The Estate
On a hot summer day in 2002, Noel Scanlan and renowned viticulturist John van der Linden were searching the Marlborough district of New Zealand for the ideal vineyard site. After three weeks of searching the length and breadth of the Wairau Valley, they stopped for lunch on a bluff overlooking the point where the Waihopai River meets the Wairau River.
Below them, they saw an area of wild grasses that seemed, to the trained eye of the viticulturist, to be flourishing – a strange thing given the time of year. Their curiosity aroused, they clambered down the bank and found a spring emerging from an historic earthquake fault line. The water was clear, crisp and refreshing, but where it went was a mystery as there was no pond on the valley floor.
They quietly undertook a complete survey and found a sophisticated network of underground waterways (known as aquifers) below the block. These surely were the “good waters” from which the Waihopai River takes its name in the Maori language. The Southbank Estate viticultural team recognised immediately the benefits this water would provide to a well planned vineyard. Noel needed no further convincing that this was the right site to become the home of Southbank Estate in Marlborough.
The depth at which these waters lie is the secret – deep enough not to promote unhealthy vigour, but close enough to promote healthy canopies of fresh leaves which are shaped towards the sun. This allows the vines to grow in perfect balance, harnessing the nutrients of the soil and the energy of the sun to develop an intensity of natural flavour, rarely seen in the world of wine.
Today, when you visit, you can see the disappearing spring and understand the mystery of the good waters and the secret of Southbank Estate.
