Misha's Vineyard

Vineyard Manager Rich Williams give an update on the pre-budburst activities on the vineyard

Pruning on the vineyard is all but finished. We just have a few touch ups and blocks we are getting just right. It’s been an outstanding winter this year. While we have had plenty of snow low down on the vineyard, it hasn’t stayed around for long. We’ve had plenty of cracker frosts early on in the morning, but as the sun pops up above the mountains, it thaws to be a lovely day. The best thing about this winter is that we have not had the weeks and weeks of fog that we normally get.

This year we are two people down for pruning. Ryan has moved on and Ernst has been away since before harvest so we have been forced to cope with our small team of 3 and do our best under the circumstance. Thankfully our new Felcotronic electronic pruners have performed outstandingly and allowed us to speed up our work while protecting our now ageing joints from the burden of repetative strains which is common with pruning.

This year we have used a tractor mounted pre-pruning machine to trim off all last seasons growth to a shorter length so that the crew can follow up behind and tidy the spurs to 2 buds. It has been a lot easier to not have to pull these old shoots out by hand. The Sauvignon Blanc which is cane pruned has come up very well. At first I felt there may be a drastic yield reduction in order to get some strength into some of these vines on light soil. This year I have reduced the bud number considerably to force the vines into producing better apical region shoot growth to allow for stronger canes to be laid next year. Also using the disbudding technique to space out the buds on weaker canes accordingly and has come up better than expected and there will still be a sizable crop.

The young House Block has progressed well with the Pinot Noir completed early on and the Riesling just. This was a little more time consuming with additional laydowns and disbudding, and all fruiting wires being strained up to accommodate the vines now permanent form. I am very pleased with the amount of wire fill through here and the strength of the vines going forward. The under vine area has filled out with suitable low growing weed growth that is holding the ground together well preventing soil erosion.

Fertilizer this year is being applied via a tractor mounted spinner rather than a fast but expensive helicopter application this year. Using the tractor takes a lot longer and calibration is tricky, but I am satisfied it is going on well and even. This year we continue to improve on our base elements as well as some vital trace elements.

Both Dress Circle and High Wire blocks are looking great with full wire fill. These blocks struggled as their exposure to the wind can leave them a bit ragged but are now at their full potential. They are finally gaining good strength to cope with the elements. Spur spacing and bud number through here is spot on. The Top Block, being slightly older is at a consistent level and gaining in strength every year. In the Fruit Bowl block I have experimented with some Scott Henry style of pruning in the vigorous middle section of the block whereby 2 additional arms have been laid in order to further increase variability.

We have had 500 sheep in around the vineyard for the last month tidying things up. They have done a great job providing valuable manure for the vines. The next month on the vineyard will be all about maintenance. There are plenty of posts and end assemblies to fix. We also have some work to do on our internal vineyard roads where plenty of January rain has washed things out. Fixing some of the drainage will be on the priority list followed by a nice coating of gravel. Also some planting of Kanauka around Ah Foo’s house.

So lots to do – never a dull moment on the vineyard!

Take care – Rich

Tags: Ah Foo, central otago, central otago pinot, Central Otago Pinot Noir, mishas vineyard, Rich Williams

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UK Author, Journalist and Wine Judge Stephen Brook visited Central Otago this week and enjoyed a tour and lunch at Misha’s Vineyard. The visit, hosted by Admin and Operations Manager Cassy Farmer and Vineyard Manager Rich Williams, included a tour of the spectacular Misha’s Vineyard on the Lakefront Terraces overlooking Lake Dunstan, a tasting of Misha’s Vineyard’s range of wines and lunch. The lunch platter prepared by The Lazy Dog Cafe was accompanied by Rich’s fresh caught whitebait fritters, barbecued on site at our gold miners ruins – Ah Foo’s house. Rudi Bauer of Quartz Reef wines arrived in time to enjoys some of the fare before taking Stephen on the back road across to see other vineyards on Bendigo.

Tags: Ah Foo, Bendigo, Cassy Farmer, central otago, central otago pinot, Central Otago Pinot Noir, mishas vineyard, Rich Williams, Rudi Bauer, Stephen Brook

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Last month we hosted 22 Japanese visitors (mainly sommeliers) at Misha’s Vineyard for an afternoon tour and tasting along with the President of our Japanese distributor, Masumoto-san.

We split the group into two and while one half enjoyed a wine tasting in Ah Foo’s house which Cassy and I hosted, the other half enjoyed a tour around the vineyard with Andy and Rich. During the tasting we started with Pinot Noir, the most savoury of our wines, and then took the group through our range of white aromatic wines. It was the perfect time to be trying the refreshing flavours of our aromatics in the late afternoon sun. There were many girls in our group of sommeliers and we noticed that they took a lot more photos when Rich was talking about the vineyard on the tour!

This was the first time we had used Ah Foo’s house as a ‘wine-tasting’ venue. We’ve done a lot of work with the restoration of this old goldminer’s ruins and it’s now an ideal place to hold a wine-tasting on the vineyard. Our visitors seemed to enjoy having the tasting out in the vineyard in a part of the region’s “history”.

Although it was wonderful weather being out in the sun proved a little too hot for some of our visitors so we gave everyone a Misha’s Vineyard cap to wear whilst enjoying the tour of the vineyard.

It was fantastic to have so many people from Japan to come and try the wines and be able to see our very special location at Misha’s Vineyard. Thanks to Seino-san, a sommelier from Apicius in Tokyo, who helped with translating during the tastings and a very big thanks to Nagano-san, the CEO of Jiyugaoka Wine School, for these great photos.

Tags: Ah Foo, central otago pinot, mishas vineyard, Rich Williams

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An update from Rich
We have been hard at work ensuring the vines are looking happy and healthy as véraison has been coming on fast in the last few weeks due to a bout of warm sunny weather – finally!

Some of the work done on the vineyard include opening up the canopy on the ‘darker side’ of the Sauvignon Blanc and taking fruit off on the small shoots. We also dropped some weight out of the Abel clone Pinot Noir vines and opened the canopy there as well and moved through the Lakefront block removing any green fruit or green shoulders that we saw.

We’re now in the Top Block of the Pinot Noir and moving the wires up whilst also ensuring the vines are in balance and doing some leaf plucking where necessary to ensure adequate light penetration. We are getting some good consistency in the vineyard véraison is almost finished.

Interestingly, we our two Riesling blocks are showing quite marked differences with one block having bunches that range from small to large and quite advanced, whereas the other block has much smaller bunches but a bigger yield – it’s amazing how different the blocks are given their close proximity.

Highlights over the last few weeks was our visit from Masumoto-san, the President of our distribution company in Japan along with a group of 22 Japanese comprising wine trade and sommeliers – they were quite a fun bunch. We also had Garry King visit from Tonnellerie Saint Martin who provide some of our French oak barrels. We really enjoyed his laid-back style and it is always great to meet people that have a part to play in the production of our wines. It was great to have Eddie and Christine from Rathdowne Cellars in Melbourne come up to the vineyard and sit for an enjoyable tasting of wines in the afternoon sun at Ah Foo’s House. I always enjoy a break from the vineyard work to enjoy some of our wines with customers.

We have said goodbye to our German friends who had been working with us for 6 weeks and sadly Sai has now left our permanent team so we wish him all the best.

My lastest yield estimates look like we’ll have over 100 tonnes of fruit with Pinot Noir about 70% of that total. Now we play the waiting game until harvest. Looking forward to it!

(In this update I have included two charts below to show the difference a week can make on the vineyard in terms of véraison and also what our bunch sizes look like across the vineyard)

Clonal Selection 25th February

Just 10 days after the photo above – the development has been quite outstanding!

Clonal selection 5th March

Tags: Ah Foo, Aprevu, Apurevu, misha's, mishas vineyard, Rathdowne Cellars, Rich Williams, Tonnellerie Saint Martin, Wine Distributor

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