Matakana Winegrowers Inc. BLOG2010-07-30T03:40:47ZNo AuthorCopyright 2010, No AuthorSPHPBLOGLiving the Dream During this period you discover that you haven’t got this or that bit of equipment which you resolved last vintage to get, or you haven’t ordered enough of the various winemaking fermentation aids – yeast, nutrients etc, because you’ve under-estimated your crop size, or someone in the cellar neglects to open a valve and the pump hose gives way under the pressure, splattering crimson juice all over everything, or your quad bike breaks down and disrupts the whole logistical chain from picking to crushing so you have pickers standing by idle, or you get a heavy shower of rain and can’t decide whether to call it off for the day or take a punt on the weather clearing, or your refrigeration unit goes haywire just when you need to get a tank of juice chilled very quickly….. and so on.
Winemaking and cellar staff get leaner, fitter, hairier (male staff that is) and more tired as the season progresses. Their patience with themselves, each other, the weather, the equipment, and anyone standing around can at times be very frail, and sometimes they can be observed immobile, looking vacantly into the middle distance wondering just what it was they were meant to be doing next….
Some people rhapsodise about “living the dream”, to which I suggest they come and give it a go for a while, especially right now!
Fortunately there is a good measure of fun and satisfaction to balance the long hours and hard yakka. Vintage can be and usually is an exhilarating time, with lots of co-operation between different growers, lots of banter in the cellar, some beautifully ripe fruit coming in to the winery, a convivial beer at the end of the day, and a cellar full of gorgeous fermentation aromas. Then there is the satisfying prospect of eventually conjuring up a marvelous product deriving from soil and sunlight, which gives many people a good deal of pleasure.
Robin Ransom, 16/4/09 Originally published Mahurangi Matters May 2009]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090416-1305032009-04-16T00:00:00Z2009-04-16T00:00:00ZComing up Rosés Without going into technical details or gushing aroma and flavour descriptions it is fair to say that the traditional process produces a more distinctive, unique and enjoyable product and one with more winemaking integrity than simply blending white and red wine.
This uniqueness and distinctiveness has in recent years begun to be appreciated by a much wider wine drinking market. For example growth in rosé consumption in the UK has been astronomical recently. Apparently 10% of all wine consumed there is now rosé. In New Zealand rosé consumption has also grown very rapidly in the last few years. We are not hampered by any particular regulations as to how we can make rosé wines, so there may be some examples made using the red-white blending procedure. In the Matakana region the number of rosé wines now produced has just about reached double figures, and to the best of my knowledge they are all made in the traditional manner.
True rosé is very different from the lolly-water formerly sold under the name of rosé, which gave it such a bad name for many. It is also very different from the red wines produced from the same grape varieties. Rosé can be delightful consumed chilled on a summer afternoon, or slightly warmer at this time of year and into winter – try it as an aperitif or with antipasti.
Call in to The Vintry next time you are in Matakana village and you will be able to taste the full array of local rosés. Approach them with an open mind and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed - you might even become a convert, as many others have in recent times.
Robin Ransom President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc. robin@ransomwines.co.nz. (Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, April 2009
]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090402-1316472009-04-02T00:00:00Z2009-04-02T00:00:00ZIt's not all bad In view of all this it is nice to be able to report some good news. It is clear from lots of anecdotal evidence that at least in some sections of the local economy, the anticipated recession has yet to take hold. Quite the opposite in fact. Warkworth Visitor Information Centre is reporting a big jump in visitor numbers this summer over last. This seems to be a pattern amongst businesses servicing the needs of visitors to the area and also the needs of locals who like to get out and about. The common experience has been a good season of trading to date, with some reporting a considerably better summer than previous years.
How can this be? Great summer weather? Partly, but while January was excellent, February has not been all that good, and yet the buoyant trading continues. The new motorway extension bringing more people in to the area? Partly, but business for many was going well long before it opened.
These effects are playing a part, but something else may be happening as well. Perhaps people are tightening their belts on big-ticket spending, especially overseas travel, and channelling more time and money into local recreational activities. The money not spent on bigger items allows this, but also it gives good times in the face of endless bad economic news. People are enjoying themselves without spending a fortune.
Even a relatively small proportion of Aucklanders making these sorts of changes means that we in beautiful Matakana and Mahurangi become the recipients of their recreational spending. In addition it seems that many local people – possibly more than usual, are also out and about and having a great summer with family and friends. That is all good for the local business community, and with more money coming into the area, it must be good for the wider community as well.
Robin Ransom Originally published in Mahurangi Matters March, 2009)]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090301-1320002009-03-01T00:00:00Z2009-03-01T00:00:00ZSunny skies, black clouds, silver linings This year we are all facing an uncertain future due to the gathering economic storm – black clouds on the horizon. Winegrowers have been alerted to the implications of this by our professional body, the Wine Institute of NZ. In the face of a potential reduction in demand for New Zealand wine offshore due to harder times economically, they have recommended that we consider bunch-thinning our crops so as to produce less wine. Bunch thinning is the process of selectively removing a proportion of every vine’s bunches of grapes a few months before ripening. This recommendation was aimed squarely at Marlborough, with its vast acreages of sauvignon blanc – its “savalanche” as one wit has dubbed it, most of which has to be exported. But it is a message we would all do well to consider.
Bunch thinning has the effect of reducing production costs but perhaps more importantly, smaller crops make better wine (all other things being equal). So the argument is that the increased wine quality that comes with bunch-thinning might help to minimize any drop in demand in a market where people are being cautious in their spending. At the very least it will help to keep a high quality image for NZ wine in the minds of our overseas consumers, which will put us in good stead for when the economic storm passes.
In the Matakana region the combination of a great spring fruit set and the uncertainty ahead gives us a double reason to thin our crops. Bunch-thinning is not much fun, but the combined economic and wine quality reasons for doing it are compelling.
The silver lining probably applies more to you the buyers of wine: If winegrowers heed the advice of their professional body, economic pressures may mean that over the next few years you will be able to buy even better quality New Zealand wines and at very good prices.
Originally published in Mahurangi Matters February 2009]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090201-1324042009-02-01T00:00:00Z2009-02-01T00:00:00ZPinot Gris Probably the best known Pinot Gris wines are those from the Alsace region of north eastern France. But it is widely grown elsewhere, for example in Switzerland, where it is known as Malvoisie, in Germany, as Rulander or Grauburgunder, in Italy, as Pinot Grigio, in Hungary, as Szurkebarat, and also in Austria, Slovenia, Moravia, Romania, Russia and Moldova, under various names. Pinot Gris is rapidly becoming a favourite in New Zealand, being currently our fourth most widely planted variety after Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with by far the fastest rate of acreage growth in recent years.
Pinot Gris (“grey pinot”) is apparently a natural genetic mutation of Pinot Noir, (“black pinot”). Pinot Noir is Burgundy’s famous red grape, and Burgundy is where Pinot Gris first appeared, in the early Middle Ages, so it has been around for a long time. The name is a reference to the skin colour as it ripens. Ripe berries can be anything from greyish-blue to brownish-pink, compared with the black of Pinot Noir.
The wine has a reputation for being luscious and sometimes unctuous. Some see it as being all about mouthfeel and texture, as it has more gentle flavours and aromas than many varieties. These characteristics make for great versatility as a food wine. Some New Zealand commentators puzzle at why it has become so popular, noting that there is not yet a recognizable New Zealand “style” of Pinot Gris. This is partly because some producers make it slightly sweet, while others prefer it drier and more crisp.
My view is that its popularity owes something to the fact that New Zealand wine drinkers have become more sophisticated in recent years, and have found in Pinot Gris an excellent food wine which is also an easy-drinking alternative to some of the aggressive, obvious, sledgehammer wines which have dominated our wine scene for many years, such as Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and oaky Chardonnay.
Pinot Gris wines from the Matakana region show some variation in style, notably in levels of sweetness, but they tend to share the gentleness of aroma and flavour which characterize the variety and make it so appealing for many. A great summer wine.
Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, January 2009]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry090101-1336122009-01-01T00:00:00Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZSyrah What do we know of its origins? Syrah comes from the Rhone Valley in Eastern France, where its apparent forebears, Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche, have been cultivated since Roman times. Two Northern Rhone regions, Hermitage and Cote Rotie are generally acknowledged today as producing the world’s finest wines made from this variety.
Syrah (then spelt “scyras” although probably pronounced as it is now) was brought to Australia in 1832 by Scotsman James Busby, considered the founding father of Australian viticulture. (Busby incidentally was British Resident in the Bay of Islands later in the 1830s and played a major role in the preparation and signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, as well as being the first person to make wine in New Zealand). He took several hundred vine cuttings to Australia, collected from all over France. From his initial plantings in the Hunter Valley syrah has spread all over and is now Australia’s most widely planted grape. These days it is called “shiraz” in Australia, although when and how that name came to be applied is lost in the mists of time.
Most New Zealand plantings of syrah are in Hawkes Bay. Some in that region see it as the great red hope which will re-establish Hawkes Bay as New Zealand’s premier red wine region. We are demonstrating that Matakana is also capable of producing very smart syrah. In this region, like its Bordeaux cousins cabernet and merlot, syrah tends to express warm, earthy complexity while Hawkes Bay versions can be fruit dominant. Both regions, along with Waiheke, are now producing some knockout wines from it.
Why has it taken so long for syrah to emerge in New Zealand? Maybe the wine industry here has always looked across the Tasman, seen how apparently well they do it there, and been a bit daunted about trying it here. However tastes in wine are changing as wine drinkers become more knowing. Australian shiraz has a “blockbuster” reputation while New Zealand syrahs tend to be more elegant and restrained – more like their Rhone Valley counterparts perhaps.
Indicative of how well we can do syrah is the fact that New Zealand versions are starting to show very well in Australian tastings, and in a number have outperformed the locals. While we are still tiny in volume it seems likely that the winegrowers of Oz are starting to look anxiously at our syrah efforts just as we have respected theirs for so long.
Robin Ransom Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, November 2008]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry081101-1355222008-11-01T00:00:00Z2008-11-01T00:00:00ZWine Competitions There are also human endeavours which are not so obviously suited to competition. Art, literature, and dare I say it – wine. Please note that what I am about to say is a wholly personal view.
For winemakers, good results in wine competitions can confer powerful marketing benefits. We experienced this in our early days while attempting to establish a profile. Winning medals in competitions and high scores in magazine articles really helped put us on the map. Wine competitions can also be useful for consumers who are less knowledgeable about wines by giving them some names to seek on crowded supermarket shelves. But this is where a cautionary note or two needs to be issued.
Wines can differ from each other in extremely subtle ways. So many variables come together in the growing of grapes and the making of wine that the range of aroma and flavour nuances is vast - virtually unlimited. Combine this with the fact that the appreciation of wine’s aromas and flavours is a deeply personal thing (like art and literature), then you have a situation where it is impossible to make valid, universally applicable judgements about merit.
On top of this, the conditions under which wines are judged in competitions make objectivity in evaluation impossible. Judges taste wines in “flights” comprising large numbers of samples and this goes on over many hours. During this process they are expected to be able to bring a wholly objective approach to bear on each and every wine they taste. Can you imagine being able to score the 67th wine you taste in a day in exactly the same way as the first, and to distinguish between them to the point where you can give them all a mark out of 100?
Pretence at such accuracy is a fanciful fiction. But to be fair, the bottom line for the inexperienced punter is that a wine with an award or a high score should be of a good drinkable standard.
Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, October 2008]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry081001-1400492008-10-01T00:00:00Z2008-10-01T00:00:00ZWinegrowers Whine As of September 1 a whole new layer of compliance has been added to the burden. A requirement of the Wine Act 2003 is that all wineries must submit a “Wine Standards Management Plan” to the New Zealand Food Safety Authority. The NZ Wine Institute did go to bat for winegrowers when this piece of heavy-handed bureaucracy was mooted to try and convince them how unnecessary it is for winegrowers, but to little avail.
The Food Safety Authority is motivated almost wholly by the need to avoid the contamination of food. As we have seen in recent years this has become a major issue through the apparently growing prevalence of many nasty biological agents which can cause severe illness. But wine, whilst technically a food, is totally “safe” from biological contaminants - its alcohol is enough to kill any microbial life likely to be a health threat.
We are henceforth obliged to establish and maintain data recording systems in excessive detail. Again the Wine Institute has come to our assistance by developing a standardized Code of Practice. But this requires comprehensive documentation of much of our grape growing activity and all of our winemaking operation.
When we have put together our plan a “Verifier” spends a day or so at our premises, entirely at our cost, checking our set up and all of our records against the plan to ensure that we are doing exactly what the plan says. It is not entirely clear how often we have to get “verified” or what happens if the verifier finds inconsistency between practice and plan. But one thing for certain is that it will involve more time and expense for the winegrower.
It is highly unlikely that winegrowers who already live or die according to the quality – “safety” if you like, of their product, are going to do anything they are not already doing to improve their practice as a result of this.
The thinking behind this sort of bureaucracy is that producers cannot be trusted to do the right thing, and the consumer has to be protected by Nanny State against these rogues. Winegrowers who value their integrity and are proud of their product may justifiably feel insulted by this new imposition, not to mention aggrieved by the additional time wasting and cost it requires.
Robin Ransom President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc. robin@ransomwines.co.nz Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, September 2008]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080901-1401482008-09-01T00:00:00Z2008-09-01T00:00:00ZSublime Inspiration Where there is no wine, love perishes, and everything else that is pleasant to man. Euripides (484 – 407 BC), Greek playwright.
Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine has ever been granted by the gods to man. Plato, (427 – 347 BC), Greek philosopher.
Without good wine, spring is not spring for me. Hafiz, (1325 – 1389), Persian poet.
Wine…one sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight beyond the bliss of dreams. John Milton (1608 – 1674), English poet.
Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil and… opens a new world, when this, the present, palls. Lord Byron, (1788 – 1824), English poet.
…good wine, well drunk, can lend majesty to the human spirit. M.F.K. Fisher (1908 – 1992), American writer.
Music is a psychological landscape, with all sorts of indefinable things. Wine is the same way. It has tastes that are very hard to define. When I drink a great wine, I get a sense of breadth – it’s like a chord sounding and echoing. Michael Tilson Thomas, Symphony Conductor.
My idea of heaven is to sit in a favourite restaurant with cheese and a glass of wine. Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright.
Some of these thoughts are perhaps a little overstated – poets after all are inclined to be lyrical, but there is a nub of wisdom and truth in all of them. So it is appropriate to give the last word to Pliny, Roman Scholar and Writer, who, around the time of Christ, coined the still famous aphorism in vino veritas – in wine, truth.
Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, August 2008]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080801-1341262008-08-01T00:00:00Z2008-08-01T00:00:00ZHealth and Pleasure More recently a large-scale study in Scandinavia aimed at isolating environmental and genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis, found that those who consumed alcohol regularly had a significantly lower risk of developing the disease.
Many of these studies have been epidemiological in nature. That is, they look at the health effects on populations – statistical effects, rather than health effects within individuals. In studies of this kind it can be difficult to isolate and evaluate all of the population characteristics which can contribute to the findings. But the sheer persistence and repetitive nature of “wine-friendly” research findings does make one wonder….
Another recent piece of research, this one from the US and not about health, looked at whether there is a link between the price people pay for wine and their enjoyment of it. This study was based upon a large sample of people doing blind tasting, so that they did not know what wine they were drinking. The sample contained both “expert” wine drinkers (those who had had some sort of training in wine appreciation), and “non-experts”. The findings showed that the non-experts tended to enjoy cheaper wines slightly more than expensive ones, while the experts preferred the more expensive wines.
I am prepared to bet that “the sugar effect” played a significant role in producing these findings. A good deal of wine is bottled these days with a little residual grape sugar, in order to broaden its appeal to the wider “non-expert” population, in a world awash with sugary beverages and foods. Because of the market these wines are produced for, they are made in large volumes and are generally cheaper. Most “experts” probably continue to prefer wines which are made in a more traditional dry style, with all of the grape sugar fermented out, because they complement food better. These wines are often made in smaller batches, with more care and attention both in the vineyard and winery, all of which makes them more expensive to produce.
Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, July 2008]]>http://www.matakanawine.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080701-1346562008-07-01T00:00:00Z2008-07-01T00:00:00Z