Significant European occupation in this region started with the Central Otago Gold Rush in the 1860s. A Frenchimmigrant gold miner, Jean Desire Feraud, soon started planting vines and embarking upon small-scale commercial wine production — even winning medals in Australian wine competitions. Late in the nineteenth century, the New Zealand government hired a winemaker to survey the country. While this early experimentation showed the wine-growing potential of the region, the wine industry did not survive for long on a commercial basis. Starting in the 1950s, and up through the end of the 1970s, small-scale trial plantings of vines began again both by private individuals and under the auspices of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture. By 1980 sufficient experience and confidence had been gained for small-scale commercial plantings to be made. Vineyard planting and production remained modest until the middle of the 1990s when the industry began to expand rapidly. In 1996 there were just 11 wineries in the Central Otago region, according to New Zealand Winegrowers, accounting for just 4.6% of the national total. By 2004 this had risen to 75 wineries and 16.2%. Over the same period, the area planted with vines rose from 92 hectares to 1,062 hectares. Reflecting this rapid expansion, the long lead-time for planting to come into production, and the focus in Central Otago on quality wines rather than bulk wines, actual wine production accounted for only 0.5% of the New Zealand total in 1996, increasing to 0.9% in 2004.
Climate and soil
At around elevation, Central Otago's vineyards are protected from New Zealand's characteristic maritime climate by high mountains up to high. They thus have the only true continental climate zone in the country, with large daily and seasonal temperature extremes. Rainfall averages around : summer is hot and relatively dry, and often accompanied by the Nor'westerfoehn wind; autumn is short, cool and sunny; and winter is cold, with substantial falls of snow. Heavy frosts are common throughout winter and, indeed, frost can occur at any time between March and November. One of Central Otago's warmest wine growing areas can be found just north of the Lowburn Inlet area. The climatic contrast between Central Otago and the more humid, warmer wine regions of the North Island can be illustrated by the difference in the timing of the grape harvest. In the more northerly vineyards, picking generally takes place in late February or early March, while in Central Otago the harvest begins in mid to late April — a difference of some six to seven weeks. The structure of the soil also differs considerably from other wine growing regions of the country, with heavy deposits of rough-edged mica and other metamorphic schists in silt loams. This soil drains easily, and given that most vineyards are positioned on hillside slopes, artificial irrigation is generally essential.
The Central Otago wine region is broken into multiple sub-regions, each with its own climate and characteristics.
Bannockburn is on the southern banks of the Kawarau River near Cromwell and is a very warm area that was known by gold miners as “the Heart of the Desert”. Grapes ripen early on sandy, silty loam soils. The elevation ranges from.
Bendigo lies east of the Clutha River and Lake Dunstan, with grapes planted at both medium elevation and high elevation terraces. This warm area has semi arid soils at variable depths, with free draining soils at the lower levels and shallower soils at higher elevations. The Bendigo sub-region includes the vineyards at Tarras and Maori Point.
Gibbston is a tight valley enclosed by mountainous terrain. About 250 hectares of vines are planted on sloping land on the southern bank of the Kawarau River. Gibbston is the coolest and highest of the sub-regions with vineyards between altitude. It is sometimes referred to as the Queenstown subregion.
Wanaka, the smallest of the sub-regions, has vineyards planted between the banks of Lake Wānaka and the town of Luggate to the east. Ranging between above sea level, the vineyards have a similar but slightly warmer climate than those at Gibbston.
The Alexandra Basin is surrounded by the Clutha and Manuherikia rivers and regularly records New Zealand’s hottest summer temperatures. Schist outcrops dominate the arid landscape. A wide diurnal shift moderates the high temperatures.
The Cromwell Basin contains the highest concentration of vines, in an area bounded by the Kawarau River, Lake Dunstan and the Pisa mountain range. It is a warm district characterised by semi arid, high terraces and moraines and gently sloping fans.
