On board the MV Kyrenia, a 40ft Riviera branded Aussie-made blue-water launch, the Nobilo Group winemaking team of Darryl Woolley, Katrina Sutherland, Dave Edmonds, Brett Fullerton and their guests readied themselves for a day of sun, sea and sailing.

Darryl Woolley

It was the 10th December 2002, which was hopefully going to be the first day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals of the America Cups Challengers series. Alinghi of Switzerland was to race Oracle of USA and Prada of Italy was up against One World of USA. Racing had been cancelled the day before 'cos the winds were too strong. They were pretty strong today too but we were all optimistic of a start.

As we left the haven of the Marina the water became quite choppy. It didn't deter the drinks being poured, however. Some of my colleagues even had a drink in hand before we had left the pier.

I climbed up the ladder to the weatherproof fly bridge and a chardonnay and a sauvignon blanc were passed up behind me, together with glasses for the 'girls' on the top deck keeping Captain Campbell company as he joined the exodus of boats up the harbour.

The boat started to roll in the swells of the other boats. Woo-eee!

The fabulous aromas of NZ sauv blanc captured my attention. This was the Selaks Founders Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2002, a brightly flavoured wine with smoke, passionfruit, crushed summer herbs, a squeeze of lime, a touch of hokey-pokey and a rich leesy complexity. It was perfect for 11-am drinkies.

We couldn't get into Viaduct Harbour for a quick nosey round for it was one-way traffic only and all the traffic was coming towards us the other way to join the charge of boats heading down the harbour and out towards the gulf. That is where every boat on the harbour seemed to be going except for Kea, the seabus, on its run from Devonport to Auckland. As Kyrenia rode up and over the wake, I thought the motion I was experiencing was a bit like riding a bucking bronco.

Ahead of us were the Team NZ yachts

Team NZ yachts abd Rangitoto

being towed out to practice on one of today's unused courses. They rounded North Head to take the shipping route up the Rangitoto Channel, as did most of the other boats. We kept on a straight-ahead to head past Rangitoto Wharf and up the Motuihe Channel.

Now the Nobilo Icon Chardonnay 2001 is in being poured into my glass. It's a big young thing, far too big and toasty for this time of day. It's got good acidity - well lots of acidity in the citrus and pineapple spectrum. I leave it for a while as the twin volcanic peaks of Mt Victoria and North Head and the city skyline with its needle-like Sky Tower recede into the distance.

As we head round the back of Motutapu Island towards Rakino Island to find a sheltered bay for lunch, I sip on the Chardonnay. There's something in there like a warm blanket of creamy lanolin and the spicy French oak influence comes out on the finish. As the wine fills out that pineapple flavour becomes quite luscious. It is definitely quite alluring but the wine needs to grow up before it is able to seduce.

The waters are sheltered in the inner gulf and the big window in the clear waterproof canopy surrounding the fly bridge has been opened. The fresh sea breeze blows through my hair.

Darryl comes up top with a bottle of Drylands Pinot Gris 2001. There's quite a noticeable pink hue to the wine. "Pinot Gris in Marlborough gives very ripe fruit", said Darryl above the noise of the motor. "There's a lot of colour in the skins and we purposely gave it a little skin contact as well."

It's a rich savoury wine in my mouth. So savoury, it is to the point of being salty. Darryl looks devastated when he hears my comment. To him saltiness is a fault. Perhaps it is the sea spray? Glenda concurs on the salty savouriness. To me it is not objectionable (but I'm not a winemaker) and I think what a good food wine this would be. It's not too fruity at all. Pears if anything. Yes. And some apple too. And perhaps some of those yellow-brown raisins. Are they sultanas? There's no oak but it's had lots of lees contact in tank.

Quite a few leisure craft are anchored here in the bay at the back of Rakino, no doubt to lunch before heading to the rough seas surrounding the 'blue course' in the outer gulf where today's racing is scheduled to take place.

But our lunch is preceded with a wine tasting, a sneak preview of some 2002 vintage wines. And I don't have to worry about finding a spittoon. I've got the biggest spit bucket I'll ever have on either both side and over the stern of the boat.

A barrel sample of Drylands Marlborough Pinot Noir 2002 is from mostly older oak. It's a light cherry red in colour and fruity in flavour with an attractive influence of spicy oak. I like the fruit weight but more time is what this wine needs. It will stay in barrel for another six months although Helen, the marketeer, would like to see it on the shelves for Christmas.

The Selaks Founders Marlborough Pinot Noir 2002 is poured. It has more colour, more richness, more flavour and more spiciness from the oak barrels - or was that just the food I had just eaten (gherkin, caperberry, relish etc., on a cracker)? The wine's a little hard at this stage and there's still a strong yeasty influence and creamy malo characters. But there's good potential in this wine that lingers with flavours of Dawson cherries.

I'm totally impressed with the next sample that's destined to become the Nobilo Icon Syrah 2002. The grapes are the first commercial crop of a joint venture between Nobilo and a Maori Trust at Mohaka, which is halfway between Gisborne and Hawkes Bay. The wine is a dense and bright in its black-red colour, one not to spill on the white t-shirts popular amongst the guests today. The nose is that typical creamy berries and white pepper of NZ syrah. There's a creamy texture in the mouth and the fruit is sweet and ripe with pepper, cinnamon and clove reminding me of the Iceberg rose I smelt at the garden centre last week. I like the structure and the firm ripe tannin of this 50/50 blend of new French-coopered American oak and one year old French oak. It's definitely one to look forward to when it's released mid-2003.

The tasting was over and a help-yourself lunch was served on the table in the galley. It was getting dangerously close to the scheduled race start time. But we couldn't tell from our sheltered haven what was happening. The wind was right on the upper racing level of 19 knots. As people dawdled and chattered over the picnic style meal, we heard that the races had started on time yet here we still were, now the only boat in the haven of Rakino.

Glenda and I quickly made our way up the ladder again to the grandstand seat on the fly deck. We were champing at the bit to get there. But first everything had to be secured. We soon found out why. When we came out of the lea of the island to hit the swell of the outer gulf the boat bucked like a young colt being broken in. The skipper let the throttle and we took off at a great rate of knots. Yee-ha! Ride it. Don't fight it. Glad I don't get sea-sick!

Alinghi and Oracle and the white dots of the spectator craft

As we neared the course we could see the yachts on their 'downhill slide'. The two white spinnakers of Alinghi and Oracle were nearing the mark and the white and blue spinnakers of Prada and One World were some way off in the distance. As the foremost pair rounded the spinnakers dropped and the gibs went up. I could see the logo of Alinghi on the leading boat.

Campbell raced toward the city of spectator craft and got us a neat pozzie as Prada and One World beared down on the mark. "It's Prada on the left and One World on the right", said someone mocking television yachting commentator Peter Montgomery who would be watching from behind the boats.

One World (blue) and Prada

"Prada's in the lead", I said hysterically. It was close and exciting. "One World's got the lead back", said someone else as Prada did a terrible drop of their spinnaker. Or was it a genoa? This close we could see it was a mighty big sail. But Prada had the right of way and rounded just 3 seconds in front of the challenger.

While the yachts were performing maritime ballet, we were definitely doing the old rock and roll. The wine had long been forgotten. You can't drink while you dance, anyway.

Skipper Campbell decided to take us to watch the boats round the mark at the other end of the course. We bucked our way down there on the rough sea as we battled both the sea and the head on wind. Alinghi and Oracle had already rounded and were on the downhill slide again but we made it in time to see the latter pair. One World had regained the lead over Prada.

Unfortunately it was time to head home. I decided to pop downstairs for the homeward journey. It seemed quite smooth at the back of the boat in comparison to the fly deck.

Back in Auckland there was time to cruise around Viaduct Harbour. There were so many 'super yachts' still at their moorings. Was it too rough for them today or are they here in Auckland purely to 'be seen'?

As we passed the One World base, a loud long noise like a train hooter sounded. Once. twice. It was their signal to all and sundry that the race was there's. One World had beaten Prada by 47sec. It had been an exciting race all the way to the finish I found when I watched the replay on TV that night. After we had left the rolling swells of the Hauraki Gulf, Prada had snapped a spinnaker pole and One World had ripped their spinnaker into shreds.

As for the other race, Alinghi beat Oracle by 1 minute and 11 seconds.

Were we so lucky with the weather. It was the best day of the whole of the semi-final series. After this there was 2 days of fairly bad drizzly weather then 3 days of postponements with the winds too high.

© Sue Courtney
18th December 2002.

Footnote: Alinghi made a 4-0 clean sweep over Oracle while One World made the semi-final repechage, beating Prada 3-2 in a weathered shortened series. However Prada had a brief moment of glory when it beat One World in fickle winds in its last race by an astounding 17 minutes and 46 seconds. One World will race Oracle in the repecharge for the other place in the final.