Fifty-one years after harvesting his first grapes in the region, 79-year-old Hermann Seifried was in the vineyard at 4am last week as the first fruit of the vintage came off the vines.
As a pioneering grape grower and winemaker in Nelson-Tasman, Hermann is just as passionate about his wine and the industry as he was back in 1976 when it all began.
He grew up on an apple orchard in Austria, gained a degree in wine technology and moved to New Zealand for a job with the New Zealand Apple and Pear Board. Then he met Agnes in Nelson and as they say, the rest is history. Their first plantings and winery were at Upper Moutere before moving down to the Waimea Plains and he remembers being the sole winery in the area.
“It was hard starting up because there were no grapes grown in the area at that time and the rural bank wasn’t very friendly.”
Today Seifried’s is a family story, with three generations working in the vineyard if you count the six grandkids who help out during school holidays.
Son Chris knows the story well and says his parents were financially stretched in those early harvests, paying interest rates up to 17 per cent at one stage, and growing grapes in the region was still experimental.
In the 1980s, he says excise tax caused the demise of many wineries around the country and the remaining businesses, like his parents, turned their focus to export markets with varieties such as sauvignon blanc and chardonnay.
Now it’s challenging times again and Hermann says one of the reasons is young people are drinking less wine and he hopes they will come back to wine as they get older. Chris has faith the industry will rise again.
“Wine has been served for thousands of years – it was part of the Last Supper. I think wine will be around for a long time to come.”
Rising fuel costs is another challenge and Chris says it will be a cost, but more concerning is whether customers opt for cheaper shipping options from places such as South Africa.
Challenges aside, Hermann says this vintage has both quality and quantity and he’s looking forward to the harvest.
