JEFF Clarke, a quietly-spoken Aussie, is the new chief winemaker of Ara, a high- quality single vineyard estate in Marlborough on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.

When I last interviewed him, two years ago, he held a similar post with Pernod Ricard, New Zealand’s biggest wine producer. Then last year, Pernod Ricard carried out a review of their New Zealand interests. They decided to rebrand their best-selling wine brand Montana as Brancott Estate and sold off their sparkling wine business Lindauer, along with vineyards in Gisborne in North Island.

After 17 years with Pernod Ricard, Jeff felt it was time to move on. When he was approached by Ara to work for them he saw it as an opportunity to resume a more hands-on role in the winery.

As he told me: “It’s nice to go back to what I really enjoy and make wine rather than having to attend board meetings and make presentations.”

Ara is a large estate of 400 hectares all on one large glacial outwash terrace with deep gravel, patches of clay and gullies full of fine, wind- blown loess, a fertile and free- draining soil. Planting began in 2001, divided into 200 blocks each of two hectares.

The vineyard is the work of Bordeaux-trained Damian Martin, who was keen to use methods more familiar in Europe than in the southern hemisphere, in order to grow the finest possible grapes. The density of planting is high and the plants were not irrigated. There is an unusual diversity of rootstocks and clones, which combined with the myriad subtle differences of soil and site from block to block, allow the winemaker a generous palette on which to craft the best possible wines.

“Dry farming meant that the vines struggled in the early years,” Jeff says, “but 10 years on they have a nice natural balance.”

The climate at Ara is cooler than much of Marlborough, but a huge difference in temperature between day and night adds to the complexity of flavours in the grapes. “By four o’clock in the afternoon you’re looking for jumpers and jackets,” Jeff told me a little ruefully. It sounds rather like North Shields.

The estate has concentrated on two varieties, those that New Zealand manages particularly well – Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, joined recently by a little Pinot Gris. The Ara climate seems to suit them.

A couple of blocks are managed organically, but Jeff has not yet noticed a significant difference in the quality of the fruit from them. He’s convinced that having largely achieved the targets for sustainability that the New Zealand wine industry set itself, it should now concentrate on improving soil quality.

“We need to convince consumers that we’re looking after the land,” he says. “Our triple bottom line has to be, good ecology, good environment, good for people. It’s very important to maintain the microbial health of soil.”

But he’s convinced also that there should be an empirical basic to any intervention. ‘Esoteric’ approaches like biodynamics, which depend on homeopathic treatments, make no sense to him.

Jeff, who is widely recognised as an authority on Sauvignon Blanc, is clearly enjoying the possibilities afforded to him by Ara. Under Damian Martin the wines had a distinctly European restraint and some critics wondered if Jeff’s arrival might signal a move to a more up-front, typically New Zealand style, but the samples he’d brought over from the 2011 vintage seem to indicate that Ara’s sophisticated, complex character is safe in his hands. “It’s a great vineyard and produces wine that’s different from that made in the rest of Marlborough,” he insists.

Although 2011 has not been an altogether easy campaign, Marlborough was spared the rains that have caused such a headache for growers in North Island and several Australian regions. After a lot of late spring rain, a warm summer delivered a bumper, healthy crop. In some places Jeff told me that it is so big that the wineries didn’t have sufficient capacity to handle all the fruit, some of which had to be left on the vine.

At Ara, which doesn’t depend at all on contract growers, they were able to thin the crop and maintain the quality. The whites, he says, are “average to average plus quality” and the Pinot Noir ripened satisfactorily.

The 2011 Sauvignon Blanc destined for the main Ara ‘Pathway’ label is delicious, with nicely balanced acidity and subtle grapefruit and tomato stalk flavours. Special selections, especially those from single blocks, showed more elegance and complexity, with lingering mineral saltiness. One Single Block bottling Sauvignon Blanc 2009 showed an extraordinary Sancerre- like persistence of tangy black- currant-leaf fruit. The ‘Single Estate’ and ‘Select Block’ wines are not yet widely available here, but the ‘Pathway’ Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are stocked by Morrisons.

The 2008 Pinot Noir, while not quite as exciting as the stunning 2010, is a no-brainer choice for wine of the week. The 2009 ‘Pathway’ Sauvignon Blanc (a mere £7.99) shows the refinement typical of this remarkable estate, which is setting new standards for Marlborough.

Ara is a winery to watch.