Well that was a busy week! Firstly we had the Pinot Noir 2010 Conference in Wellington from which I think all the New Zealand Pinot Noir producers should come away positive and pleased! The strong line-up of international media and trade provided good recognition of New Zealand’s overall wine quality and they also conveyed their views of increasing export demand for New Zealand Pinot. I then followed the Pinot event with the Nelson Aromatics Symposium where the guest speaker was Ernst Loosen, of the famous German Estate, Dr Loosen. Now suddenly, and not surprisingly, all I want to drink this week is beer!

Summer growth on the new planting - photo by Ernst Jonker

I also opened up bottles of the ‘08 Pinot Noirs as comparisons and the 09’s were very similar in inherent quality offered. The ‘08 Impromptu has opened up with some nice bramble, roast and truffle oil notes showing, the ‘08 High Note is showing lovely dark sweet fruit and a gentle palate, whilst the Verismo, although extremely impressive, is still a little locked up, but we’re still some months away from its anticipated release!

Summer at last

The work we have put into our shoot growth is paying off. The importance of canopy management has not been overlooked and maintaining vertical shoots through the windy times has sent the team through tucking many times more than normal to ensure the safety of the shoots and their tips.

Riesling Fruitzone

I am finding smaller than normal bunches over the whole of the vineyard which is a really good thing in terms of wine quality but will keep yields low so order your wine now! There are signs of véraison occurring in some of the Pinot Noir vines in the Lakefront block which had some of the earlier flowering times. From now till the end of harvest, it will remain crucial to make sure leaves don’t senesce before we have fully ripened our fruit and crop loads are in balance with leaf area.
Other than that the vineyard is all up to date with mowing and weed spraying and a second round removing suckers has also been performed. Our Suzuki vineyard hack which was away at the doctors is now back and Steve is eager to put it to use fixing broken posts. And just new to the vineyard crew are Thomas, Marko and Tanja all from Germany so now we are making really good progress removing excessive bunches. Till next time. Rich

Bogart & Misha

Although we’ve only had distribution partner Negociants New Zealand for such a short time, we’re amazed at the results they have achieved so far! We have some wonderful restaurant listings in Auckland which include Bracu Restaurant, Clooney’s, La Zeppa, The Grove and Soul Bar as well as many premium retail outlets thanks to the work by Dale, Kirsten, Morven, Richard & Sheryle. And down south, Noel & AJ are working hard to ensure Misha’s Vineyard is listed all the right places as well. We love working with Negociants and we’re planning some promotional activities with them through the year.

Meanwhile in Singapore things are busy as we work with distributor, Rubicon Reserve Wines, who have us visiting most of the top hotels in Singapore over the next couple of weeks. We’re also doing a wine event for the American Association at Graze on the 21st January and hosting a Misha’s Vineyard Wine Dinner at Amici Restaurant on the 27th January. (www.amicirestaurant.com.sg)

Right after the Wine Dinner in Singapore, Andy and I depart for New Zealand to attend Pinot Noir 2010 in Wellington, then a quick trip for me to Melbourne, and then we’re at the vineyard for the rest of February.

So things are busy and we’re travelling a lot, but life is good! Misha

Rich Williams

Robin Dicey

Wind effects. The last few reports seem to have been an unending litany of woe concerning weather related opprobrium, recently including a degree of pluviality as well. The Pinot Gris in the Dress Circle has particularly seen the impact of the wind and so we’ve had to remove more bunches off short canes than usual – but it’s what is needed. Once again there is a big difference in sheltered versus unsheltered rows. At this stage we are performing a bunch removal exercise and not a thinning exercise. We would look further into establishing more planting shelter. The good news was today there was no wind and it was a glorious morning!
• The vines up on the Top Block are looking in good shape, if a bit small, which is no bad thing.
• The hoped-for and expected growth spurt in the young vines has not really eventuated – at least not yet. It may still come.
• The evening-up of the bunches through removal of the shoulders has gone pretty well, and the crop should come in a lot a more uniform condition.

The difficulties of the season with the relentless winds are making it tough for the vines. But against all this bunch conformation looks excellent. Since we had virtually no ’stuck’ caps, fruit set has been good and berry shatter virtually non-existent. The result is that we are seeing bunch closure with berries much smaller than usual. If the seeds have been well fertilized this could lead to some interesting times in a few weeks as the berries achieve their optimum size. Robin

Notes to decipher Robin’s report!
Opprobrium: 1. the disgrace or the reproach incurred by conduct considered outrageously shameful; infamy.
Pluviality: 1. of or pertaining to rain, esp. much rain; rainy.

Creamy, viscous palate entry with waves of intense lime with palm sugar sweetness engulfing the mouth and senses, as does the rapier acidity that turns the fullness and lushness of the wine on a knifes edge sharpened by powerful spiciness of pickled ginger and lemongrass with a wasabi like warmth, all the while building in intensity with incredible length and power as only riesling can do, the persistent essence of lime enhanced by succulent orange and mandarin juiciness and vivacious acidity refreshing the palate giving the sensation of finishing off-dry with a wet rock and shingle tailing. A stunning first-release of this single-block ‘Lyric’ Riesling which appears to favour a drier ferment and more powerful expression than their other single-block ‘Limelight’ Riesling which is made in a more delicate style with more residual sugar.

Curtis Marsh

Andy & Misha Wilkinson

After a lot of hard work, we announced 4 distributors in November this year. In Asia we announced Jebsen Fine Wines in Hong Kong, Apurevu Trading in Japan and Rubicon Reserve Wines in Singapore. And for the New Zealand domestic market, we were very pleased to announce Negociants New Zealand. This announcement was made at our Auckland media lunch on the 18th November (an auspicious date as it ends in 8!). It was a great feeling knowing we had 4 distributors in place given the tough economic climate and the plethora of brands seeking distribution across the globe. I think we’ve been able to achieve this because we have held true to our philosophy of ‘no compromises’ from the very outset of what we call “vineyard project”. Over the past eight years, we have ensured that we don’t take shortcuts in the vineyard, in the winery, with our team and now, with the appointment of our partners who will take our wines to the market.

This year for our ’09 Releases, our Auckland event had a table of 20 media for lunch at one of Auckland’s very best restaurants, The Grove . The restaurant is run by Michael & Annette Dearth and it was the second year we had worked with Michael in trying to come up with a spectacular lunch menu that would work perfectly with our wines. We were very lucky to be working with Chef Ben Bayly who created an amazing selection of dishes that certainly impressed all. We have a great partnership with The Grove and look forward to holding our 2010 Release events there next November.

In Wellington, our ’09 Release lunch was held in the private room at the Boulcott St Bistro. Again we enjoyed fantastic food and the mood in the room was just perfect and made for a thoroughly enjoyable lunch. So far the media reviews from these events have been amazing.

As a relatively young vineyard, we know there’s a long way to go, but we know we’re doing things right. We have recruited a fantastic team over the latter half of this year as moved from contract vineyard crews to our own team and now have Rich leading that team, and the lovely Cassy running our admin and operations. Over the coming year there are more milestones to hit as we increase our distribution to another 4 markets but our focus will certainly be on supporting the markets in which we’ve announced new partnerships so that together we can build the Misha’s Vineyard brand.

We look forward to working hard again in 2010.

Misha

The winds have been quite strong across the region this year. We’ve certainly found spots around the vineyard that need more windbreak. Olly has suggested some Kanuka/native shelter belts up the windy boundary fence and that would be a great idea but it wouldn’t have much of an effect for a few years. Luckily the majority of wind damage is restricted to the end bays of the Dress Circle (Pinot Gris plantings) and a small amount of tipping which we can deal with. The location of the weather station is possibly not giving a true indication of the impact of the wind so we might consider moving it. Last week the wind was so strong that some of the posts in the windbreak rows fell over and we had to support them with trailer tie downs. However we seem to be getting away with things pretty well on the most part in what is a challenging year so far. The shoots are slowly creeping up the trellis and now preparing themselves for their first trim.

Flowering has stretched out over 4 weeks this year! Incredible! Really up and down so this will probably mean our harvest will be quite varied as well. I guess it will give Olly the chance to pick smaller blocks and enable us to use smaller picking crews and take the pressure off getting it all in at once. I hope it doesn’t come down to harvesting single berries Olly, though I am prepared for anything in a year like this!

Over the last week or two, work has continued on the young Pinot Noir and Riesling vines ensuring we have 2 arms to lay down for their first crop of fruit next year. Fruit was sacrificed here early giving preference to healthy shoot growth. The Sav Blanc and Clone 6 PN on the Ski Slope has been straightened, delateralised, thinned and pinned together…I sound like a hair dresser! On wind damaged plants we have removed bunches to reduce stress and ease the burden on their road to recovery. The Pinot Noir in the Top Block is currently receiving its 3rd wire lift of the season. Meanwhile I have been closely monitoring soil moisture as it is just one of those years. Wet then dry, hot then cool, windy then calm… you get the drift. Fertigation of Calcium Nitrate also treats the girls to a wee feed as they need it.

Olly, Andy, Bob & Rich on the vineyard

Restoration work on Ah Foo’s hut has been completed and looking great. We have erected stone cairns over the eight miner’s graves where we had discovered rogue grapevines growing. Ernst has been told to put back the gold coins that he flogged from the burial site. Fortunately some well preserved recipes were able to be saved from one of the miners leather aprons believed to be Ah Foo himself. We hope to translate the Chinese language and have them posted on the website early next year.

Anyway, enough is enough. Hope you all have a wonderful X’mas and New Year.

Rich