cloneAbel clone
also: Ata Rangi clone · gumboot clone
New Zealand's most-told vine story: a cutting confiscated at Auckland airport in the 1970s, handed to a customs officer who happened to make wine, propagated, and now planted the length of the country.
The story Tradition
Tradition holds — the cutting came from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, in a traveller's boot, and Malcolm Abel took it home. The nickname 'gumboot' is the version of the story New Zealand prefers to tell. Its origin has never been documented publicly; its behaviour in the vineyard has.
Facts
| origin | Burgundy field selection |
|---|---|
| region | New Zealand, Martinborough, Central Otago |
| confidence | low · needs verification · updated 2026-09-16 |
Its kin
regionMartinboroughWhere it was first propagated in quantity.and of this page it says: Propagated here first, and named for the customs officer.regionCentral OtagoAnd where it now grows, 900 km further south.and of this page it says: The cutting that walked through customs and changed New Zealand pinot.practiceMassal selectionThe practice this story sits at the edge of.and of this page it says: And one whose travel was less orthodox.
Who points back
Sources
- New Zealand wine · link
Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.