Di's Wine Blog
Hail and icy wind have reminded us that winter is just around the corner. More nets are coming down every calm day we have. The only warm spot today is the three lovely ferments we have chugging away under their space age insulation blankets. There’s nothing quite like the smell of a young ferment! All warm and fizzy, hints of spice over glorious lush red and black cherries! pretty delicious!
We’re launching our annual hunt for a Vineyard Intern to start in June 2012.
Check out our website homepage at www.fancrest.com for details. Feel free to pass this info onto anyone who may be interested.
Estate Angus cattle eagerly await the delivery of grape stems.
Here are a few photos from harvest 2012.
After poor flowering and two significant hail events the crop is much smaller than we had hoped for. One block will not be harvested at all.
This is the latest we have ever harvested the wine crop. The leaves are dropping now. Surprisingly though the vineyard understory is still lush and green.
Once the entire crop has been harvested well take down the nets and let the sheep clean up the understory before pruning starts.
The final quality check at the destemmer is the most important job.
Cleaning barrels is a job that needs a strong back and a sense of humour.
What a beautiful day we have to make a start on harvesting the 2012 crop. Taking a risk and letting the fruit hang even after the leaves began to drop has paid off. The skins are ripe! and there’s flavour! Lots of it …. even though the berries aren’t as plump and turgid as they were a week ago having soaked up the rain. At this rate we could salvage a pretty decent crop despite the wet cold long season. This was not a season for the feint of heart. And it’s not over yet!
At last the sugar levels are creeping up with a couple of early Pinot Noir clones over 22 Brix. Could be picking next week at this rate. That’ll be a new late harvest record for us!
There is a general perception around the valley that harvest is abnormally late this year.
When we were establishing Fancrest Estate a good friend generously shared his accumulated wisdom with us and told us that we could trust that harvest every year would be around Easter. This has got me wondering whether there is in fact anything special about Easter…
and this is what I’ve discovered from Wiki so far…
Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on 21 March (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on 20 March in most years), and the “Full Moon” is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between 22 March and 25 April. This year it fell on 8th April. In 2011 Easter fell on the 24th April, one day short of the latest it has been all century (which occurred 1943). Yet 2012 is the latest vintage ever.
So it would seem that the Easter connection is a very tenuous one … an old wives tale perhaps?
Any thoughts?
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Today we rack the last of the 2011 barrels into the blend. As always, our pre-racking tastings showed us that every block and variety is, on it’s own, very good, but different. Our blending trials, showed us they were simply great together! Each clone has its own strengths and weaknesses akin to a personality. Some have structure or “bones and sinew” as I like to describe it (acid or tannin). Others have muscle and flesh (texture). Still others have combinations of both. Making a complete wine is the trick. One defined by it’s balance: neither too bony nor too fleshy.
Today’s the day we find out what the finished picture looks like. This is sooo exciting…
Broken leg and ankle after a tumble in the vineyard …. week 3 down …. 3 more to go in a plaster cast!
I now also have a serious dose of cabin fever.
The vineyard is too steep and the terrain too uneven to negotiate on crutches. With luck I may be able to bear a little weight starting next week and start to get back into the vineyard.
This is not the season to be taking time out! As I write: Late bunches are being dropped to even up ripening.
The cruddy weather continues. Where’s our Indian Summer?!
2011 is being racked from barrel and blended. Best ever off the Estate in my humble opinion…
It’s hard to find a complete pinot noir bunch that has started veraison proper. A few “chickens” have started to change colour but they don’t really count. By Friday we will have all but one small half hectare block covered and most of the birds out from under the nets. The weather has been gloomy almost all week and the forecast looks miserable: rain, then overcast, then more rain. If we don’t get weeks of clear good weather, this is probably going to be a season when we have to go back under the nets before harvest to spray for mildews! I dread the prospect…
In a year’s time the Wellington waterfront will be awash with New Zealand’s best Pinot Noirs, the world’s leading wine media and wine lovers and traders, makers and viticulturists.
It is Pinot Noir NZ 2013 – New Zealand’s premier wine event. It starts 28th of January and wraps up on the 31st.
This is the fifth Pinot Noir NZ event – it started in 2001 when some kiwi Pinot producers decided to invite the wine world to Wellington to see why our Pinot Noir is so extraordinary.
“We believe New Zealand is the “go to” destination for New World Pinot and this time we are drilling down into regionality. We will celebrate the different regions and styles,” says Pinot Noir 2013 chair Alastair Maling MW.
Each Pinot region – Wairarapa/Martinborough, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury/Waipara, and Central Otago – will be given a chance to educate, beguile, convince and entertain. Each day delegates will join a different region so everyone has a chance to talk to the winemakers, ask the awkward questions without feeling overwhelmed, and taste the wines of that region.
Pinot Noir NZ 2013 will be relaxed and intimate.
“This event is about debate – the wine world has a few sacred cows and we plan to dissect them – expose the myths and confirm the truths. Previous events have been more formal and we are now comfortable pulling on the gumboots and having a chat”
Keynote speakers include the UK’s burgundy expert – Jasper Morris MW, Matt Kramer from the United States will bring his acerbic wit and intelligence to the event, along with French viticulturist Emmanuel Bourguignon and Australia’s laconic Mike Bennie.
“Right now each of the Pinot Regions is planning their presentations – no doubt with a hint of competitive edge. The culinary programme is once again being co-ordinated by Ruth Pretty Catering and will focus on the best, the freshest and the wildest of kiwi foods to tease our guest’s palates. While this event is about Pinot Noir we see it as four days of Kiwi excellence and we want our guests to leave excited to return.”
“Ultimately we want to see New Zealand Pinot Noir on every great wine list, in every little bistro and in every cellar. We know it is a big task but we are well on the way and the stunning 2010 vintage will be the star of the show.”
For more information
Morag Fryer
morag@vinetowine.co.nz
Mobile: + 64 27 279 8372
In summary: A week from hell! and one I’d love to forget.
A vicious hail storm last Sunday followed by a wintry week is the last thing we needed right now. The vines had just been leaf-plucked around the fruiting zone, leaving it perfectly exposed when the hail storm struck. Berry damage on the weather side is extensive, while berries on the leeward side remain untouched. This gives us plenty of work to ensure the bruised and split berries dry up and fall off before harvest.
The vineyard is getting its final mow before netting.
The next few still days will be spent spraying and repairing broken posts. Then it’s all about getting the vineyard setup to take the lockout bird netting.
Plenty to do…
