Matt Patterson-Green is Pask's Head Winemaker. He oversees the winemaking behind our Hawke's Bay wines, from the Gimblett Gravels estate range through to the Declaration reserves.
Made in the vineyard
Matt's approach is to make the wine in the vineyard and do as little as possible in the winery. The aim is to leave the fruit alone and let the site speak, so what comes off our single vineyard on the Gimblett Gravels is what ends up in the bottle.
Small parcels, patient blending
Pask works in small batches. Matt matches the fermenter to the pick, taking as little as half a row of fruit into a dedicated small tank when a parcel is worth keeping separate, across a range that runs from 1.5 tonnes up to 10. The final wines are then built over fifteen to twenty blending passes rather than in a single sitting, which is how each parcel earns its place in the blend.
Reading the Gimblett Gravels
The Gimblett Gravels sits two to three degrees warmer than the rest of Hawke's Bay, and the stones give back a few hours of reflective heat into the early evening. Matt works with that warmth and the gentle day-to-night swing to ripen Syrah, Chardonnay and the Bordeaux varieties the way the site allows.
The wines
Matt is behind Pask's Gimblett Gravels Syrah, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet blends, and the Declaration Méthode Traditionnelle. Recent vintages have been recognised at the Decanter World Wine Awards, with a Gold for the 2021 Gimblett Gravels Merlot and a Silver for the 2024 Gimblett Gravels Syrah.
Matt studied at Massey University and Lincoln University.
