Helen Masters of Ata Rangi is a force of nature. Ata Rangi Wines
Top Wineries of New Zealand 2024
It was a great honour and privilege to interview Helen Masters, winemaker extraordinaire for Ata Rangi and all round nice human as she was coming to the end of the 2024 vintage in Martinborough.
When I was talking to her, there was a clear sense of pride and uplift in her voice when talking about the 2024 vintage. Though it was a small crop, the fruit was beautiful with a lot of delicious wine fermenting. She particularly called out the impeccable syrah, merlot and cabernet franc fruit this year. In her words, 2024 is “looking stonking. Everything looked primo. Beautiful acidity”.
Helen has managed to not only make it her own but to take Ata Rangi to another level over the past two decades of work there.
This is certainly a relief after the challenges of 2023 when two cyclones and constant rain resulted in the soil being so waterlogged that vines struggled to cope. Viticulture could only affect what was above ground and not even all the work they put into looking after the vines in 2023 could compensate for the sheer amount of water in the ground. Helen explains that it was, “wet for the whole season, so the ground was wet the whole season, so there’s nothing we could do about it. The vine was unhappy and didn’t respond
This Article was originally published on The Real Review
