I have to confess. I'm a bit of a vineyard groupie. So when the invitation came to help with the harvest, I jumped at the chance. I had picked grapes for the last four vintages, but only in vineyards in the Rodney district - that's the district north of Auckland which includes the Kumeu and Matakana wine regions. But this invitation was to Marlborough and even though it meant a 1 hour and 20 minute flight in a tiny 20-seater propeller-driven aircraft, I wasn't going to say 'no'.

The destination was the famous Brancott Estate, the first vineyard to be planted in Marlborough in the modern era of New Zealand winemaking. Brancott Estate has to be one of the most photographed vineyards in Marlborough. It is also one of the biggest. Vines were originally planted here in 1973. Gradually the viticulturists have found out what works best on the site and that is sauvignon blanc, although some pinot noir has now been planted around the back and on a new north east facing hillside development on the estate.

"It's been a funny old season," says Gerry Gregg, the manager of Montana's Brancott Winery, as we drove from the airport to the multi million dollar winery and tourist facility on the morning of April 3. The brilliant spring followed a dry winter and the thought of another drought was worrying everyone. Then it started raining and it was a torrent with almost continual downpours from October to mid January. But this was when the vines were growing and they loved the wetting and as well, the water tables were totally replenished. Since then the weather had been more or less perfect, with the occasional wetting keeping the wines nourished.

Overnight, prior to our arrival, was the first frost of the autumn. "Just a ground frost" said Jerry, explaining that frost was not an issue as long as it did not touch the foliage.

After the crisp clear night, the conditions today were ideal. It was hard to believe that out in Cook Strait, the seas were so rough that the inter-island ferry sailing's had been cancelled.

Montana was about 22 percent through harvest. The sauvignon blanc harvest had just commenced the day before but the pinot noir, including that from the cosmetic vineyard adjacent to the winery, was about 80 percent complete. There was still some pinot for red table wine to be picked - we were going to pick some today - but the hand harvested grapes for Deutz Marlborough Cuvee and the Lindauer Special Reserve sparkling wine had been completed.

"The valley is just starting to get into swing and the picking circus is in town", said Gerry. The trail of cars, caravans, tractors with portaloos on them and quad bikes with bright orange flags that stand out amongst the vines, wend their way from vineyard to vineyard for their brief yearly performance on each site.

Today the Montana pickers were on the Pine Block at the back of Brancott Estate to harvest the small clean crop of UCD Clone 5 pinot from the young vines that were just 3 years old. I joined the slick teams of pickers, who are paid by the vine; to snip off a few bunches of the delicious tasting grapes.

The rate of pay for the Montana pickers varies from block to block or vineyard to vineyard and depends on the yield and the quality. The crop on this block was small and so too was the pay - just $0.35c a vine. As each vine was harvested of its fruit, the picker stuck a sticker, with their picker number on it, to the irrigation pipe below the vine. As a row was completed the team supervisor would tally each pickers' stickers for pay out at the end of the day.

I think I might have earned someone about $5 in total and I chatted, tasted and stopped to take photos as I snipped.

Then we were off to discover the sauvignon blanc.

What is unusual about the sauvignon blanc on Brancott Estate is that the vines run in an east-west orientation whereas most other vineyards, as well as the pinot noir on this estate, have their rows of vines oriented in a north-south direction.

We were absolutely fascinated with the grapes. Those on the sunny side were pinky grey in colour and were ripe and flavoursome with seemingly soft acids and spice sometimes reminiscent of gewurztraminer but still with those hallmark sauvignon flavours. Those grapes on the shaded side were bright green with more pronounced acids and lovely grassy and gooseberry flavours so prevalent in our country's best sauvignon blancs. The photo shows the different appearance of bunches from the same vine. I cut a bunch off to show the shaded side and placed it above a bunch on the sunny side. Fascinating, huh!

The sauvignon blanc grapes from this vineyard go into the company's premium wine, simply branded 'B'. They may also go into the Montana/Brancott Reserve Sauvignon Blanc. The east-west orientation and the range of flavours that could be in a single bunch of grapes is one of the reasons I believe these top wines from this vineyard have so much complexity. I rated the Montana/Brancott Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2001 amongst my top ten sauvignon blancs from the vintage late last year .

Popping over to the Kaituna Estate vineyard, close to the Wairau River, the vines are oriented north-south. These grapes were more green apple in flavour. Half the vineyard was being machine harvested while we were there, the other half of the vineyard was left for the grapes to hang and develop further. The sauvignon blanc from this vineyard is destined for the basic Brancott Sauvignon Blanc bottling.

Kaituna Estate is set to expand in a big way. Planted in 1998, there's 160 hectares of vines in the ground - 60 hectares of sauvignon blanc plus chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot gris. A pine forest had been recently cleared and now 100 hectares of bare land to be planted this coming winter.

We also stopped at the Stoneleigh Vineyard where again the vines also run in an east-west direction. Machine harvesters were at work on the sauvignon blanc and I hitched a ride down a row and back.

Back at the winery there was a late lunch, a tour of the winery among the seemingly hundreds of towering tanks and thousands of barrels.

Chief winemaker, Mark Inglis, who is leaving after vintage to prepare for his ascent of Mount Everest, took us through a tasting. These were some of the 2002 wines that had finished ferment and some 2001 that were about to be bottled.

Unfortunately we were rushed for time with flight back to Auckland that would not wait.

What an excellent and most enjoyable visit.

*Montana Wines use the branding "Brancott" in USA and Canada and use "Montana" elsewhere in the world.

Click here to see a map of Montana's Marlborough vineyards.
Click here for Montana's mid-harvest report.