Contrary to popular belief, sauvignon blanc is not the most widely planted white variety in New Zealand; rather, it is chardonnay. So, the white grape on which New Zealand stakes its reputation actually ranks second, followed by Müller-Thurgau, riesling and a slew of others. And even more surprising, the globally ubiquitous chardonnay usurped Müller-Thurgau in 1992 as the country's leading white grape.

The reality is that New Zealand is no longer a one-trick wine pony. Nor does its reputation rest with white wine alone. In fact, the future is looking very red. The country's winemakers have of late been smitten by Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon - and with good reason.

A recent visit provided fresh insights into the evolution that is taking place as New Zealand further refines its winemaking

niche. And as much as I like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, I found that the country's emerging red wines show greater promise. Merlot is generating a lot of attention for its bright, plummy flavors and good, tannic structure. Cabernet Sauvignon, while less impressive, shows well as a blending partner for Merlot. It is Pinot Noir, however, that is really coming on strong. This delicate, difficult-to-grow variety has taken to New Zealand's generally cool, maritime climate so well that it will likely soon eclipse Sauvignon Blanc as the country's wine ambassador.

Like any emerging wine region finding its way, New Zealand is rife with experimentation, much of which is taking place in the vineyards. As microclimates are defined and soil types identified, winegrowers are becoming better at matching variety to site.

Growers are pinning their hopes on the potential for pinot noir in Marlborough, Martinborough and Central Otago. Kevin Judd, chief winemaker and manager for Cloudy Bay, says, "Although I think Sauvignon Blanc is still New Zealand's best wine, I personally believe that Pinot Noir will eventually assume a very high profile as New Zealand's red wine star." Kim Crawford, of Kim Crawford Wines, agrees, adding, "There's a lot of excitement about Pinot in Central Otago, too."

Judd, who is working on developing his own style for Marlborough Pinot Noir, believes Martinborough Pinot Noirs are the current benchmarks for New Zealand Pinot, but notes that "in the future, a range of excellent styles will emerge from the various areas such as Marlborough, Waipara, Central Otago and, perhaps if they give it a go, Hawkes Bay."

Pinot noir is currently the most widely planted red variety, with cabernet sauvignon and merlot close behind, especially in the Hawkes Bay region. Growers here are particularly excited about the potential for merlot. Gaining a smaller foothold are cabernet franc, syrah and pinotage.

To lend some focus to the flurry of activity taking place in New Zealand's vineyards, this article primarily concentrates on the top players - Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir - and to a lesser degree, Chardonnay.

The lay of the land

New Zealand, while not a large country - it covers 103,766 square miles, approximately the size of Colorado - presently has more than 23,000 acres under vine, with the North Island slightly more heavily planted than the South Island. New vineyards are going in at a rate of 10 percent per year.

There are ten main wine regions throughout both islands. As the most prolific region, Marlborough, on the South Island, is home to 64 wineries. By contrast, there is but one winery on the Great Barrier Island off the North Island.

Auckland, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay and Martinborough are the main wine regions of the North Island, with 242 wineries at last count. The South Island, with 162 wineries, is defined mainly by the heavily planted Marlborough region, and Nelson and Canterbury, two smaller and less significant growing regions. Central Otago, a huge region in the cool, southern part of the South Island, is the latest grape-growing hot spot - especially for pinot noir.

According to the most recent reports, worldwide export figures are surging ahead, showing substantial growth for the year ending June 30, 1999, with shipments to the United States up 60 percent over the previous year. In fact, the growth surge started in 1996, as more wineries began focusing on exports to the U.S., where sales have increased 829 percent since that time.

Wine style

A common misconception naively associates New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with a grassy, herbal style. There is more to it than that. While cooler climate growing regions, such as Marlborough, produce classic, lightly herbaceous Sauvignons with lime juice-passion fruit characteristics, warmer growing regions, such as Hawkes Bay (in the Southern Hemisphere, the farther north you go, the warmer it is), turn out rounder, more floral Sauvignons with ripe, tropical fruit flavors.

Primary fruit emphasizing citrus and apples - sometimes with tropical fruit notes - best characterize New Zealand Chardonnay. Styles range from those showing simple fruit and little oak to those with more stunning complexity and impressive longevity such as the Chardonnays of Kumeu River Winery.

New Zealand Pinot Noir is still evolving stylistically, with great promise shown by the Pinots from Martinborough, Marlborough and Central Otago. For now, the best bottlings show layers of cherry-berry fruit, soft but substantial tannins and good structure. It is still too early to predict their potential for longevity.

Green winegrowing

As annual production increases, steps are being taken to balance the demands of a growing industry with the need to safeguard the country's pristine environment. Winegrowers of New Zealand, a trade association, has joined in an ambitious joint venture with the Wine Institute and New Zealand Grape Growers, all of which have invested in the New Zealand Integrated Winegrape Production (NZIWP) plan.

According to Steve Smith, M.W., winemaker for Craggy Range Winery and one of the industry members working on the program, NZIWP is an industry-wide effort to preserve the country's clean, green environment with an emphasis on grape quality. "It's a pragmatic combination of organics and economics, involving sprays, tractor use, canopies and the use of multiple species ground covers between the vine rows," he says. The program has been put into practice in 140 vineyards, or 60 percent of the country's total vineyard acreage, and is expected to continue for three years.

Smith stresses that NZIWP is not primarily an organic program. Rather, it borrows the best from a number of grape-growing philosophies and adapts them to the conditions of New Zealand. For instance, he points out that in New Zealand's cool, maritime climate, one of the main vineyard problems is controlling mold. "If it's a question of spraying or not spraying, I'd rather have clean grapes than rotten grapes," Smith says. The country's winegrowers are just starting to use herbicides based on fatty acids that are totally organic, and researchers are working on developing a sensor that will work on botrytis to predict when it will occur.

"We are working on building up the plant's defense mechanisms to avoid or resist botrytis," Smith explains. "New Zealand is a little more humid than California, but we don't have as many insect pests. Among those that we do have, leaf roller and mealy bug are the most bothersome, but we have natural, organic sprays for them. This is bloody exciting stuff!"

South Island

Marlborough

Smith's excitement is felt throughout the New Zealand wine community and nowhere more than in Marlborough, the country's premier wine region. Known worldwide for its juicy Sauvignon Blancs and delicate, refined Pinot Noirs, the region is situated in the northeast corner of the South Island and is strongly influenced by a maritime climate.

The first commercial vineyard in Marlborough was planted in 1873 at Meadowbank Farm, owned by Charles Empson, whose great-grandson, Neil Empson, settled in Italy and became a noted exporter of Italian wines. Modern winemaking began in 1973, and, to date, Montana has planted 4,000 acres of vines in Marlborough. The Montana Marlborough winery is situated in Riverlands, just outside Blenheim.

Marlborough's vineyards are located in the scenic Wairau Valley, a green, tidy mix of vineyards and orchards, framed by snowcapped mountains, and the Awatere Valley, a shallow valley bordered by low, rounded hills and the meandering Wairau River.

Although Marlborough is a cool climate region marked by low rainfall during the October through April growing season, it has many pockets with unique microclimates. Sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir, the main varieties of Marlborough, are rooted in a range of soils, which vary from the deep silt and gravel of the Wairau Valley to the more uniform river stone, sand and mud stone of the lightly populated Awatere Valley.

The sauvignon blanc can be vigorous and weedy, producing high levels of the "canned green bean" character, especially in the northern part of the Wairau Valley, and the chardonnay is farmed to show delicate grapefruit and citrus flavors. The pinot noir picks up characteristic black cherry and subtle anise and leathery notes. Its potential is not yet fully realized here, and many insiders predict that it will eventually challenge the riper, more intense Pinots from Martinborough on the North Island.

Marlborough wineries

Blenheim is the largest town in Marlborough, but most of the region's 64 wineries are clustered around Renwick, a small, rural town due east of Blenheim.

For the American wine drinker with even a passing familiarity with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the two most familiar names are Cloudy Bay and Brancott Vineyards (aka Montana).

In the mid-1980s, Cloudy Bay founder and General Director David Hohnen recognized the potential for growing sauvignon blanc in Marlborough. He committed his resources to the region, and with the help of Cloudy Bay's Kevin Judd, together with a very impressive wine, convinced the world to buy Cloudy Bay when in the market for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Cloudy Bay defined a wine style recognized around the world, and soon developed into a marketing dynamo when Judd shipped his first wines in 1990 to the United States.

Judd promptly became the worldwide ambassador for Cloudy Bay and the New Zealand style of Sauvignon Blanc. He now works with Assistant Winemaker James Healey to produce a limited range of wines centered around Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, with Pinot Noir and Pelorous, a delicate, brut-style sparkling wine, rounding out the portfolio ($23-$27).

Judd, who worked first as a winemaker in the Southern Vales of Australia, joined Selaks as winemaker in 1983, then came on board as Cloudy Bay winemaker at its 1985 inception.

His 1999 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is mildly grassy with lovely citrus and passion fruit accents, good palate weight and a zingy finish. The 1997 was more suggestive of green bean, but with softer, more rounded fruit. Healey says that when Marlborough Sauvignons are about 5 years old they take on vegetal notes, then a few years later they regain their litchi and passion fruit characteristics. The winemaking team also makes a select Sauvignon Blanc called

Te Koko, which means "cloudy bay" in Maori, the language of New Zealand's native people, in the barrel-fermented, oxidative style. It offers warm, persistent, toasty flavors, and may soon be exported to the U.S.

The Cloudy Bay Chardonnays showed less personality and character than the Sauvignon Blancs, although the 1997 Marlborough bottling was bright and slightly honeyed with good texture.

Much more enticing are the 1997 and 1998 Marlborough Pinot Noirs, both of which are dense with ripe black fruit, good structure and warm, silky flavors. Unfortunately, Judd doesn't see the wines being exported to the United States for at least three to four years because he says that pinot noir production is growing slowly at Cloudy Bay.

Before Cloudy Bay hit the United States in 1990 with its highly distinctive Sauvignon Blancs, Montana and a few other large New Zealand wine companies tested the market then backed away. Being brand-conscious, the average American wine drinker may have considered the Montana name and said, "Geez, I don't know. Wine from Montana?" Montana wisely changed its U.S. export label to Brancott Vineyards (a place name in Marlborough), and the wines took off.

Montana farms the largest sauvignon blanc vineyard in Marlborough's Brancott Valley. To date, it has 800 acres of that variety under vine in Marlborough, mainly in the Wairau Valley, where the Brancott sub-valley is located. Another 440 acres are going in this year, and 560 acres were recently purchased in Awatere. The terrain is flat enough for Montana to harvest 95 percent of its Marlborough grapes by machine. Although sauvignon blanc is the main grape, Montana also has made a major commitment to pinot noir. It presently has a narrow pinot noir vineyard that stretches in a 3-mile band along the northwest side of the Wairau Valley.

Improvements are taking place at Montana's Marlborough winery that will give it greater capacity to handle the new grapes. In an impressive display of New Zealand's commitment to cutting-edge technology, Montana is installing four 65-ton fermenters that can be picked up and poured by a hydraulic ram. Already in place is an 8-ton Coquard Champagne Press - the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere - to produce méthode champenoise sparkling wine in partnership with Champagne Deutz. As a group, Montana's annual production tops 3.5 million cases, of which 65 percent of the total is produced in Marlborough.

Montana's portfolio is extensive, but most impressive are its estate-bottled Brancott wines ($10-$25). The 1998 Sauvignon Blanc offers forward, passion fruit flavors and crisp, mouthwatering acidity, while the 1998 Gisborne Reserve Chardonnay possesses ripe, tropical fruit flavors and good length. A 1998 Marlborough Reserve Merlot shows ripe berry and mint flavors.

Another Marlborough winery that has captured an American audience is Allan Scott Wines, located on Jackson's Road, known as the "Silverado Trail of New Zealand." Five wineries are situated along the rural road that leads toward the hills from the local airport: Corbans, Cairnbrae, Allan Scott, Cloudy Bay and Jackson Estate. Cairnbrae now exports to the United States through Ken Onish, Inc., and Jackson Estate is imported by Rock Creek Wine Merchants.

Allan Scott, former vineyard manager for Corbans, founded his estate winery in 1990. While with Corbans, Scott, one of the founding fathers of Marlborough wine, joined forces with Judd to search out a suitable site for Cloudy Bay.

Scott is a family man who believes in getting everyone involved, including his teenage son, Jason, who works closely with his father and Winemaker Greg Trought. Scott relies on Trought's considerable winemaking talents. When I visited the winery, both Jason and Trought walked me through the wines, while Scott was away at the annual wine fair in Auckland.

The portfolio ($15-$22) includes some lovely 1998 and 1999 Rieslings, a fleshy 1998 Chardonnay, a plump, ripe 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon and a strikingly crafted 1998 Marlborough Pinot Noir that is full of black cherry and anise flavors showing good mouth-feel, plump fruit and a long, silky finish.

A prime example of a small, family-owned winery with big ambitions is Wither Hills, in the Wairau Valley. In 1975, John Marris planted grapes in the heart of Marlborough's Wairau Valley and with a quarter century of grape growing under his belt, joined forces in 1999 with his winemaker son, Brent.

Brent Marris is widely known in New Zealand as an innovative and talented winemaker who now wants to take that reputation - and his family's Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir - to the world. The wines ($14-$18) are just now arriving in the U.S. market, and if the mouthwatering, citrusy 1999 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is any example of what Marris can do with the grape, some very good drinking is in the offing.

Phil Rose is another Marlborough grape grower who decided to get into winemaking. Working in tandem with his wife, Chris, and Winemaker John Belsham, Rose has built Wairau River Wines into an intriguing brand that is making itself known in the U.S. market. Although the majority of the grapes from Wairau's three Raupara district vineyards are sold to other wineries, Belsham makes approximately 20,000 cases of Wairau River Wines, with 5,000 cases destined for export to the U.S. The wines ($20-$49) are produced at Raupara Vintners, a facility shared with Foxes Island, Nautilus and Shingle Peak (Matua Valley's Marlborough label).

Wairau River Wines turns out two styles of Sauvignon Blanc that depart from the region's grassier template. The 1999 Marlborough bottling is a lively, unoaked mouthful of lime juice and ripe passion fruit supported by crisp acidity. The 1997 Reserve is more textured, showing toasted oak and ripe fruit.

Under Belsham's own Foxes Island label, which he is contemplating for export to the U.S., he produced a 1997 Marlborough Chardonnay that is a bigger, oakier wine than the Chardonnay he makes for Wairau River. He also turned out a berry-rich 1997 Pinot Noir, and is planning to launch a Pinot Noir-only winery as a part of Raupara Vintners.

The winemaking at Huia and Vavasour, both small boutique wineries with vineyards in the Wairau and Awatere valleys, is overseen by Consulting Winemaker Mike Allan. At Vavasour, he works with Winemaker Glenn Thomas to produce, among other varietals, a most impressive Sauvignon Blanc ($20). At Huia, Allan shares the winemaking duties, as well as a passion for the intense flavors of Marlborough wines, with his wife, Claire. The Huia 1998 Sauvignon Blanc ($18), with its zesty citrus flavors and mineral notes, is worth the search.

Marlborough footnotes

Other Marlborough wineries of note include: Stoneleigh Vineyards and Cottage Block wines from Corbans; Nautilus, which draws fruit from vineyards in Wairau and Awatere, and is shipping small amounts of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay to the U.S.; Ponder Estate, owned by noted New Zealand artist cum vintner Mike Ponder, who is shipping small amounts of his distinctive wines to the U.S.; and Omaka Springs, which has recently entered the U.S. market with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Merlot.

North Island

The North Island is shaped roughly like a long-handled dipper, with Auckland at the base of the handle, Gisborne below the lip of the dipper and Hawkes Bay south of Gisborne. Wairarapa is a small region located at the island's south end that has established a reputation for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Auckland

Water and lush green terrain define the greater Auckland area. The city, built on a natural harbor, is studded with a collection of low, rounded volcanic hills.

Waiheke Island is a short ferry ride from Auckland, but it seems like another world. A popular weekend getaway, this "hip-pocket" wine district has eleven small wineries clustered in the western end of the island. Cool-climate chardonnay as well as cabernet sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties thrive on Waiheke. Kim Goldwater of Goldwater Estate makes some of Waiheke's best wines - Chardonnay and Cabernet/Merlot blends.

In greater Auckland, a handful of wineries are existing cheek to jowl with creeping urbanization. Montana Wines has a big winery east of the Great South Road, not far from the mouth of the Tamaki River. Montana also has extensive holdings in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, in addition to its presence in Marlborough.

Villa Maria Estate, one of New Zealand's most significant wineries, is situated on the south side of Auckland in the suburb of Mangere. George Fistonich, who has owned and managed Villa Maria since 1961, expanded his endeavors to include Vidal of Hawkes Bay, with wines oriented toward the younger market, and Esk Valley of Bay View (near Hawkes Bay), a small, upscale label for the serious wine collector. Michelle Richardson is the group winemaker working out of Auckland, and Sioban Harnett is the viticulturist at Villa Maria's Marlborough estate.

Villa Maria grows its own grapes and purchases grapes from contract growers in Auckland, Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne. Villa Maria is planting new vineyards in Gisborne, including newly developed plots of chardonnay, and tripling the size of its vineyard holdings in Hawkes Bay.

Richardson likes Gisborne for chardonnay, Hawkes Bay for red Bordeaux varieties, chardonnay and gewürztraminer, and Marlborough for sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.

Villa Maria wines are positioned in three price and quality tiers: Private Bin ($12-$15), Cellar Selection ($16-$20) and Reserve ($23-$36). Tasting the full line at the Mangere winery, I found that the Cellar Selection and Reserve wines represent the best price-value relationship. Of particular note are the 1999 Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc, the 1999 Reserve Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc, the 1998 Reserve Marlborough Chardonnay and the 1998 Reserve Merlot.

About an hour's drive northwest of the city of Auckland, west Auckland is defined by a collection of mostly family-owned wineries that augment their estate fruit with grapes sourced from New Zealand's major vineyard regions. Most of the vineyards are characterized by small plots of shallow clays and sandy loams. Chardonnay, merlot and cabernet sauvignon are the main varieties planted here with smaller plantings of sauvignon blanc.

One west Auckland area producer of international repute that specializes only in locally grown grapes is Kumeu River, a 25,000-case high-end winery owned by the Brajkovich family. Master of Wine Michael Brajkovich is the winemaker, his mother, Melba, the general manager, and brother, Paul, the marketing manager.

A Chardonnay specialist, Brajkovich says most of the chardonnay presently grown in New Zealand is the Mendoza clone, but Kumeu River is experimenting with the new Dijon clone.

Kumeu River wines ($15-$41) are best known for their ripe flavors and elegant structure. The regular Chardonnay is a blend of five vineyards in the region; the 1998 is marked by the delicate flavors of white peaches. The proprietary Mate's Chardonnay is sourced from a special vineyard (named for Michael Brajkovich's father, Mate, a community and wine industry leader) across the road from the winery; the 1998 has lovely, ripe pear flavors and spicy French oak nuances.

Kumeu River also produces an unoaked Pinot Gris, a lovely, textured blend of merlot and malbec called Melba, and a lean, but tasty Pinot Noir imbued with generous spice and ripe berry flavors.

The House of Nobilo, located in the sub-region of Huapai, has grown from a small family-owned winery in 1943 to be the fourth-largest winery in the country. To finance the expansion, Nobilo went to outside investment, including Australia's BRL Hardy winery. In 1998, Nobilo made a significant move into Marlborough with the purchase of Selaks; today Nobilo buys about 90 percent of its grapes.

Known more for his whites than reds ($10-$12), Nobilo Winemaker Brett Fullerton's 1999 Fall Harvest Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc shows lovely citrus and herbal characteristics, and the 1998 Fall Harvest Gisborne Chardonnay is nicely textured with classic chardonnay flavors and just a touch of oak.

Farther west, in the sub-region of Waimauku, is Matua Valley Wines, one of New Zealand's most innovative wineries. Founded by Ross and Bill Spence, Matua Valley markets wines sourced from North Island vineyards and Shingle Peak wines from Marlborough on the South Island ($14-$23). Tasting the 1999 Sauvignons from Hawkes Bay and Marlborough clearly demonstrated how the fruit differs. The 1999 Matua Valley Hawkes Bay bottling was softer and more approachable, with floral and tropical fruit flavors, while the 1999 Shingle Peak Marlborough Sauvignon was more zesty with citrus and herbal flavors. As for a notable red, the 1998 Shingle Peak Marlborough Pinot Noir was showing good structure and length with ripe cherry flavors and a hint of mint.

Kim Crawford describes his eponymous label ($14-$30) as "a virtual winery with virtual vineyards." Crawford buys grapes mainly from Marlborough and makes his wines in rented space using a two-tiered system: unoaked and oaked. "I prefer Marlborough fruit for the wines I make, but I tend to go to regions where I can get the best grapes." His 1999 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has a citrus high note with subtle herbal accents, while the 1998 Awatere Sauvignon Blanc, half of which was fermented in barrels previously used to ferment chardonnay, is warmer, with richer vanilla and ripe pear flavors. Crawford's barrel-fermented 1998 Tietjen Gisborne Chardonnay ($19) is rich and creamy with ripe pear and melon notes and subtle toasted oak.

Crawford is very keen on merlot from Hawkes Bay, and sees it as a major player in his line. His 1998 Te Awanga Hawkes Bay Merlot has deep, black cherry, coffee and smoky aromas with plump flavors, good balance and nicely integrated tannins.

Auckland footnotes

In all, there are about 20 wineries located in the Auckland sub-regions of Kumeu, Huapai and Henderson, and among them those that are exported to the U.S. change almost daily. For now, other Auckland-area producers to seek out include Cooper's Creek Vineyard, Soljans Estate Winery, Babich Wines and Corbans Wines.

Hawkes Bay

In general, Hawkes Bay, the nation's second-largest wine region, is warmer and more humid than the South Island's larger Marlborough region. A dynamic wine region with about 40 wineries and 5,000 acres under vine, Hawkes Bay has a wide range of climatic conditions and soils, with 22 different soil types on the Heretaunga Plains alone.

For now, Hawkes Bay stands in the shadow of Marlborough as New Zealand's most important wine region. But approximately 40 percent of the grapes planted in Hawkes Bay are red varieties; new plantings of red varieties are going in at twice the rate of whites. Sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, merlot and cabernet sauvignon are currently the most widely planted varieties, but interest is growing for pinot gris, syrah and malbec.

Te Mata Estate Winery, with its distinctive, Mediterranean-style edifice, is one of the leading producers in Hawkes Bay. Te Mata grows its own grapes, makes the wine, and bottles and ships it throughout New Zealand and a number of export markets, including the U.S. Owner John Buck is a visionary who has had his hand in many aspects of New Zealand winemaking - as writer, wine judge and former president of the New Zealand Wine Institute. But Buck is singleminded about Te Mata: "We are only about making wine, nothing else."

Winemaker Peter Cowley works closely with Buck and the other longtime members of the Te Mata team, producing distinctive wines that have won many awards. The 1999 Hawkes Bay Castle Hill Sauvignon Blanc ($25) is bright with juicy lime flavors and good texture. The 1997 Elston Chardonnay ($35) is creamy and toasty with subtle fruit flavors and nicely integrated oak. The 1997 Hawkes Bay Bullnose Syrah is full of ripe berry flavors, seasoned with a pinch of black pepper.

Morton Estate, a well-established brand in the U.S., is located north of Hawkes Bay in the Bay of Plenty, but it owns more than 1,000 acres of vineyards, a crushing station, nursery and grafting station, along the Ngaruroro River in Hawkes Bay. Morton Viticulturist Mark Allen says the soils of Hawkes Bay are basically sandy loam - good for growing chardonnay, its main wine.

Morton Estate's best wines are marketed under its Black Label series ($30 range). The 1996 Hawkes Bay Black Label Chardonnay is a rich and toasty wine with ample fruit and acidity. Its value wines fall under the White Label series ($15 range). The 1997 Hawkes Bay White Label Chardonnay shows a hint of French oak and tangy, green apple flavors. The 1997 White Label Marlborough Pinot Noir shows bright, tart cherry fruit, toasted oak and a leathery backnote.

Wairarapa

Wairarapa, which includes the sub-regions of Martinborough and Wellington, produces less than 3 percent of New Zealand's wine. Yet from its scant 500 acres of vines, the region has built a reputation for quality, not quantity, with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir positioned as its two principal varietals.

There are 37 wineries in Wairarapa, all of them small, with Ata Rangi, Martinborough Vineyard and Te Kairanga best known by American consumers.

Among the first New Zealand Pinot Noirs were those made in the mid-1980s by Martinborough Vineyard. A decade would pass, however, before the country's Pinots would make an impact on the world market.

"Pinot demands intense concentration from viticulturists and winemakers," says George Galey, owner of American Estates Wines in Summit, New Jersey, the U.S. importer of Martinborough Vineyard. "Good Pinot Noir relies on the growing region and the winemaker. Claire Mullholland, the winemaker for Martinborough Vineyard, likes the well-drained gravel and the cool weather of Martinborough for pinot noir. I'd say she gets a smoother palate feel in her Pinots, like a Burgundy."

A love affair

The allure of its Sauvignon Blanc is as good a reason as any to have a love affair with New Zealand wines. Once intrigued, the range of styles that define Marlborough and Hawkes Bay Sauvignons will captivate the passionate wine drinker. But lovers of fine wine looking to tantalize their palates with deftly crafted, flavorful reds will undoubtedly stray.

It's an exciting time to be drinking New Zealand wine - there is greatness down there that has only just been tapped.

Contributing Editor Gerald D. Boyd is the staff wine writer for The San Francisco Chronicle, and regularly contributes to several publications on the subjects of wine and spirits.