Blair Walter always answers my e-mails, though sometimes the reply takes a few days as the text of one e-mail I received last November will attest.

"Dear Sue", it read. "Sorry for the delay in replying - I have returned from the dankest depths of Fiordland after 6 days on the Dusky Track and am now drying out!!"

Such is the life when you live in Central Otago where, if you are fan of the great outdoors, you have one of the world's most scenic and unspoilt playgrounds right on your doorstep.

Blair Walter, who in just three vintages at Felton Road has rocketed to super stardom on the New Zealand wine scene, must have weighed up the pros and cons of living in remote Bannockburn, a ghost town of the gold mining era where, in 1868, the population peaked at 2000.

The lure of the paradise playground was one attraction - tramping in the hills, fishing in the rivers and sailing his 'sunburst yacht' on the lake, but grape growing and winemaking?? What fool would plant grapevines in this untested weird and eerie landscape formed by the sluicing of every inch of earth by the miners in their quest for gold then left in neglect for so many years, thought some.

In fact one outspoken industry personality, who voiced his opinions loudly on the subject many years ago, was forced to eat humble pie as Bannockburn, and especially the road known as Felton, is now the most lauded sub-region of Central Otago.

Much of the credit for success must go to Blair. He joined Felton Road in 1996 to craft the wines from the vines planted between 1992 and 1994 on this prime site carefully selected by original Felton Road owner, Stuart Elms.

Blair Walter is a quietly spoken young man. He's a Kiwi born and bred, but with so much time spent overseas, the accent is a bit of southern Kiwi, Aussie and U.S. all mixed up. But there is definitely that unmistakable Otago rolling of the 'R' that most of the South Islanders of these southern parts seem to have.

What got Blair interested in wine? Although he trained at Lincoln University, the country's only University provider of viticulture and oenology courses, Blair enrolled in a Bachelor of Horticultural Science. In fact he admits he didn't know anything about wine until he went to Oregon State University on an exchange program.

In Oregon he was involved in a sensory evaluation panel, evaluating, almost exclusively, Pinot Noir. Part of the job was to describe the character of the wine. To aid this, props were available to help describe the wine. Cherries, mushrooms, old socks - you name it. He and his panel colleagues would smell them all to come up with terms to describe the wine.

"Does it help it describing your own Pinot Noir", I asked.

"Yes, its sort of an individual thing", he replied. "You find a character that you identify with or the way you learn to describe your wine, like cherry, or the dried herb character in the wines that could be coming from the thyme on the hillsides and the tussocks. The dryness of Central Otago, I think that comes through in our wines."

So this variety, Pinot Noir, that he is making such a great wine out of, was the first variety he every really experienced, the variety that made the wine bug bite.

On return to Lincoln and to complete his degree with an Honours Dissertation, Blair took papers from the post-graduate Viticulture and Oenology course to fuel his newfound passion. First Class honours was the result.

Now winemaking making was his goal and the path to Felton Road had him visiting and working in many wine regions. His CV looks impressive.

  1991 Jan-Mar       
        Saxonvale, Hunter Valley, Australia
  1991 Mar-1994 May  
        Giesen Wine Estate, Canterbury, N.Z. (Asst. Winemaker)
  1992 Jul-Oct
        Sokol Blosser Winery, Willamette Valley, Oregon
  1994 May-1996 Mar
        Newton Vineyard, Napa Valley, U.S.A. (White Winemaker)
  1996 Mar-Apr
        Tarrawarra Vineyard, Yarra Valley, Australia
  1996 Apr-May
        Rippon Vineyard, Wanaka, N.Z.
  1996 Sep-Oct
        Domaine de L'Arlot, Nuits-St-Georges, France 

While Felton Road was under the ownership of Stuart Elms, Blair had pretty much a free hand in what he did. "The quality of the grapes that comes off the property is very, very high and I think we can work on it to get them higher", he said.

And his background and philosophy of winemaking is, "If you have such excellent grapes, then why do anything to them. Just ferment them and put them in the bottle with as little interference as possible".

He respects the original winemakers from France and Germany and their techniques.

Inspired from details of wineries he had worked in and observed in his overseas travels, Blair designed the unique, three-level, gravity-flow winery building at Felton Road. Built into the hillside, the emphasis was on gentle handling of grapes and wine, and ease of use. He has incorporated modern technologies while still maintaining the simplicity of a rustic Burgundian cellar. It was completed in time for the first vintage in 1997.

Blair Walter has been in Cromwell about for about five years now. Just loves the quiet lifestyle compared to the busy, constant traffic in, say, the Napa.

You can stand at the winery door and take in that awesome scenery. The day I visited, the ranges were covered in snow and the calm lake made postcard quality reflections.

And then there's the spare time. He's not a skier but likes to sail on the lake, fish in the Clutha up near Wanaka, walk in the hills or tramp in Mt Aspiring National Park or around the Routeburn area. March and April are the best time to be in the hills but that's in the lead up and midst of harvest, so most of the serious tramping gets done in October and November.

There are not many opportunities for wine tastings in Cromwell, such as we'd have in Auckland, although the winemakers get together from time to time. And they need to, to practice for events like Wine Options. Last year, Blair's team won the Queenstown regional heat, which was a marked improvement of the non-placing the year before. No Central Otago team has yet won the National Finals, though.

I asked Blair if he'd even leave Felton Road and go out on his own. Although he and his wife have invested in a small property near by, a wise decision, as Blair alone has probably made the property prices in the area rise horrendously in the last couple of years, he says "I don't know. I'm pretty happy here".

Late last year, Stuart Elms retired from Felton Road and Nigel Greening of the UK purchased the winery. Blair Walter is now an Executive Director of the company as well as General Manager and Winemaker.