Merry Christmas

Seasons greetings from everyone here at Sandihurst. We hope you have a great Christmas and enjoy the holiday period. Despite all the winter imagery, here in New Zealand it is summer so its usually hot - our holidays usually feature BBQs and beaches at some stage or other. Especially since nowhere in NZ is further than about 1.5 hours from a beach. Its a great time for friends and family - and of course to enjoy a special glass or two of wine. Sandihurst wine. And if you dont have any then drop by the tasting room, we'll be open right through.

Growing Berries...

Practically no rain for a month and then over the weekend we get 30mm. It warm again now but that little burst should get the vines (and the weeds) moving.

Canopy work continues, thinning, leaf plucking and adjusting the folliage wires. Things are tidy, bunches are exposed to the light and airflow, the weeds are under control and the vineyard dogs are slowly working their way through the local rabbit population. Soon it will be time for a pre-bunch closure botrytis spray to keep the grey mould in check.

In the Vineyard just before Xmas

At this time of year the flowering is now complete and the little grapes are beginning to grow. Presently they are around 3-5mm diameter. As well as finishing our shoot thinning we are also starting remove leaves from around the fruiting zone. This has a number of benefits. It aids berry development and can reduce green flavours. Berry skins thicken which is great for tannin and colour extraction in red varietals. It increases airflow in the canopy which reduces disease pressure. It exposes the berries to UV light early and reduces the risk of sunburn later in the ripening process.

This video just briefly shows the mechanism of leaf removal - essentially the leaves are pulled into a rotary blade by means of a vaccum. Other more technical machines such as the Collard Defoliators work on pulsed air pressure to do the same job.

Everything you need to know about French Wine in a minute

Excerpt from the recent James May/Oz Clarke TV series. Some of it might be true.

Give some wine this Christmas...

Boxing clever

Sandihurst has a great Christmas wine special on at the minute. For only $115NZD and including free delivery anywhere in New Zealand you get;

2 x 2008 Sandihurst Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
2 x 2007 Sandihurst Central Otago Pinot Noir
2 x 2006 Sandihurst Canterbury Riesling

Amazing value and a real saving. This would be a great Xmas gift as these wines are all drinking beautifully now.

You might also consider a great looking wooden box for your wine, as seen in the photo above. The boxes cost $8 for a single, $11 a double and $23 for a 6 bottle box. In addition you will get a further 5% off the retail price of any wine you decide to purchase to go into the box.

Order forms can be found on our website or you can email us directly at info@sandihurstwines.co.nz

In the news today...

Put that down!, slowly.

The most expensive wine for sale in NZ at this moment - here's a shameless just-in-time-for-Christmas piece of journalism about two bottles of Chateau Petrus. Is there anyone in NZ who could do it justice? - can I suggest instead a case of Sandihursts finest every week for a year would be a better bet. Practically the same price.

No such thing as bad publicity of course but this article, in NZs national Sunday newspaper, is about the Waipara Valley wine region. Substance not included.

More worrying for small wineries like ourselves is the next article in toady's NZ Herald regarding the huge volume of Sauvignon Blanc 2008 that is available and the cheap prices it is selling for. With last years crop 40% up on previous years, massive new plantings about to crop and a fabulous fruit-set period just passed, this years crop is likely to again be huge. Great for the consumer perhaps but those in the industry must be seriously worried. With 50% of the nations vineyard under SB we cant afford to ruin our reputation overseas.

How much is out there ??

With fruit set in the vineyard practically over its time to get a feel for how much crop is out there. It was warm and fine throughout the fruit-set period so its likely each vine will be carrying a reasonable sized crop. This initial crop estimation is a general guideline as to whether we need to drop any fruit at this stage.

Usually growers will randomly select a number of vines through the vineyard, count the number of clusters per vine, apply a historical bunch weight average, add a dose of gut instinct and then arrive at an approximate yield.

We expect each vine to carry not more than 2kg of fruit through to harvest. At our average row spacings of 2 x 1.5 this should equate to around 5 tonnes/hectare - a figure in line with most quality conscious vineyards and will also give a juice yield equal to legal limits in France for Grand Cru vineyards.

On a vine spacing of 1.5m each vine will have approximately 10-15 shoots each supporting 2 bunches of fruit. Depending on the varietal we can expect the average weight of each bunch to be around 100g. Growers will keep annual bunch weight data to help predict yield more accurately. And so we arrive, after thinning and other canopy management techniques, at something around 2kg/vine.

What we don't want is a repeat of 2008 when everyone everywhere seemed to be caught out by larger than average berry sizes which resulted in huge crops and overflows in wineries all over the place. Not good for the wine quality and ultimately the image of NZ wine abroad.

The issue that wont go away...

A good article written by Jamie Goode over on WineAnorak prompted by the BBCs new TV programme called Cork,Forest in a bottle. The basic premise of the article is that cork is a wonderful natural product with a current problem (TCA). This resulted in the inevitible rise in popularity of alternative closures which , in turn, has forced the cork industry to make huge inroads into solving this issue. Corks are fighting back !

The fact of the matter is that if screwcaps did exactly the same job as cork then of course we would all be using them. They dont and cannot. The interesting point surrounding corks is their ability to aid in the bottle development of wine via the interaction with air. Not air from the outside but from the compressed cells within the cork itself. There is some semi-technical but really interesting reading on the subject over on AppelationAmerica here and here dispelling the myth that corks 'breathe'.

A word from the floor...

Just a word on what is going on in the cellar at this time of year.

08 Pinot Noir - 140 barrels, most of which have been there for around 6 months were recently tested for levels of Malic acid to see how complete the MLF was. All barrels came back with a level of below 0.01g/l

The 08 reds are exhibiting slightly higher pH levels than in the past as growers tried to give the grapes extra hang time in order to achieve full ripeness. Bacteria work better the higher the pH levels are so the current dose now is needed to keep them at bay. This should see the barrel maturation period out nicely before I need to rack/blend and bottle in April next year. Its the first sulphur the wine has had since the grapes arrived.

08 White Wines - Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer - Our whites spend a little longer than most on lees and consequently we bottle later too. While there are a lot of 08 whites on the shelves already ours wont come out for another 4 months or so. All the whites have been sitting on lees up until now - gaining a little texture and complexity. From today I will be giving each wine its first coarse filtration as I begin to assemble the blends. Coarse filtration by plate/frame filter as we use here, essentially brightens up the wine from its cloudy state, takes out the larger particles and gives us a clearer idea of where each wine stands.

At this stage the Gris and Gewurz are going to be dry wines whereas we will have two Rieslings - one Canterbury and one Waipara - with between 15-25g/L sugar. This is a great fresh style balanced with higher acidity and low levels of alcohol, around 10-11%. Its a winner.

Another reason to love corks...

At Sandihurst all our wines are bottled under cork. We believe it is the best closure for the developement of the wine in the bottle. Now Decanter magazine reports on another reason to love the mighty cork.

A year-long life cycle analysis of the environmental impact of cork, plastic and aluminium screwcap stoppers has found what is already widely accepted: that cork is the most environmentally-friendly stopper. The was study undertaken by analysts Pricewaterhouse Coopers and was commissioned by Amorim, the world's largest cork manufacturer.

The report found plastic stoppers, including the plastic capsule that goes over the top of the bottle, are nine times more damaging to the environment - and aluminium screwcaps are twenty-two times - than cork stoppers, including corks with a plastic capsule.

The first independent survey comparing all three main types of wine bottle stopper, the study was conducted in accordance with ISO (International Standards Organisation) protocols which require peer review, and involved representatives from manufacturers of the other types of closures as well as a life cycle analysis expert.

It calculated various environmental impacts: non-renewable energy consumption, water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric acidification, formation of photochemical oxidants which cause ozone layer depletion, the production of solid waste, and the eutrophication (loss of animal life) of surface water. Of the seven environmental impacts studied, cork performed best on six of them.

The anti-cork brigade will no doubt be up on their soapboxes already, yes we know the report was funded by a cork manufacturer. But this result is clearly not in question. Most of these people are forever on about cork taint as opposed to wine developement, i think a more important issue. One day cork manufacturers will beat the taint issue and where we we be then ?

Sandihurst - Google Street View

Here we are , as seen from the new Google Street View application launched this week. Not that exciting really.

Where in the world is......Brennan Vineyards

Driving out of Queenstown towards Cromwell/Wanaka. The first Valley you come to is the Gibbston Valley, home of Bungy Jumping and a number of well known wineries - Peregrine, Chard Farm and Gibbston Valley to name a few. Just past Peregrine but not as far as Waitiri Creek, on the opposite side of the main highway, you will find the Brennan and OVO Vineyards. This is where we source our Central Otago Pinot Noir. Check out Google Earth for a broader view of the region.

Air New Zealand Wine Awards

A short video advertising last years wine awards, sort of. Full results for this years awards and other NZ wine competitions can be found here.

Sinking Ship...

The Australian Wine Industry?

Confirmation that the Australian wine industry is in trouble it seems. Their recent Wine Industry Outlook Conference has called for a 60% reduction in wine producers and a 20% reduction in overall wine produced within the next 10 years. The current estimated surplus of grapes this year is projected to be a massive 680,000 tonnes. They also suggest that, with 90% of wineries not making money, wineries with less than 80 hectares of vineyards or turnovers of less than $5 million will be forced to close or joint-venture with other wineries to survive. Scary. Amazing. Read more of the article here.

Today in NZ, Wine Industry big chief Phillip Gregan has seized upon this to issue a warning for our own industry. He suggests the lessons to be learned are as follows;

1. Don't get ahead of the market. Clearly that in Australia vineyard planting has got ahead of market demand.

2.Don’t harvest more grapes as an industry than you need – it depresses wine prices and winery profitability and hence the ability to invest in marketing = long term negative consequences for all industry participants.

3. Wineries and growers must talk to each other. Contracts are crucial.

4. Quality, not quantity. That is the foundation on which the industry is based and is the only path to a prosperous and profitable future for growers and wineries.

5. Dont believe too much of our own press. The industry has been very successful but it has been achieved through a lot of hard work, a big investment of capital, a good shot of innovation and more than a drop or two of luck. Dont get complacent.

Sound advice we are all well aware of. Hard to believe we could turn out like the Australians, given they are largely based around export of lower priced large volume wines, the complete opposite of NZ. Although, despite our good name abroad, where will we be if the world stops drinking our Sauvignon Blanc ? Its 50% of our national vineyard - are we the only country with a statistic like that ?

Sandihurst Canterbury Riesling 2006

Here's my 'review' for our 2006 Canterbury Riesling that I've posted over on Chateau Petrogasm. Its an interesting website where wines are reviewed by image only. Check it out.

Weird Weather

It was no picnic in Nelson yesterday

In the last month we have seen extremes in weather across the South Island, from only a couple of weeks ago when we were experiencing the lows of morning frosts to the last few days here in Canterbury when temperatures have peaked at just over 30C.

Yesterday across Nelson and Marlborough there was torrential rain and flooding. In vineyards around the region between 30-50mm rain fell during the day. In Nelson some vineyards were flooded. We have yet to hear how this may have affected vine flowering.

Contrast that to Waipara with 30C yesterday and where less than 10mm rain has fallen in the last month. Weather forecasters are now predicting a hot dry summer with drought-like conditions through until at least February. The start to the season has been likened to that of 1997-98 which was one of the hotter vintages on record.

Central Otago has seen some moderate-to-heavy frost damage so crop levels will be down in the region but overall the season start is promising with low rainfall and a steady building in temperatures. GDD for the last month have been only around 40 compared to Waiparas 140 and Marlboroughs 110. Expect Central to gain quickly through the summer though as the semi-Continental climate starts to produce those intensely hot summer days. Central Otago town Alexandra is regularly the hottest, driest town in NZ through each summer.

The Gift of Flowers

News from Waipara over the last few days is that flowering has begun. In line with their geographical position, Marlborough is usually a little ahead of Waipara with Central Otago a little later than both of them. This is about normal for this stage of the season. Grapes are self-fertilising so once the flowers have open they rely on the weather to complete the job. And warm, fine and settled weather is forecast for the remainder of the week so this bodes well for a great fruit-set. Without any frost issues and with a good level of potential crop on the vine there will almost certainly have to be a reasonable amount of crop thinning done to ensure full ripeness for the fruit come harvest time.

Alot can change in a year, apparently...

From the US magazine Business Week, February 12 2007;

"The cool-climate wines of New Zealand have long been popular with wine critics. But to me, the pinot noirs are often too vegetal and green, the sauvignon blancs reminiscent of cat pee, and the chardonnays grotesquely over-oaked. This is a country of young wine producers where everything remains a work in progress, but for now the prices of these wines do not translate to quality in the bottle."

To today's press release regarding the new (7th) edition of his influential Wine Buyers Guide where 5 NZ wineries have achieved a 5 star rating with a further 21 rated 4 stars and another 80 rated as 'good'. That's practically 20% of all NZ wineries. Parker's team of writers does not grade individual wines but on the wineries overall ability to deliver consistent excellence, bucking vintage ups and downs, delivering regardless of circumstance. The previous editions of the guide granted NZ only the smallest of mentions.

What a difference a year makes.

Where on earth is...Williams Hill

Williams Hill - Waipara - Pinot Noir

Get yourself onto Google Earth and see where our vineyards are. Until I work out how to hyper link all the coordinates I will have to post them up here one by one. Plug in the coordinates from the map above and have a broader, better view.

Just for the record...

As much as I dont like them (or quite often, agree with the judges!) Wine Competitions appear to be a neccessary evil in the ongoing battle, especially for smaller producers such as us, to sell wine. It seems that the wine buying public need the reassurance of a sticker on the bottle in order to make a purchase. And this rule applies the world over. Even our agents and distributors in other countries seem to like stickers or competition results as it gives them a degree of comfort in the product they are trying to sell.

In an ideal world people would trust their own judgement and palate ! Competitions have too many variables in play. The country factor - how would one foreign Sauvignon Blanc fare against a sea of NZ Sauvignons? The judging factor - do they have a nationalised cellar palate - will a wine that is a bit left field do as well? Does Gold Medal in one country mean Gold in another - most unlikely. What about wine age - does a Gold medal now mean it will still taste 'gold' 2-3 years later? All competitions dont use the same judging criteria or scoring systems. Big wine companies who make 'show reserve' wines just in an attempt to win medals - just part of the advertising budget or a sideline to keep the winemakers interested ? I could go on. However, theres no getting away from it so I had better get used to it.

So after all that heres the Sandihurst list to guide you when you are next out..

2004 Riesling Medium Canterbury - Winestate - 5 STARS, Wine NZ - Shortlist Best Buy

2004 Riesling Dry Canterbury - Winestate - 4 STARS
2004 Gewurztraminer Canterbury - Winestate- 5 STARS
2004 Pinot Gris Canterbury - Winestate- 5 STARS

2006 Pinot Noir Canterbury - Liquorland Top100 GOLD, Decanter - 4 STARS, Cuisine - 4 STARS, International Wine & Spirit London - SILVER Best in Class
2006 Riesling Canterbury - Air New Zealand Wine Awards - SILVER, Selections Mondiale des Vins Canada - SILVER, Canberra International Riesling Challenge - BRONZE, International Wine & Spirit London - SILVER Best in Class
2006 Pinot Gris Canterbury - Bragato Wine Awards - BRONZE

2007 Pinot Noir Waipara - Air New Zealand Wine Awards- BRONZE
2007 Riesling Nelson - International Aromatics Competition - BRONZE, Air New Zealand Wine Awards - BRONZE

2008 Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough - Bragato Wine Awards - BRONZE

Modest success then. The one interesting theme for me from this is that we tend to score better for wines that are entered after at least a years maturation in the bottle. Confirmation to me of our wines ability to improve as they age.

Coming to Hong Kong

Heres a photo of a recent tasting in Hong Kong which featured our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008.

We are currently putting the finishing touches (ie: labelling and packaging) to a new shipment to HK scheduled to leave next week . So look out for us, for in the not too distant future you will soon be able to enjoy, not only the Sauvignon, but also our Central Otago Pinot Noir 2007, Canterbury Riesling 2006, Nelson Chardonnay 2007 and Canterbury Pinot Gris 2006.

The wines should be available in both Hong Kong and Macau. I will post our agents details and from where you can find our wine shortly.

The monthly Kiwi music video...

Nesian Mystik - Its On

"Like Vietnam in the bad old days"...

Just a wrap on the recent frost event that had up to 500 helicopters on standby around the country. TV3 News featured the story and you can view it here or read more here.

A week of warm settled weather has followed and it appears that, fingers crossed, the spring frost season may be over.

Next key event to look out for will be flowering or fruit-set. Warm temperatures here will ensure healthy crop volumes and give growers the option of deciding on how much fruit to retain through to harvest. Cooler temperatures can reduce and affect crop levels and, as happened in 2007, this may still be excellent for winemakers but will certainly not be welcomed (financially) by growers. Stay tuned...

The Numbers Game

NZ Winegrowers have just released their Statistical Annual 2008. 50 pages of facts and figures - here are just a few I thought were interesting.

1. Half of all vineyards in NZ are Sauvignon Blanc, about 14000ha and is still growing. The next largest is Pinot Noir with 4650ha, then Chardonnay 3881, with everything else a tiny 1380ha or less. Playing to our strengths or having most of our eggs in the same basket??

2. Just over half of all vineyards in NZ are located in Marlborough. No surprise there I guess.

3. The average cropping level is practically 10 tonnes per hectare !! Surely overcropping for a cool climate region. Blame Sauvignon Blanc and wonder how much better could we be if we tried.

4. Of the nearly 30000 hectares of vineyards in NZ only 917 is Riesling. This seems ridiculously small for a country whose terroir is practically tailor-made for the variety. Even Pinot Gris has overtaken it at 1383ha.

5. NZ has 585 wineries and 90% are small (less than 200000L production).

6. Waipara is NZs fastest growing wine region. No major growth in Central Otago is forecast for the few years.

7. People in New Zealand drink on average only 1 glass of wine per week (approx 11L a year). Really ? Not in my house.

You can pore through the report yourself here.

Frosty Reception

At the tail end of last week a storm swept up the South Island brigning rain, sleet and snow to all areas. And it wasnt only the peloton in the Tour of Southland who were affected by the snow. Vineyards across the island were also struck by the freak weather.

In Central Otago the vineyards had helicopters on standby all mornings from Wednesday to Saturday. It was much the same across the rest of the island. Temperatures plummeted to 0C and below on all of those mornings, the lowest being -2.6C in our Gibbston Valley vineyard on Saturday. Newspapers reported that 500 helicopters were working in vineyards across the country that night. Check out the TV3 news video here.

I was up in Waipara on Friday night/Saturday morning with a helicopter on site. Temperatures in the vineyard went from 7C at midnight down to around 0C by 6am but soon warmed up with daybreak and the only thing lost was a nights sleep.

Helicopters are expensive to run. Depending on its size and the area of vineyard you want to protect, the hourly rate can be anything from $600-$3000. Which is enough to give any vineyard owner sleepless nights but is better than the stress of losing your entire crop (and hence income) in a single night.

You can read a little more in a newspaper report Here. The net result for Sandihurst is that we have lost our West Melton fruit - two good Riesling vineyards (potentially 20 tonnes) and our Pinot Gris (5 tonnes). Its disappointing but on the plus side, our vineyards in Waipara, Marlborough and Central have been unaffected. The forecast this week is for fine weather and surely this spells the end of the frost risk this year.

And the winner is....

A man with a 1000 bottle wine cellar at his home has defeated a man who rarely drinks at all and is about to replace a man who gave up drinking because it was getting the better of him. Sounds like a good result all round then.

Did you know that only American wine is allowed to be served at the Whitehouse. Find out how much you know about wine and US politics by taking the Whitehouse Wine Quiz here.

Springtime in Central

Heres a photo taken this morning in Queenstown, Central Otago. Springtime. Not that unusual but not exactly welcome either. No reported vineyard damage at this stage. Temperatures overnight got down as low as 0.8C and havent risen much over 5.0C all day. Brrrrrr.

Keeping an eye out

While we are always in contact with our growers in other regions its good to be able to keep a handle on the season generally just to get an idea of how things are going. Webcams and Vineyard Weather stations are an ideal way to do this from afar.

Regional Webcams

Central Otago - Lake Wanaka, Clyde, Alexandra, Queenstown

Weather Stations

These are from the excellent site harvest.com and have the added advantage of calaculating GDD as well as temperature, rainfall, wind and humidity.

Central Otago - Brennan location of our PinotNoir

Marlborough - St Lukes our Sauvignon Blanc vineyard.

Waipara - Huxley, Camshorn on the valley floor, Omihi to the north, or Muddy Water on the hillside.

Rain Radars

Elders and MetService have very good hourly radars that we can use to track bad weather.

Marlborough and Sauvignon Blanc

The secret ingredient for great world beating Sauvignon Blanc, according to the video above, is Marlborough. In other words its all about TERROIR. It always is.

Mon Dieu ! Quel Horreur !

Chaos in the French wine industry with what looks like some mad ideas being debated about the advertising and sale of wine in France. Quite naturally the local winemakers and growers have taken to the streets in protest.

The demonstrators were drawing attention to the censorship of wine in the press, the proposed tax raises on wine, the ban on wine advertising on the internet, and the possible banning of free wine tastings to the public. Decanter has more on it here and here.

All quiet here in NZ where tastings are most often free or if charged for, are refundable upon purchase of any wine. And advertising on the internet or newspaper is not restricted at all.

Growth Industry

We can see the fruit ! Uniform growth and practically 2 bunches on every shoot. Next job in the vineyard will be to think about shoot thinning where things look a little crowded. Thinning helps limit the crop and open up the canopy to light and wind flow which helps ripening and to reduce disease pressure.

In a few weeks we will begin to see flowering and fruit-set take place. NZ's national weather bureau have just issued a prediction of a warmer and drier than average summer. Which would be great news but can they be trusted ?

Grape Expectations...

Its that time of year when we as a winery are out visiting our growers, taking a look at the vineyards to see how the current season has begun, and also reviewing the previous season - how the grapes were, things that could be improved from both sides and a look at the pricing structure.

With regards to pricing generally, it is amazing how random it all seems to be. Most people seem to plump for a figure somewhere near last years prices with a small increase factored in, with perhaps a premium added in cases where vineyards are perceived to have a high quality terroir or for grape varietals that are in high current demand. There seems to be very little knowledge of how those prices were first arrived at and little or no discussion about how they relate to the operating costs of a vineyard.

Most growers are paid by the tonne. Some also have an incremental scale based on ripeness or other such quality parameters. Another system not used often in NZ but which seems to approximate the current grape prices well is the 100 x bottle price formula. A few growers are involved in profit-sharing schemes with the wineries. Some wineries opt to lease the vineyard outright.

No doubt the Economists would tell us its all simple demand and supply - Pinot Noir often sells for twice the price of Riesling so growers shouldnt expect the same prices for their fruit despite the fact that all the good ones will spend exactly the same amount of time in the vineyard on both varietals.

Life isnt fair sometimes (if you grow/love Riesling!)

Waipara - late October

Back to work. Here's a photograph looking across the Waipara Valley. Waipara is New Zealands fastest growing premium wine region and is home to some of the country's best Pinot Noirs and Rieslings. It offers a wide array of terroirs with soil types ranging from the clay and limestone hills to the loess/gravel valley floor. Although only 50 kilometres north of Christchurch it is generally 2C warmer, largely due to the protective influence of the hills in the photograph above which shelter the valley from the cool Easterly wind coming off the Pacific ocean directly on the other side. There are around 80 vineyards and a dozen wineries in the region and the number grows every year. Large scale recent investment from the big wine companies in New Zealand is a real vote of confidence and has raised the profile greatly both here and abroad. The infrastructure in the local town of Amberley is steadily growing but it still remains a quintessential NZ farming town.

At Sandihurst we grow our fruit at 3 vineyards in Waipara. Williams Hill, Bellbird Spring and Georges Road. Pinot Noir, Riesling and Pinot Gris are the varietals. And while we don't want to put the Commentators Curse on it, with the frost and flowering periods not yet over - the 2008-09 season has started so well people are beginning to say they cant remember a start like it. Long may it continue.

Labour Day...anything but

A public holiday in New Zealand today, its Labour Day and so its all about NOT working. We headed for the beach. Roll on Summer...

In the Vineyard again...

Following on from bud burst around the end of September/start of October depending on where your vineyard is, the vine has dodged a couple of frost scares and the new shoots now seem to be happily growing bigger each day. Looking across the vineyard there is a picturesque sea of green. At this stage of the season each shoot has between 3-5 leaves unfolded and you can now see the inflorescence's on each shoot (mostly 2 per shoot). All going to plan, these inflorescence's will swell, flower, and set fruit before the year is out.

Even now we can get a rough guide to the potential crop by looking at the average number of inflorescence's on each vine and applying a bunch weight guesstimate based on the historical data of the vineyard. The major variable in the equation is the weather over the flowering period which plays a big part in the number of berries that set on each bunch , and therefore the potential crop size.

When the Merde hits the fan...

Following in the footsteps of wines like Cats Pee on a Gooseberry Bush or Fat Bastard comes this Rose wine from the Languedoc region of France. Apparently not 'merde' at all and 7 Euros to boot, it seems to be another marketing/labelling stunt that has met with success. You can watch some BBC footage of it here.

Its not the first time the use of 'Merde' has appeared in relation to French wine. British writer Anthony Hanson once famously wrote that 'Great Burgundy smells of shit'. And in another classic incident a Lyon magazine was ordered to pay £200,000 in damages to a group of 56 co-operatives in the Beaujolais region when they quoted the opinion of François Mauss, president of the Grand Jury of European Wine Tasters who said of Beaujolais 'C'est un vin de merde.'

A bientot

Thats my boy !

Heres my son Thomas doing his bit during our recent party for the launch of our 2008 Sauvignon Blanc. He loved it...but hes more of a Riesling man, just like his father.

The Bud Brush...

Its about now that one of the more tedious and strenuous vineyard jobs takes place. Its bud rubbing - the removal of unwanted buds/shoots that grow on the trunk from the head of the vine to the base. Normally this is a job that is the very definition of 'back-breaking'. Its a job that is almost always done manually and bending over every 1.5 metres 3 or 4000 times in every hectare can mean long tiring days and exhausted nights.

People mostly use some sort of glove with a rough surface, secateurs or just bare hands but now it seems some bright spark has invented a tool that looks like a cross between a toilet brush and an oversized toothbrush but which might actually be quite useful. At only NZD$26.50 we would be mad not to try it. Apparently they are selling like hotcakes in the USA. It seems too easy, its a wonder it hasnt been produced before.

Results to follow...

Glass half full....

At Sandihurst we are trialling, in conjunction with Lincoln University and MetaNZ, the use of recycled crushed glass as a reflective undervine mulch. The trial is being conducted in our Pinot Noir vineyard and is now in its second year. The trial is comparing Green glass, White glass, Mussel Shells and a Control area of vines without any mulch. Mussel shells have been used to good effect in previous trials at Neudorf vineyard in Nelson. You can get a little more detail about that here.

The benefits of using a reflective undervine surface are many and may especially help vineyards or varietals that are in marginal areas. The glass/shells act to reflect light and heat back into the canopy of the vine. The raises the temperature around the fruiting zone and may have an effect on photosynthetic rates and vine phenology. More light evenly spread around the cluster may also help even ripening and promote a more mature level of phenolic (tannin) development in the berry without pushing the sugar levels too high. Berry colour is also improved. Below the vine surface the mulches may also help to raise soil temperature and have positive effects on vine root development and as an added bonus helps limits weed growth too.

Initial tasting of wines made from the trial blocks were sensational to say the least. Where the control block came over as quite thin and with higher levels of green tannin, the glass/shell vines had an obvious depth of mid palate weight to them as well as excellent tannin structure and darker colour. The difference was chalk and cheese, from vines only metres apart of each other.

The Sandihurst trial has great potential as it combines all the known benefits of undervine mulch with the use of recycled glass, in itself a major issue for recycling companies in New Zealand. Its very exciting. The glass has been colour separated and arrives to us in 1 tonne lots. Amazingly there are no sharp edges in the crushed glass.

Stay tuned for more results as the trial continues...

Our day in the sun...

Last Sunday saw the inaugural Sandihurst Sauvignon Blanc Launch Party take place. It was a great success and close to 250 people attended the event which was held at the winery. The weather was brilliant and everyone seemed to have a great time sprawled out on the lawn in the sun, drinking our wines and listening to the live Jazz band. A local restaurant, Langdale, were also on hand with some great food.

People received a complementary glass of our 2008 Sauvignon Blanc upon arrival together with a food match by Langdale (a delicious Prawn Croquette) and could then sample through the range of our other wines, which included another new release - our 2007 Central Otago Pinot Noir.

All in all it was such a success it looks like we will have to make it an annual event.

Nipped in the bud...

This is moderate frost damage. The spurs either side of the middle one seem to be OK and healthy but you can see in the middle spur the shoot tips and leaves have been hit. This shoot probably wont make it. No leaves remain to photosynthesize and the tip is ruined so wont grow any longer. A secondary bud may emerge but it is already well behind the remaining healthy shoots so will probably have to be removed or will end up as an unripe bunch in the harvest.

Mother Nature meets Jack Frost

From far away, YESTERDAY, this vineyard looks great. THIS MORNING, upon closer inspection, it looks less than great. Temperatures in West Melton plummeted overnight to a low of -3.0 which, despite some desperate helicopter action, may well have caused up to 50% of the shoot growth to die.

Some shoots will recover and secondary buds will grow so it isnt all over just yet. Barring another whiteout there will still be a crop here but it will certainly be a smaller crop. And the season now just got shorter for the new growth so we will need it to be a better than average one just to get the full potential out of this fruit. The margin for error in the season just got tighter.

Better news from our other vineyards - no frost issues to date for our Central Otago, Marlborough or Waipara vineyards. Spring Frosts are a major issue on the New Zealand wine industry. The price of protection is huge but the price of total crop loss is worse.

Riesling Rules !

I have just received my free copy of “Riesling Rules”, all the way from the USA. Its published by Pacific Rim Winemakers (but you would hardly know it) who are really leading the charge in helping everyones favourite white varietal get the exposure and limelight it deserves.

This book is 40 pages of Riesling facts, lists and snippets, laced with quotes and tips that keep things light and approachable. ”How to Sound Like a Riesling Geek” is tucked in after some pretty decent information about Riesling Growing Regions, lists of key Mosel and Alsace producers.

Whether you’re already a Riesling aficionado, or just cannot quite figure out why everyone keeps telling you that you should like Riesling, or somewhere in between — this booklet will hold your interest.

“Riesling Rules” is available free — you can view it online here or order a hard copy online.

To quote the rulebook;

The true triumph of Riesling is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it. – Voltaire

New Release...

At Sandihurst we are about to release out first wine of the 2008 vintage - our 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

2/3 of the fruit is from the Wairau Valley and was 'traditionally' handled (in the Marlborough sense) - machine harvested, clean juice and cool fermented to retain aromatics and freshness. The other 1/3 of fruit is from the Awatere Valley, hand harvested, whole bunch pressed and briefly settled before being fermented slightly warmer. Both wines then stayed on full fermentation lees for 3 months to build texture and palate weight before being blended and bottled in August.

The wine is typically Marlborough in style but is understated and restrained. Rather than a straight forward fruit bomb the wine offers texture and additional complexity which adds another dimension to the fruit aromatics and vibrant acidity. It is dry at 3 g/L residual sugar. This is a wine which will benefit from short to mid-term cellaring and should begin to bloom into 2009 as it develops in the bottle.

To celebrate the release Sandihurst is having an afternoon release party on Sunday October 12th. Live music, picnic food and of course a complementary glass of Sauvignon Blanc on our vineyard lawn. Please contact the winery for further details.

At this moment in time...

Here's the inside of the winery and here, at the beginning of October, is the current state of things.

140 barrels of Pinot Noir, 3/4 from Central Otago, 1/4 from Waipara, are all going through Malolactic fermentation at the moment. Yesterday I sent a number of samples to the local hospital who provide a lab service for checking the MLF numbers. I'm hoping most barrels are nearly through.

In the background you can see our tanks. We have about 500L of 2008 Canterbury Pinot Gris which is in tank sitting on light lees. Its really starting to build some texture and develop interesting character over and above the fruit.

Same deal with our 2008 Central Otago Gewurztraminer. About 1000L on lees. A rich full bodied wine which is tending towards Alsace in its style. A little residual sugar, about 14% alcohol and with serious weight behind it.

The other tanks are all Riesling. We have our 2008 Waipara Riesling, about 2500L, which was fermented entirely with natural yeasts and is currently still sitting on full fermentation lees. Ferment stopped naturally at about 25g/L sugar which is wonderfully balanced with its acidity.
My plan at this stage is that this wine will not be cold stabilised or fined in order to keep the wine as natural as possible.

Our other Riesling is our 2008 Canterbury Riesling of which there will be around 19000L. Its made in a lower alcohol (probably around 10-11%) style with around 25-30g/L sugar. The wine actually tastes much drier than it is due to the higher levels of acidity we retain here in Canterbury. On light lees at the moment. Should be a real winner.

Outside most buds are now out and budburst seems relatively uniform with between 1-3 leaves unfolded. No frost issues to date. Everything looking as good as possible at this early stage.

The Road is Long...

The Great Alpine Highway runs from Christchurch to the Kumara Junction on the West Coast. Its the driving equivalent of the world famous Tranz-alpine train journey. 255km long and packed with spectacular scenery on both sides of the Southern Alps.

Sandihurst Winery is located about 15kms from the start of the highway on the Christchurch side, just past the small settlement of West Melton. Its the only winery on the whole route and, if you are travelling west, quite probably the last winery you will see before getting to Central Otago, about 750kms down the road !

So dont forget to stop in. You've been warned !

Incroyable !

It appears from the video above that the French people know next to nothing about New Zealand wines. Shame on them. And you might think that people involved in the wine industry would be a little more knowledgeable. Incredible.

Well hopefully that all about to change because Sandihurst will shortly begin exporting some wine to France. No excuses now.

The envelope please...

The results are in from the International Wine and Spirit Competition. We entered 3 of our wines and the good news for us is that they all received an award.

The 2006 Canterbury Riesling was awarded Silver-Best in Class. Here what the judges had to say about it.
Greenish straw colour, showing minerality on the nose with slate and grapefruit pungency. Good fruit concentration, yet much delicacy. The palate is round, crisp, softened by residual sugar which is well balanced by delicate, mouthwatering acidity and gentle flavours. Very refined.

The 2006 Canterbury Pinot Noir was awarded Silver-Best in Class.
Light glossy garnet red. Gentle soft red berried fruits ,light floral notes. Clean soft and ripe in the mouth, delicate pinot character with some weight, fresh and just a bit warm on the finish.

The 2007 Nelson Riesling was awarded Bronze.

It is interesting to chart the recent competition results and tasting feedback. As a rough rule it appears that Sandihurst tends to do better in competitons outside NZ than we do in this country. Why is this? One reason may be partly due to my winemaking style which has been largely influenced by my time living in Germany and in conversation with other European winemakers.

Another noticeable trend is that our wines dont tend to show very well in the first year after bottling. They take a while to settle and develop. Im comfortable with that, they arent built to be fruit bombs, but hopefully to offer added complexity and interest as they develop. I think our wines have great ageing potential. Which, especially for Riesling, is just how it should be. Is there anything better than drinking aged Riesling ?

Growing reputation...

Much more interesting than watching paint dry, and faster too.

Salut Canada

This year Sandihurst began exporting wine to Canada. Our wines are imported through our agent Fred Lewis at Schoolhouse Wines in Ontario and sold through the LCBOs Vintages stores. We began exporting with our 2006 Canterbury Riesling earlier in the year and that wine recently won a silver medal in the 2008 Selections Mondiales des Vins Canada , the largest wine competition in North America.

Heres what NZ wine critic Michael Cooper had to say about the wine.

SANDIHURST RIESLING 2006 Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand

TASTING NOTE: The 2006 vintage was hand-picked in West Melton and Burnham vineyards, south-

west of Christchurch, and matured on its yeast lees for six months. It's a light, lemony, appleyCanterbury wine, gently sweet and crisp, with good flavour depth and slight earthy notes adding a

touch of European-style complexity. Worth cellaring.

Just so you know where to go and buy this wine, heres a list of the Vintages stores near you which stock the wine. Failing that please contact Fred or the team at Schoolhouse.

Fred came out and visited us in August this year and has subsequently added our 2007 Central Otago Pinot Noir and 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc to the list. You can contact Fred directly for those too.

Let us spray...

Now that bud burst is here it wont be long before we need to apply the first spray of the season, probably a sulphur spray to prevent Powdery Mildew. It can be a bit time consuming driving up each row with a tractor and if you dotn have a cab on your tractor then it can get really hot in your spray suit & mask. Not the best job to be had in the vineyard.

Heres a video of spraying by helicopter in Burgundy. Looks like a great idea. Its something we dont do much of here in New Zealand and Im wondering why the big companies dont given the size of their vineyards. It looks quick and easy.

Then again it also looks really dangerous.

The sound of the Kiwi...

Another NZ music video. Not that recent but anyway. For anything more recent check out http://www.myspace.com/gregjohnsonmusic. I dont know if putting music videos on a wine site says anything, least of all about me. This one probably tells you I dont have long hair, piercings or tattoos. Stay tuned for some Portugese Fado...

Not all yeasts are good guys

What is Brettanomyces ?

Its a yeast, in short. Actually we can say its a a spoilage organism that can in fact, in small doses, be a complexing element in wine. Problem is we cant control the amount. Its more prominent in red wines due to their high polyphenol content and higher pH levels. And it loves wood, lees, tolerates alcohol and doesnt need too many nutrients. It grows slowly just feeding on the little bits of O2 that barrel ageing gives it. Its tough.

There are a number of compounds responsible for the aromatic identification of Brett. The most common are 4-ethylphenol, 4-ethylguaiacol and isovaleric acid. Among the aromas we associate with Brett are medicinal, mousy, smoky, barnyard, bandaid and cheesy. And all these come at the cost of fruit and oak. Basically it all makes for unpleasant drinking and can ruin a wine although as I said earlier in small doses it can be aromatically enhancing for some wines.

Im thinking about this because in our cellar Ive got a bretty barrel. Its at the smoky stage (4-ethylguaiacol) which isnt too bad yet. And out of 140 barrels it isnt going to ruin the blend if it stays like that. But I have to be careful. Firstly when tasting never to transfer any wine from this barrel to others. I'll probably rack this wine off its lees, make sure MLF has finished, adjust the free SO2, clean the barrel, keep it topped and monitor regularly from there. That wont stop it but I can try to make its life harder. At blending time I will need to make some careful decisions because the last thing I want is Brett developing in bottle. One option would be sterile filtration of this barrel and that will stop this portion ruining the final blend. Those decisions will come later.

The Norwester

Heres a photo showing the classic Northwest arch. This type of cloud formation is perculiar to Canterbury and is almost always accompanied by a strong, hot and dry wind. Its a summer thing and is usually at its peak betweeen bud burst and veraison. Its a good wind for the grapes, mostly, as it can have an effect by limiting fruit-set and usually also means that disease pressure is very low when we keep an open canopy for the wind to blow through. On the downside it can be hell to work in if you are out in the vineyard as it saps all you super powers pretty quickly.

The view from above

The Canterbury grape growing region has two sub regions - Waipara, to the north of Christchurch, and the Canterbury Plains to the west. Sandihurst Winery is located on the finges of the plains, about 20 minutes from the centre of Christchurch. As you can see the plains are a large multicoloured patchwork quilt of fields. And flowing the length of the Plains, from the mountains to the sea, are a number of big rivers. The one in the photo above is the Waimakiriri. These stoney, braided rivers have formed the basis of the soils in Cantebury with the majority of our vineyards being loam/loess covered ancient river terraces. Light free draining soils with a mineral edge - perfect for our aromatic wines.

Didier Dagueneau

I read this morning that Didier Dagueneau was killed in a microlite accident in France yesterday. Tragically he was only 52. You can read more about him on Decanter or Jancis Robinson's site.

As a wine student at Lincoln University I really enjoyed watching the Jancis Robinson Wine Course videos. People like Dagueneau, with his 'Wild Man of the Loire' tag, were tremendously inspirational. We loved the individual character and the seemingly obsessive and traditional nature of his viticulture and winemaking. This seemed to capture the essence of why we wanted to get into the industry. No student aspires to join Gallo, Pernod-Ricard or the like but the stories and individual characters of (mostly) European winemakers really got us enthused. Among the other individuals we looked toward also included Henri Jayer and Georg Breuer and they have also sadly passed away relatively recently.

Signs of Life

We've just had three days on 20C temperatures, probably the warmest days in the last six months. Thats really helped push things along in the vineyard.

Yesterday I noticed the first buds of the season had burst. There were a few in our Pinot Gris and, surprisingly, a few in the Riesling which is normally one of the later varieties to burst. Typically these early buds are nearest to the wooden posts and often at the end of the new cane that has been laid down.

This photo shows the unfolding of the first leaf. Amazing to think that already inside that newly opened bud are 2 or 3 bunches of grapes. Basically all they need now is heat, a little water and time...