Ambition is something Steve Smith can’t get enough of. He saw it in revolutionary viticulturist Richard Smart, who taught him to think. He saw it in Robert Mondavi and other doyens of the Napa Valley. He saw it in Sir George Fistonich, who wanted to turn a winery in receivership into the most decorated in New Zealand. And he would have seen it in himself long before—aged just 36 and having never run a business—he built Craggy Range from greenfield to world-renowned grandeur. His latest venture, spearheaded by Pyramid Valley, has limitless aspirations, and Steve wants to see Aotearoa get her mojo back and aim ever higher.
I met Steve for the first time when he visited me on the Mornington Peninsula recently. He was in my neck of the woods at the invitation of Rollo Crittenden, who generously put his Dr Allan Antcliff Viticulture Award toward luring Steve to speak to the local vignerons’ association.
Ours was a long, involved conversation, and most of the context can be found in the chat itself. We spoke in some detail about Steve’s roughly 10-year stint at Villa Maria, which makes wines from multiple regions. The next big project was at Craggy Range for the Peabody family, who still own the estate in Hawkes Bay on New Zealand’s North Island. Chris Pask and Alan Limmer (Stonecroft) are mentioned as pioneers of the Gimblett Gravels Wine Growing District, while other notables are Trinity Hill and Te Mata, maker of the famed Coleraine Cabernet blend.
Te Muna is the Martinborough site that Steve mentions for Sauvignon Blanc, and the Larry who is mentioned is Larry McKenna, the legendary Prince of Pinot who made a global name for the Escarpment winery.
That same winery was the former employer of Huw Kinch, who is the winemaker for Pyramid Valley, the Waikari-based (North Canterbury) jewel in the crown of Steve’s current venture with investor and environmentalist Brian Sheth. They bought Pyramid Valley from Claudia Weersing and her late husband Mike, hugely admired boundary-pushers for biodynamic farming, terroir winegrowing and natural wine (for some discussion on that last term, please visit episode 12 with Christina Pickard).
Kinch and his family live on the Waikari property, while his viticulturist counterpart, Nick Paulin (ex-Felton Road), lives in Lowburn, Central Otago, where Pyramid’s Snake’s Tongue Pinot Noir is grown. As Steve says, their roles are not so neatly divided; both are involved in the vines and wines. For more on Central Otago, you can listen to episode 8 with PJ Charteris, while Steve namechecks wines he enjoys from here: Burn Cottage, Valli, Prophet’s Rock and Felton Road.
Finally, when Steve speaks of Pyramid Valley being a twin-based estate, with a foot in North Canterbury and a foot in Central, he refers to the precedent set by Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards in California, which has homes at Monte Bello and Lytton Springs.
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