Hayden’s best friend looking over Tarras Vineyards
Thursday 16th May 2024 at 7pm
Discover Tarras Vineyards of Central Otago through the experience of our host, highly awarded vigneron and winemaker, Hayden Johnston.
Elevated on the terraces of the historic goldfields in Central Otago, this organically managed vineyard was founded by Hayden in 2002 and has become famous for its outstanding expressions of Pinot Noir. With floral aromas, intense fruit, and a harmonious blend of spice and savoury notes, these wines are characterized by natural acidity and impressive tannin profiles. You will enjoy a classic pinot gris and three great pinot noir wines of Tarras Vineyards perfectly matched with gourmet four-course menu curated by our hatted Chef Jordon Garcia. Each dish promises to harmonize with the unique characteristics of Tarras wines, creating a symphony of flavours that will leave your taste buds tingling.
All Inclusive Price: $170 pp including four course menu and wines.
All Dietary Requirements will be met.
Bookings are essential.
Hayden Johnston
The Menu
The Wines
2023 Pinot Gris – gently fleshy white pear and nectarine flavours and then a plush, warmish finish. Fleshy fruit and plenty of expansive flavour.
2018 Kuru Kru Pinot Noir - Matured in French oak barrels (1/3 new). 2018 is elegant and complex displaying red berry fruits, plum, spice and savoury characters. Fine tannins and luscious fruit flavours stay long on the palate.
2020 Tarras Vineyards Pinot Noir - Densely coloured, perfumed with lifted dark berry fruit on the nose with hints of spice and savoury characters. The palate shows plums and cherry fruit, spicy notes and fine tannins.
2019 Tarras Vineyards "The Canyon" Pinot Noir - This wine is a Classic. This is powerfully graceful with stunning complexity; the enticing bouquet shows dark cherry, tapenade, smoked game, truffle and cedary oak characters. The concentrated palate delivers terrific fruit richness with fleshy texture and beautifully melded tannins, finishing sumptuous and structured.
2013 Tarras Vineyards "The Canyon" Pinot Noir - A single vineyard wine made exclusively from The Canyon Vineyard at Bendigo and labelled as The Canyon only in vintages when it is exceptional. Beautiful floral aromas with elegant berry fruits, spice and dried herbs. The palate is elegantly opulent with ripe fruits, great acidity, ample tannins and excellent length. Remarkably ageworthy.
Hayden’s Story
Hayden Johnston’s journey in the wine industry began 18 years ago, literally by accident.
The founder and owner of Tarras Vineyards was hit by a car while out running in London, where he was spearheading a project for a multi-national insurance group. He’d recently run the New York Marathon, had cycled a thousand miles around Europe, and was enjoying his career, but after eight days in St Thomas’ Hospital Hayden returned to hometown Dunedin to recuperate, prioritising his health over work. “Coming back, I quickly appreciated how beautiful it was here,” he says.
Drawn to Central Otago, Hayden found himself signing up for two properties on the same day. “I couldn’t say no to either.” One was a cherry orchard near Clyde, which he sold after Covid-19 hit, to help finance The Canyon - a beautiful new venue on the home vineyard.
The other piece of land was high on the terraces of the old goldfields at Bendigo, where Hayden planted grapes in 2002, founding Tarras Vineyards. The wines found international acclaim when The Canyon Pinot Noir 2009 took out championship trophies at the International Wine Challenge and the Decanter Asia Wine Awards. The Canyon Pinot Noir has more recently been described by Michael Cooper as one of New Zealand’s classics.
The following winter Hayden headed back to the UK to set up a wine importing and distribution business for Tarras Vineyards and other New Zealand wines in London and Dublin. But that came to an abrupt end around 10 years ago, when the Global Financial Crisis hit restaurants and smaller distributors. “The real clincher was in the Christmas trade,” says Hayden. “There was a big dump of snow and the warehouse collapsed… it spelled the end of our business overnight.”
The experience encouraged him to return to Central, where Hayden cherishes a legacy of farming organically, passed down to him through his Māori heritage. In 1836 his ancestor, Captain James Joss, purchased a parcel of land on the remote northern peninsula of Stewart Island, and later married and grew vegetables with Hayden’s fourth great grandmother Kuru Kuru, of Ngāi Tahu, who had grown up on Ruapuke Island in Foveaux Strait. At the time the low windswept island - now uninhabited - boasted a population of around 200 Ngāi Tahu people and was one of the few places in southern New Zealand where Te Tiriti of Waitangi was signed in 1840. “Our grandfather Poppa spoke fondly of having a Māori princess as his grandmother,” Hayden says.
“They loved their land and our family origins have been the inspiration for Kuru Kuru wines. Each bottle of Kuru Kuru proudly displays a portrayal of her moko kauae, the mark carved on her chin, signalling her respected position in Māori society.”
The brand was originally one Hayden used in the UK but it now has a home at The Canyon, where a giant portrait inspired by Kuru Kuru, by renowned Māori artist Greg McDonald, has pride of place. Hayden is a founding member of Māori winemakers’ collective, TUKU, which is united by a common ethos to winemaking, business and life.
Kaitiaki whenua, care and guardianship of the land, is an important guiding principle, says Hayden, who embraced organics early on and plans to leave the soils in better condition than when he started. “We’re not owners of the land, we’re just passing through.”