Bottling time...

The end of the line. Fruit came in nearly a year ago and now its ready to go out the other end as a finished bottle of wine.

We are bottling our 2008 aromatics - Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Riesling.

Its great to see the finished product and know all the hard work and decisions that influenced the style of the wine but the final day is always tough and boring - folding 1000+ cases or loading 10000+ bottles on the line does get slightly repetitive !

Time now for the wine to get over the 'bottle shock' period, then for a further little bottle maturation and finally out the door to market.

Wine and Music matching...

New Zealand band Flight of the Conchords and the Sandihurst 2007 Central Otago Pinot Noir - a great match. And at 7.09 about the perfect length for a whole glass.

Friendly Fire...

New guidelines issued by the French Government state 'the consumption of wine, especially wine, is discouraged.
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This is on the back of information from the French National Cancer Institute that drinking alcohol increases your risk of mouth or throat cancer by 168%. Experts around the world have condemned the study as widely flawed and inaccurate but the damage have been done and French winemakers are naturally outraged at what they see as continued persecution of their industry from within. They are already up in arms over, amongst other things, the restrictive ban (the Loi Evin) on alcohol advertising within France.
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Coupled with further comment on the risks of meat, charcuterie, cigarettes and (no doubt) cheese the French people are upset. And when the French get upset they usually take to the streets. Keep watching.

A little sunshine on a rainy day...

The Online Friends of Sandihurst Society - Canterbury Branch

Just what you need in these tough times - a real bargain...or alcohol....or both.

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For those of you here in New Zealand I thought I could offer a blog-only special of a Sandihurst 6 bottle case of wine for only $115 and free delivery too. Taste your way through the different vintages and wine regions of NZ in one handy pack. All well made, quality wine (if I do say so myself).

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2 x Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008

2 x Canterbury Riesling 2006

2 x Central Otago Pinot Noir 2007

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Great value, you cant go wrong. Email me at kirk@sandihurstwines.co.nz to order or if you would like to know more about the wines.

Cyclone Innis en route...

Tropical Cyclone Innis is heading for New Zealand and is expected to cause bad weather over practically all of our grape growing regions in the next few days. This morning the cyclone was downgraded to 'an intense low pressure system' which I think translates as 'large rain storm'. Its currently travelling at a fast 40km/hour and heavy rain warnings are in force in many parts of the country.

Fingers crossed it isn't too bad or too wet. Most vineyards have now been netted and this weather will begin to test how well their spray programs are working as disease pressure is sure to rise.

Follow it all on weatherwatch or metservice.

Multi row versus Single row netting...

Only one winner here. In our Georges Road vineyard in Waipara we have been busy these last two days putting the bird netting on our Riesling and Pinot Gris.

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The Riesling has multi row netting while the Pinot Gris has single row. Both blocks are the same size - approx 60 rows 2.5m apart and 160m long. The Riesling was netted and pegged down in 4 hours (one tractor and 6 people) whilst the Pinot Gris took most of one day to net (tractor and 3 people) and longer to clip up. And the beauty of the multi row nets is that you can still work on the fruit underneath the net. A no-brainer. If anyone wants to buy the singles then please contact me.

Hello Everybody and Welcome.....

With 80000+ people watching his WineLibraryTV internet show daily, you would be hard pressed to find someone in the wine world who hasnt heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. Love him or hate him (and clearly there are people in both camps) Vaynerchuk has come along way in a short time thanks to his over-the-top entertaining style and enthusiastic embracement of the Internet and its various social media applications like Twitter, Facebook, Cork'd etc. He clearly knows his wine but also is very strong on branding, of both himself and his business. On his Internet show he is a loud, fast, in-your-face talker with a lot to say on everything. Its entertaining stuff.

News today that he is coming to New Zealand as a keynote speaker at the upcoming NZ Wine Exporters Forum to be held in Christchurch in July. Gary Vaynerchuk is a born keynote speaker. I expect the event will be a great success.

"Could be one out of the box"

Thats the early prediction from Marlborough growers this year. With all the negativity surrounding 2008s large volume/average quality vintage the region has gone to great lengths to ensure that this year is a return to form for the region. The NZ Wine Industry has rightly realised that, at 50% of the national crop and such a key component of our wine exports, we cannot afford to have the quality or image of our Sauvignon Blanc tarnished in any way.

The following press release was issued a week or two ago which provides a look at the season to date and highlights the effort and strategies that have been adopted this year.

Wineries and Growers Work Towards Highest Quality Vintage
Ever
Cool conditions during late December in Marlborough have created variable flowering of the region’s flagship variety Sauvignon Blanc. The later ripening areas of the province were most affected when cool southerlies hit just prior to Christmas, resulting in lower than expected fruit set for some. The earlier ripening areas of Marlborough had the opposite scenario, with excellent fruit set, according to Dr Rengasamy Balasubramaniam, (Bala) from Delegat’s Wine Estate.

With quality being the mantra of the 2009 vintage, companies have been working with growers to ensure controlled yields. Some growers have chosen to drop canes to limit the vine’s fruit, while others have been shoot thinning. Wine Marlborough Board Chair, Blair Gibbs says the industry has responded well to the call to limit yields, following a much larger than expected 2008 vintage. “Everyone is working towards making the 2009 vintage one of the best ever, in terms of quality.”

Workshops on yield forecasting have been held by all the major companies, according to Pernod Ricard’s Commercial Manager of South Island Vineyards, Peter McLeod. “We have had a very good response to our requests to control copping levels and from our perspective the vines and fruit are looking very good.”

That sentiment has been echoed by Mr Gibbs, who says the crops and vines are in
balance, as the region heads into the hottest months of the year. “People have only just started irrigating, which is late for Marlborough. It means there won’t be any pressure on resources later on in the growing season.” He says with all the work undertaken on canopies, it’s likely ripening will be earlier than normal. “Things are looking good out in the vineyards and barring some bad weather scenario, we are looking at a high quality vintage.”

Spare a thought for Australia...

From todays paper, a photo of fire damaged vineyards in Australia Yarra valley, just outside Melbourne. The bushfires, Australias worst in history, have tragically killed more than 100 people so far. Smoke from the fires has spread so far that even the air/sunlight quality in NZ has been affected. The state of Victoria has been gripped by a drought and heatwave for weeks and temperatures in Melbourne had been forecast to hit 47C yesterday.

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Ironically, at the same time, the state of Queensland, in the north of the country, is largely under water in the worst series of flooding to hit the area in decades. The Australian airforce has been flying in food and other supplies to cut-off areas.

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The heatwave in the south has all but ruined large numbers of vineyards crops, making 2009 a year to forget. Original predictions of a much needed reduced Australian crop have since taken a more pessimistic turn. You can read more about it in Wine Spectator.

A word from Jancis...

Jancis Robinson, amongst other wine luminaries, is here in NZ for the Pinot Noir Celebration in Central Otago. Heres a short video that appeared on TV3s Campbell Live.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Video/CampbellLive/tabid/367/articleID/89616/cat/58/Default.aspx#video

Is it an Alsatian or a German Shepherd ?

Well its neither of course. It is without a doubt a New Zealand Gewurztraminer, the 2008 Sandihurst Gewurztraminer in fact . Soon to be bottled. Stylistically is probably sits somewhere between the two. Its a dry wine which combines the very distinct and powerful aromatics of Gewurz together with some serious palate weight brought on from 6 months plus on full lees.

Two parcels of fruit have gone into making this wine. One from Canterbury, picked earlier to retain some acidity (Gewurz has naturally low acid levels as a varietal) and to add a different flavour profile to the blend. And the other parcel from Central Otago picked later to maximise aromatics. Both parcels were crushed into a fermenter and given a 24 hour skin soak to extract more flavour from the skins before being pressed. Following cold settling the clear juice was fermented cool (for aromatic retention) until dryness. The wine then remained on full fermentation lees for 6 months with occasional lees stirring to enrich and broaden the palate weight. I'm starting to filter the wine now in preparation for bottling at the end of Feb.

True to form the Gewurztraminer vine isn't a big cropper and subsequently we only have 1000L this year. So unless you order any of it through the website you will have to visit the cellar door or one of a number of Christchurch restaurants to try it.