Forged in Fire: An Impossible Place meets Improbable People by Michael F. Spratt. Available from Amazon.com. and Mary Egan Publishing.

Michael and Ann Spratt planted their first vines on Waiheke Island in 2000, and so the unlikely story of Destiny Bay Wine began. They didn’t really come to New Zealand to make wine, but one thing led to another the way things sometimes do. And so they began.

Inexperienced (in terms of winegrowing) Americans growing red Bordeaux grapes and making wine on a hilly little island near Auckland, New Zealand. What could go wrong?

People, Places, Things

Sue and I visited Waiheke Island in early 2004. We were in New Zealand doing research for the global wine chapter of my book Globaloney. We took the ferry from Auckland to the island and toured a bit. I remember visiting one winery and being surprised and impressed by the wines. Add accidental and unexpected to improbable and impossible.

The Spratts were not the first to make wine on Waiheke Island, but it must have been a struggle to get recognition at first, especially given the wine world’s focus on Marlborough and Central Otago. Michael Cooper mentions Destiny Bay and the Spratts in the 2008 edition of his Wine Atlas of New Zealand, but he doesn’t have much to say one way or another. Early days.

The Judgement at Cape Mentelle

But there was a lot to say a few years later, in 2017, when a Destiny Bay wine won what is known as The Judgement at Cape Mentelle, a blind-tasting of the best Bordeaux-type wines from Australia, France, the United States, and elsewhere. Destiny Bay, from that little island near Auckland, was the top wine! A signal achievement and clear recognition.

Forged in Fire is the story of how those first vines turned into a world-class vineyard and outstanding wines. Actually, that’s wrong. The book  is not a story, but a collection of stories. Some of the stories are personal and family. Some are technical, presenting sort of mini seminars on how things are done and how they should be done to make the best wine the best way. Other stories give a sense of the business side of wine.

The Stories Unfold in Four Acts

The stories are divided into four acts, each of which has several chapters or scenes.

• Act I: The Anomaly. An impossible place meets improbable people.
• Act II: The Doctrine. Standards, stewardship and the price of perfection.
• Act III: The Crucible. Seasons of heartbreak, hardship, redemption and triumph.
• Act IV: The Legacy. Protecting the planet, celebrating patrons and a glimpse into the future.

Spratt has so many stories to share that they don’t all neatly fit into the narrative structure of the book, so the final third of the volume is made up of stories saved from “the cutting room floor.” I guess you’d call them additional material for the “director’s cut.”

There is nothing easy about overcoming the many challenges winegrowers face and building a successful business and fulfilling life. I appreciate it when the protagonists have the talent, determination, and patience to write books that give us a peek behind the curtain. Caro Feely’s books about Chateau Feely in France are my favorite in this genre. Now I can add Michael Spratt’s Forged in Fire to that bookshelf.

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The Wine Economist reviewed an earlier book by this author,  Michael F. Spatt and Mark L. Feldman, Grape-a-hol: How Big Business is Subverting Artisan Winemaking and the Future of Fine Wine.