VINEYARD Blog

Marlborough Harvest 2013

30 March 2013
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

First harvesting of some Sauvignon Blanc commenced early this morning at Waihopai. Ideal conditions, no dew to delay harvesting. Fruit clean, good team of contractors, grower and Tohu staff. Very nice (and relieved) to make a start.

Special treat was the morning tea (all home made) provided by Vicki Lane the grower/owner of the block being harvested. Enough for everyone to enjoy and appreciate. A very generous gesture - cheers. I'm rostering myself to be supervising all harvesting of the blocks that the Lane's grow for us!

   

Tags: Harvest, SB, Kai

"can i do you now sir?"

21 January 2013
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Mmmm well in the interest of keeping all you keen blog watchers up to date with what is happening in the vineyard :

Here is the latest update.

We spend most of the year coaxing our vines to grow. However for a brief period in January we start to think they need a bit of a trim (Hence the title above).

So here are some pictures of Mechanised Trimming, and Ovine leaf plucking...

Oh, and a random picture of a lark's nest I found near the Pinot Noir in Tuna block....

Tags: eggs, tuna, pinot, trim, pluck

Flora, Fauna, and ,Fruit.....

07 December 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Summer has arrived at Whenua Matua.

The vines have begun flowering. A successful flowering will determine how much fruit we will be picking in March and April next year. Our 2013 vintage will include Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Rose, and Chardonnay.

The vines however are not the only thing of beauty in the vineyard at the moment:

Many of our native trees are flowering too; Kanuka, Harakeke, and Ti to name but a few.

Our treasured family of Scaup (groovy little NZ diving Ducks) have a brood of ducklings proudly swimming on our lake. We are particularly happy about this as Scaup are uncommon in our part of NZ.

See pictures for details.

Tags: pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay, whenua matua,

spring has sprung (again)

07 November 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Well after a mild and wet winter our vines are simply charged with vim and vigour.

You can almost hear them growing!!!!

So now we are flat out shoot thinning, bud rubbing,mowing ,wire lifting, and spraying.

To save time we used a helicopter to deliver our first two sprays of sulphur for the year.

I really like the "koru" patterns made by the spray in the rotor wash.

We sprayed all our pinot gris, and pinot noir this way.

We also are looking forward to our first crop of Chardonnay from Whenua Matua in 2013 (the chardonnay vines look really happy) so hopefully 2013 will be a good vintage.

Tags: spring, koru, chardonnay, pinot, gris, whenua, matua,

Rongo blessing

07 November 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

23rd of October was cold at 5.00 am as we all assembled in the dark ready to unveil our new Rongo at Whenua Matua.

Rongo's are part of the ancient practices of Maori, and signify a link between sky, earth, and those that work the land.

Our manuhiri for the dawn ceremony included Directors of Wakatu inc,Kaumatua, and kuia, and various members of our staff, partners, and relations, and those who have been associated with Whenua Matua over the years.

Rongo was carved in Motueka at Te Awhina Marae by John Mutu, and is one of a pair, the other is situated on our vineyard in the Awatere valley.

The ceremony was followed by an alfresco breakfast and copious ammounts of piping hot coffee!!

Tags: whenua, matua, wakatu

CPF visit Whenua Matua

03 September 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Saturday the first of September saw Wakatu inc (our parent company) hosting the executive team from CPF.

Our manuhuri(guests) arrived by helicopter as part of a tour of our operations in Te Tau Ihu.

We provided a lunch, and of course wines from the vineyards of Whenua Matua; pinot gris, pinot noir, and rose.

They were all presented with a pounamu pendant. The greenstone jade of New Zealand.

A fun time was had by all......and remarkably it did not rain!!

Check out the pictures for more details...

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First Bottlings 2012

05 July 2012
Bruce Taylor Head Winemaker
Bruce Taylor

after a major communication breakdown over vintage I am finally able to blog again (big sighs of relief I know...the requests have been flooding in)...

vintage is now well and truly over and after an utterly awful summer we were lucky enough to sneak in a brilliantly sunny and dry (though not warm) April and May that thankfully let us harvest everything in top condition; albeit with low crops that weren't unexpected.

typical of this was the Riesling from our Awatere Valley vineyard. Really low crops have meant great concentration and nice dry weather meant a minimum of botrytis in the picked fruit (though like most winemakers a little bot in the riesling can be quite a good thing)

So this morning (5th June) we have bottled the Riesling as the first wine of the new vintage. Bone dry again in the style that we have established over the last few years I reckon the wine looks really great. It's got stacks of acidity and masses of fresh limes, lemons, full on floral notes and great balance with a nice low alcohol of 12%....the acid should help this wine age well too for anyone capable of putting down wine for a few years...

The lovely people at Wineworks Marlborough have just phoned to say the Rose is about to head down the bottling line in half an hour so Liz our Operations Guru and I are about to head back down and make sure all is well for that

watch this space for an upcoming spiel on our 2012 Pinot Rose from Nelson

Tags: Riesling:2012:First Bottling

Super-Stripper!

11 June 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Vintage is now a distant memory as we look back fondly on the halcyon days of warmth over summer.

We have begun pruning, and we are this year using a KLIMA mechanical vine stripper on some of ourPinot Gris, and Pinot Noir blocks.The boys at Elite Viticulture are doing an awesome job doing the cuts on each vine, and then they come through with their Stripper.

Mounted on the front of their trusty John Deere;It does a superb job, removing un wanted material, and mulching it too so that it rots back into the soil really quickly

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It's all over Rover

22 April 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Thursday the 19th April saw the last picking for vintage 2012 at Whenua Matua.

We were hand picking a couple of small parcels of Pinot Noir 667 from our Taputoru block, and some 777 from Tuna block.

We have had an amazing run of weather this year. And the fruit has been in amazing condition with good flavours. Crop levels were lower than usual, so we are hopeful that we will have some stunning wines to come...(no pressure Bruce!!)

Accompanying this post are a few shots of the fruit, but most importantly our wonderful hand harvesting team: Thanks guys you did an amazing job.

Tags: Pinot, Noir, hand picking, whenua matua,

A busy Easter Saturday

08 April 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Easter Saturday saw Murray Moffatt, and a couple of boys from Elite Viticulture taking the nets off our Riroriro, and Haupapa blocks of Pinot Gris So that we could get the machine harvester in to do a pick for us.

Riroriro is the Te Reo Maori word for Grey warbler; a bird which we often hear in the vineyard...Quite appropriate as Gris is French for grey!!

Harvesting went on well into the night....

Driving the harvester is a skilled job.

The grapes are tipped into the waiting truck by a highly trained tractor driver,they are then driven to our winery by highly skilled truck drivers...at which point the skills of our Winemaker take over....

Tags: pinot, nelson, harvest, gris

How about this for an office?

05 April 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

This is my place of work, my office, and the place I would rather be (other than at home with a beer in hand!!)Lucky lucky me...

We have had a busy week here at Whenua Matua with picking Pinot noir by hand on two consecutive days.

The weather has been perfect with gorgeous blue skies, and calm winds.

The Pinot noir being picked in these photos is off our Tuna block. Tuna is the Te Reo Maori word for eel; and we chose the name as this block is long and skinny, and has a few kinks in it.

We are happy with the quality, appearance and flavours of our grapes this year; especially considering how hard the weather tried to make it difficult for us

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Its all on now!!!!!

01 April 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

After our machine picking on Thursday the 29th. We carried on by doing a hand pick of Pinot Gris on Friday.

Elite Viticulture provided us with an awesome team of Hand Pickers, and we picked just over 6 tonnes in a few hours.

We picked fruit from two of our blocks; Tiketike, and Hiko.

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First steps towards Pinot Rose 2012

01 April 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

29th March 2012 saw the start of vintage for us at Whenua Matua Vineyards. We kicked off this year with a machine pick of 3 clones of Pinot Noir;115,777, and 667. These three clones will constitute part of our Rose wine for this year.

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Misty Morning

23 March 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Today, as I arrived at the place of beauty known as Whenua Matua Vineyard, I noticed that the normal clear blue azure of the sky had been replaced by a misty filigree that clung to the vines, trees,my hat, and surrounding hills....."Pretty" I thought so here are a few "arty" shots

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Hello Old Fruit

23 March 2012
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

I was reminded this morning that it has been a while since I posted anything here on our glorious Tohu Blog page.... So here are few delightful shots of our delicious grapes. If you listen really hard you will be able to hear them ripening!! Prizes will possibly (or not) go to those who can successfully identify the varieties of grapes pictured.

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Awatere netting

10 March 2012
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

Last of the multi over-row nets have been deployed at the Awatere. Always a few teething problems at the start and can be a test of your patience however after a few runs systems and routine seem to settle in and good progress thereafter.

Fortunately we have the very calm, always happy and very hard working services of Alapa staff namely Udon and Da this season. These guys work 10-12hr days most days and they just keep on smiling. I know that after a day of netting most people are keen to head home but these guys spend at least another 3-4 hours patching up holes and ensuring everything is neat and secure.

Side nets are due to go on this week.

Next task is to start assessing levels of colour in the bunches of the Pinot Noir and what bunches are to be removed.

We will also be collecting some bunches to get some brix tests to get an idea of where things are at.

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Hint of harvest?

20 February 2012
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

All indications are that this years harvest is going to be at least 10 - 14 days behind last season. 29 March 2011 was our first pick which was some Sauvignon Blanc from our Waihopai vineyard. 28th April was the last of the bulk of the harvest and this was at the Awatere vineyard. 2.5 tonnes of late harvest Riesling was picked 25 May.

Some long sunny warm days (and no rain!) is what is required to keep things actively growing and ripening too.

Signs of veraison in our Pinot Noir at Waihopai a couple of weeks ago. We decided that this year we would put multi-row over-row nets on to avoid early bird issues. Staff and contractors got these on Thursday last week and when I went to check on Friday I discovered approximately 30 birds under the nets. If there is a hole they seem to find it! I opened the ends and with the horn blasting on the quad bike managed to flush them out.

I arranged for 4x staff from Alapa (our viticulture contractor) to fix even the smallest holes they could find on Saturday morning even though they had already spent an afernoon fixing and patching all the holes they could find.

Yesterday, along with my very keen and able helpers, set up 2x bird kites and 2x gas guns to aid with keeping the birds a bit spooked and unsettled.

While harvest seems a long time away and there is alot that can happen between now and then I am really looking forward to seeing the start (and end) of this harvest.

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Sensational sunset

23 December 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

These pictures were taken early December when I was working late in to the evening. It's moments like these that you stop what you are doing and soak up and appreciate what you have and being fortunate to be able to experience the present.

Wishing you all a safe and Marry Christmas wherever you are in the world and may 2012 be a healthy and happy year full of adventures and good times.

Mauri ora

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Wildflowers galore

23 December 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

Our inter-row crops (Phacelia, Buckwheat and Alyssum) are flowering and what a magnificent sight. Wild boarge is also flowering and this is what some of the local beekeepers use with their hives in the Awatere Valley to produce stunning honey.

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Planting native plant species

15 November 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

The Landscape Marlborough team have been busy in the Awatere vineyard planting 650 native seedlings in various areas. Mixed purposes - wind protection for vines, erosion control, native plant restoration, amenity and beautification, reduce grass mowing and areas for people to enjoy some shade and beauty. All plants are naturally occuring from this part of the Awatere Valley with plants sourced from a local nursery.

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A slice of heaven

27 October 2011
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

With the warm temperatures and high rainfall over the past few weeks (200mm!!) our vines are growing steadily. The rain has meant however that some parts of the vineyard are very very soft and wet. So we have used a helicopter to apply the first spray of the season on our stage4 Pinot Noir blocks.

Gary the pilot did an awesome job dealing with our slopes, crests, and odd shaped blocks. It looked like he was having a real blast, weaving swerving, banking and generally zooming about!!!

See the photos for a bit more detail. I really like the way he has the DOG for a mascot!!

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It hailed down

19 October 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

Our Awatere vineyard got hit by a flash hail storm yesterday afternoon. What intially looked to be some rain within a few minutes of large rain drops massive amounts of hail stones started falling and lasted for 45 minutes. Widespread surface flooding. Looked like snow had fallen. Have to assess if any damage to new growth on the vines.

The event was very localised and confined to the upper Awatere valley only. Local farmers commented that they hadn't seen anything like it.

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SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!!

07 October 2011
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

Spring has definitely arrived here at Whenua Matua. We had a great deal of rain over last weekend, and the early part of the week. This combined with warm temperatures, and the soil warming up has meant a spurt of shoot growth on our Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir vines.

So its all go from now on... In six months time we will be picking the fruits of our labours once again.

The week after next will see the arrival of a hectares worth of Gruner Veltliner vines for planting, these will soon be followed by the same ammount of Albarino.

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Sowing the seeds

06 October 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

The recent rain provided ideal soil conditions for us to direct drill cover crops in to various inter rows throughout the vineyard. No cultivation required beforehand which will mean less damage to soil structure plus less tractor passes too.

We are sowing Omaka barley in every 10th row and a mix of Buckwheat, Phacelia and Alyssum in another 10 row pattern. Total of 10Ha.

We are also using the latter mix in some areas of surplus headlands to reduce mowing, fuel costs, time and carbon footprint.

A 3rd or half of the 12Ha organic block is also being direct drilled with Phacelia, Alyssum, Yarrow, Creeping red fescue, white and red clovers.

Chicory is being direct drilled in to a block (Parehua) that has vines with high vigour. We are trying to provide some inter row competition to control the growth of the vines.

Staff are looking forward to seeing germination and then watching the growth and ensuing flowers. Everyone is eagerly awating to see the overall effect, diversity of crops and increase of beneficial insects.

In autumn we are going to be experimenting with some permanent winter active, summer dormant grasses in headlands as another way to reduce mowing, improve soil structure and quality. The grasses being active in winter will provide feed for the sheep that we graze in the vineyard for five months.

We will keep you posted of growth.

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Fashioned

03 October 2011
Bruce Taylor Head Winemaker
Bruce Taylor

Its been a busy couple of weeks with some fun stuff happening like a winemaker dinner at Cafe Bravo in Tauranga last Wednesday. Dave our maestro rep for the coromandel, bop and everywhere else between wellington and Auckland organised everything, so naturally it all flowed purrfectly. Jonno and his diminished crew of one helper fed 59 people with amazing and interesting food to go with our Rewa, Muwgi and Rore. We also treated everyone with the truly awesome Buller Muscat (that we distribute throughout nz) which of course I couldn’t really talk about so took the opportunity to tell amusing stories about my life. The muscat is a truly iconic and wonderful ozzie wine so if you haven’t checked it out give our office staff here at Kono Beverages a phoneand they will happily sort you out with some of this or the other Buller wines we are looking after in NZ.

Tohu have also just been involved in Indulge Marlborough which was a Friday night celebration of fashion (kate Sylvester, stolen girlfriends club and sexy shoes from Kathryn Wilson) and 2011 marlborough wines. There was a great turnout of some extremely well dressed people (and the odd weirdo in mismatched shoes) with everyone enjoying new release sauvignon blancs from astrolabe, forrest, dog point, Whitehaven and of course tohu. The fashion parade was a total hoot and i was stoked i had made the call to wear my best trainers being front row in such fashionable company. A few blurry photos attached.

So apart from fashion shows and dinners what does a winemaker do at this quiet time of year? Thankfully for us this time of year is not too quiet with lots of wines being finished for bottling. During September we bottled a whole bunch of Kono sauvignon blanc for the thirsty Americans and also finished up and bottled our Raiha Reserve Riesling from this year. This was such a cool wine to make; for the first time ever we managed to encourage and get a perfect botrytis infection in our Awatere Riesling. This meant we hand picked this at 37.5 brix with beautiful dried bot; its important with these grapes to have the rot but then it is just as important to have a nice dry week or so to stop it all turning to slop.

This year; perfect. The whole process was challenging but the crew at marl vintners along with a bit of help from me and adam managed to squeeze through a huge long day of pressing. We settled this juice for quite a few days then it was racked and inoculated by yours truly in late may. What followed was the miracle ferment that behaved perfectly (thanks to laffort’s sauterne yeast) until it was stopped at 190odd grams of sugar and about 11% alcohol.....racked and filtered more or less straight away I thought we might as well bottle it before anything went wrong! So far, so good.....

So that seemed like quite a long blog this time with a fair bit of irrelevant rambling; mission accomplished! Naturally the valiant has attracted more comment than anything else so in keeping with giving people what they want i’ve slipped in another snap.

Busy week ahead with visitors from france, marlborough wine and food festival on Thursday, bottling 2011 Marlborough Chardonnay, tirage bottling of 2011 Rewa (more on that next time) and then I’m off to America for a couple of weeks working with our importers.

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The amazing see-through tractor

29 September 2011
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

We have unfortunately had a bit of a mechanical problemette with one of our tractors here at Whenua Matua.

Clutch, and hydraulic hose repairs meant we had to "Split" it to get to fix the broken bits.

I attach a picture mid way through with the motor separated from the body by a foot or two!

Tags: Whenua Matua, tractor, repair

The long and the short of it.

29 September 2011
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

What a busy few days we have had. Nelson has been hosting Rugby teams from Italy and the USA as part of the Ruby World Cup.

And in honour of that event there has been a wine competition between USA, Italy, and the wines of Nelson.

On Tuesday we were lucky to host one of the judges of the wine competition :Renowned Italian viticulturist and wine writer Riccardo Castaldi. We had some profitable discussions;

About the wine (V.Good)

The weather(V.Good)

The use of sheep in the vineyard for leaf plucking(V. interesting)

Italy's chance of winning the Rugby World Cup (V. Unlikely)

It was truly wonderful to host such an enthusiastic Viticulturist and I think we both learned something from each other. Riccardo was enthusiastic, and impressed with our wines.

There is as you will see a photo of Me and Riccardo. Whether he is very tall, or I am short, I leave to you; gentle reader to decide!

Tags: Whenua Matua, Wine, competition, Rugby,

Jack was a bit frosty this morning

26 September 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

First frost fighting call out this morning for the new growing season. Early this year. First call out last year was 13 October. Alarm went off at 0200hrs and after monitoring temps on the computer for an hour or so and seeing them dropping I headed off to the Awatere - a 40 minute drive away. Leigh had already headed off to the Waihopai as the alarms had gone off as well.

Stomach churning with a wee bit of dread as to what you are in for despite all the pre season preparation and having experienced 5 years of frost fighting still doesn't make it any easier. One of the most difficult times of the year for me. Nerves, lack of sleep, 8 - 10 weeks of anticipation etc all adds to quite a challenging and trying period.

Arrived at the vineyard and drove around checking temps, set up protection systems and at 0500hrs temps got cold enough to start up the water pumps for the sprinklers for the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blocks. Some relief to get things going. On going monitoring and checking until sun comes up, temps rise and then able to turn systems off. Sprinklers turned of at 0900hrs on the last block - 1.0Ha of Chardonnay which is tucked down on a terrace and takes awhile for the sun to get round there. Lowest temp of -1.6 in one of the Pinot Noir blocks. Waihopai had -1.8 in a SB block.

A stunning morning/sunrise casting light on heavily snow capped Mt Tapuae-O-Uenuku. I always enjoy sunrises as for me it heralds a new day. As the day dawned further the extent of snow became more apparent! Even the local farmers were surprised how much snow there was.

After completing a few minor repairs and setting the system up on standy again in readiness for another forecasted frost tonight I headed home to have lunch with my wife as I missed having breakfast with the family. Out to the office for a few hours and home for tea and now supper as I write this before heading to bed and hoping the alarm doesn't go off for a wee while yet. Goodnight..........

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Aniwaniwa

23 September 2011
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

As I arrived at Whenua Matua this morning I was greeted by the sight of a beautiful rainbow arching high over the Pinot Gris blocks, and bathing the whole property in a lambent glow, and a warm effulgence.

I got out of my vehicle to get a better look and to see if there was an Air New Zealand gold medal at the end of it.

As I stood gazing in rapture at this stunning piece of nature's beauty I heard, as if at a distance the sound of unearthly and ethereal music. I wondered greatly about this until I remembered I had left the CD playing in my truck!!!(Pink Floyd Echoes if anyone's interested)....

Aniwaniwa is the Te Reo word for rainbow.

Tags: whenua Matua, Pinot Gris, Aniwaniwa

A Great Saturday

19 September 2011
Bruce Taylor Head Winemaker
Bruce Taylor

Ive just read Mondo's blog below and was a little taken aback that he is intending to write another 228 blog posts......this is only my second so Im feeling a little inadequate/slack really.....

But thankfully this weekend has provided me with amply opportunity to write something interesting (you can be the judge though....)

In fact it all started really well on the Friday when we at Tohu hosted our brothers and sisters from Kono Horticulture who were in Marlborough on a fact-finding tour of our side of the business. It was a great reminder for us here in Marlborough that we are part of a bigger picture at Kono/Wakatu. A great bunch of people work for us across all our businesses and the horticulture team out of Nelson/Motueka were no exception; all lovely people genuinely interested in our side of the Kono story and its always great to taste our wines in such a spectacular setting as our Awatere vineyard on a beautiful day (wines always taste best in the place they were grown too for some reason.....)

The rest of Friday I will gloss over as I was involved in the Marlborough Wine Options evening as a competitor with the local Vitis team....suffice to say it was a humiliating experience that only served to remind me how big the world of wine is and how little I know about it! Thankfully the winning team was from Marlborough Vintners where we can now rest assured our wines are being looked after by some knowledgeable, worldly people....

Saturday was a better day though; mostly for personal reasons to begin with; my builder turned up for work at my house and finished what he had started two weeks ago (on a Saturday! Too much! If anyone needs a builder in Renwick email me for his details....)

This exciting development was followed by the purchase of an awesome new stereo amp, cd player and ipod dock for home (my poor neighbours....sorry about that Renwick....), closely followed by the repairing of my valiant's car stereo that was supposedly unrepairable....thanks to KA Electrical for that one...

Then to the evening.....Mondo and I attended the inaugural Marlborough Wine Show awards dinner to be presented with a gold or "excellent" rating for our just released 2011 Tohu Riesling. We were pretty chuffed about this by itself so were even more excited when we were called back onto the stage to be awarded the Trophy for Champion 2011/2010 Riesling! Very exciting for us all from the vineyard through the winery to the office for us to get such a reward. Rieslings are always a a bit of a winemakers favourite so an extra little buzz involved with that win. Our riesling is a very dry style of wine too so nice to be rewarded for what we think is a very serious wine that looks great now but will age well over the next 5 to 10 years too.....

And just when it seemed the weekend couldnt get any better my football team Manchester United cleaned up Chelsea 3-1......and even better Arsenal lost 4-3 to NZ captain Ryan Nelsen's team Blackburn Rovers! What a great weekend....

We'll be posting some pictures of Mondo and I in our swanky suits shortly; just to fill in this blog I thought I would share a photo taken by the lovely Jean, an Irish wine writer who I took out for dinner in my valiant earlier this week.....she only wanted to take photos of the car not the winemaker for some unknown reason.....

Tags: Riesling, trophy, valiant, manchester united,

Only 228 posts to go

13 September 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

Phil driving the 8th post in. He is super efficient and I admire observing, learning and working with people who know what they are doing. This work will take a couple of days and then they will be installing some grazing fences to assist with better grazing blocks and to protect our tree plantings.

Tags: Driver, posts, sheep, fencing

Spring

09 September 2011
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

After a wet, long winter it feels like spring is definitely here at Whenua Matua Vineyard. The warm rays of the sun bathe the vineyard in an effulgent glow. The air is heavy with the sound of skylarks, and lambs. The soil is warming up, and the buds on the vines are beginning to swell with the fecund promise of things to come.

Pruning has nearly finished, and we are looking forward to budburst in the next week or so, and the start to the growing season.

Tags: pruning, whenua matua

Bottling Season

25 August 2011
Bruce Taylor Head Winemaker
Bruce Taylor

Well this is the first of my blogs about the winemaking side of things for Tohu and Kono wines....

As usual for this time of year we are flat out preparing wines for bottling which means lots of trials and filtering and finishing of the 2011 wines. We have already bottled over a quarter of our 2011 volume as we rush to meet our customers demands for new vintage wines (thanks sales people; good on you!)

Ive attached a couple of photos from late last night as we are bottling 2011 Kono for the USA and 2011 Pinot Rose for NZ summer.....very exciting to have a new product like the Rose to make and it seems to be really well received so far so no doubt there will be even more next year.....

Bruce

Tags: Tohu, Kono, bottling, rose

Get it on

17 August 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

We managed to get our fertiliser on the week before all the snow and rain arrived - whew! Previously wet areas had dried out enough for the spreader truck to get on to these areas.

We used a helicopter to spread areas that the truck couldn't access - steep terraces. It was all go to get it on - great team work all round.

Tags: Fertiliser, Chopper, Awatere

Stripping at the Awatere

07 July 2011
Mondo Kopua Marlborough Vineyards Manager
Mondo Kopua

This season we are using a mechanical vine stripper (KLIMA)for majority of the Sauvignon Blanc at Awatere. Last year we trialled 5.0Ha and were very pleased with the result. All of the Sauvignon Blanc at Waihopai was stripped with the KLIMA last season and this season. KLIMA strippers are either harvester or tractor mounted. Amazing technology and engineering.

Tags: Tohu, Awatere, Stripper, KLIMA

"Rewa" - Jewel in the Tohu Crown

13 June 2011
Jessica Thomas Marketing Manager
Jessica Thomas

Friday June 10th marked the release of Tohu Wines latest offering “Rewa” Méthode Traditionnelle Blanc de Blanc 2009.

After over 2 years in the making “Rewa” was officially launched at private party held last night at Harry’s Bar in Nelson, the ancestral home or “Rohe” of Tohu Wine’s collective of owners, The Wakatu Incorporation.

“Rewa” namesake of the native “Rewarewa” honeysuckle tree is crafted from Chardonnay grapes using traditional methods of bottle fermentation and ageing on lees, is a single vineyard wine with a complex and richly textured style balanced with fresh, juicy acidity and a toasty dry finish.

Bruce Taylor, Winemaker said that “it was great to see the 2 year process completed with such a pleasing outcome after faithfully following the traditional method of making this wine”.

Rewa with its eye catching gold and black label has also caught the eye of wine critics, with Sam Kim awarding it 5 stars/ 93 points and describing it as “an impressive offering from Tohu, one of New Zealand's most consistent, excellent wine producers”.

Rewa is Tohu Wines first offering of a Méthode Traditionnelle style wine and Chief Executive Mike Brown commented that “the addition of a blanc de blanc bubbles completes the Tohu range and offers our sales guys a real asset given our strong on-premise presence”.

Rewa will be available nationwide as of Friday June 10th.

An Auckland launch party is planned for Thursday June 30th at Sale Street Bar.

Tags: wine, bubbles, new release, methode traditionelle, rewa

The cycle starts again

19 May 2011
Jonny Hiscox Nelson Vineyard Manager
Jonny Hiscox

We have barely finished harvesting at Whenua Matua, but we are already planning for next vintage.

The leaves are now all fallen, and the vines are bare.

Assesments of vine strength will determine how we prune this winter.

I must admit I love pruning, and was unable to resist the temptation so I pruned a few rows of Pinot Gris this morning.

It was a perfect Nelson day, clear blue skies and gorgeous sunshine....I probably wont be quite so enthusiastic when its foggy and frosty!

Tags: pruning, pinot gris,

Tohu blog goes live!

12 May 2011
Jessica Thomas Marketing Manager
Jessica Thomas

Kia Ora and welcome to our new Tohu Vineyard Blog! Our aim is to keep you all regularly informed of the latest news and views from our Vineyard and Wine Making Team.

Watch this space for informative and entertaining commentary from the Team. Regular Bloggers will include:

Bruce Taylor, Winemaker

Mondo Kopua, Marlborough Vineyards Manager

Jonny Hiscox, Nelson Vineyard Manager.

I'll also provide the occasional update from Marketing with regards to our presence at trade events and tastings, sponsorships, new product launches and reviews.

We look forward to sharing the Tohu story with you.

Ngā Mihi,

Jess

Tags:
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