I always get asked, "What's news" at Murdoch James?

Well, there is certainly some fantastic news to share today.

In an exciting development that reinforces Martinborough’s prominent position as New Zealand’s premier Pinot Noir producer, and our profile as a leader in the region, we recently announced that we are removing 10 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc vines and replacing them with Pinot Noir. In all, more than 25,000 vines will be replaced at a cost of over $300,000.

Chris Shaw cutting out the old SB vines

This is not a decision for the faint-hearted. Not only is there a significant cost involved; we also had to accept it can take up to 3-5 years for the new vines to return a full crop.

Does not mean we don't like Sauvignon Blanc; it just means we love Pinot Noir more. We will still be keeping around 20% of our Sauvignon Blanc vines, but the Pinot Noir plantings will nearly double.

Roger Fraser contemplating the change

The decision was made as we have not able to meet the export demand we have for Pinot. Every year we have to ration our customer orders. Against that background, using prime Pinot Noir vineyard land for Sauvignon Blanc did not make sense in either economic or strategic terms.

Easy to say that in the office, but when I went out into the vineyard today, it was a very emotional time. To see thousands of vines that have served us well being removed was heart-breaking.

What taking out 25,000 vines looks like

I just had to remind myself, this is the start of an exciting journey, where will capitalise on the strengths of our team and our terroir. 

Over the next three years we will tell the story of these vines, as they are planted and mature. So, watch this space for lots of updates.

Tough Vintage for 2012

I am currently travelling in Queensland, Australia, working with our major client's key stores; Vintage Cellars and First Choice. These are both top wine chains in the Australian market, with knowlegeable staff. The stores stock a great range of wines too. If you live in Australia, check them out sometime. Make sure you buy a bottle of Murdoch James Estate wine while you are there though!

Yesterday I was in a store in Brisbane and one of the team said " I would love to work on a vineyard and make wine, it must be great fun?".

I was prompted to say "Yes it is" but had to qualify the comment to "Yes it is, most of the time". The qualifier was because this year we had a very small vintage, due to cold, windy weather at flowering time, with the result that we had a much smaller fruit set than normal with some varieties. While our white harvest was top quality and good quantity, for some red varieties we had such small harvests that we will not be able to produce a wine from this vintage. An example is our 2012 Syrah. Such a small crop means it is not able to be bottled as a stand-alone wine. Does not sound so bad until you realise the implications; if there is no 2012 Blue Rock Syrah available, customers who enjoyed the 2011 and older vintages may change to something else before we release the 2013. Then we have to work with our retailers to rebuild the brand, and that equals time and money.

In other cases, like the Pinot Noir, the fruit was terrific quality, but the crop was down 40% per hectare. So we will make excellent wines from the Pinot Noir this year, but not a lot of it. We will just have sufficient wine to supply demand, so again sounds OK, until you dig deeper....

The cost per litre of wine is much higher in a small vintage than it is in a normal one. Think about it this way: we spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in the vineyard to grow our grapes. And we have to spend that regardless of harvest size. We need to prune, mow, tuck, hand pick, trellis, etc with a full crop in mind. Now, if we are targeting (say) 200 tonnes of pinot a year, and we only get 100 tonnes, we have still spent the money - it is a sunk cost regardless of what size crop we get. So in this scenario (2012) effectively our cost of production had doubled. If the normal cost of wine per bottle was $10, now it is $20. Can we increase our wine $10 per bottle to recover that? Sadly, the answer is "no way". In the current tight market, no retailer, importer or distributor is going to allow wineries to increase prices $10 a bottle, just because of a small vintage.

So, what happens is that wineries have to absorb the extra costs and hope to recover it from other vintages; again easier said than done. This is more so with smaller boutique wineries where they have no way to shed expenses. The big industrial producers who harvest with machines, buy grapes in, and have other scale benefits are less at risk. So think about that when you pick a wine up in a wineshop; in tough times, the small producers need coonsumer understanding of their need to recover costs. Maybe spend a few bucks extra and don't buy the big brand label that is on 'special'? Ask a store team member to recommend something a just little more expensive and enjoy it in the knowledge the extra $5 or $6 dollars is going to help a small, passionate producer somewhere. It will probably be a better wine too!

Hence my qualified answer.

Yes, vineyards are a great way to make a living, but make no mistake; they are not an easy way to make a living. Rest assured, boutique winemakers don't do it just for the money!

New Beginnings!

What's new at Murdoch James Estate then?

Well, those that follow my blog will know, we are fully committed to sustainable practices, and to us that means more than just monoculture and industrial scale wine making. For a long time now we have partnered the grapes with sheep to mow the grass, and have run Angus cattle on our unplanted land. This year we are excited to have begun yet another venture in parallel with the vines. We have recently started to build a herd of Belted Galloway's. This is a very rare breed of Scottish cattle, a perfect fit for Murdoch James Estate and our Scottish heritage!!

These guys really stand out in any crowd. They have a distinctive white belt around a black body, a double coat to cope with all weather, and a really solid, low-slung build. We will be breeding and raising pedigree cattle that can contribute to the viability of this lovely breed. I would describe them as gentle giants - they have a great temperament, are happy on all sorts of pasture and can handle our cold winters.

Best of all, they look just great. We have started with a bull (Fidel is his name) and three lovely cows in calf (Fidel is the dad). Shortly, they will be joined by 15 more that we will be bringing to the vineyard from another breeder in the South Island. This herd will then form the nucleus of our new initiative. They are not cheap; cows can be well over $1000, and a good bull 2 or 3 times that, but money is not everything, and we are all very excited about this new venture. Photos of the new calves to be posted in Spring, so click and follow our blog, to be kept up-to-date on how they fare! 

Weddings and High Tech Vineyard Mowers!

Sunday here at the vineyard - a lovely mid-winter day; cold and clear.

We have had a lot of people through over the weekend looking at using the vineyard as a wedding venue - we have a lovely facility that seats up to 120 people for functions and wedding. We hosted 24 weddings last year, so it is an important part of our business activity. The cafe also operates from September to May and that also brings a lot of visitors as well.

Other than the wedding couples, it has been pretty quiet though - not many customers for Cellar Door, so a chance to catch up on the administration.

We have been letting our export customers know about the new wines and getting them up-to-date with what to expect when they see them. It reminded me that one of the big expenses for a winery is samples. We have to send them all over the world to new and prospective customers, as well as to wine critics and reviewers. The freight costs are enormous, but it’s just an expense we have to bear. And, if someone tastes and loves a wine, then it can lead to increased business.

In the vineyard next week, we will be preparing for pruning, which should start in a week or two. Pruning is not the favourite job: cold weather and sharp secateurs are a combination that makes for lots of small cuts, and winter is never the best time to be working outside either!

We have had a local farmer put his sheep into the vineyard for winter grass and weed control. This avoids using the tractor to mow grass which would compact the soils, and also saves a lot of money in fuel costs. And, the sheep fertilise as they go! I call them my high-tech vineyard mowers!!