Harvest 2012 – done!
Posted 08/06/2012
Firstly thank you to all our new friends who have joined us on Facebook since our last communication. We have been slow to get on the social media bandwagon, but are looking forward to sharing stories, photos and news from the coalface. As promised we have drawn the lucky winner of those who have ‘liked’ us since our launch, and would like to congratulate our lucky winner, Serena from New Zealand, who should expect a small token of our appreciation in the post in the coming few weeks.
Vintage this year was short and sweet! We kicked off on Wednesday 28th March, and just 5 weeks, and 1 day later, we had everything harvested, and tucked away. Mother nature came to the party, and throughout the five weeks, we were blessed with nothing but bright sunny Nelson days (and just two drizzly wet days).
The cool, wet spring prior to Christmas last year did mean that flowering was far lighter than in other years, however what we lacked in fruit, we gained in bright intensity and vibrancy of flavour. This resulted in a 20% drop in fruit yield, however with wonderful fruit flavours, and fantastic sugars and acids, brought about by the dry, warm and typically sunny start to the year, our winemaking team is all smiles.
Today we waved goodbye to our last winemaking intern as he heads home to Germany. This year we had a fantastic team of seven winemakers join us from France, Germany, and Austria, and some other ‘called’ in help from England and Czech Republic. It was a solid team of dedicated winos ready to learn and taste all that we had to offer in Nelson! Thank you to you all for your hard work, particularly during those long days – and nights, when the fruit just kept on coming!
With blending already well underway on the whites, and the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Zweigelt all tucked into barrel, the harvest buzz is fading, as we now move into the next phase – winter pruning!
In the markets, I have just returned from three very intensive weeks on the road. First in the US where I spent two weeks on a flying hop across six states – perfect timing to show our lighter style wines to an audience eager for some tasty summer sippers. A packed schedule including portfolio trade tastings, instore consumer tastings, distributor sales meetings, winemakers dinners and plenty of restaurants, bars, and retailers to show the wines to, there wasn’t much time to sleep! Then on to London, for the annual London International Wine Fair, where we met with importers, distributors, retailers, restaurateurs and media from across Europe.
Phew, time for a glass of Pinot I think.
Cheers!
Anna
