Ata Rangi now harvests fruit from around 120 acres, including a number of leased and local contract growers blocks. Sites are all very similar; shallow silt-loam over deep, free-draining alluvial gravels. Rainfall is very low at approx 700mm per annum. The Aerial Map page shows details of the various blocks in our care.

Particular effort goes into achieving balanced vines, delivering consistently ripe, quality bunches. Hand leaf plucking over the summer ensures open canopies. Yields are very low, typically 1 to 2 T/acre (3 T/hectare). This is due to the usually cool, very windy spring weather which affects fruit set and also to the lean, stony soils which are low in vigour and fertility. All grapes are hand-picked. Many of the vines are now 29 years old, a factor in the wines ascending quality, as is this hands-on emphasis in the vineyard. Sustainability and soil health are our goals - read more about this on the Environment page.

For Pinot Noir, the main clones favoured and planted are Abel* (aka the Ata Rangi clone) which, legend has it, was brought in illegally from France in the late 70's; the Dijon selections, mainly 667, 777, 114 and 115; Pomard, also known as Clone 5 and a smaller amount of 10/5. Most plants are on rootstock - typically 3309 or 101/14. On-going vineyard monitoring and improvement means that unsuitable clones and/or damaged or ungrafted vines are replaced according to a planned programme with more appropriate, high quality vines. These vines take at least 4 years to come into viable production, and around six years to reach full production depending on the trellis system chosen.

* ABEL Clone (aka ATA RANGI Clone)

In 1982, soon after purchasing the Ata Rangi home block, Clive called Auckland winemaker Malcolm Abel and volunteered to work a vintage. He knew that Malcolm was also chasing premium pinot noir, and the two soon became close friends. Malcolm died unexpectedly a year later and the Abel Vineyard itself was ultimately lost to urban sprawl.
But Malcolm had already given Clive some promising pinot cuttings, the offspring of a single vine cutting allegedly taken by a traveller from Burgundy’s finest estate, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti . The illegal cutting had been intercepted and confiscated at Auckland airport, where Malcolm, coincidentally, was working as a customs officer in the mid 70’s.  He immediately understood its significance, and sent it straight to the state-owned viticulture research station of the day.  Malcolm waited patiently for the first cuttings to become available, and duly planted them. 

To this day, the Abel Clone, or Gumboot Clone (legend has it the nicked cutting was secreted inside a Kiwi gumboot!) remains at the heart of Ata Rangi Pinot Noir.  We love the texture, and length of palate it delivers. Its tannins are substantial, yet are incredibly silky and fine. From our site, it brings dark cherry, and a brooding, savoury feel.

The pinot noir grapevine is genetically very unstable, so there are literally hundreds of naturally occurring variants referred to as clones.  Premium pinot needs the complexity that a range of these clones brings.  We have over a dozen planted, with Clone 5/ Pomard also considered very valuable, giving the wine a solid mid-palate structure. It may not have the length of Abel, but brings wonderfully vibrant, aromatic fruit. The much feted Dijon Clones, selected by the research unit at Dijon University in the late 80’s, are less textural but have more front palate weight, and beautifully perfumed high notes.