Many winemakers wish to make wine that is of great quality, conforming to their ideals and philosophies, but get side-tracked on the way to work in a compromised situation to some degree. It’s not that the wines they make are bad, but rather, they don’t quite meet to the initial ideals of the winemaker involved, or they aren’t completely made hands-on. Thus we see many high profile winemakers make their own label wines or even start out again at the small-scale level.
After many years of involvement with the Fromm Winery as owner, general manager and winemaker, William Hoare and his family withdrew from that business. He and his wife Rachael have set up ‘Novum’ as a new way at looking at wine. Their intention is "to make great wine, and not build a monument” as in a huge winery that takes away from the focus of winemaking. They will "source small pockets of really good fruit and sell [the wine] direct to wine buyers at reasonable price points”. Here, I review the first two wines, both from Marlborough, a 2017 Chardonnay and a 2016 Pinot Noir. www.novumwines.co.nz
