Land of vines, wines and legend
Mythology characterises New Zealand, and Martinborough is the site of one modern legend central to the success of the wine industry. Malcolm Abel, a customs officer with a passion for wine, is said to have saved a confiscated cutting smuggled into Aotearoa in the 1970s inside a gumboot. This was no mediocre snipping but a specimen apparently stolen from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, one of Burgundy’s most famous vineyards. Abel propagated the vine, sold some of the clones to a
