Saluting Selaks: Let’s drink to the ‘Dallies’
Brett Fullerton
The New Zealand wine industry and those who consume the wine it produces owe a huge debt of gratitude to the “Dallies” – the Croatians, and others from that part of eastern Europe who came here in the early 1900s and brought with them a passion for growing, making and drinking wine. Marino Selak was one of them.
When he arrived in New Zealand from Croatia in 1934 he bought some land in Auckland to establish a market garden, orchards and a vineyard to produce wine that was part of everyday life back home.
Thus Selaks, now most widely known for its hugely popular Premium Selection and Winemaker’s Favourite ranges, was born.
But the story had only just begun. To realise his dream Marino, a bachelor, enlisted the help of his family back in Croatia, and found it in the form of a 16-year-old nephew, Mate, who came to New Zealand on a one-way ticket to help his uncle establish a vineyard and gardens at Henderson.
The young bloke took to the task like a duck to, well, in this case wine and by the time he was 23 he had virtually taken over, only to see the land taken by the government in the 1960s to make room for a motorway.
No problem. Mate simply transferred winemaking to the basement of his home until he found and purchased 8ha for a new vineyard and winery at Kumeu.
Here, with his sons Ivan and Michael, he pioneered sparkling wine in New Zealand, launching Champelle, the country’s first commercial methode traditionelle, in 1956. According to those who can remember, the winery was at times like a shooting gallery, with stray corks whizzing in all directions.
But the problem was overcome and the bubbly earned Selaks plenty of new friends.
The next big step came in the 1980s when the brothers Selak, Ivan and Michael, Mate’s sons, ushered the company into a new era of winemaking, introducing their customers to new varieties, including sauvignon blanc.
They did so initially with the help of a young Australian winemaker named Kevin Judd, who went on to find considerable fame at Cloudy Bay, but the key figure was Darryl Woolley, another Australian, who joined the company a couple of years later and is regarded as one of the major players in the development of classic New Zealand sauvignon blanc and still involved through Constellation, the company that now owns the Selaks label.
It is under this regime that the Winemakers’ Favourite range of wines was added a few years ago to complement the big-selling Premium Selection range.
The idea was to give Selaks’ winemakers an opportunity to produce a wine from their favourite vineyard and to craft it to reflect the grape’s special characteristics.
The result is another range of wines that punch above their weight, even more so when they retail at $23.95 and regularly sell on promotion at about $15.
Star of the latest line-up is the 2009 Hawke’s Bay syrah (mostly off the Gimblett Gravels) which has already been awarded a gold medal. It’s a perfect, easy-drinking introduction to the variety for those not yet properly acquainted with its black-berried, pepper/coffee charms.
Likewise a fruit-driven silver medal-winning 2009 Hawke’s Bay viognier, a new addition to the range. It’s rich and round and has the trademark peaches/apricots in the mix, which makes it an interesting alternative to chardonnay.
The other new releases include a rich and spicy 2009 Hawke’s Bay merlot cabernet, a vibrant, nettly 2010 sauvignon blanc from the Awatere Valley, and the latest version of the methode traditionelle for which the Selak label is famous. A traditional blend of pinot noir and chardonnay, it’s fresh, lively and delicious – the handiwork of chief winemaker Woolley, who remains an important and influential link with Selaks’ proud past.
This is an article by Warren Barton for The Southland times.