Mahurangi Matters, Matakana Feature, 17 September, 2014

21 September 17, 2014 Mahurangi Matters matakanafeature

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bentornato ASCENSION

A new look Ascension Wine Estate in Matakana will officially reopen this month with more than a hint of the European backgrounds of its new owners.An extensive nine-month makeover has included everything from chandeliers to car parks.Serbian brothers Alex and Mick Sipka and Italian brothers Gino and Kiro Gurshin purchased the restaurant and winery last December.Gino and Kiro are renowned for the Portofino restaurant chain which has nine restaurants in Auckland, Hamilton, Taupo, New Plymouth and Wellington.Alex and Mick have an electronics and sound system business, and are involved in property investment. But Alex has been coming to Mahurangi to work in vineyards since the day he

arrived in New Zealand 20 years ago.His family moved to NZ to get away from the civil war unfolding in Serbia in the 1990s.“I wanted my kids to grow up with their grandparents. For 150 years, we have lost family members to war in the region. That’s something I wanted to change.”When he arrived, he was picked up from the airport by Providence vineyard owner and fellow Serbian, Jim Vuletic, and stayed to work on the grape harvest.“I’ve come back to help with the harvest almost every year since,” Alex says. “I fell in love with the wine industry and the region. It became a new passion in my life. Since then I’ve dreamed of having a vineyard here.”

When Ascension came on the market, Alex could see the opportunity to make his dream a reality.“I knew I was going to buy it no matter what. But I thought with Gino’s experience in hospitality, we could work together to make great wine and a great restaurant.”Alex and Gino had already worked together, establishing Osteria restaurants in Mt Maunganui and Matamata.Alex says his investment in Mahurangi is “for the long haul”.“We hope Ascension will stay in our families for generations. We all have kids and hope they will grow up to become a part of the lifestyle here.”The new owners are doubling the size of the winery, expanding production to include everything from barrel

Alex Sipka (left) and Gino Gurshin hope Ascension will stay in their families for generations.

continued page 22

aging to bottling. A large portion of the wine was previously produced off site, and it has never had a bottling line before.They also intend to plant more vines, including some Italian red varieties. “We want to make premium quality reds, in the style and quality of Bordeaux Grand Cru,” Alex says.“We also want to produce a red blend of merlot, malbec and cabernet sauvignon. This region is quite good for those three.”The vineyard produces about 30,000 bottles a year and all wine will be sold locally at the restaurant, functions and selected outlets, as well as online.Jim Vuletic from Providence will be one of the winemakers.

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Meanwhile, Gino has focused on upgrading the restaurant to recreate the feel of the osteria restaurants in his hometown of Leguria, in north-west Italy.The idea of an osteria restaurant is to serve simple food and to drink wine in the vineyard where it was grown, he says.“It’s not about selling wine in big volumes, but producing it for the locals and the people who come to eat,” Gino says.It has become a popular formula, with many osteria restaurants gaining international recognition.“Our goal is to become an internationally award winning restaurant. Everything must be to a very high standard. It must be perfect,” Gino says.Gino started working in hospitality in Rome when he was 14 and spent time in London before settling in NZ about 35 years ago.“It’s all I know.”A new menu is being launched this month, showcasing traditional Italian cuisine with a modern twist, featuring a new pizza oven and a spit to roast lamb.A garden has been built at the rear of the kitchen to provide fresh produce and herbs.Croatian head chef Patrick Jankovic has cooked at Ascension for seven years and says the menu will be structured into a variety of courses in a traditional Italian style.

from previous page

It took one week to install two of these crystal chandeliers. The 762 crystals were attached by hand and feature 42 light bulbs. They each weigh about 250kg.

This Italian glass chandelier was once hanging in a private Auckland home before Gino purchased it for the foyer at Ascension.

“We will try to produce everything we can in-house,” Patrick says.Patrick has worked as a chef in Rome and originally came to NZ to work at Ascension for a year.“But I love this place and have never left.”The summer events at Ascension are

set to continue. The seventh annual Shakespeare in the Vines will be held on January 4 and 5 featuring Macbeth.The New Zealand Winery Tour will be held on February 6 and 7 featuring yet-to-be-announced iconic kiwi bands.Ascension Osteria is re-opening on Saturday September 27.

Every room in Ascension has had a fresh lick of paint and been subject to Gino Gurshin’s eye for detail.

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Gino Gurshin (left) and Alex Sipka have combined their European heritage and love of wine and food to launch Ascension Osteria this month.

Ascension head chef Patrick Jankovic grew up immersed in Mediterranean cuisine in Croatia.

The finishing touches to the new rotisserie and pizza oven are being made as Ascension launches a new menu this month.

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EVERY SATURDAY FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS THE MATAkAnA FARMERS’ MARkET HAS bEEn A SHOwcASE FOR ARTiSAnS, gROwERS AnD FARMERS OF THE REgiOn.

nestled on the banks of the Matakana river, and surrounded by the famous Matakana Village, it’s a unique experience everyone loves.

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matakana C E l E b r At E S 10 Y E A r S

Artisan food market maintains founding principles The astounding success of the Matakana Farmers market, which started 10 years ago next month, owes more to passion and enthusiasm than any well-manicured business plan.Founders Richard and Christine Didsbury, the first manager Barbara Souter and influential first stallholders such as Trish Allen, of Rainbow Valley Farm, all talk of being swept along by an idea whose time had come.“There was no grand master plan for Matakana,” Richard says. “It seemed at the time that we were on the cusp. There were some big conversations going on, nationally and worldwide, about where our food was coming from and people were getting nervous about the anonymity of the supermarket.”The Didsburys were also a little concerned that Matakana’s burgeoning wine district didn’t have a focal point.“When we’d travelled overseas, we were inevitably attracted to wine districts and noticed that they always had a ‘heart’. We felt Matakana needed that, too.”Barbara remembers one of her first tasks was to approach prospective stallholders and answer the question: “A what?”“Richard had some lovely drawings of what the market might look like and we used those to inspire people,” she says. “The challenge was finding growers who could maintain a regular supply of produce and who were prepared to commit to being on their stall every Saturday.”Richard says Rainbow Valley Farm founder, the late Joe Polaischer, set a high ethical standard for the market from the start.“I might have been signing the cheques, but a lot

of the credit has to go to Joe,” Richard says. “He loved the concept of providing an interface between the people who grew the food and the people who bought it, and it was his idea to extend the market to include educational workshops.”Along with that ethos came a strong recycling and waste reduction plan, locally sourced timber for market furniture and reusable bags. There were also strict rules around how products were presented and packaged, and quality expectations.

Christine says the market was also about fostering community and was designed with spaces for people to congregate and relax, and space was made available for musicians.“We opened with trepidation on that first Saturday,” Richard says. “It was pretty exciting but we didn’t know if anyone would even turn up. But from the start, the success has been astounding.”There were 20 stallholders on that first day, but to meet demand, this has since expanded to 35. A more

Richard Didsbury feels justifiably proud of the success of the Matakana Farmers Market, but is quick to point out that there are many people in the community who share the credit for that success.


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recent addition has been a children’s playground on the riverbank.During peak periods, the market can cater for up to 5000 visitors and a lot of other NZ markets have followed the Matakana example.“Some people might say we’ve been ‘too successful’ but what a fantastic problem to have,” Richard says. “That’s not to say we didn’t sympathise with the community’s complaints about traffic congestion and parking. There’s no doubt it has changed locals’ lives on Saturday mornings. Some get around it by getting in and out of the village early and, thanks to a local farmer, we have additional summer parking in a paddock. But I believe most locals now love the new dynamic of Matakana and wouldn’t want to go back to how it was before.”The market has only closed twice and both times, as a result of the weather. The major flood that went through the village in 2011 won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

“What was very humbling was the way volunteers turned up with brooms, wheelbarrows, shovels and chainsaws, and within a few hours the site was nearly tidy again. I think it showed the market had become a valued part of the community.”It was the success of the market that encouraged Richard and Christine, through the Brick Bay Trust, which owns the entire site, to subsequently build the cinemas and shops that now embrace the market.A number of stallholders have gone on to set-up their own successful businesses and the crowds who have been drawn to Matakana can now also browse craft markets, garage sales and bric a brac stalls which have sprung up nearby.“The market demonstrates that if you do something interesting with retail, you can draw Aucklanders north and it can be a community success as well.”

Waste minimisation has been part of the market’s ethos from the beginning.

Trish Allen recalls the market’s start.continued next page


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Joe Polaischer and Trish Allen were passionate about the Matakana Farmers Market from day one.

people who wanted to sell things like craft and clothing, we said it would be only food-related and the producers must be local. We then had to define ‘local’.”Education was also a big part of those early markets with regular talks and demonstrations on subjects such as worm farms, composting and making sugar from sugar cane.

Trish Allen laughs when she remembers the night her husband Joe Polaischer came home after giving a talk about farmers markets in Matakana, well before the Farmers Market opened.“We’d recently returned from teaching permaculture in Japan. While we’d been there, our friend had taken us to all these wonderful farmers markets and Joe became absolutely passionate about the whole idea of producers selling their fresh food locally and directly to consumers.“He went off to the meeting in high spirits, but came home very dejected.“Apparently, he’d been given a very hard time. Many of the retailers felt it was going to hurt their businesses and weren’t in favour of it at all. I’m not sure, but I think perhaps Richard (Didsbury) was at that meeting and perhaps that’s where idea germinated.”Trish and Joe, who then owned Rainbow Valley Farm, were part of a group that met regularly in the run-up to the market opening and helped set the rules.“We made a call to be staunch and I believe that that discipline has been part of the market’s success,” she says. “Although we had lots of requests from

“Markets bad for business”

There are no surprises in the news that most little boys get pretty excited when they see a big red fire engine, but not many five year olds would show their devotion quite like Tyler Dale, of Howick.Tyler’s grandparents, Jenni and Peter Marsh, live at Omaha and Tyler is a regular visitor to the area. “He’s been fixated with fire bridges and fire trucks since he was little and the fireman suit he got for his third birthday has been worn to death,” Jenni says. “His room, his books, everything he loves has a fireman theme.”During a visit to the Matakana Fire Station earlier in the year, Tyler met station officer Larry Patterson who took the time to take Tyler on a ride on an engine and showed him the equipment and building.The visit obviously made a huge impression and Tyler later asked his

father, Chris, if the station would always be there.Chris explained that the community fundraised to build and equip the station, and it would always need people to donate money if it was to remain.“Apparently, that was all it took. Tyler decided that for his next birthday, his friends weren’t to bring presents.“He sent out the invitations saying ‘no presents, but please make a donation to the Matakana Fire Station’. He painted a tin, put a slot in the top and put it on the table.”This month, Tyler revisited the Matakana station and handed Larry the grand sum of $61.20.The gesture wasn’t wasted on Larry, who says he was “absolutely blown away” that a five-year-old would go to such an effort.“The boy’s one helluva human being!”

Littlest firefighter makes a stand

Tyler gives the impression that the

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tossi Ngaire Wallen, TOSSI

Park housekeepingYou can tell when spring has arrived. For a start we all cheer up a bit because the dark days of winter have morphed into slightly lighter mornings and evenings. At Tawharanui, the lambs are bounding around the paddocks, twitching their stupidly pink ears as they loll in the sunshine and take in the world. Hard to imagine anything that screams “spring” louder than lambs. Look a bit closer though and you will see clutches of ducklings swimming in the drains, safe from the pukeko that will soon have their own little bundles of fluff to fuss over. Before long there will be a whole generation of “our birds” – kiwi, saddleback, whitehead pateke, robins, grey-faced petrels and bell birds.Apart from the procreating, for TOSSI spring also means a collective deep breath, as the planting season closes. With another 20,000-plus plants in the ground, and only one seriously rainy day to balance a couple of superb winter mornings in the sun, we can only say an enormous “thank you” to everyone who makes it possible. The nursery work goes on, of course, with the seeds collected in autumn almost ready to get their own pot in which to grow big enough for, dare we even think about it, next year’s planting.Spring is also a time for housekeeping and we have done a bit of that, too. Those who venture to Maori Bay will be surprised to find that our enterprising crew of (it has to be said) blokes have completely rebuilt the track. Nice solid steps will now take you safely down from the breathtaking lookout at the top to the stony beach at the bottom. So, for those who haven’t ventured down the cliff for fear of ending up in a heap at the bottom, there is now a new place you can explore. The coastline is beautiful – perfect for fossicking in rock pools and seriously getting away from it all.You will, in all likelihood, see gannets soaring on the up draughts. They may well be checking out our very own gannet colony, recently tarted up with some housekeeping of its own, including additional planting of flax and astelia. All we need now are some real gannets.Save the date The next Sunday in the Park will be October 5. Meet at the woolshed at 9.15am. A barbecue lunch will follow the day’s activities. Info: www.tossi.org.nz

Littlest firefighter makes a stand

Documents

Mahurangi Matters, Matakana Feature, 17 September, 2014