It’s not PC to call red wines made in the style of Bordeaux, claret, but hell, claret is not a French word, and New Zealand’s wine culture is as much a product of British wine drinking and British wine culture as is our taste for French wine styles. So damn PC, and let’s call the stuff claret; it certainly makes more sense than cabernet/merlot/cabernet franc/malbec, which is about as evocative of the elegance and sophistication of these wines as a shopping list.

Claret it is then, and New Zealand’s tradition of claret began way back in the early years of the 19th Century when one young Sassenach by the name of Busby decided to learn about wine before his family emigrated to New South Wales. James Busby went to Bordeaux for his introduction to winemaking, and before he had arrived in the Australian colony he had written a textbook for the edification of his fellow colonists on how to make and grow wine.
Later Busby became the first official British resident to New Zealand, and on the lawn at Waitangi where the Treaty was later signed, he established New Zealand’s first winegrowing venture, before New Zealand itself existed. It could fairly be claimed that Bordeaux was the midwife of New Zealand wine, and it is not a surprise that the earliest wines to gain a respectable reputation in this country were claret styles grown and made in Hawkes Bay at the end of the 19th century.
Claret is based on the variety merlot. Or, to be more precise, most of the red wines grown in the Bordeaux region of France are based on merlot, which grows in more hectares of vineyard than any other variety in the region. However, if it is style that defines what we mean by claret, rather than bulk, then cabernet in its various versions is the principal variety of claret, and is certainly the driving force in New Zealand’s development of fine wine in this style.
Cabernet sauvignon, the savage cabernet, is the rangatira of the cabernet family, which in terms of claret includes cabernet franc and a second cousin, merlot. Cabernet sauvignon supplies structure – acid and tannin К to the ultimate claret blend, and because it requires almost perfect growing conditions to perform at its best, when the cabernet is good, the vintage is great. Flavour is classically described as blackcurrant, with intensity of aroma as well as taste, and cabernet sauvignon’s length of flavour is essential to the quality of Bordeaux’ top wines.
Cabernet franc is another top quality variety that has richness and perfume to add to the cabernet family’s strengths of acid and tannin. In Bordeaux the epitome of a great cabernet franc based wine is the sensational Cheval Blanc, a wine from St Émilion where cabernet sauvignon is rare, and the classic blend is one of franc and merlot.
Merlot itself is said to deliver flesh to Bordeaux wines, and mid palate substance that fills out the body of all the great wines. It is not the principal component of many of the great wines, with the singular exception of Château Pétrus, but few would exist without it as merlot is critical to the ultimate balance of these wines.
Other varieties are sometimes included in the claret mix, but they are not as important as the above mentioned. Petit verdot is a dark skinned variety with especially dark juice as well, and does add colour as well as a certain spice to many of the top wines. It is also an important weapon in grape fights that sometimes occur between pickers during harvest, as the colour stains T-shirts as evidence of direct hits.
Another variety sometimes in the Bordeaux mix is malbec, but its coarse character and rather metallic highlights are at odds with the general elegance of the best claret, and it has become rare in all but the most mediocre wines. It does contribute colour, which is one reason for its popularity in New Zealand, but its future here depends on whether the top properties see it has a role in their quest for elegance in the Bordeaux style.

The wines represent the most respected claret styles in the country, some with over 25 vintages of experience in New Zealand conditions.
The overall assessment of the panel was that these were all high class wines, with a handful showing out as being outstanding, even in an international context. Two points of discussion were common throughout the tasting, one being poor oak handling in many cases, and the other being too many winemakers were determined to make big, rich, assertive styles that were at odds with the character of the fruit they were using.
In tasting a range of submitted wines that were intended to be a review of the best available from New Zealand, those that scored less than 6 were omitted from the notes below. One wine had TCA spoilage and is not reviewed.