18 May 2010Silver Success in London ...

Great news today! 

We have received news that our Pinot Noir 2008 (our first vintage / first wine) has been awarded a Silver Medal in the very prestigious International Wine Challenge 2010.

We are absolutely stoked, and this comes just a few days after we received news that our Pinot Gris 2009 received a Silver Medal in the Liquorland International Wine Show / Top 100 held here in New Zealand.  We certainly feel that we are well on the way to achieving our first goal of creating high quality artisan small batch wines that are classically Central Otago. 

We have to say thanks to the great team who have help us achieve these great results - Tim and Nikki Kerruish of Knox Estate and their vineyard team; Dan and Sarah-Kate Dineen and their winemaking team at Maude Wines; and Patrick Caudle who was a key palate in the team that created the final blend for bottling.  Great wine is the result of great grapes and the ability to husband the grapes into wine that expresses their place of origin.

Thanks everyone!!!

Now the plug - please go to our online shop or visit one of the retailers listed in the "Where to Buy" page on our web site to get yourself some of our wonderful wines.  Then enjoy with great food in the company of good friends.

Regards,  Douglas & Jane.

4 May 2010Vintage 2010 -Over and Out

The last few days have been a bit hectic.  Finished up working at our winemakers last Friday.  Back to Wellington and returned to the 'day job'.  Special thanks to everyone at Maude for having me on board as part of the team - it was a super experience.

In Wanaka the daily cycle of plunging ferments continued as did the in flow of grapes as the vineyards continued to pick round the showers.   No issues with quality, just getting a break in the weather to pick as we have low disease pressure  and the vines are now almost into 'hibernation' mode.  As I left to return to the big smoke many of the early red ferments were into post ferment maceration - the slow extraction of tannins and colour from the Pinot Noir skins, pips and stalks.  Our 36 bottles Pinot ferments for clone 5 and 6 were in this category.  Pressing off and 'barrelling' of the new wine will commence shortly once we are happy the tannin and colour etc are in balance.

I see that in the last day or so that its being reported in the press that the NZ harvest will be at the lower end of the harvest predictions.  The cool temperatures at flowering in spring last year in most regions and the tight management of vineyards in Marlborough are factors in this.  Can't say that I'm upset, it will be good for the industry to have supply more in line with demand again.

The harvest volume in Central has come in pretty much at the projected tonnage, and has been of great quality overall.   The last point makes me happy - I believe we have to work to the quality end of the market and not deliver huge quantities, as the NZ input cost structure doesn't work at the quantity end of the market.  And I'm also very happy about what I see in our ferments - we will deliver a wine with a great structure and taste when we bring the 2010 wine to market next year.

In the mean time we can all enjoy the 2008 vintage, while waiting for the 2009 to be ready for release later this year.

In vino veratis!

28 April 2010Vintage 'Intern' 2010 - It does rain in Central

It's Tuesday, and its being raining since Sunday.

Not a lot happened over the weekend - I had some time off to visit family in Dunedin.  Great to hang out with the kids and recover from the manual labour.  Back in Central there have been intermittent showers that mean little happened on the picking front on Monday, or on Tuesday.  Our efforts have concentrated on fruit already in the fermenters and on cleaning - followed by some more cleaning.  Then for a change do the plunging to keep the cap on the fermenting wines moist.

The workout continues to be good for the waist line!

It dawns fine on Wednesday, I get some video of the lovely red sun rise as I arrive at work.  However, ominously, the mountains to the west are shrouded in low cloud. 

Our two fermenters of Pinot are ticked off as 'dry' in the morning sampling.  This is great news - I have been on site to see the '36 bottles ' Pinot Noir through the whole fermentation process - I even have my photo taken doing the plunging of the cap to prove it.  I'll have to publish that one day soon! 

From now on we will watch and taste test the wine to pick the moment when the colour and tannin extraction are in balance and we can run the wine off into barrels to quietly mature and develop over the next 12 months.

At our winemakers, Maude Wines in Wanaka, we start to set up for processing the fruit that will arrive in the late afternoon / early evening and will be processed through Thursday.  Fruit will come in for their own wines and for other users of the Dan and the teams skills.  We clean fermenters and establish the fuit processing line for the next batches of fruit.

As an intern its not just about my wines but helping out with other folks stuff as well - and try to soak up knowledge that will be useful in future.

We spent the afternoon out to the Mt Maude Wines vineyard to help finish the harvest of some reisling and transport it back to the winery.  All is fine until the threatening cloud starts to deliver more rain.  Then it is all on to get this batch of fruit  to the winery and undercover. 

It will be a busy day tomorrow!