the not serious Matt Dicey
Tell you what, Matt Dicey has to be one of the nicest dudes in the biz. He’s relaxed. He likes a laugh but is a veritable book of knowledge when it comes to the craft of winemaking and his enthusiasm for the process hasn’t even slightly waned after 30 years of turning grape juice into wine.
Many of you will know him from his days as the Mt Difficulty winemaker. He was driving that bus for 22 years and almost 80% of the wine produced by the brand was sold here in Aotearoa so it stands to reason Matt is a familiar face in the NZ wine story here at home.
After the family and subsequent shareholders sold the established winery Matt transitioned to a position he likes to call Caretaker alongside his brother James in a family project. The siblings and their significant others, Ali and Odelle, had bought their own small parcels of land in Bannockburn years ago. Confident they’d be keen to shed the demands of a large operation and return to a boutique production, each family had planted vines somewhere around 2002 with a view that one day they’d have a cool side gig to work on together. Welcome to 2020 🙂 (and covid) 🙄
Initially established in 2005 and called Ceres, after the Goddess of Harvest and the small South African village where the Dicey kids were born, the family brand needed something of an overhaul to meet the new demands of a market that had shifted somewhat since the side project’s inception.
Engaging a team to help brainstorm, rebrand and renovate what had been 14 years of work, Dicey was born. It seems obvious. The dictionary definition of the word is “unpredictable and potentially dangerous" and, as you’ll have noticed, it’s their surname. Talk about lucky! It’s an apt adjective for the art growing grapes in an arid dustbowl that has temperature fluctuations of “freeze your balls off” to “how’s the sun stroke?” and struggles to grow weeds.
They launched Dicey in February 2020, and were due to come screaming, side-drifting into the Auckland market in March — right on lockdown. Talk about unlucky!
All this back story and branding malarkey aside, how’s the wine? Bloody tasty and we had the pleasure of scoffing a glass straight from a newly released goon bag of premium 2021 Pinot Noir. You heard us — only a flamin’ bag-in-box. Talk about dicey!
It’s a cute little 2L brick that is designed to look like a cube on top of a cube. It’s fondly named Dice by Dicey riffing on that highly flexible surname of theirs and the fact that, alongside a serious commitment to great juice lies a lot of dry humour. We asked Matt why on earth they wanted to put premium Pinot in a box instead of a bottle and it turns ‘earth’ was the optimal word to use. It turns out the old goon sack is something of a revelation when it comes to lowering your carbon footprint. Want to know more? Punch that perforated edge, pop the tap, pour yourself a tumbler from a 2litre bagnum and get comfortable. This is the not serious Matt Dicey chat.
Chat Facts
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Dice by Dicey Pinot Noir 2021, 2L box
antipodes water — still
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Rolfe (Mills) founder of Rippon, Wānaka est. 1982
Ann Pinckney, est. the first vine plantings in Central Otago in the early 1980’s
Pegasus Bay est. 1985
Matua est. 1974
John Olssen of Olssen’s Vineyard est. 1989
Stuart Elms, founder and previous owner of Felton Road est. 1997
Corban’s est. 1902
Rudi Bauer, current winemaker at Quartz Reef has previously made the wines at Rippon
Black Ridge est. 1981
Pernod Ricard est. 1975
Yalumba (Australia) est. 1849
Oyster Bay est. 1990
Kim Crawford est. 1996
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Vigneron — French term for a person who cultivates grapes for the making of the wines!
Disgorging — In sparkling wine and champagne production disgorging is the process by which excess yeast or “yeast lees” are removed from the bottle before the cork is inserted. Disgorging sparkling wine is an integral part of the production process. Watch cute vid on disgorging here
Clones — a deliberate vegetative propagation from a single parent plant. In regards to wine, in viticulture, the term “clone” generally refers to a vine variety that is selected for specific qualities, which result from natural mutations.
Scion wood — a cutting (or bud wood) taken from a vine (usually Vitis vinifera - that’s latin for grapes that make the booze we love) and grafted onto a root system from another vine
Grafting — Grafting is a process by which two grape vine plants are combined to create an improved single vine with new desired attributes
Oxidised — refers to a group of chemical reactions that occur when wine comes into contact with air./oxygen. It can result in a wine losing its primary fruit characters and developing a brown hue and tasting like vinegar.
Bâtonnage — Pete is pretty close to getting a red card for this one. He mentioned it when asking Matt if he did anything special for preparing the wine for box. Bâtonnage is French for stirring settled lees (dead yeast that has fallen to the bottom of a barrel after ferment) back into the wine. It generally provides texture and creaminess.
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For more information on ‘how to work with your sibling’ read here
View a hovercraft on Lake Wānaka here
March 1988, Cyclone Bola hit New Zealand. It was one of the costliest cyclones in the history of our country.
June 1991, Mount Pinatubo saw the first spectacular eruption of this volcano located in the Philippines. At least 16 commercial jets inadvertently flew through the ash cloud. Read more here.
Miami Wine Cooler was a ‘cooler’ brand of wine sold in the 1980’s was a white wine spritzer in a handy little four-pack. Should we be starting a Facebook group to petition its return? We think so and no need to go changing the branding either methinks. Just ditch the glass bottle and shove that stuff in a can.
Keen to get your not-so-serious sandwich grabbers on this snazzy little 2litres of ever-so-seriously good pinot noir from Dicey? Our pals at By The Bottle can deliver this to your door, wherever you are in Aotearoa.
