there was a year to test dry-farming this was it, it was very dry and the canopies looked good all the way through.Yields are ultimately affected by flowering initially, which was relatively solid. At the point when you aren’t getting a lot of moisture, the berries are going for amore natural cell division rather than being influenced by water, so bunches and berry sizes were a lot smaller than you would get in a wetter season, bunch weights were moderate to low, everything you would want as a winemaker.◆ Tell us about the conversion process to organics?Around 2009 our viticulturalist, Richard Flatman, had come from an organic vineyard and was quite keen on taking Neudorf in that direction. Tim had spent several years as a conventional farmer, is a scientist by trade and inquisitive by nature, so he needed some prodding initially to do it ‒ ‘Where was the science?’ was the crux of it. He started off with a couple of trial blocks to get a feel for it. Once the initial dipping of the toes period was over, it was a case of rolling it out over 2-3years and making the final commitment to go into the certification process. It doesn’t take long, and once we realized what was required, 90 per cent of the work was already being done by way of our canopy management. The biggest issue was how do we deal with the weeds and competition with the vines. That has been the learning curve.◆ Do you see significant difference in the quality of the fruit?That’s a tough one because there are so many other variables that can blur the lines ‒ the season itself can have a massive impact on the fruit. What I do see in a challenging year like this year, the vines seem very settled, a bit more in tune with the environment. A general trend we have seen over the last 3-4years is better ripeness at lower sugars than previously and lower alcohol, although that may also be impacted by the seasons. The old 14-14.5 per cent alcohol days are gone, and we are now down to 13.5 and sometimes 13 per cent, which is a welcome change. If there was ever a season to challenge the vines, it was this summer.◆ How has your winemaking evolved over time and where do the main challenges come from?Our winemaking has to evolve from season to season based on the quirks of the season, but ultimately there is a general process to the way we make wine, because barring any disaster, we feel comfortable and confident in the way in which we are approaching it. Another good thing is keeping to your successful process to create a house fingerprint which is replicated throughout the seasons. It doesn’t mean you are getting the same wine every season, but it means you are getting Neudorf every season. And I think that is quite important for the market, and for consistency.Of course there are years where you have to jump out of your box from where you normally are and you just have to respond. But generally speaking, our evolution is more about learning about the individual blocks and little specific decisions as opposed to any significant year change, because we are quite happy with the way in which we are approaching it.These days, all our wines are wild fermented. In Tim’s days, he was reluctant to use wild fermentation, particularly with Chardonnay. As time has gone on we have rolled it out to every single wine in the cellar, so nothing is fermented with packet yeast now.In oak usage, Moutere Chardonnay has gone from 30 per cent new oak back in the day, down to 10-12 per cent. It is all 100 per cent French oak, but only10-12 per cent new each year. The Pinot Noir is all French oak, with about20-25 per cent new each year. We are working with about 4 or 5coopers and we don’t get too carried away at a lot level with each lot requiring a specific cooper. We know we’ve got the coopers who we think will work for us, and will give us the house style that is consistent and we stick with them.The Sauvignon Blanc we just released has typically been 20-25per cent old barrel fermentation, no new oak. For the 2018 vintage we bumped that up to40 per cent because we quite like the barrel portion and what it does. It ferments then sits in oak for 4-5 months, then we make the overall blend for bottling. We use the barrel fermentation to create a bit of texture, as opposed to sitting on lees for a long time ‒ it doesn’t get that opportunityImage of Moutere vineyard. Currently all Neudorf vineyards are 100% dry farmed using biodynamic and organic viticulture, and the wine fermented with indigenous yeasts.◆ How do you pursue differences from individual vineyards in the winery?We try to minimize, or should I say standardize, our wine making fingerprint, so it is generally made the same regardless of where it comes from. For example, the Chardonnay, the difference between the Rosie’s Block Chardonnay and the Moutere Chardonnay is purely site. They both get the same amount of new oak, they are both treated the same in the winery, we’re not trying any winemaking technique to differentiate the two. We are very much a fan of looking at the vine age and the site to show the differences and nuances.The Pinot it is similar. For the Pinot from the Home Vineyard, we have a small part of the vineyard which consistently produces very good fruit which becomes the Moutere Pinot Noir. Everything else comes from Tom’s Block. It is all cropped the same, treated the same and made the same when it comes into the winery.◆ With the original vines coming up to 40 years old do they have a lot of life left in them?Ultimately if you are driven by production and spreadsheets you could argue that at some point in your vine age you start to see production falloff and your spread sheet numbers start to turn red.However, for us the offshoot of having old vines is that you’ve got vines that are exploring the terroir and speaking a volume which is not about production, but what happens in the glass. So that is where we would say we don’t drive the business model by the spreadsheet but by the fact that it makes really good wine. Yes, they do tend to taper off and are not as productive, but the wine is pretty good, so we are hardly going to pull them out.◆ Do you notice changes in flavour with the fruit from older vines?I’ve been here only 6 to 7 years so I haven’t noticed changes over time, but on top of that there is a seasonal aspect which throws those kinds of judgements out ‒ adjusting from a hot season to a cold season. But we are very fortunate with the Moutere Chardonnay, we’ve got three vine ages in that block, which all get blended at the end of the year to make Moutere Chardonnay. They are all the same clone, they are on the same aspect, they are all farmed the same, they are just 3 different vine ages. Still, we harvest them all separately, and keep them separate in the winery. We can consistently see a pedigree difference between the 40 year old vines and 20 year old vines which are 20meters apart on the same soil. So we see pedigree differences as opposed to flavour differences between those two sites, and vine age comes into play there because that is the only real variable.◆ Are there changes in picking and parcel selection?Seeing that Neudorf has been going for 40 years, there has been growth, but also blocks have been pulled out and replanted with different varieties. We actually have a lot of little blocks of different clones, and we try our hardest to keep those separate when they come into the winery so we can see it all the way through.Using Chardonnay as an example, though we are keeping all those block sand lots separate, the Moutere Chardonnay is already determined before it is picked as coming from a particular site. So, ironically, if anything we are not taking the opportunity that we are creating by having all these little individual blocks to use it as blending tool, but rather as a learning tool to assess the different blocks in the vineyard, as part of the feedback rollout improved blocks within the vineyard.Winery & Cellar door