An Extraordinary Family with an Extraordinary Story

 

By Martin Hellriegel-Brown

 “ Some of the neighbours weren’t too happy about having their lovely views of paddocks ruined by grape vines. Hahaha.  Well that changed.”

If you think it’s tough getting resource consent these days, you should talk to Phil and Chris Rose.  Back in the 1970s, when the Roses made their inspired switch from lucerne farming (gloom) to grape growing (boom), well, they had a hell of a time.

The neighbours just didn’t like it. They didn’t like the idea of viticulture.  They didn’t like the sound of it either. They didn’t want their view of lovely, rocky paddocks spoiled by – shudder – vineyards and vines, and bees and stuff.

The Rose’s application for Change of Land Use was strenuously objected to by many nearby farmers and landholders. 56 objections were filed. It took two years to muddle through the system.  In an era when it really was ‘The System’. But it was a system that eventually worked in the Rose’s favour.

Like viticulture, getting the right result just took a bit of time…and it was well worth the patient wait. By 1978 the objections had been logically and methodically over-ruled, and the Roses had the green light to plant white grapes. (And some red ones.). The saga had cost them the equivalent of about four houses in legal fees, but… a win was a win. The Roses – and their new venture – were off. And they haven’t looked back for a single day since.

As it turned out, the Wairau River edge was perfect for growing grapes. Who knew? Well, a few forward-thinking people at the time had a fair idea this was area was probably going to prove to be a viticultural paradise.  And some of New Zealand’s pioneering wine labels were already planting as fast as they could.

All of them had realised years earlier that the wider Marlborough area had the perfect climate and soil structure for growing grapes. It was an antipodean clone, in all the important ways, of the Old-World regions like Bordeaux and Burgundy. And the terroir and micro-climate around the Home Block – where Phil and Chris lived and worked and were about to plant their first vines – was even more suited – thanks to the unique stony soil and mineral make-up of the land beneath their feet - the ancient bed of the Wairau River. It was hard, tough land. And the grapes loved it.

The first vines they planted in the in the Home Block were fed by trickle irrigation - rudimentary, but effective. The vines clung to the stony earth for dear life. They struggled to push their roots down, but the punishment was worth it when they got there, because 4 metres below the surface they found water; the Wairau Aquifer, feeding direct from the nearby Wairau River, was one of the many reasons this land would prove magic for winemaking.

But back to the start. 1978 was a hard year, not made any easier by the fact the Rose’s had 4 kids under 5, and getting their vineyard established was several full-time jobs, but there was only the two of them. They carted the kids to where the work was that day in an old caravan that doubled as creche.

(Long after the kids were no longer kids, the caravan stayed on, doing duty as a ‘smoko’ hut for workers and pickers.)

The labour market was a bit different in ’78, too. Seasonal migratory workers weren’t a thing. That just wasn’t an available option. So, Phil and Chris enlisted local women to come and help with the pruning to earn some money for Brierley shares, or the new Abba album. (They probably still have the Abba album…)

The next ten years saw some huge, exponential changes. For the Roses and for the whole New Zealand wine industry.

The Great Vine Pullout of 1986 was an initiative to reshape the varieties planted and replace the ubiquitous Muller Thurgau for more commercially relevant ( or contemporary) varieties; grapes more suited to the unique local terroir, as well as to the palates of Europeans and an increasingly savvy local market.

Already, Marlborough, New Zealand was quickly becoming the home of the New World Sauvignon Blanc.  And the Rose Family Estate was right, smack in the sweet spot.

A breakthrough came when several of the bigger regional labels came together to open VINTEC, a co-operative winery facility that gave the smaller growers a crack at stepping up and establishing their own boutique label.

The rocketing popularity of Sauvignon Blanc spurred the Roses to start their own label in 1991.

It was the opportunity Phil and Chris had been waiting for, and working for, for more than a decade.

By 1991 they were away. Literally away. Off on an Air New Zealand 747 to the UK with a few precious cases of their 1991 vintage – which had also won the Champion Sauvignon Blank trophy – to offer to some of the boutique distributors to taste.

It was extremely well received. So well, in fact, that Phil and Chris had to leave London and travel to Spain to escape the persistent attentions of wine buyers who liked what they spat, and wanted to take everything the Roses had.

‘Everything’ at that stage was just 2000 cases a year. (Literally a drop in the ocean of the world wine market – albeit a very tasty drop). But even Barcelona in that hot summer wasn't going to be a respite. Outrageously, the Roses had an eager distributor follow them to the Catalan region, someone bold enough to track them down and slip a note under the hotel door.  Eventually, the couple decided to work with Reid Wines, a relationship that would last for over a decade.

Around the same time, 1992, Phil and Chris were introduced to a US distributor, and a Frenchman in Australia, and they made a brief foray into the German market. None of those joint ventures really worked out. Looking back, Phil says they were too ambitious. And they didn’t know then what they know now.

Back in Marlborough, things were starting to move, and change, and grow.  The Rose’s production increased, their skills were honed, and with the help from their first winemaker, John Belsham, Wairau River was starting to get a name for making some seriously good wine.

And things kept moving forward, as things tend to do, when you’re chasing a dream.

1992 also saw the building of the cellar door and restaurant. This was Chris’s vision –  she had  always been a committed foodie, and besides,  the couple needed somewhere to sell their wine to the growing number of curious visitors.  They bought an orchard called Riverlore, sold off the glasshouses that came with it, and built a mud brick building which is still part of the restaurant and cellar door operation today - and gets better-looking with every passing year.

The restaurant worked. And a lot of the local women who worked in the vineyards were also happy to come and work in the kitchen. It’s now one of the oldest restaurants in the region, and still one of the best.

In 2002, with change in the wind, they seized an opportunity to build their own winery, on a greenfield site.  Phil and Chris were able to design from scratch their perfect winery - with a state-of-the-art plant and a bottling pavilion. And Wairau River really started to take off.

2002 was a great year in many ways for the Roses. In part because was an excellent, one-out-of-the-box, vintage. The weather that year was perfect.  Everything happened at the right time. Having their own winery made life easier. It meant they could bottle to order, for one thing, complying with all the different bottle and label requirements of their increasingly thirsty International buyers.

In 2003, the Roses, always with an eye for technological innovation, bought their first wind machines for frost control. The pricey Perkins 4 cylinder turbo units replaced another system called the ‘Hughes 500C Jet Turbine helicopter and Pilot’, an eye-waveringly expensive and not-always-there-when-you-need-it  way to protect the vulnerable grape buds from Jack Frost.

“Frost is an habitual creature” says Phil. “But interestingly, what’s happening with climate change means these days we’re getting less frost, and less intensity of frost….. (long pause) ... we’re keeping an eye on that”.

Then the kids started coming home. The kids who once hung out in the caravan while Mum and Dad worked in the vineyard had all grown up and got degrees and gone off to see what the world had to offer.

Daughter Pip ended up in Sydney with her husband, Parky, a clever chap with a background in IT and a good business sense. Phil and Chris called him in 2002 and suggested that they needed a bit of help at the top, running things, as things were getting quite big. Pip and Parky flew home to help out. Parky took over the business side of the business, as CEO. And it’s quite a big business, taking in 14 vineyards (at last count).

Pip took over the restaurant and cellar door, vital parts of the business - the display window of the quickly expanding Wairau River Wines.

In 2004, the Roses employed their first Sales & Marketing manager. This hire took a lot of pressure off Phil and Chris – up until then they had done everything, including the arduous and time-consuming sales & marketing work.

Sam had been in Sydney, working in construction when he had an epiphany and returned to New Zealand to study for a Winemaking degree at Lincoln University. He graduated 3 years later and became Wairau River Head Winemaker in 2010.

Hamish has always been connected to the outdoors, and he went to Lincoln University and spent a few years studying horticulture. A keen diver, Hamish began diving professionally and bought his own Paua quota (a license to harvest the precious local abalone). He was happy on and in the water. But, when things at home got really busy, he sold his successful business to join the family firm, and started working with Phil and Chris and Sam, as the Viticulturalist.(Hamish still likes a dive and is a mad, keen hunter.)

With Hamish came Kristy.  Her specialty is HR, and her nose for good people and sharp mind have made her invaluable, in the business.

Youngest Daughter Caroline was also living in Sydney, working in hospitality with partner Tane – an up-and-coming chef and was cooking up amazing things at Wokpool, XO and China Doll. But hospitality in Sydney is a brutal industry. It chews people up and then burns them out.

Phil and Chris saw an opportunity to get Caroline and Tane out of the Sydney hospo grind and establish something really special back home at the Estate.  They came home in 2007 with their Sydney smarts and ‘3-Hat' restaurant experience and elevated the restaurant offering into something really special. (Try the Black Doris tart, it’s amazing. But only after you’ve had the blue cheese and pear double souffle. Which is merely sublime.)

But wait, there are more Roses. Another daughter, Anna and husband Paul are living nearby, and while not involved in the day-to-day running of the business, grow grapes for Wairau River on their beautiful block in gorgeous Grovetown.

The Rose Family Estate today, in a business where family involvement is not uncommon, is something else again.

All of the family are involved in the business - each controls a vital part of the operation and is in a role that perfectly matches their strengths and their personalities.  A bit like a football team.  If a football team could make wine. (Imagine!)

The Rose Family Estate team also includes some long-term employees who also play a key role in making the business whirr.  At the time of writing, there were 11 people who have been on the (RFE) team for more than 10 years. It’s not hard to see why!

With the children in the driver’s seat and the business growing and expanding, going from strength to strength, Phil and Chris have been able to step off the gas a bit in recent years and travel. Travel, travel, travel. They like to travel, but they also like coming home to the land they first planted in 1978.

And don’t worry. They still know exactly what’s going on. Every day. Every week. Every vintage.

Footnote: And those annoying neighbours? The ones that were the handbrake for two hard and expensive years? Amusingly, one by one they saw the light and followed the Rose’s lead by either planting vines themselves or selling out to a wine company. You couldn’t make this up if you tried.