 The
pruning is all finished and we look forward to the challenges of another growing season.
This year is going to see a much greater area of the vineyard converted over to organic cultivation
without the use of synthetic herbicides or fertilisers. Because of our dry climate and very
low humidity we fortunately have not needed to use any synthetic fungicides or insecticides.
The spindly trunks of the young vines (Blocks 7, 10, 11, 12 & 13)
are not yet strong enough to cope with the mechanical under-vine weeding and mowing, but
it won’t be long before this totally replaces the herbicide. It’s pleasing
to see the inter-row crops contributing to the vineyard biodiversity, soil health, better
balanced vines and we are definitely seeing the influence in the wines. Biodynamic principles
and practices are being used where possible and Gareth and his vineyard team have been
busy over the winter with making organic compost complete with the biodynamic preparations,
putting down a “cow pat pit” and spreading preparation 500. It all sounds like
witch doctor stuff but we are confident that it will all help to extract more flavour and
character from our vineyard soils, not to mention farming in a more sustainable and sensitive
way.
We finally have a drawing of “The Elms” vineyard (see "Our
Vineyards") that shows you the location of the various vineyard Blocks. The
soils change depending on the slope and aspect. This and also the natural gullies, are
what defines the different Blocks. Several soil pits were dug last season to look at
the considerable soil differences and also to examine the depth of vine roots. The planting
of Block 13 (or should it be the Winery Block?) last spring was the last available slope
to plant and brings the total to 14 hectares.
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The 2003 Pinot Noirs are looking very promising in barrel. They are just beginning to
wake up from their cold and sleepy winter with the popping of bungs signifying the onset
of their natural malolactic fermentation. It’s a wonderful time to see the transformation
of awkward, acidic and somewhat unappealing Pinot Noirs develop their soft, silky finish
and the development of the aromas and flavours. The 2002 Rieslings attracted many favourable
reviews and I am sure the 2003’s will be similarly received. Tasting our older Rieslings
and given what we have learnt and are now applying in the vineyard, there is no doubt that
these more recent vintages are going to age extremely well. We have also made a Vin Gris
from the 2003 vintage and the Chardonnay with its absence of wood continues to be very
popular.
The 2002 Pinot Noir Block 5 and 2003 Riesling Block 1 were recently released to our ‘Block
list’ which is made up of our longest serving and loyal mail order and cellar door
visitors. The “Block List”
helps us to allocate out small volumes of wines without having the wines being heavily
over subscribed. Please indicate on your order form if you would like your details included
on the wait list for the next release. (We sometimes have some unclaimed allocations that
we can sneak out with your order.)
We have been delighted with the acceptance and performance of Stelvin screwcap closures
for our wines. Comparative blind tastings for our 2001 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Barrel
Fermented are showing that the wines are developing well and even preferable to the cork
version. A recent major tasting in Bordeaux (by such lumiaries as Michel Rolland) of screwcap
versus cork, which included the 2001 Felton Road Pinot Noir, showed that the screwcap wines
were preferred in almost all cases over cork and especially when tasting some seven and
eight year old Australian reds. This article by reknowned UK wine journalist Robert Joseph
makes interesting reading and we have included a copy of the report on our website.
As usual we have included some of the reviews we have received recently. We were delighted
to have all three of our varieties included in Bob Campbell’s top 100 wines in Cuisine
magazine’s 100th issue. Especially pleasing to see he wanted to include all three
of our Riesling styles. Unfortunately we do not have room to include a glowing review (well
what my French allowed me to translate!) and picture of our 2001 Pinot Noir in the French
newspaper Le Figaro.
We hope you enjoy our new releases and we look forward to seeing you next time you are
visiting Central Otago.
Cheers,
Blair Walter
Winemaker.
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Mailing Lists
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- and so do tastes! If we have not received a response after three newsletters, we will assume
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