It seems our foundation vineyard for Pyramid Valley was always destined to be a great site for genuinely cool climate Chardonnay. Located at 548 Pyramid Valley Road in the foothills of the Southern Alps, an hour north-west of Christchurch, the reasons reach back 150 million years. Steve Smith MW explores.
Let’s take things back about 150 million years to a part of the world famously known as Burgundy. Then, a warm shallow sea stretched from the Swiss border to just north of Paris – a tropical climate like Tahiti with warm emerald lagoons full of weird crustaceans, shellfish, and all types of sea creatures. The cycle of life meant that as these creatures settled on the bed of this ocean at the end of their lives and blended with sediments washed into this sea from surrounding lands, the base for the famous and unique limestone clay marl soils of the Côte d'Or were formed. They emerged from their ocean home some 30 million years ago as the earth formed all its mountains and ridges, and the slopes of the Côte d'Or were born.
Some 90 million years ago, at the antipode of Burgundy, the same things were happening in North Canterbury – then also a tropical sea with all sorts of rare creatures swimming and flying around. The foundations for the limestone clay marl soils of Waikari were born, and as New Zealand was thrust from the ocean around 50 million years ago, this warm sea became land locked, draining over eons to become at first podocarp rainforests, and then finally some gentle slopes of limestone clay marl in a cool sunny climate. This later became the home to some quite spectacular Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards at Pyramid Valley.
The closeness of soil types between the Pyramid Valley property and the Côte d'Or became much more than supposition in June this year, when I met the famous Burgundy soil specialist Claude Bourgignon in Vosne-Romanée. He had verified the soil for Mike Weersing back in 2000 as being so close to the soils of Burgundy that Claude thought Mike had sent him a sample from Burgundy. Until June this year I had wondered if this story may have been a fable, supposition … but Claude confirmed it was indeed true.
It is hard to paint a picture of how incredibly rare this combination of soil formation and climate is. In fact, I know of nowhere else in the world where Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines share such similar terroir as between that of Waikari and the Côte d'Or.
Destiny played a hand, although one would have to say Mike Weersing and Claude Bourgignon together made destiny real. Mike wouldn't have known then that his vineyard's address would prove so significant. Just maybe it subliminally played a hand in his, and Pyramid Valley's, destiny.
The Waikari home, and foundation vineyard for Pyramid Valley, is located at 548 Pyramid Valley Road. On the surface, the road number is just another number. But for Chardonnay producers the world over, this number has a significant relevance. 548 is the number given to one of the highest quality Chardonnay selections to come out of the breeding program in Dijon, Burgundy and is widely planted in the Grand Cru vineyards, especially Corton-Charlemagne. In 2002 when Mike was planting 548 Pyramid Valley Road, this had yet to find its way to New Zealand. However in our new plantings of Lion’s Tooth and Field of Fire, selection 548 from Burgundy plays a significant role and has found a new home at 548 Pyramid Valley Road in Waikari, North Canterbury, at almost the exact antipode of its Burgundy origins.
Destiny.
Steve Smith MW
Founder and Estate Director
Pyramid Valley, Smith & Sheth, Lowburn Ferry
Aotearoa New Zealand Fine Wine Estates.
October 2025 marks the release of the 2023 Botanicals Collection wines – the Field of Fire Chardonnay, Lion’s Tooth Chardonnay, Angel Flower Pinot Noir and Earth Smoke Pinot Noir from our Waikari Estate and the Snake’s Tongue Pinot Noir from our Low Burn Estate in Central Otago. To view the release e-book with more information on the season, vineyards and wines, click here. For current availability, click here.