Deep in the Weeds - A Food Podcast with Anthony Huckstep · A Deep in the Weeds Production

Over a Glass: Nick Buck (Te Mata Estate, Hawke’s Bay NZ) - some of New Zealand’s oldest vineyards

·47 min·3 clips

Hawke’s Bay is “too cool” for cabernet and “too warm” for pinot, Nick Buck says that is “all rubbish.”

Shantae Whale opens with an acknowledgement of Toa Te Whenua of Aotearoa New Zealand. She then welcomes Nick Buck, the Chief Executive of Tamata Estate. Tamata Estate was established in 1896. The estate is home to some of New Zealand's oldest vineyards. The conversation settles quickly into Hawke's Bay and what the region can do. Nick pushes back on the easy labels that say the region is too cool for some grapes and too warm for others. He argues that those takes miss the point. Hawke's Bay, he says, can produce an impressive range of wines, but it depends on scale and site. That is what matters most. The estate's long history on the land comes up again and again. So do the lessons learned there over many generations. Nick describes a path into wine that began with nights and weekends at a wholesaler, working in warehousing for wine distribution. He was around friends who were heading into banking, finance, and share broking, but that was never really his route. He went to the UK and joined a wine importer in the early 1990s. While there, he completed the WSET diploma and got a close look at the trade. The company was growing fast and buying other importers and distributors. That growth ran into trouble when it bought a company it should not have. Receivers were appointed, and Nick stayed on to help wind the business down. The largest customer, a restaurant group with 160 restaurants around the UK, then asked him to build its own wine import and distribution business. That turn of events became a defining step in his career and gives the conversation its practical, lived-in feel.

As heard by us

A calm wine conversation about land, generations, and the work behind a region's wines.

Tamata Estate and Hawke's Bay stay at the center, with Nick Buck and Shantae Whale tracing how some of New Zealand's oldest vineyards, and the work of many generations, still shape what comes off the land. The piece works best when it stays close to size and place.

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Why you'd press play

Hawke's Bay wine, old vineyards, and the working life behind them here.

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