There’s a wonderful video of the 2010 NZ harvest done by the talented Lisa at Lovewine. http://www.youtube.com/user/lovewinemedia The music by Gin Wigmore is fantastic. It’s the perfect accompaniment to all the harvest pictures. The video includes about 10 shots of harvest at Misha’s Vineyard – can you spot them all! The photos were all taken by Tim Hawkins – our ‘visual historian’. Hope you enjoy watching this happy video – it’s got a real ‘feel good’ factor! (And thanks again to all of our 2010 harvest team). Follow Lovewine on Twitter @lovewineNZ
Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
A Musical Celebration of Harvest in New Zealand
Posted on May 1st, 2010Autumn Colours as Harvest Progresses
Posted on April 24th, 2010
Autumn colours and winter skies over the vineyard
An update from Andy:
At the end of week two of harvest we are about half way with 54 tonnes of grapes now in the winery for processing. These have not been full work weeks as Olly carefully selects sections of the vineyard that are just right for picking and we anticipate about 6 days more picking spread over the next two weeks to complete the season. At this stage all of the Gewurtztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc is picked, we are part way throught the Riesling and have taken some sections of Pinot Noir. The remaining Riesling, all of the Pinot Gris and most of the Pinot Noir is still enjoying a warm Autumn. The canopy on the vines in most of the vineyard has held up well this year so flavours continue to develop in the fruit. Picking by taste and not by brix and acid numbers is to me a wonderful expression of art rather than science.
Morning tea break at Ah Foo's
Our harvest crew has been fantastic and although some of our French workers have left to return home, and Ken – from China – has also moved on – we are looking forward to some great new crew joining the team next week. I’ve been working with the team each day driving tractors and running buckets – and my aches and pains are testimony to the steepness of the slopes and heavy buckets. We are really thankful to the effort our whole team, both permanent staff and casuals, have been putting in and appreciate their care and attention to picking. Our focus on quality has been applied by every member of the team.
The word from the winery is wow! They are really delighted with the quality of fruit coming in and even my limited palate is enjoying the wide range of tropical and berry flavours from the early stages of juice and ferments. The most frustrating part is now waiting until late 2011 or early 2012 before the Pinot Noir from this vintage gets released!
Pre-Harvest Grape Development
Posted on April 21st, 2010Just over a month ago Rich Williams, our vineyard manager, sent in a photo of the development of various clones around the vineyard. (see 10th March blog). The response was quite overwhelming with many comments coming to us on how informative this was and how many of our blog followers would be interested in seeing later development just before we harvested.
Below is the same set of grape clones from 10th April. It really does give a wonderful perspective of the ripening process. We are now about 30% through our harvest and really excited about the quality of this year’s vintage.
Thanks to Rich for taking the time to get these samples together and do the expert photography!
Clonal Layout 10th April 2010
Harvest Starts at Misha’s Vineyard
Posted on April 17th, 2010On Tuesday 13th we started harvest on Misha’s Vineyard. The season has been a mixed one with cold and wet conditions in the early months slowing the early stages of development and providing a natural reduction in yield, but a warm dry finish to the season has produced some great results. Vineyards across Central Otago are reporting very good quality fruit and are looking forward to a great 2010 vintage.
Sun exposed Sav Blanc
Sav Blanc in the shade
Daniel runs buckets
Taking a break
This year we are working with a smaller crew and picking across a longer period of harvest days. The results should produce a wonderful array of flavours with perfectly ripe fruit meeting our winemakers exacting standards being selected for the daily bin quota.
The crew were certainly looking forward to a lighter day on Thursday after working the Ski Slope for the Sauvignon Blanc, and the clone 6
Fun at the break
Picking or tasting?
The Pinot Noir clone 6, lakefront clone 667 and a section of clone 5 from the Top Block is now in the winery and beginning the process of producing an exceptional vintage.
We will be back to the field on Monday to continue with the Pinot Noir in Olly’s selected sections.
Almost Ready for Harvest
Posted on April 11th, 2010An update from Vineyard Manager Rich Williams
Ripening has progressed solidly in the last month and we are just a couple of days from harvest.
Gewurz ready to pick
Now that the vineyard has been covered by bird nets and all our green thinning has been completed, we have been enjoying a quiet spell for a change. This gives us the opportunity to clean bins and prepare for the pick. Once we start bringing in fruit, it will be non-stop and so everything must be organised and ready to go. Workers for harvest have been recruited and I am looking forward to working alongside the team chosen to work with us through the harvest weeks.
Andy checking the grapes
Andy and Misha are here in Central Otago now to ensure things go smoothly and there are no unripe bunches picked – our quality control team!
It is always a tedious wait for the Vineyard Manager and team until that call comes from the Winemaker to start picking. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for those mysterious flavours to arrive and we continue to send off samples to the winery to test for brix and acids. So far the numbers are looking good enough for us to make a start next week. There is not a lot of work we can do now to increase quality and we have thrown everything at the vines to achieve a high standard this year. It is now up to Mother Nature finish off the ripening process.
Another stunning April in Central Otago
I am really happy with how things have progressed lately and it’s hard to imagine that the vineyard season will be over soon and we can start again with the next one. So far the season to date has recorded 1061 Growing Degree Days (GDD) which is slightly higher than last year and slightly less than 2008. March was a real cracker a provided just over 200 of those GDD’s. Already though the temperatures are feeling a bit cooler and the foliage is showing signs of Autumn. It is a reassuring feeling once all the fruit has been taken off and sent to the winery to be processed and then Olly can work his magic!
Misha’s Articles in Wine Business Monthly
Posted on March 15th, 2010Since September 2009 Misha has been writing a New Zealand focussed segment in Wine Business Monthly (WBM), an Australian wine business magazine published in Adelaide by Free Run Press under Editor Anthony Madigan. With kind permission of WBM the articles written by Misha are re-produced in PDF form below and are available for visitors to Misha’s Vineyard website to read. Please respect the copyright that applies to these articles and make any requests for re-use of the content to Wine Business Monthly, 37 Fullarton Road, Kent Town, South Australia 5067. Phone: +61 8 8362 3122.
WBM September 2009: “Neighbourly Advice”. This article reports on the biennial New Zealand Wine Exporters Forum held in Christchurch on 29th to 31st July 2009.
WBM November 2009: “Japan – Too big, too hard or too good to miss?” A look at the opportunities for New Zealand in the Japanese wine market.
WBM December 2009/January 2010: “On with the show – or not.” A review of the benefit of submitting wines for medal contention at NZ wine shows.
WBM February 2010: “Is New Zealand Savvy about Aromatics?” With the success of Sauvignon Blanc around the world, are the range of New Zealand cool climate aromatics also getting enough attention?
To subscribe to Wine Business Monthly – click here
How the ‘09 Pinot is Shaping up at Misha’s Vineyard
Posted on February 13th, 2010An update from Olly Masters – Winemaker
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!
Happenings on Misha’s Vineyard
Posted on January 23rd, 2010An update from Rich
Well, dare I mention again that this year certainly has been a challenging one for growing grapes! While there is not much sign of the start of summer the winds have definitely died down. We have also had plenty of rain lately to keep the soil moisture levels up with 22 mm falling the other night in the space of about 3 hrs which caused plenty of minor flooding around Cromwell but thankfully no major washouts in the vineyard.
Summer at last
Trimming has been instigated on almost all blocks with really good results. This will put additional growth into smaller shoots and direct energy reserves into the developing fruit. This combined with the period of vigour now occurring, has pretty much ensured we have a full height of canopy across the board. There are a couple of problem spots in exposed areas and I would like to see added wind protection here for next season and I am currently researching some ways to manage this. All fruit in these areas has been dropped to ensure no inferior bunches are included in the finished wine.
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
Misha’s Vineyard Marketing Update
Posted on December 24th, 2009An update from Misha
Andy & Misha Wilkinson
The pace of the past two months is just starting to slow – and it’s now the day before Christmas! During these two months Andy and I have hit some major milestones with the vineyard. Our 2009 Release events this year marked the start of producing commercial quantities of wine – at last! Last year when we launched our first wines we had “The Audition” Pinot Noir 2007 – of which only 100 cases were made primarily as a ‘trial’ along with tiny quantities of 3 aromatic varieties. It was great to get those first wines out for review by the trade and media but we needed to wait until this year before we could seriously look at distribution.
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
Ah Foo’s House Renovated
Posted on December 3rd, 2009
Ah Foo's House on Misha's Vineyard
The legend of Ah Foo is being reconstructed from historic information and will unfold over the next few months. It is known he came from Canton to the gold rush in Victoria, Australia where he was one of the more successful gold prospectors. He then made his way to Central Otago in 1862 to further his wealth establishing his claim on the gold rich deposits of Bendigo.
Michael Dacombe working on Ah Foo's chimney
Steve Holmes and the team from Central Otago Polytech had no shortage of local material to work with given the abundance of schist rock that covers vast areas of the Bendigo Lakefront Terraces. Having recently done some reconstruction of the old Bakery on one of Bendigo’s historic sites, the team were well aware of the construction methods and the finish that was in keeping with the authentic historic buildings that remain in the area.