Esk Valley’s Petane Wine makes a sparkling comeback from Cyclone Gabrielle
Ella Barber was just 3 when the family had to climb onto their Esk Valley home’s roof to avoid the rising floods. Their beloved Kombi (pictured) was salvaged in the aftermath.
Foodie and deputy editor Mark Story is on the hunt for the region’s rising food and beverage stars. He chats to Petane Wine’s Sarah Johnson and Philip Barber, who, with their daughter, ‘Brave Blossom’ Ella, turned the chaos of Esk Valley floodwater into wine.
What happened on the night of Cyclone Gabrielle, the inspiration for this wine.
Sarah Johnson: We knew there was a cyclone on its way but never imagined what would unfold that night.
After bailing water from our basement for hours, things suddenly got much worse and we retreated upstairs, realising it was too late to leave but still not too concerned as we had a split level house and didn’t imagine the water would reach the top floor.
Around midnight we woke the kids and moved them upstairs as the bedrooms began flooding. From there things got progressively scarier and we eventually ended up on our roof where we took in the scene around us.
We were in the middle of a raging river, no vineyard to be seen, with containers, trees and even a car with its lights still on sweeping past. After seeing our four bay tractor shed get swept away like a pile of match sticks I started to lose it a little and it was then that Ella put her hands on my face and said calmly “don’t worry mummy, somebody will save us”.
We knew too well this was not going to happen but it snapped me out of my catastrophising and made me determined to keep it together for the kids. We’d always called her our little brave blossom and that night she lived up to her name.
The pét nat style predates champagne by 250 years. Talk us through it.
Philip Barber: Pét nat is a natural, living wine — rustic, energetic, and with an unfussy fizz. It’s typically dry and lower in alcohol than traditional sparkling wines, as the fruit is picked earlier to retain its natural acidity.
The wine is bottled before primary fermentation has finished, so the indigenous yeast are still active and chewing through the sugars, converting them into CO2.
All of that energy and activity is captured in heavy glass designed to handle the pressure and sealed with a crown cap like a craft beer.
After resting through the cooler months, the wine is ready to be chilled hard and cracked open. We always start a party with a pét nat.
How tough is it to pivot when your vines are wiped out and you need to work with grapes that aren’t your own?
Philip: Looking after a vineyard can be incredibly rewarding when you get it right, but it’s also hard work and hugely time consuming. Once I got over the initial shock and despair of losing the vineyard, I found the pivot reasonably stress-free.
After 20 years in the industry you have a network of growers and winemakers that you know and have become friends with. The outpouring of support after the flood — from the winemaking community and beyond — also played a huge part in helping us rebuild and move forward.
In the three years since the flood, I’ve been working fulltime for our Esk Valley neighbours at Linden, managing their hillside vineyards and working alongside winemaker Alex Hendry.
We’ve also downsized our own range from 12 wines to six, focusing on syrah, chardonnay, pétillant naturel, late harvest edelzwicker, and sauvignon blanc.
In a wider sense, has the cyclone changed your approach to making wine?
Philip: I have always focused on making wine in a low-to-no intervention way, hand picking grapes from one place for single site expression and picking the highest quality grapes from a given season – so this hasn’t changed.
I believe Hawke’s Bay is home to some of the best vineyards in New Zealand because of the diverse terrain and sub appellations: coastal sites, river valleys, hillsides and stony ex-river terraces.
All this makes for a diverse group of growers who have a deep understanding of their sites. These days our fruit comes from Mangatahi Valley, Esk Valley, Whatatutu in north Gisborne and any awesome hillside site I am lucky enough to be given access to.
Three years on, what does Ella think of being the poster girl on a wine label?
Sarah: She loves having a wine named after her. She doesn’t grasp the concept of artistic licence so can’t understand why mum gave her pink hair, but other than that it makes her ‘feel happy and famous’.
Mark Story’s review: Petane Brave Blossom Pét Nat 2025, 11.9%, $37.
This was foreign to me - a sparkling wine that’s cloudy and cork-less.
Sadly, its cyclonic theme continued when I levered off the crown cap and immediately lost a quarter of the bottle all over the deck.
Thisamateur hadn’t chilled it enough.
The error churned up the natural sediment. But that actually worked for me - cloudy meant creamy in this divine drop.
Delicious strawberry and vanilla but dry enough to ensure it didn’t get too playful.
I rued the ham-fisted opening and lost froth as it would have been easy to neck another exquisite glass.