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.