Lack of Posting....

Sorry for the sparse posting. I have returned to the UK after harvest to my end of semester exams as part of my Bachelor of Wine Science degree as well as a house to move into - and next week I am off to Australia for two weeks at college doing all of this semester’s practical exercises and experiments.

As an interlude I thought I might post some humor from one of the must read wine industry blogs, Fermentation. Tom’s blog can be a little “inside baseball” but he calls it as he sees it. He had a post on why the chicken crossed the road according to various wine industry icons. Some of my favorites:-

The Wine Spectator
Non Vintage Chicken—The Road
This is a superb effort by the chicken that we haven't seen in a number of crossings. A lovely blend of supple movement and a robust gate propelled chicken across the street and to a finishing hop upon a smooth, well delineated finish. 94 Points

The Publicist
We wanted to create the greatest crossing ever! Our chicken is dedicated to hands-on crossings that highlight the terroir of the road. This is by far the finest crossing the chicken has ever offered.

The Wine Blogger
I don't care why the chicken crossed the road. I just blog about it for my own pleasure and to try to make chicken crossings more accessible to the average chicken. Before bloggers appeared on the scene the mainstream press ignored the average chicken crossing and focused only on Roosters. Bloggers are taking back Chicken Crossings and putting them in the hands of the chickens again!

Funny stuff!

I've done a photo of everyone else in a tank...

So I guess it is only fair to do mine. I am also rocking the traditional harvest beard at the moment (it is unlucky to shave during harvest, it angers the gods and stuff like that).

Fighting Frost New Zealand Style

The biggest danger from these sub zero overnight temperatures is not damage to the fruit (the sugars in the berries lowers their freezing point far enough below zero to not be a worry) but the vine going "night-night". Two things can happen, the first catastrophic, the second kind of forcing your hand.

The catastrophe is frost - if the water inside the cells of the leaves freeze, the leaves will immediately die. Remember that water when frozen expands; the pressure from the expanding ice bursts the cell walls open and thus instantly kills them. Without leaves the vine can not photosynthesize any more sugars and flavor compounds and the grapes will not mature further. A real bummer if you still have "green" fruit.

The second scenario is that the vine believes it is now winter and starts going into dormancy. This process is less catastrophic since it is slower - leaves will gradually turn yellow, red and then fall off. A vine can still ripen fruit (although at a much slower rate) after 50% of its leaves have senesced and it may take a week or more to get to this point. Enough cool weather and this scenario is inevitable.

So what can you do? In New Zealand, some grape growers may water their vines when there is a frost warning - this is a double-edged sword since the water may prevent the frost from setting but the vine will then take up that water and dilute the flavors that it has spent all summer developing. Not many growers of grapes destined for premium wines would employ this tactic (one would hope).

The much more expensive option is to create wind. In Gibbston one often sees what look like windmills - but instead of harnessing wind to generate energy, these bad boys generate wind from energy. Usually hooked up to temperature sensors that will turn them on anytime that the temperature approaches zero, the wind they create moves enough air to prevent frost from setting in. At Peregrine we don't have wind machines so we need temporary ones - otherwise known as helicopters! Every morning when there is a frost warning, two or three helicopters show up at 4am to fly over the vineyard until 8am or so, again generating enough air flow to stop frost damage. Gnarly stuff!

Winery Recycling Tip #316: How to reuse beer bottles

Who needs expensive fermentation bungs when remnants of recent beer fines can do the trick!

NB: A beer fine (usually a six-pack) is assessed on the winery staff for making stupid mistakes - like for forgetting to turn the cooling on a tank of cold-soaking pinot. How else do you expect the beer fridge to remain stocked over harvest!

The Germans are wimps. This is REAL cool climate winemaking!

The danger of making wine below the 45th Parallel was apparent yesterday when we showed up to work at 8am and the thermometer read 1° C. And it was snowing too - the temperature the whole day never got above 8° C. You don't know how cold it can get on a crush pad with water spraying everywhere - boy, oh, boy!

With the grapes still a couple of weeks away from physiological maturity this is going to be a race against Mother Nature. As my flatmate might say "this *%@# ain't going to get ripe!". Here's hoping for the best.

Anyone can dig a tank but how many can do "crow" pose at the same time

Yoga teacher and harvest veteran, Elizabeth Keys, digging out a Pinot tank. Om shanti.

How to look fab and graceful when digging tanks

Ummm, not so much...

You say Pinot Grigio, I say Pinot Gris!

Last week we were bombarded with Pinot Gris - the "Grey Grape" and favorite quaff of housewives the world over. While being made from the same grape, in France the wine made from Pinot Gris is called Pinot Gris (surprised?) while in Italy it is named Pinot Grigio. Since the Italian style is more fruity, New World producers usually refer to their versions as Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio depending on how fruity their winemaking style is.

Normally Pinot Gris is processed like most whites - immediately de-stemmed, crushed, pressed and then usually fermented in stainless steel tank (for some creaminess some winemakers may also ferment a small portion of the final blend in barrel). However Pinot Gris may also be left on its skins for a short period before pressing - the juice picks up some pinkish-grey coloring (which will fall out during fermentation owing to its instability) but it also develops some floral characters which is appealing.

Below are two press loads of Pinot Gris that we processed at the same time last week. The first press held grapes that were left on their skins overnight and the other was full of grapes that were pressed immediately after crushing.



Notice the very different coloration. I will let you know about any different flavors and aromas that develop after fermentation - I know I am excited whether you are or not is another matter!

Harvest Meals

Other than a good nights sleep, a hearty meal and some booze are the things one craves during harvest. I have been very lucky at Peregrine and Felton Road to have some great meals and some tasty wines to help those long days go a little quicker.

At Felton Road, Nigel Greening (the owner), would cook lunch every day from mainly wild produce. It is well known amongst local farmers that if you show up with a hogget or a deer you might get some wine in return! The front office at Peregrine take turns to cook dinner for the harvest crew on the long days which is greatly appreciated.

To get a feeling for some of the amazing food we have been lucky to partake in, here is a recipe for a lunch that Nigel prepared for us. Paired perfectly with a 2005 Pegasus Bay Riesling!

Green curry of Blue Nose

Green Curry Paste
4 chilli
1 onion
2 Lemon Grass
1 inch of ginger
1 oz fresh corriander
3 Garlic cloves
1 TSP ground coriander
1 Tsp Cumin
2 strips of lime zest
1 Tsp Blachan
1 Tsp Salt
2 tablespoons water

The curry

1 tin Coconut milk or 2/3rds tin coconut cream.
water to make up to 600ml
45-60ml Nam pla
1 tsp palm sugar
1 lemon, Juiced
3 lime leaves
Blue Nose fillets (or any firm white fish)
Baby aubergines, bamboo shoots, veg, whatever you fancy.
a bunch of Basil
Green chilli's: 1 or 2 seeded and chopped.
Green Curry Paste as above


Fry the paste in a little oil for about 5 minutes.
Add the stock ingredients and cook for 2 minutes.
Add fish, and veg and cook gently for 4 minutes.
Add basil and chilli at the end and serve.

How to spend $1000 in five minutes at a winery

Above is a packet of dehydrated lactobacilli - our little microbial friends who turn malic acid into lactic acid.


This is five minutes later - five malolactic inoculations ready to rock - at the cost of $1000 a packet, these are some expensive measuring jugs!

Malolactic fermentation (MLF) is the process where lactobacilli convert malic acid, which is more acidic, into the less acidic lactic acid. This lowers the pH of the wine and also creates a rounder mouthfeel - lactic acid is the main acid in milk! Malolactic Fermentation is a must for all red wines and most whites - your steely unoaked chardonnays and rieslings are prevented from going through malolactic fermentation to retain more "crispness" in the mouth and keep the acid at a palate cleansing level.

For years scientists couldn't understand what was in it for the lactobacilli since no energy is released when malic acid is converted into lactic acid. Very recently however it has been shown that the electrochemical gradient of having a higher pH inside the bacterial cell (all the malic acid) and the lower pH outside the cell (the wine now having lactic acid instead) is high enough for the bacilli to use it as a generator (think of a battery - the voltage is the electrical gradient between the two terminals). Amazing, huh? Life will always find a niche!

Random Harvest Photo

Sophie Matthews rocking the morning Pinot Noir punchdowns.

Day 3: Gewürztraminer

After almost two days on the skins we drained the free run Gewürztraminer juice out of tank and then pressed the left over skins for the rest of the juice. As you can see the free run has this "pinky" tinge to it from its time on the skins. As soon as it appears it is gone. The picture below is from just an hour later.

Once we sent all the free run juice to tank we then pressed the skins in this massive press which slowly inflates and deflates its bladder over a two hour period to extract more juice without extracting any bitter or vegetal flavors in the seeds or skins. The blended free run and pressed Gewürztraminer juice will settle overnight in tank and tomorrow we will rack (transfer from one tank to another) the clear juice so we can then filter the solids (suspended proteins etc) that will settle at the bottom for the remaining juice. As well as making more wine, this last bit of juice has a lot of valuable complexity through its contact overnight with the solids. Hopefully today I will get some photos of the wicked filtration machine we use!

After a couple of days at Peregrine

Busy, Busy, Busy. First thing I learned on the job is that 12 hour days are not just common here, they are expected. Boy, was that right. A 12 and a 13 hour days straight off the bat - and when you are doing manual labor you get tired to the bone. Sleep feels very deserved.

It has been enjoyable working on some new varieties of grapes for me. Yesterday we processed Gewürztraminer - a very aromatic German variety. The flavors that most associate with this variety is lychees and turkish delight (rosewater flavored jellied sweets). The berries are a mauvy-grey color - not quite white, not quite red. It is also best tasting wine grape I have ever had - extremely moreish and very hard to stop eating when lunch is hours away! One thing about getting to eat wine grapes is that you can never enjoy table grapes again - they are so bland and watery in comparison.

Gewürztraminer is an interesting grape to make wine from. For every white I can think of it is very important to get the juice off the skins as soon as possible after crushing (despite its violent name, it is actually a rather gentle breaking of the skins so that the juice can flow from the berries) because the skins often have unwanted phenolics (some of them being green, vegetal flavors - one common one being capsicum). Gewürztraminer, on the other hand, has very desirable floral . and thus after crushing and destemming the juice that has been released from the berries and the skins are both pumped into a tank for a few days to intermingle (official winemaking term being skin contact). This allows the aromatic compounds in the skin that is so prized in Gewürztraminer to leach slowly into the juice over a couple of days.

Today we will press the juice in a wine press (a bladder gently squeezes the rest of the juice that remains in the skins) and then put all the juice into a tank for fermentation. I'll try and get a photo of the Gewürztraminer being pressed so you can get a better idea.

Gewürztraminer is often a great pairing for Asian food. The little bit of sweetness from the residual sugar cuts the spiciness and the aromatics often complement the pungent aromas of Asian cuisine. A Thai Green curry is a classic match. Personally I enjoy a chilled Gewürztraminer on a lovely summers day, sitting under an umbrella with a wicked selection of antipasti. Try some with your chorizos, salumis and anchovies - Gewürztraminer just laps up all that fatty goodness!

Rolling with the punch(downs)es

I got some tough news today. This has been a weird harvest in Central Otago as almost all the whites are harvested and most of the Pinot Noir is still on the vine - usually it is the other way around. Normally when it comes time for all the hard work on Pinot Noir in the winery the whites are ready for their pressing, leading to a ton of work to be done and many late nights. However since almost all the whites are already in there will be no time pressure on the staff when it finally comes time to work the Pinot Noir hard. The ramifications of this is that Felton Road no longer has enough work for me. Such is the life of a harvest intern... Que syrah, syrah.

On the bright side, starting today I am working at Peregrine wines, a larger winery in the Gibbston Valley that primarily produces Pinot Noir from vineyards in both the Gibbston Valley and the Cromwell basin (of which Bannockburn is at the southern end). In addition to Pinot Noir, Peregrine also makes Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The winery itself has won many design awards (see picture above) and I will post some photos soon.

The chickens "help" us pick

Part of the practice of biodynamics is to use animals where possible to complete tasks that may on other farms fall to machinery or use of chemicals. For example, running sheep through the vineyard in early spring to eat the grasses and other cover crops being grown between rows and thus turning them into powerful nutrients for summer vine growth.

At Felton Road we have a brood of chickens - not just for some of the most tasty eggs imaginable - but to help keep insect pressure down. When we were picking the Block 4 Riesling the other day the chickens were more than happy to follow us around and pick up any falling earwhigs. Given their enthusiasm I have to believe that they were tasty little morsels indeed!

The view from my picking bin

8:05am - Calvert Vineyard, Felton Road, Central Otago, NZ

Harvest is underway with Riesling

We have started picking at Felton Road. A touch of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that was ripe earlier than others but the bulk of the Riesling came in on Thursday and Friday.

Above you can see one of the lush ripe bunches of Riesling. When Riesling ripens it takes this lovely "blushy" hue and tastes fantastic! Riesling is perfect when picked around 21° Brix (Pinot Noir is around 24-27° Brix and similarly for Chardonnay). Felton Road makes three Rieslings - a Dry Riesling with residual sugar being less than 9g/L, their main Riesling which is made in the Kabinett style (off-dry with about 40g/L of sugar) and their Block 1 Designate Riesling, a Spätlese style sweet Riesling (around 80g/L residual sugar).

I had the pleasure of tasting a 2001 Felton Road Riesling last week and it was to die for - lovely carmelised peach and floral aromatics with still crisp, youthful acidity to balance the sweetness. I would whole heartedly endorse putting any 2007 Felton Road Riesling you can get your hands on away for 6-10 years to really tease out the full complexity. One of the best New World Rieslings you will try and 2007 was a cracker year for Riesling in Central Otago. Get on it!

Clyde Wine and Food Festival

On Sunday I traveled down to Clyde for their annual Wine and Food Festival to understand more about the Alexandra wine region. As I have alluded to in the past there are three wine making regions in Central Otago - Gibbston Valley, Alexandra and Bannockburn (where Felton Road is located).

Whereas Gibbston Valley's issue is sometimes not getting fruit ripe enough and ending up with "vegetal" flavor in their Pinots, Alexandra's problem seemed to lay more with having overly ripe wines with not enough acid or tannins to give the wine structure. Tasty on first sip but the wine ends up "blousy" and unsatisfying.

The one exception I found was the well made Three Miners. Their 2006 Pinot Noir had a ripe cherry flavor with some juicy acid, silky mouth feel and with some light oaky tannin to fill out the wine on the palate. It is a bargain at NZ$25 where most Central Otago Pinot Noir is north of NZ$35. Their vineyard in Alexandra is very new so they have a bright future indeed as the vines mature. Currently they only distribute in New Zealand but I am sure you will see them in the US and UK in the future as production expands. Keep an eye out!

I still think that the real quality Central Otrago Pinot Noirs are being made in the Bannockburn area, and since over 70% of Pinot Noir vines are here, other vintners seem to agree. Just my $0.02.

The owners car

The recipe for perfect Pinot!

Tasting the 2005 Bouchard Père et Fils

Earlier this week I had the great fortune to attend a tasting of the 2005 Bouchard Père et Fils red Burgundies at Carrick Vineyard. A veritable who's who of Central Otago winemakers were here to taste a great selection of wines from this renowned négociant. Bouchard Père et Fils are definitely on the way back after some years in the wilderness in the 80's and early 90's and we picked up a distinctive "house style" that was very new worldy - clean, vibrant, juicy and slightly confected wines that were very drinkable (read soft tannins). On the negative side, for me, the wines were sometimes too oak driven but I am told this will integrate with time. A few were outstanding, most were well constructed but there was also definitely a difference in quality between most of the domaine wines and the négociant wines. Whether this is down to viticulture, wine making technique of the vintners that Bouchard bought the barrels from or both is unknown but the domaine wines, with one exception (which may just prove the rule), were noticeably better.

So on to some tasting notes: -

Côte de Beaune - Beaune, Volnay & Pommard

Beaune wines are usually quite supple and round, not quite as muscular as those of the nearby Pommard and not quite as elegant as the floral Volnays.

Beaune 1er Cru 'Grèves - Vigne de l'Enfant Jésus' (domaine wine)
Grèves is one of the best of Beaune's premier crus (some say that it should really be grand cru). 'Vigne de l'Enfant Jésus' is a Bouchard Père et Fils soley owned 4 hectare (10 acre) section of 'Grèves on a steep and sandy slope. The wine was a brilliant light cherry in color, you could shave in its reflection. It was a rich, ripe and robust wine that gave up spice and cherry on the nose. The confected note (powdered sugar, candied fruits) that would show in many of the wines in this tasting was evident. Tannins were "chewy" but the wine lacked a mid palate.

Beaune 1er Cru 'Tuerons' (domaine wine)
From a 21 hectare (52 acre) site south of Grèves of which Bouchard has 2.6 hecatres (6.5 acres), this wine is the only "bargain" of the night being south of $60 a bottle at retail. The wine was a touch "milky" and reduced (read sulfur) in the beginning which blew off over the next hour. Tannins were a touch dry but the wine was rich and also had a high toned finish. If you see this around $50 it is well worth a purchase to cellar for 10+ years.

Volnay’s are the most delicate and fragrant of Côte de Beaune due to the lighter limestone soils.

Volnay 1er Cru ‘Caillerets’ ‘Ancienne Cuvée Carnot’ (domaine wine)
Bouchard has 4 hectares (10 acres) in this vineyard on the south side of the commune. The wine was a deeper cherry than the other Volnays in the flight. Lovely spicy, aromatic nose, with a hint of cocoa (some of that confection again?). Chewy tannins, lovely cheek coating mouth feel, and some mid palate depth with some creamy oak.

Volnay 1er Cru ‘Clos ds Chênes’ (domaine wine)
Considered one of the best premier cru Volnay sites, Bouchard has 0.85 hectares (2 acres). Lightest color of the three Volnays. A ripe cherry, briary nose with a powerful aromatic flowers. Chewiness in the mouth. This is a ripe wine – some of that Bouchard new worldiness again.

Volnay 1er Cru ‘Taillepieds’ (domaine wine)
South of the village and on the northern side of Clos des Chênes, Bouchard owns 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of this 7 hectare (17 acres) site. Our side of the room had a bad bottle, not corked per se but muted and oxidized. I personally would be very disappointed if I paid $100+ for this bottle and opened it in 10 years. Upon tasting a glass from the other side of the room this was the best wine of the flight. An absolutely brilliant wine in the glass – a cherry mirror! High toned, aromatic nose – elegant, spicy and floral. Feminine but also rich and deep, killer acid and good palate depth. A well made wine with a charry, toasty oak that just rounded out the wine, rather than overpower it. Worth the price of admission.

The opposite of Volnay – Pommards are big, strong and muscular. Le Corton is at the northern end of Côte de Beaune produce the biggest wines on the Côte.

Pommard 1er Cru ‘Rugiens’ (domaine wine)
Rugiens is considered one of the classic Pommard sites on a steep, rocky slope near the border with Volnay. Bouchard has a small 0.4 hectare (1.5 acre) plot. An earthy nose, perhaps a little “leafy”. Big powerful red cherry but some dry, hefty oak tannins brought the wine down. Broad and powerful Pommard flavors abound. On its own probably a great wine but outclassed in this company.

Le Corton Grand Cru (domaine wine)
Bouchard owns 3.6 hectares (9 acres) half way up the south-facing slope of the Corton hill. A dark, brilliant cherry in the glass. Power and brawn with deep, deep fruit – hefty mid palate and earthy undertones. Cheek coatingness and chewy tannins. The oak distracts a bit but with a long time in the cellar it should just add some toasty, charry notes (one hopes). This is a very masculine wine. I would age this for a LOOOONNG time if I had a bottle.

Côte de Nuits

Nuits-St-George usually produce rustic, rich wines due to the very complex soils in this commune. Often you pick up some ‘minerally’ notes too. Gevrey-Chambertin is the most northerly of the more prestigious Côte de Nuits communes and ‘Le Cazetiers’ is north of the village adjacent to the revered ‘Clos St-Jacques’. Gevrey-Chambertin wines are full, rich and often meaty.

Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru ‘Cailles’ (domaine wine)
I love Nuits-St-George. The darker berry, rich wines from his commune rock my taste buds. Bouchard owns 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in this 7 hectare (17 acre) site on ths south side of the commune. This wine was the best premier cru wine of the evening for me. Rich and lush, this wine was the whole package. Dark, deep, brilliant cherry in the glass. Lovely, lifted aromatics – this wine had some yin to go with the more traditional Nuits-St-George yang. Lovely silky tannins just made this a great wine. Kudos!

Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru ‘Cazetiers’ (domaine wine)
Bouchard has a miniscule 0.25 hectares (0.6 acres) on this renowned 8 hectare (20 acre) site. Much lighter than the Nuits-St-George in color, but still with that brilliance that marks the 2005 vintage. Sweet fruits on the nose (a tad leafy too which detracts). Powdered confectioners sugar, sweet cherry and chewy tannins. Nice wine but no match for the Nuits-St-George it was paired with.

Grand Crus

Chambertin Grand Cru (domaine wine)
Chambertin is one of the great grand crus. Situated on a gentle incline with limestone soils, Chambertin lies above the Routes des Grand Crus. This was my wine of the evening and I would be tempted to buy a bottle, despite the north of $300 price tag to revisit in 15 years. A rich, dark cherry in the glass with very bright sweet fruits on the nose. Pure, clean floral notes waft from the glass promising an elegant wine. Then in the mouth then wine comes at you with bright darker fruits, rich and firm with robust tannins and rocking “palate bleed” (you can just feel the wine sinking through your tongue). A finish that goes on and on – there is just so much to this wine. Wow!

Chambertin ‘Clos de Beze’ Grand Cru (nègotiant wine)
The two following wines, both non domaine (meaning that Bouchard bought the barrels of wine already made), were controversial and I thought they let the side down. I found this wine virtually undrinkable. Incredibly reduced, like sucking on a burned matchstick, the sulfides stuck out like a sore thumb and a wine fault that I can not forgive from a grand cru. Leaving that aside, the wine was musky and spicy on the nose and very robust and ballsy in the mouth. Some of that “confected-ness” came back again (like “redskins” for those Australians reading this). Too much oak. Not worth the $350+ in my opinion.

Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru (nègotiant wine)
Another wine that was outclassed in this company and again I wonder whether this is again because it is a non domaine wine. Some nice savory notes, but the drying and severe tannins and overextracted oakiness (note, just because a wine is grand cru doesn’t mean it needs 100% new oak). Sweet and disappointing. I would be upset if I paid the $300+ price tag on this wine.

Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru (domaine wine)
Bouchard has a tiny 0.25 hecares (0.6 acres) of this 15 hectare (37 acre) grand cru site that straddles Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-St-Denis. Supple, silky but still rich and deep. A hint of band-aid that doesn’t detract from the wine in my opinion but just adds complexity. Big blue fruit with a gamey edge that was intriguing. I am sure this is a killer wine on its own but just not quite up there with the other grand crus at this tasting.

Clos de Vougeot (domaine wine)
Clos de Vougeot at 51 hectares (125 acres) is the largest grand cru in the Côte de Nuits and is regarded as a second tier grand cru by many and the quality of the wine often depends on how high up the slope you are – the higher, the better. Bouchard’s small domaine parcel is at the top but they also often blend in some purchased wine from down in the lower part of the Clos. From what I understand the 2005 vintage version is made from the domaine parcel only. Very bright and sexy. Silky, rich mouth feel. The wines robustness allows it to hold its charry oak well and gives it tremendous presence. My number three grand cru of the evening. Allen Meadows of Burghound thinks this may be the Clos de Vougeot of the vintage. If so, the cheapest of the Bouchard grand crus at $250 may be a steal.

La Romanée Grand Cru (nègotiant wine, made by Chateau de Vosne-Romanée)
At just 0.85 hectares (2 acres), La Romanée is the smallest A.O.C (Appellation Controllee) in France. Directly up-slope from Romanée-Conti and adjacent to Richebourg, this monopole is regarded as one of the grandest of grand crus. At $1400 a bottle it better be too. I thought it was the second best wine of the night, behind the Chambertin Grand Cru, and the best wine of the flight but most of the room preferred the Bonnes-Mares (the final three blind wines were served as a separate flight from the first three blind grand crus). Intoxicatingly floral and spicy (cloves?) nose. A delicious savoriness and lively cherry fruits – this is a classy wine. A feminine finish that went on and on – like your local Amway representative it would just not go away. I kept returning to this wine again and again. Only three bottles of this wine came to New Zealand and two were consumed at this tasting. I would love to see this wine again in 20 years but alas the $1400 tag is a touch outside my budget. And by the way, the only other bottle in New Zealand was bought that evening by an anonymous participant at the tasting!

So does the 2005 vintage live up to the hype? You bet! As Allen Meadows (The Burghound) has said every wine seems to be tasting “up in class” – your villages like premier crus and your premier crus like grand crus. Also Bouchard is definitely back – and they seem to have learned a lot from the new world about clean, well constructed wines. I would definitely recommend Bouchard Père et Fils as a house to explore for newcomers to Burgundy.

51,324 green bottles sitting on the line....

This week the mobile bottling truck came into the winery to bottle the 2007 Felton Road Central Otago Pinot Noir. It took us three days to bottle and package the approximately 4,000 cases of wine - 70% of which will leave these shores for the export market. For each run we had to put different back labels on - for instance for the US the bottles needed a "don't drink while pregnant" warning and Australia needed a calculation of how many standard drinks it contained (8.4). Nothing is more tedious in a winery than bottling but it has to be done - glad it is out of the way though!

The view from my window

I am living at the winery until a house comes available next week. I don't know if I want to leave. This morning I went down to let the chickens out of their tractor and snatched some "Felton Road Free Range Eggs" for breakfast. Tasty!

Meet Jancis

Jancis, the winery cat, and her namesake. Poor girl is tired after "supervising" the bottling line from her perch on the gangway.

A Felton Road Primer

A month or so ago I promised that I would continue my introduction to Central Otago with a post about Felton Road. Well better late than never I suppose...

Felton Road was planted in 1992 by Stewart Elms on a 15 hectare (37 acre) site near Bannockburn (on Felton Road...duh!) to Pinot Noir (55%), Chardonnay (30%) and Riesling (15%). Stewart was the first to plant grapes in this area of Central Otago even though Bannockburn in the Cromwell Basin was known to be its warmest region, being home to the majority of fruit orchards in this part of the world. Due to Felton Road's phenomenal success here, over 70% of Central Otago Pinot Noir is now planted in the Cromwell Basin! Three different soil types were identified on site - Waenega (a very deep fine sandy loam) , Lochar (a shallow fine sandy loam) and Scotland Point (very deep gravelly loam). Block 3 is predominately on Waenega, with a few rows on Scotland Point while Block 5 has half its rows on Lochar and half on Scotland Point. These two blocks (which make up the Block designated wines that Felton Road is duly most famous for) are on perfectly north facing slopes so that sunlight is maximized for the development of ripe Pinot Noir. With the vinification of the Block 3 and Block 5 grapes exactly the same, and their adjacency in the vineyard (see the above map - click to enlarge) the differences between the wines can truly be said to expressions of terroir.

Along with the original Elms vineyard, Felton Road has a long term lease on the neighboring 10 hectare (25 acre) Calvert vineyard which is planted 100% to Pinot Noir and along with Nigel Greening's purchase of Felton Road in 2000 came the 7.5 hectare (19 acre) Cornish Point Vineyard. Cornish Point is truly an experimental Pinot Noir vineyard with 18 different combinations of clone and rootstock! All of the Felton Road vineyards are farmed biodynamically (the principles of which I will explain in another post) and wine is made using sustainable methods (all water is recycled, spent lees and pomace are added to the organic compost that fertilizes the vineyard etc).

Guiding the winemaking is Blair Walter who has been Felton Road's winemaker for all 11 vintages. With a degree from Lincoln University, with time also at Oregon State University, Blair has also worked in Burgundy (Domaine de l'Arlot), California (with John Kongsgaard at Newton Vineyard), Oregon (Cristom), and Australia (TarraWarra Estate). Felton Road's vinifications are all wild ferments (grapes are allowed to ferment naturally with yeasts that are naturally present in the vineyard and winery) and with Pinot Noir the fruit is only destemmed, not crushed. This means that the grapes ferment inside the berries which imparts some carbonic (feminine, fruity) flavors to the wine. The full color, flavor and soft tannin structure of the Pinot Noir is developed by long cold soaks before fermentation begins and extended maceration (a period on the skins at the end of fermentation before the pomace is pressed to barrel). The Central Otago Pinot Noir is aged in French oak for 11 months and the Block 5 and Block 3 wines see a longer 14 months before bottling.

The next two months are going to be very exciting as I further my quest to produce world class Pinot Noir. On Tuesday the harvest is on as the first fruit comes into the winery - some Chardonnay and Riesling and perhaps some Pinot Noir. I can't wait!

Gibbston Valley Harvest Festival

Within an hour of arriving in New Zealand to start my two months at Felton Road I was on the gate at the Gibbston Valley Harvest Festival helping to collect tickets and park cars. Well over 2,000 people showed up to the event which was held on a beautiful sunny day in Central Otago.

Gibbston Valley is where the pioneers of Central Otago first planted vines - Chard Farm, Valli, Gibbston Valley and Peregrine were all there. Pinot was first planted here in the late 80's but the region hasn't grown to the extent that the region around Bannockburn (where Felton Road is), which now has 70% of the Central Otago plantings.

The Pinots were variable in quality, in my opinion. Rockburn and Valli had made some cracker jack Pinots in 2006 but there were others that had obvious vegetal characters. Gibbston is a marginal area for Pinot being cooler than Bannockburn and they can struggle to get ripe flavors in many vintages. When the season is warm enough the super long hang time can often mean killer Pinot but in other vintages you can be left with fruit on the vine that have not reached flavor maturity while leaves have started senescing (with no more photosynthesis, there will be no more fruit development).

A great introduction to the region. Tomorrow we start bottling the 2007 vintage at the winery, and will try and get some photos up!

Some quick tasting notes

Had a lovely evening with the "Folks" sitting on their deck overlooking Sydney Harbor on my way to New Zealand for harvest. Some crackerjack wines and Sydney Rock Oysters - can't be beat.

2006 Bindi Quartz Chardonnay
Some say this may just be Australia's best Chardonnay and I can see why. It took some time to open up, but when it did it was magical. Burgundian in construction, lovely full, soft and sexy mouth feel with some smooth oak. Lemon, melon, green apple scents waft from the glass intoxicatingly. The acid in this baby promises some benefit from ageing. A winner of a drop!

2000 Giaconda Estate Chardonnay
While a bit of an unfair competition since this bottle had a six year head start, Rick Kinzbrunner, for me, still holds the title of making Australia's best Chardonnay. Luscious and richly honeyed, the oak that is often overwhelming in youth is completely integrated with six years. The mouthfeel alone is worth the price of admission. Toasty and briôchy, with lovely fruit and a killer finish - this is a well constructed wine. Major kudos! While it can last a few more years in the cellar, the 2000 is tasting so well I say drink up!

As a control we also had a bottle of 2006 Penfolds Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay. While outclassed by the Bindi and Giaconda, this wine was no slouch and a bargain at AUD$30.

Tonight I fly for my two months of harvest at Felton Road and start by directing traffic in the carpark for the Gibbston Harvest Wine Festival tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a chance to post some tasting notes from the event soon.

Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free/ We've golden soil and wealth for toil/ Our home is girt by sea;

First an apology, as some of you know I have just moved to the UK and being in the middle of moving house, my wife getting a dream job and preparing for my move to New Zealand next week for two months of harvest has meant the blog has suffered. I promise lots of fun stuff once harvest starts for me next week. Another season of rotting fruit for a living! So now that the apology is out of the way, back to original programming

One of the benefits of being in London and being part of "the trade" as they say is getting to attend some pretty amazing tastings. Last month I rocked up to the annual "Australia Day Tasting" put on by Wine Australia at Arsenal Football Stadium. Over two hundred producers (with well over five hundred wines) showed up to highlight the diversity and quality of wine from Australia.

One of the new initiatives from Wine Australia is their "Regional Heroes" program, designed to highlight the iconic wines from regions that have distinct and diverse characteristics, was on display through focused varietal tasting rooms dedicated to Shiraz, Cabernet, Semillon, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. To me it was quite clear that while Australia still produces the world's best Semillon, and some Shiraz that can compete with top Rhône producers, we are still taking baby steps with our Pinot Noir and there are still only a couple of producers of Chardonnay that can be said to be playing on the world stage.

Some of the highlights of the tasting for me:-

2006 Ten Minutes by Tractor Pinot Noir
Brilliant light cherry color. Elegant floral nose and scrumptious red fruit flavor. Great palate weight, soft integrated tannins and feminine finish make for a great example of Mornington Peninsula Pinot!

2005 Yabby Lake Pinot Noir
Where Ten Minutes by Tractor was light on its feet, this was all power! Dark cherry in the glass. Rich, opulent and broad balanced by lovely acidity. My only gripe is that it was missing a bit of mid palate. Very different example of what Mornington Peninsula can be.

2006 Bay of Fires Tigress Pinot Noir
A Tassie entry - very light strawberry color, translucent almost. Screaming acid which works with a high toned floral wine. Tannins are a tad harsh right now but this is only a puppy. A couple of years in the cellar should make for a great refreshing Pinot for Turkey day!

2005 Stonier Reserve Pinot Noir
The Pinot standout of the day. I have been disappointed in my experiences with Stonier before, but not this time. Brilliant and bright red cherry in color. Yummy red fruits (cherry, raspberry and wild strawberry) and highly floral. A touch of baking spices, super soft tannins, crisp acidity and a singing, long finish make this wine a winner. This tastes so good right now!

2005 Giaconda Estate Chardonnay
One of the few estates that can be said to compete on a global level with the best of Burgundy and California this wine combined the soft mouthfeel of sur lie vinification, peachy and creamy malolactic notes with a lovely high toned finish. The oak is dominant at the moment but my experience with Giaconda is that it needs time to integrate before showing best. A stunner in 4-5 years.

2006 Shaw & Smith M3 Chardonnay
The new kids on the block. A stony and briny flavor (think a beach of slate with the surf misting around) with some lemon and melon and toasty, briochy oak. Super long finish. I may be a convert.

2005 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay
The first wine I started collecting (since 1995) and still one of Australia's best Chardonnays - although I think they have ceded the title in recent years to the likes of Bindi and Giaconda. This wine was classic Leeuwin Estate. Honeyed with ripe peach and pear. Has that "maltiness" that Leeuwin always seems to have when young and a charry oakiness that needs a few years to integrate. Lovely soft mouthfeel from traditional sur lie vinification. This wine still has its baby fat in full view and while it will be a good wine, not the best I have seen from the estate.

2006 Glaetzer Amon Ra Shiraz
Ben Glaetzer is a genius and is younger than I am! He is already making world class wine and his 2006 Amon Ra is no slouch. Rich, blackberry, spicy and deeply brooding. A softer oakiness that comes from his "new school" use of French rather than American wood. This wine is unctuous in the mouth and should be a stunner in 5 years. Kudos!

2004 Kay Brother "Block 6" Shiraz
Made with fruit from vines planted in 1892 (since phylloxera wiped out France in the late 19th Century these are probably some of the oldest vines in the world!). Aged in 100% American and Balkan oak in the traditional Australian style, this wine was a deep inky purple in the glass. Notes of pepper, blackberry and meat predominate. Cheek coating tannins. Superbly concentrated - this is a wine to enjoy on its own in your favorite chair and contemplate. A Parker favorite - he gave it 98 points!

2005 Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz
Always a favorite in the Nielsen household - this is Hunter Shiraz at its finest. My experience with Graveyards is they need 10+ years to shine and this one was a tight as a drum. Just a brilliant, rich dark wine with amazing clarity. Traditional Hunter spice and sweet leather came through. Black cherry and blackberry. Its 80% new oak shows but that will mellow with its 10 years in the cellar. A little "hot" on the finish which should integrate with time (hopefully).

2005 Giaconda Warner Vineyard Shiraz
The "best in show" Shiraz for me by a country mile was another Rick Kinzbrunner stunner. Floral and "blue fruit" dominant (which I love in a Shiraz) with tannins that were so soft and luscious. Boy, oh, boy this is a winner!

2005 John Duval "Entity" Shiraz
Deep purple, blackcurrant and blackberry. Big robust tannins says "age me! age me!". Lovely spiciness and some oak that needs time to integrate. A super long finish - ahhh, this is wine! Incredibly well constructed wine that shows off John's skills from his 28 years at Penfolds including 16 years of being in charge of "Grange". Get in on this one before the world catches on!

As if the French weren't behind the eight-ball enough already!

According to Decanter, a French court ruled that articles on wine in newspapers should carry the same health warnings as you would see on bottles and in advertising. From Decanter:-

'Any communication in favour of an alcoholic drink, such as a series of articles in favour of Champagne, constitutes advertising and is therefore subject to the public health code,'

The court said that the article was 'intended to promote sales of alcoholic beverages in exercising a psychological effect on the reader that incited him or her to buy alcohol'

French wine is already at a disadvantage on the world market (of course I am ignoring the 0.001% of the worlds wine that is the 1st Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy). Their wine labeling laws even prevent winemakers from specifically naming what grapes make up their wine (educated wine consumers may know that Châteauneuf-du-Pape red wines are a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mouvedre but does 99% of the wine drinking public know that?) unless they are willing to call their wine "vin de pays" (table wine) with all of the negative connotations that have always been associated with it.

No wonder Australian brands like Yellow Tail have beaten the French into submission on the world stage!

Genetically Modified Pinot Noir?

French and Italian scientists announced in the recent issue of Nature that they have successfully sequenced the genome of Pinot Noir. Why Pinot? Because Pinot Noir is one of the most ancient varieties and is the parent of many other varieties - thus understanding the genome of Pinot Noir allows us to understand the genome of the Vitis vinifera species as a whole.

The main thrust of the research was to help find ways to introduce disease resistance in a GM Pinot Noir - for instance it maybe possible to create a resistant breed of Pinot Noir to Pierce's Disease and other grapevine diseases spread by insect vectors (similar to what has been done with Bt Corn).

More intriguingly for now for Pinot Noir freaks like me is a glimpse into what makes this most beautiful of varieties so special. Pinot Noir was found to have 89 genes that contribute to flavor and aroma. These genes contain the coding to create the enzymes involved in synthesizng the volatile compounds that we pick up as "fruits", "earth", "game" etc. Thus it is theoretically possible that understanding these genes and "tweaking them" could increase enzyme production and potentially make a more flavorful wine.

Seeing as we already have a genetically modified yeast strain, where the genes that control acetate ester (e.g. benzyl acetate is "peachy" and isoamyl acetate is "banana-like") production are over-expressed, resulting in a more fruity wine being vinified, can GM wine be really that far away? How could a Gallo or a Casella resist if given the opportunity?

Get on the bus now!

One of my mentors that I have learned a great deal from has officially released the inaugural vintage of Shane Wines.

Shane Finley, who is the Associate Winemaker at Kosta Browne, and learned the ropes working under Pierre Gaillard in the Rhône, and also worked at Torbreck in Australia, Paul Hobbs and at Copain Custom Crush on such brands as Carlisle, Copain and Pax amongst others. A fine resumé of Syrah making indeed!

His initial offering is miniscule, The Unknown, his largest bottling is only 125 cases so get on the list as fast as you can. Shane's wines are a true marriage of New World fruit and Old World vinification resulting in a style that is at once powerful and voluptuous, and yet also complex, elegant and floral.

And at $38 a bottle, an absolute steal for sure!

What says Iowa like wine?

Dr Vino has a fun post up on his blog that plays the old "if you were [insert inanimate object] what would you be game" with the Presidential hopefuls.

My favorite ones:-

John McCain: He used to be more of a loose cannon eight years ago. Now, the fire in the belly appears as mere embers. His wine is a 10 year old Turley Zinfandel, fiery in it’s youth, now sadly without vigor.

Dennis Kucinich: Given his hhhhot young wife (born 1977), he clearly likes youthful reds. We’ll put him down for a California Pinot, most recent vintage available.

John Edwards: he’s made it far on his “two Americas” theme. We know what that means–beer America and wine America. We’ll split the difference and put him down for a Franzia box wine.

It has been rumored though that on a trip to Estonia in 2004 that Hillary and McCain got into a "vodka drinking" contest so maybe wine isn't their tipple of choice!