Rich Williams « Misha's Vineyard

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Vineyard Report – July 2010

Posted on July 29th, 2010

Vineyard Manager Rich Williams managed to file this vineyard report before he headed down the the bottling plant to join Cassy, Sue and Olly on ‘Quality Control’ duties for the 2009 Pinot Noir bottling.

Rich Williams

Winter pruning has progressed very well this month. With the completion of the House Block, we have moved through the Lakefront Block, Highwire Block, and Fruitbowl. We then moved up into Block 2 and The Top Block – from Pinot Noir Clone 5 through the Pinot Noir 115 and Pinot Noir 667. The vines are now a year older than the earlier ones we have been working on and so we have had to reach for the loppers as the vines are that much bigger and harder on hands. I am still really happy with the quality of the pruning so far and we are achieving pretty much 100% wire-fill with some exception to the ‘Horse’s Head’ area by the main gate where the vines have been held back by wind and there is the odd dead plant to replace. In this situation we have laid down canes from neighbouring plants to temporarily fill the gaps. There was some physical wind damage to plants at the top of the Top Block and these plants have been rectified by renewing the old damaged cordon with a newly laid cane to replace it.

Pruned vines on Lakefront

I would estimate we are about 3 or 4 weeks out from finishing before we move on to other tasks such as dropping wires and removal of metal pins. The shorter canopy has enabled us to do away with running through a tractor mounted barrel pruner and instead we have done a single pass laying down replacement canes and spur pruning as we go. We will also do away with needing to run a sweeper attachment to tidy up as the guys are keeping things reasonably clean in the under vine area. This should mean reduced costs for pruning this year with added time spent getting the vines looking up to speed for the coming season. With the money saved this year we can hopefully justify some electric pruners for next winter… or the following Christmas!

Broken strainer posts and tie backs are also being fixed as we go, but for some reason I seem to be doing most of the digging. I must work out who is breaking these and pass them the shovel!

Soil test results are due to arrive back from the testing facility in the US. This system was designed by Neal Kinsey which is based around accurate soil analysis and is used to correctly balance the nutrient levels in the soil as well as providing a better nutrient range for soil biology to thrive. Fertiliser recommendations will accompany the test results for the rates of nutrients we will require which will be spread by helicopter.

Also on the list of things to do is to find a source of water for the possible planting of native Kanuka down the windy side of the Dress Circle. I am also spending time accurately mapping the area to determine the number and situation of plants we will require.

That’s it for July – I’m being seconded for bottling line duties.

Rich

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

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Pre-Harvest Grape Development

Posted on April 21st, 2010

Just 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

Tags: central otago, central otago pinot, Gewurztraminer, Limelight Riesling, misha's, mishas vineyard, Pinot Gris, Rich Williams, Riesling

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Almost Ready for Harvest

Posted on April 11th, 2010

An 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!

Tags: central otago, central otago pinot, Gewurztraminer, Harvest, misha's, mishas vineyard, Rich Williams

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Misha’s Vineyard Hosts Japanese Sommeliers 11th Feb

Posted on March 20th, 2010

Wine Tasting at Ah Foo's House

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”.

Rich taking the vineyard tour

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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Misha’s Vineyard Season Update

Posted on March 10th, 2010

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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Happenings on Misha’s Vineyard
Posted on January 23rd, 2010

An 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

Tags: central otago, misha's, Misha's Vineyard Wines, mishas vineyard, Rich Williams

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Misha’s Vineyard Viticulture Update from Rich & Robin!
Posted on January 15th, 2010

Rich Williams
Good progress was made with bud rubbing and with the additional help of the Vanuatuan crew we’re now into bunch removal. We’re removing bunches from the short shoots starting first in the Riesling where there are quite a few 3rd and 4th bunches mainly on the less vigorous parts and we’ve also needed to do a partial lateral think through the centre of the block in order to see into the interior. The vines are coming up really well and putting our shoot/fruit ration back into balance. So far there are some quite small bunches in places and so we’re expecting lighter crops across the board this season. Rich..

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.

Tags: misha's, mishas vineyard, pinot noir, Rich Williams, Robin Dicey

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Misha’s Vineyard Marketing Update
Posted on December 24th, 2009

An 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

Tags: Apurevu, Cassy Farmer, central otago, Misha, misha's, mishas vineyard, Negociants, Rich Williams, Rubicon Reserve, Wine Distributor

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Misha’s Vineyard Viticulture Update for December
Posted on December 24th, 2009

An update from Vineyard Manager Rich Williams
Well the silly season has crept up on us again. This is one of the busiest times of year for us. I think we should have a word to our Prime Minister, Mr Key, about changing the timing of Christmas to winter – a time when the vines are dormant. That way we could have a few days off and not worry that a Nor’wester might sneak up on us.

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

It was great to see Bob Campbell and wife Marion here at the vineyard for a tour of the place. A really nice couple and they seemed like they were enjoying themselves. Also it was a privilege to show Felicia and Ed from Singapore around the vineyard – although I do apologise to them for the long-winded road trip to the Lazy Dog for lunch. We really need to get a Misha’s Vineyard jet boat for excursions to the tasting facility! It was also great to see Andy and Misha again – they put on a good X’mas party for the team! Also Olly was down for a good look around the vineyard in the pouring rain- they sure breed them tough up north!

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

Tags: central otago pinot, Misha, misha's, mishas vineyard, Rich Williams

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Happenings on Misha’s Vineyard
Posted on November 6th, 2009

An update from Rich Williams
Hi all – just a quick update on the vineyard. It’s amazing what a few days of warm weather can do – the vines now look the Springboks, according Robin, because they’re bright green and real winners! But I would have to disagree – I don’t think they’re quite as green as the Springboks, though their bent over tips do resemble the same sorry look!

Spring shoots on the vines

Their bent tips are a consequence of the winds over the last few days but the good news is that they have regained their taper again. We have been working hard on the young vines (2007 plantings) in the house block but our efforts to ‘shoot thin’ has been hampered due to these severe winds. We’ve had to give that added protection to the “young girls” cushioning the blows with help of tape-gun in hand. The wind has also been whistling around the windbreaks, knocking tips and shoots against wires but thankfully not too much damage. Previous to that we had three days of hot calm weather which sent the vines off on a rip roaring pace. From an early start the Sauvignon Blanc has now stalled a bit. We’ll wait and see how it develops bunch-wise before shoot thinning there.

Otago Polytech workers on the Miners Hut

All in all, it’s been a busy time with Steve and I working pretty hard on the vineyard. We will be joined by two more of our newly-hired permanent crew next week so that will make a difference and mid-month we’ll get a bigger crew in to help with the rest of the shoot thinning.

Work is well underway on the old stone hut in the top block. It is looking more and more like a ruins every day! Steve Holmes and his trainee stonemason crew from Otago Polytech are doing a great job. Rich. (Enjoy the pics from Robin).

Tags: Miners Hut, mishas vineyard, Rich Williams, Robin Dicey, Sauvignon Blanc, Spring Vines

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