Misha's 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.

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!

Tags: central otago, Gewurztraminer, Harvest, mishas vineyard, Olly Masters, Pinot Gris, pinot noir, Riesling

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On 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.

Our harvest crew – from New Zealand, Germany and France – started with the Gewurztraminer which has shown wonderful flavours develop over the past few weeks. The Gewurztraminer has been our favourite “tasting” grape with its hints of musk, turkish delight and lychee. We also have taken the Sauvignon Blanc from the aptly named “Ski Slope” section of the vineyard which has an amazing variation on both colour and flavour from the sunny side – with darker and more tropical fruit – to the lighter coloured and more traditional flavours of gooseberry in the fruit on the shaded side of the vines.
The flavour profile of our 2009 Sauvignon Blanc has produced a wonderfully vibrant wine with complexity, elegance and structure which we are confident will be repeated this year.
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 Pinot Noir (leaving some shelter cloth protected rows for another day) for two days. We picked downhill then drove the crew back to the top but working on the steep slope is hard, and the bucket runners earned their breaks.
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.

Tags: central otago, Gewurztraminer, Misha, mishas vineyard, Olly Masters

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Andy, Olly and I all met up in Hong Kong airport having been on different flights but all arriving around the same time and then headed to our hotel in Causeway Bay. The next day was a Sunday so we decided to go to Stanley for shopping and sight-seeing. We took the bus which is a pretty interesting trip as it winds around the narrow streets of the island. That evening we had dinner at Jumbo’s in Aberdeen (something that I had never done in spite of many trips to Hong Kong over the past 20 years) and just the three of us dined on an entire Peking duck – delicious!

Our new distributor in Hong Kong, Jebsen Fine Wine, organised an amazing schedule for us. The first day started with training and a tasting for the whole Jebsen team and then an afternoon of retail store visits and then finishing with a trade dinner at Nicholini’s restaurant at the Conrad Hotel.

Over the course of the next two days we met with many of Hong Kong’s five star hotels and top restaurants and did product training at one of the top hotels who have already taken on Misha’s Vineyard wines. There was a great reaction the wines (especially the Pinot Noir) and you’ll soon see our wines in many key places in Hong Kong.

The schedule for the final day included a media lunch at Cucina at the Marco Polo Hotel. This restaurant has a spectacular location overlooking Hong Kong harbour, on the Kowloon side, and it happened to be a perfect day to enjoy the view! We had a marvellous attendance at the lunch thanks to the brilliant organisation by Florence Luk, who does PR & Marketing for Jebsen (and happens to be an amazing photographer as well!). The highlight of the lunch was the dessert which was created by Pastry Chef Ryan Zimmer, which we didn’t try to match with any wine. After admiring it for some time, we ate it and it was even more delicious than it looked! Ryan described it as “Strawberry rose capsule with greek yoghurt cheesecake, balsamic gelato, candied pistachio, honey, & cinnamon brioche”.

Later in the day we went to Rare & Fine Wines and held a wine tasting in their shop and then headed back to Hong Kong island for a customer dinner which was also hosted by Rare & Fine Wines at the Hong Kong Banker’s Club.

This dinner had some of the most delicious Chinese food I’ve ever eaten and each course was beautifully matched with one of our wines. One of the best matches was actually the chicken livers and The Gallery Gewürztraminer!

We’re so lucky to be working with Jebsen Fine Wines in Hong Kong. We may be their smallest vineyard but I think we’re their most enthusiastic! Thanks to Gavin, Donny, Kevin, Bonnie and the entire sales team for looking after us so well. We’ll be back soon!

Tags: Andy Wilkinson, Conrad Hotel, Cucina, Gewurztraminer, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Banker’s Club, Jebsen Fine Wines, Misha, Misha Wilkinson, mishas vineyard, Nicholini’s restaurant, Olly Masters, Rare and Fine Wines, Ryan Zimmer, The Marco Polo Hotel

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In March Olly and I went to Tokyo. It was Olly’s first trip to Tokyo but I’ve been there many times before and just love it. We went there to spend some time with our distributor (Apurevu Trading), present a New Zealand Aromatics Masterclass for sommeliers, talk to some of the key wine media and to accompany our distributor on some key trade visits.

The New Zealand Aromatics Masterclass was a big success with many sommeliers and media attending. Hiroyuki Seino, sommelier from Apicius, helped Olly with the seminar providing a lot of information particularly about the ‘Old World’ wines that we compared with our Misha’s Vineyard examples. Seino-san also had good knowledge of New Zealand through his trip there in February, which included a visit to Misha’s Vineyard of course!

During our time in Tokyo Olly and I also met lots of the key wine media and visited some cool restaurants and bars to present our wines.

On the last evening I went to Aotea Rangi, a restaurant who now carries our range of wines, and offered samples of our wine to the regulars who were dining that evening and met some lovely expats, Judy, Kiren & Denise, who all loved the wines and gave us some great tips for where we should try and get the wines listed. Meanwhile Olly went to the NZ Bar (which is also a restaurant) in Bunkyo-ku where the only wine being served during the evening was Misha’s Vineyard!

I joined Olly at NZ Bar later in the evening and we had a wonderful time with the many guests who came to the bar especially to try the wines. I didn’t realise Japanese could drink so much! We then had fun signing bottles for people and then signing the winemaker’s wall to mark our visit! Please visit the NZ Bar Blog

Tags: Apurevu, Aromatic wines, Masterclass, Misha, Misha Wilkinson, misha's, mishas vineyard, Olly Masters, The New Zealand Bar, Tokyo wine

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On the 22nd February, following an all-day company strategy meeting, we had a ‘Tapas and Tasting’ at The Lazy Dog in Queensberry – which is our virtual cellar door!

This was the first time that Dean and Diana (owners of The Lazy Dog) had held a ‘wine dinner’ and we were a little worried about getting a crowd on a Monday night. We didn’t need to worry, the dinner sold out and we had a waiting list and we’re already planning to do another one!

Dean did a superb job in preparing 8 courses which were perfectly matched with the 8 wines we presented during the evening. Diana called the menu a “Taste Sensations” menu matching the antipasto plate to our off-dry Lyric Riesling, the hot-smoked salmon to our medium-dry Limelight Riesling (which was a sublime combination), and the Kassler Pork loin and Risotto with our Dress Circle Pinot Gris.

Following that the spicy Mussels were served with The Gallery Gewurztraminer, Baked Camembert with the Audition ’07 Pinot Noir, and then Lamb Cutlets with The High Note ’08 Pinot Noir. In addition to all of that, we started the evening with a Sauvignon Blanc and some rosemary garlic bread and finished the evening with Dean’s home preserved apricots and a choice of Gewürtz or Riesling. Absolutely no one went home hungry!

Thanks to everyone who came to our wine dinner and a big thanks to The Lazy Dog for their enthusiasm and support of Misha’s Vineyard.

Tags: Gewurztraminer, Limelight Riesling, Lyric, Misha Wilkinson, Olly Masters, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, The Gallery, The High Note, The Lazy Dog

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An 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!

On the weekend prior to these events I looked at all our Misha’s Vineyard 2009 Pinot ferments with a view to overall quality and blending decisions, with the wines having just been sulphured post the completion of malo. Overall I was very happy, and once again the quality is solid enough for us to release a small amount of our reserve – Verismo. And we also have a small volume which we will use for the entry-level Impromptu.

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!

Tags: central otago, Misha, mishas vineyard, Olly Masters, pinot noir

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