Matt Patterson-Green has guided the winemaking at Jackson Estate for more than twenty years. His focus is on wines that express the true character of the estate’s vineyards and of the wider Marlborough region: interesting, thought-provoking and delicious.
A vineyard-first philosophy
Matt’s core belief is that great wine is grown, not manufactured. He puts around 80 to 85 per cent of the quality of a finished wine down to the vineyard, and sees the winemaker’s job as crafting and softening what is already there rather than forcing it, embracing the fruit and making it a little more harmonious. He works to instinct rather than a recipe: a plan is written before each vintage and, as he puts it, goes out the window on the first day, with the real decisions made by tasting, smelling and feel.
That approach is deliberately hands-on and small in scale. Matt works with a small team, favouring low cropping levels, single-vineyard fruit, small-batch fermentation and minimal intervention in the winery, and is still on the floor for the everyday work of filling and emptying barrels and blending the wines himself.
A Pinot Noir specialist
While Marlborough, and Jackson Estate, are best known for Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir is Matt’s passion, and the estate built a dedicated winery for it in 2017. Matt describes himself as a Pinot winemaker, and the estate releases its top Pinots only when they are drinking at their best rather than at a commercially convenient time, holding some wines for close to a decade before release.
He is also an authority on how New Zealand wine ages under screwcap, having been involved in the country’s screwcap initiative in its early days. In his experience, wine under screwcap develops along a steadier, more linear path than wine under cork, with Jackson Estate wines from the late 1990s still drinking well today.
Sustainability
Matt has long championed sustainable winegrowing. Jackson Estate was among the first wine companies in New Zealand to gain Sustainable Winegrowing accreditation, back in 2001. In practice that means returning the pressed skins and seeds to the vineyard as natural nutrient, mulching and recycling, and treating the land as something to hand on in better condition than it was found.
Background and training
Matt holds a Bachelor of Horticultural Science (Business) and a Bachelor of Horticultural Science (Technology) from Massey University, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln University. Before Jackson Estate he made wine in South Canterbury, Waipara, the United States, Germany and Nelson, as well as Marlborough, before returning to the region.
Recognition
Matt’s 2015 Vintage Widow Pinot Noir was awarded a Gold medal and the Pinot Noir Trophy at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) in 2019, scoring 95 points.
He has also discussed Jackson Estate’s approach to Pinot Noir and screwcap ageing at length with the International Wine Challenge: Why we take our time with Pinot Noir.
