Ballons over Martinborough

Have just set up a new 'Comments' facility on our Blog, so this posting is really just a test of that. But I thought we should make it interesting with a nice image of ballooning over Martinborough!

While sitting on our beautiful deck I was speaking to a new contact this morning – Craig at www.MondayMorning.biz

He had called me because a wine lover in the USA had approached him through one of Craig's Twitter posts. The gentleman from the USA was planning a trip to New Zealand and was asking Craig about what sorts of wine experiences were available in Martinborough. Of course we could offer to help – as one of the regions oldest vineyards, we have a strong interest in wine tourism, and can offer visitors unique, in-depth tours, barrel caves visits, accommodation, and dining are just some of the options. The restaurant has just been totally redecorated, and for those who love good food, it is well worth planning a visit to check out the new menu.

You may also meet our very photogenic vineyard dog, Pepper!!

Over the years, we have received very positive feedback from visitors from all over the world, and no other winery in Martinborough can offer the combination of wine and food related activities Murdoch James Estate can.

But that was not what prompted me to draft this blog update. What actually got me typing were two other things. First, the round-about way this potential visitor will have found out about us through social networks. And, second, the conversation that followed during Craig’s call. We discussed the rise of social networking, how consumers now sought their information and made buying decisions, and the need for credible communications.

It all tied into several discussions I have been having with traditional media (radio and magazines) about advertising options. Often these are expensive and not as targeted as one would like, particularly for a smaller winery with limited distribution, such as Murdoch James Estate.

It makes much more sense to think through how to communicate directly with existing or potential customers. And at the same time, not to annoy them (for example, with large numbers of promotional emails) which I suspect we now do. Craig also made several other important points that made me decide to spend some time reflecting on how we invest our meagre promotional budget.

While we set this blog up to track our wines as they evolve through the year, it may well also become a bit of a record of how a 60 year old comes to grips with Twitter!!

If you have any comments on this or any of our blog posting, feel free to phone or email us.

Long time between posts!

Several of you asked what happened to our stuck ferment. Well we got it going again slowly by feeding the yeasts, but were not able to ferment as dry as the 2008. So a wine with a little more residual sugar this year. It is balanced with good acidity, so is going to be a pretty smart wine.

In the vineyard the vines are racing along. It is interesting to see the difference in growth at our Blue Rock vineyard compared to the vines in the village. Blue Rock is warmer, no frosts and different soils. As a consequence the vines are quite a lot more advanced. That is good as it gives us insurance against a cold snap during the year and growth slowing down a bit

Maria, who you all know manages our office, took a day of last week to play in her golf club championships and won it! Need a bigger cup though, for all that work!

Still the sun shines – long may it last! The vines are looking great.
Great sunsets too!

The bottling mentioned in the last post went really well, and even after allowing for bottling shock the wines look very promising. We have sent samples off to export customers so they can decide on future requirements. Their feedback is vital in helping plan for the future, in particular, when allocating the small volume premium wines.



Now the barrels that were emptied for the bottling run need to be cleaned before we put the rest of the 2009 vintage in them. So I thought it would be interesting to show you some shots of them being steam cleaned.

Well, the fine weather continues. Another lovely day and the chardonnay is racing away. The driveway is now finished, and looks great.

It will certainly make the winery a more popular destination for functions and weddings; as well as simplifying road maintenance (no more potholes) and no more dust nuisance.

Carl was loading the wines for bottling today. He started filling the tanker at 4.00am, so he could have the wine at the bottling plant ready to start at 8.00am. It was all over by 6.00pm and the wine now all bottled and cartooned ready for sale. We will be getting the samples off to our export customers asap, so they can finalise their requirement.

Bud Burst 2009

A stunning day here today - warm and dry. And, we have bud burst which is great, but about two weeks earlier than anticipated. With bud burst the cycle starts all over again – it is very exciting, and now we’ll watch over the vines as the grow foliage and then grapes!

Meantime, for the next 3 or 4 weeks, all we have to do is worry about frost! We had two severe ones yesterday and today, both reaching minus 5 degrees C, which had all the Martinborough wineries running their frost machines, flying helicopters, lighting their frost pots and anything else that they can do to avoid risk of frost damage. Fighting frost is an incredible task, and very interesting – if you want to know anything about it, drop us a note at info@murdoch-james.co.nz

We use water sprinklers on our Waiata block, and in the morning the frozen water is a beautiful sight. At our Blue Rock vineyard the sloping ground protects from frost. Why? Because frost behaves water, and so runs off sloping ground. We are very fortunate to have the only large vineyard in Martinborough planted on a hillside. Not having frost risk on our largest block is a very valuable benefit, and saves tens of thousand of $’s each year.

Time to tell you that even busy winery owners need time off!

Leaving Wellington on a cold winter day (about 10 C) we flew to Fiji for 3 weeks holiday. It has been great, as the accompanying images show - warm days (25-30 C) and mild nights (20 C). Very pleasant indeed! Unbelievable as it may appear, it has been hard to leave work totally behind, even though we have a very capable team at the winery. I think when one owns a business, it is almost impossible to totally switch off. It is almost like having a child!!

While we have been away, lots of things have been happening at work; the bottling process mentioned in earlier posts, finalising the 2009 wines and site developments. Most important of these is the sealing of our long gravel drive. No more dust in the café or cellar door, no more mud and potholes in winter and easier access for winery visitors.

To be able to afford to do this after 10 years is a real thrill.

I will include some images of the work in a future post. This improvement will help us sell the winery and cafe for more weddings and functions, an important revenue item for us. We hosted over 20 wedding in each of the last 3 years - all of which were great fun for us and the wedding parties

As mentioned in the last posting, while the final 2009 ferments are finishing in the winery, we are preparing to bottle the 2008 reds. That requires ordering cartons, screw-caps, labels and dividers from all our suppliers, then booking time at the busy local bottling plant. After that we finalise any blends, like our ‘2008 Martinborough Cabernets, and bring the wines up to the correct temperature for bottling. Like all liquids wine expands when warm and contracts when cold, so it is important to be in the right band to ensure the volume of wine put into each bottle is correct.

In 3 weeks we will bottle all the 2008 pinot Noirs (the Fraser barrel selection, the Blue Rock single vineyard wines, and the Martinborough regional blend) as well as the 2008 Cabernets. All require different labels, different bar codes, different size cartons and dividers, different colour closures, and different bottles; all of which is a huge logistical and planning exercise. Sometimes I wish we made just one wine like a lot of the Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc producers – bottling time must be much easier for them!

Maria's Birthday!

In the last week of September, we celebrated Maria’s birthday, as you can see from the accompanying image.

In a small company all members of the team need the skills, and willingness, to turn their hand to anything. Maria is no exception to the rule! She successfully runs our office and is the face of the company to the outside world – there is nothing she cannot do – tours, tasting, accounts, reception, and telephones are just a few. And, at vintage, she was responsible for the transport of grapes from the picking team to the press.

In the winery we are just about to blend the 2008 Fraser and Blue Rock Pinot Noirs, as well as the 2008 Cabernets (50:50 Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon). These wines will be released about 2 months after bottling, so they can recover from bottle shock. Bottle shock is the term given to wines just after they are bottled – the bottling line is hard on wines. Filters, pumps and vibrations all contribute to shaking the wine up and most take about 2 months to come back to their pre-bottling state.

For those following the saga of the stuck ferment, Carl has it working once more so we all are able to relax again, and look forward to bottling the whites on time!

This week, Carl (our winemaker) is wrestling with something no winemaker likes to talk about; a ‘stuck’ ferment. By ‘stuck’ we mean a ferment that stops before the wine is fully fermented. While not a common problem, it is a serious one to manage. Getting a ferment started again is both time-consuming and difficult. Without going into a lot of technical detail, stuck and sluggish fermentations happen when the uptake of glucose and fructose in the ferment is reduced or stopped as a response of the yeasts to various stresses. What we now have to do is get it sorted out as soon as possible, to protect the quality of the wine. It means a lot of work and worry for Carl.

On the lighter side, I found this lovely image of our Consultant Winemaker (David) getting a potential new consumer interested in wine.

In the vineyard pruning is about 50% complete. We have a new team this year that are very diligent and conscientious; the quality of work is great and gets us in great shape for next year.

It was a very frosty morning today, starting at a crisp -3C, but now a beautiful sunny day. Frosts in winter cause us no concern, but they will in spring, as the grapes are starting to bud. We use all of wind machines, helicopters and frost pots to fight the frosts. Best of all though is using water control. It is very efficient and environmentally friendly, but what I like most is the result in the morning as the sun rises. Have a look at the accompanying image - truly beautiful - this is sunrise on a frosty morning at our Waiata block, in the Dry River region.