There's euphoria around the stadium. The left winger's been passed the ball. He's taken off at a breakneck speed,. He sidesteps past one defender. And the next. Nothing will stop him now. He's running so close to the sideline but keeps within the field of play. A spectacular dive into the corner and listen, it's a try. The crowd goes wild.

Hardly a wine scene. No, definitely not. This is rugby at its regional best and a scene from the early 80's.

The left winger, wearing the number 11 jersey, is Garry Major. The team is the Mooloo's, the team from the Mighty Waikato. And this is the era when Waikato was indeed mighty - that team in the early 80's was one of the region's most successful in the twentieth century.

I remember one of Waikato's games. It was September 7th 1980. Waikato traveled to Auckland to take on the then mighty Auks at Eden Park in their defense of the game's most prized trophy, the Ranfurly Shield. I was an Auckland supporter. I was there - sitting on the Terraces amongst the hyped-up Waikato supporters. It turned out to be a sad day for Auckland but a great day for Waikato when an intercept, not by Garry Major but by one of the other backliners, resulted in Waikato wresting the Shield from the hapless Auckland side.

Little did I know it 22 years ago that one day I'd be sitting drinking wine with the left winger from that jubilant Waikato team, a left winger turned winemaker after hanging up his boots.

In the days when Garry was playing representative rugby it was typical to think of rugby players as beer swillers - the male kiwi image of the 80's with the beer flowing freely at the after match functions. So how did this rugby player become interested in wine?

"Blame on my friend, Lance", said Garry. Both keen sportsmen, the lads would take off to Taupo for fishing trips. Lance introduced Garry to Scenic Cellars, the most amazing wine shop in the middle of the North Island and even more so in the era we're talking about. Soon the fishing trips became intertwined with wine tasting trips. They'd stay the night with Scenic Cellar's owner, Peter Taylor. They'd drink great wines from Peter's personal cellar.

Not surprisingly Garry was the only wine drinker in the Waikato team. This turned out to be a good thing on overseas trips. He persuaded most of the other team members to carry home the three bottle duty-free wine allowance, wines which just happened to end up in Garry's cellar. "Gee we got some bargains", he said. The wines have long been consumed. But some of the most memorable were the Clare Valley rieslings. Garry played 30 games for Waikato from 1979 to 1983 and there were a few overseas trips.

There was no professional rugby in those days. So the rugby representative became the Waikato area sales representative for Villa Maria Wines. "I think it helped that Peter Taylor was one of my referees", said Garry who divulged he had a broken leg when interviewed.

Garry was one of the few sales reps really interested in wine. One of the reasons he had applied for the job at Villa in the first place was so he could learn more. So when the reps were invited into the winery he was always the first one down to taste the barrels, taste the tank samples, all the while listening carefully to what they were saying.

Villa is where Garry met his future wife. It's true what you hear about office parties. Well it's true in the case of Garry and Vicky. They met in the Villa Maria boardroom at one of the sales conferences. Vicky was a key accounts sales manager. "It was a social industry to be in", laughed Garry. The two were very soon 'an item'.

It was also an exciting time to be in the wine industry. Producers were slowly introducing quality table wines, as new grape varieties became available.

Garry left Villa and had a couple of other sales stints before the couple decided to move to Hamilton to live on their 4.5 hectare block at Mystery Creek, south of Hamilton near the airport, which Garry had bought about 12 months before meeting Vicky.

They planted persimmons. Garry had imported the seeds from Japan and started them off in the backyard of his parent's place. He thought he would be a millionaire in 5 years, not realising they took 10 years to fruit. Ten years later, when the trees eventually did fruit, the price had plummeted out of the persimmon market.

Gradually the persimmon orchard is turning into vineyard. The first vines that were planted in 1990 weren't the right clones for the area. The new chardonnay was planted with expert advice and whoop-de-doo - the first vintage in 2000 resulted in a gold.

Garry made the wine at his Mystery Creek winery, which was built in readiness for the 2000 vintage. The winemaking skills were honed when Garry went back to school for a year, completing the Gisborne Polytech one-year full time viticultural and winemaking course.

There's now 2.5ha of Chardonnay with some Merlot and Pinot Noir which will come into production next vintage (2003). Garry's also looking at planting Viognier and Pinot Gris as well as more Pinot Noir, which will give the option of making a Methode Traditionelle sparkling wine. Meanwhile the remaining persimmon trees provide a supplementary income.

Last year Garry started going to every tasting that was going. "It's quite a small tasting community in Hamilton, really", he says. Mostly professional people - doctors, lawyers, IT professionals, etc. (Possibly something to do with income level and the price of wine, perhaps?). Garry says he can afford it now but there was a time when he couldn't.

I joined Garry on his deck on a sunny April day in a tasting of the Mystery Creek wines - here's my notes.

Mystery Creek Chardonnay 2001Tropical fruit, toasted pineapple and melon - a leesy tropical fruit and caramel popcorn flavours. Nice bright and breezy with a very long warm toasty finish. "Wattie's fruit salad," says Garry. $19.95. 180 cases made and about half already sold.

Mystery Creek Reserve Chardonnay 2001 More warm leesy characters but really rich and mouthfilling without being overpowering. Nice toasty characters with pears, melons and a touch of exotic fruit - what is it - perhaps mountain pawpaws with those thick, chewy skins. $24.95.

Both wines had a regime of 80% French oak and 20% American although the 'Reserve' had more new. Both wines had 100% malolactic fermentation.

Mystery Creek Barrel Ferment Chardonnay 2000 The gold medal wine and drinking really well today with lots of creamy Macintosh's toffee flavours - the light coloured toffees with the yellow or green wrappers. Good acidity and lovely tropical fruit balances the toasty oak that lingers for an age.

For more on Mystery Creek Wines, go to the website www.mysterycreekwines.co.nz.

© Sue Courtney
May 2002