A Split Personality! Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and My Social Media Journey

I am developing a split personality. I am not quite sure where this blog is heading. It started out as a way to track our wines through the year after harvest, but it seems more of a Social Media commentary each time I post to it!

Each day I am amazed how much there is to learn about social media and story-telling, and the communication vehicles that are available. Today I just watched the launch video for Google Wave, and the technological advances were mind-boggling. How I put that together with my small steps in Twitter and Facebook I'm not sure yet. What I do know is that all this stuff is converging , and it will get easier day-by-day for the user to communicate with people interested in their products (in our case, wines obviously). I am also learning that there are good and bad ways to use these tools. I guess the single most important learning is that one cannot use these media to 'push' your product at people. There is no better way to turn them off. But, if you can share valuable and credible information with the internet community, the folk who like what they see will contact you. People often say that social media takes too much time. My view is that the the 'time' bit is correct, but not the 'too' bit! Who would not want to talk directly with their customers? There is no doubt we are getting tour booking and winery sales from these initiatives. Not a lot, but growing slowly. Just as important are the on-line relationships I now have with wine lovers all around the world. We share information about our wines, other wines, images, experiences and our locations. It brings us closer together in a relationship that certainly has a commercial element to it, but in which the commercial side follows on from a meaningful and more comprehensive relationship based on information exchanges.

On the wine side, we had a bit of a bad week last week when we had a blend of Pinot Noir all ready for bottling and the labels were a 'no-show'. Luckily we found out about that before we had pumped the wine (13,000 litres!) into the tanker for transport down to the bottling plant. So, just put a layer of protective argon on top of the wine in tank until the labels turn up. Argon is a gas that sits on top of the wine, and does not dissolve in it. The gas forms a protective layer between the wine and the air. Still a bummer to lose the bottling date. Now we need to wait until another one is available; hopefully not too long as we have export customers waiting for the wine
Went for a stroll in the vineyard to get over the stress (mine was not as bad as Winemaker Carl's though!), and cheered myself up when I saw how good the 2010 Pinot Gris, is looking -  as the image above shows. I often get asked about the differences between Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir, and the answer is not a lot. The name comes from the fact the berries are not as dark as Pinot Noir. They are grey in colour, not black and Gris is simply the French word for grey; as is Grigio in Italian. That said, the berries are quite dark this year, but we will separate the skins from the juice quite quickly so the wine will still be white.

You have all read my earlier grumbles about the cool weather slowing ripening in older posts. Well the last week has been great with a warm, dry start to autumn, which just as well as we are seeing colour changes in the poplars now. The grapes won't be far behind. Every warm day is a big plus. In the winery we are setting up the equipment ready to handle the harvest; destemmer, ferments, tanks, etc, so the excitement for crush 2010 is building!

Time to learn a new word? Try Veraison!

This is what we have been hanging out for, veraison. Which is what?? Well read on: There are many European words that have been adopted by New World winemakers often because one French or German word can replace a sequence of English ones. Véraison is no exception: it is a wine-making term meaning "the onset of ripening". It is originally French, and the official definition of veraison is "change of color of the grape berries." Veraison represents the transition from berry growth to berry ripening, and many important changes occur in berry development occur at this time.


The accompanying image shows what I mean, so berries are still green, other partially coloured and some quite dark. What we want now is warm weather for a couple of weeks to ripen all the berries fully. It is this phase of development that gives the sugar levels and flavours we need, while the acidity drops and the seeds mature. It is this ripening which makes grapes so attractive to birds, and requires the nets we talked about in the last posting to keep them away!

This year we are very late in reaching veraison and so are keeping everything crossed for fine weather over the next month, leading into harvest. We have a winemaker from France joining us this year for vintage, so I will have even more French lessons for you all soon. 


On the social media front, we now have a Facebook page in place for Murdoch James Estate http://www.facebook.com/pages/Murdoch-James-Estate/306091360747  - now to use it. Meantime have a look and tell me how you'd like it to evolve! I also recently got my first Twitter spam messages, but at the same time am getting lots of encouragement to persevere. Good feedback on the blog too, so if any readers would like a specific topic covered, let me know via the comments section

100,000+ Meters of Bird Netting!!

Finished at last. The team have laid out over 100 kilometers of bird netting in the last 3 weeks - that's a long way, and a mountain of nets. We actually had to build an extra shed to store them when not in use!

Have a look at the attached images. We use side nets as that allows us to continue to manage the canopy, even after the nets are on. Many vineyards use over-row nets but, while easier and less time consuming to apply, these don't permit any further trimming after they in place. The downside with side nets is that there is a lot more clipping of the nets together to keep the birds out. We buy the bio-degradable clips we use in lots of 500,000, so think about that too!

It took 2 guys working flat out nearly two weeks to finish the clipping, then last weekend a gale (150km+ winds), broke quite a few clips so we had to replace them. In fact the winds were so strong on our 'Highfold Block' that several vineyard posts snapped off - now that's a strong wind. These are not thin sticks we are talking about. We like the sloping vineyards for their extra sunlight hours, no frosts and the great drainage, but times like this do make one realise the saying "no gain without pain" is very true.

Why do we need nets? It's because of the *$%%$@!# birds! If we did not net we would risk losing upwards of 20% of our fruit to the little devils. If they just took the odd grape and flew away, that would not be so bad, but what actually happens is that they peck a hole in one grape on a bunch, enjoy some of the juice and move on. That grape then weeps the rest of it's juice onto the bunch, it then goes mouldy and is lost to us. On top of the nets, we use measures like scarers and hawks (we hang meat out for them & when they come for the meat, they frighten off the smaller birds). Other wineries use all sorts of things: electronic scarers, scarecrows, gas cannons and so on. It's a real battle and people try all sorts of things, but believe me, the birds work out ways around all of them. They may be small, but it's not a one-sided fight!!!

Murdoch James 2004 'Blue Rock' Pinot Noir

Just a quick post today for anyone who has some of our 2004 'Blue Rock' Pinot Noir in the cellar. We tasted one recently from our library stocks, and the view was that if you still have any we would recommend enjoying it now. While the wine will not 'fall over' tomorrow it is just past it's best, so sensible to enjoy it soon. It is from a cooler vintage where the wines did not reach the depth and concentration we usually achieve at Blue Rock. 


The colour is a pale garnet, and shows signs of reaching maturity. As lovers of this wine will recall, it is made solely from the Abel clone of Pinot Noir, which constituted much of Martinborough's original plantings. This is a clone with lovely floral notes in the bouquet, and a rich pallate. This wine did not disappoint in that respect; it had hints of violets on the nose, with rich savoury elements and a hint of earthiness. The texture was smooth and silky after 5 years in bottle. Enough acidity remains to provide a good backbone to the remaining fruit (cherries and red berries). Enjoy now.

Vega Sicilia

Time for a change from vineyard discussions!

Thursday last week, we had dinner with some dear friends down from Auckland. We have known Tom and Faye for over 30 years, so the occasion deserved a decent wine. I went down to our cellars at Murdoch James Estate to see what I had in my personal wine collection, and found a bottle of 1970 (yes, 1970) Vega Sicilia Unico. Actually, I found 6 bottles, which is great, as you will see from the following tasting notes.

Vega Sicilia is Spain's most famous vineyard and many of the wines they make are held back 10 or more years after bottling, before release - in the case of the 1970, I believe it was 20 years!

Notes: Dark, almost  inky in colour, just a hint of browning at the edges; when first poured a little restrained (you would be too after 40 years!), but in the glass, really opened up with earthy, leathery notes emerging. Every time we took a sniff, it opened up even more. Hints of lovely red fruits at the end - I could have sniffed this wine for hours. In essence, the nose opened up to a complexity we rarely see in such old wines. 

Then to taste it.... unbelievable!  Vibrant acidity, with dark fruits and still robust wood notes. After all this time, the wine was perfectly integrated, and although a earthy with a masculine finish, it had a lingering delicacy on the finish that justified current selling prices (up to US$ 750 I'm told).

Ah well, back to budgets and making much more modestly priced wine tomorrow!

Plucking!

I have been talking about 'plucking' for the last few months, and have recently been asked to clarify the term. Well, OK. It has nothing to do with chooks - that's the first thing. It's all about showing the grapes to the sun and wind. As always, pictures tell a thousand words, so here's a 'before' shot:

And here's the 'after' shot:

In the first image, the grapes are hidden by the leaves. In the second shot we have pulled off all the leaves around the bunches to let air circulate which reduces the risk of mildew and disease and to let sun in; again to reduce disease risk. Both also result in the grapes developing thicker skins, which gives us more to work with when fermenting. Thicker skins allow us to extract more flavours and tannins.

As always, feel free to drop me a note if you have any questions about the foregoing. And, feel free to share my blog link with anyone you think may be interested. It is:
http://birthofawine.blogspot.com/2010/01/plucking.html
On the social media front, I'm getting there!! We purchased a flip camera the other day, so maybe video on the blog soon! Also, our Twitter sites are growing in support. I'm still working on our Facebook presence - will tell you more soon. One key development from our increased exposure has been the jump in contacts from people who like and and have tried our wines - from all over the world. It has been an exciting discovery.

Ready to go

Winemaker Carl is happy today!!
We are finalising several wines for bottling the first week of February, and over the last month or so, our glycol system (used for cooling the wines) gave up the ghost. Ten years old, the plastic pipes were starting to crack and leak. We have had to replace all the lines with special new pipes (guaranteed for 50 years, so that's good), but at a cost of over $15,000! I've long since learned that when pricing anything in a winery start with 3 noughts!  After installation and testing, it is back in operation.

Which is great as Carl is preparing the 2009 Chardonnay, 2009 Pinot Gris, and 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, as well as the 2008 Syrah and the rest of our 2008 Pinot Noir for bottling on February 4 and 5. Watch this space for feedback on the wines - we are very happy with them, but until in bottle and settled down, we are always a bit nervous.

The cooling system is essential during vintage as well, but at this time we need it to cold stabilise the wines before the bottling run. Chilling the wine down forces tartrates to crystalise out of the wine. If not removed the tartrates form in the bottle, and while harmless, detract from the appearance of the wine

The weather sucks!

I’m tired!
•    Of rain!!
•    Of cold weather!!
•    Of wind!!

The last three weeks, which are generally assumed to be part of our peak summer months, have been rubbish. Have a look at the accompanying image – this is one of the roads in our region! Totally unseasonal rain has created slips and floods.......

The weather is costing the grapes time as it slows development down. We continue to run well behind a normal time-line and are hoping for warmer weather to make up lost time. Next week we finish ‘plucking’. This is stripping the leaves away from around the growing grape bunches, to allow sunlight to reach them and for air movement to prevent humidity and mildew.

On the social media side, we had a team workshop last Friday on the new technologies and how we might use them. I have to say the flow chart linking all technologies looked a bit like a pile of spaghetti: You Tube, Twitter, Picassa, Google, Facebook, etc, etc. I did learn that You Tube is now the second largest search tool on-line after Google – amazing. It was a great day seeing what is on the e-horizon!!!! I'm getting there with it all.

Grape flowers and Twitter!

In the vineyard, flowering is now well underway, but it is interesting to see just how variable it is across and between varieties. Some clones of Pinot Noir are up to 50% flowering, while others are less than 10%. The more sheltered blocks are also doing well, which is not surprising.

Once flowering is complete then the decision will be made as to how much fruit we need to drop. Meaning, how many small bunches need to be sacrificed to ensure a top quality crop. Always a difficult decision, as it feels a bit like dropping dollar bills on the ground, however with wine, quantities must be kept low to ensure quality fruit.

On the commercial front we have been actively engaged in working our way through the implications of social networking for a business like ours, and in fact have set up a team workshop early January to ensure all our team is engaged with the initiative.

Those of you that have been following our blog will recall a few posts back I said “watch this space as a 60 year old learns all about new media”. Well I can report that it has been the most stimulating few weeks of my business life as I learn all about Facebook and Twitter. We are just finalising a page for the former and have today set up a Twitter link (@MurdochJamesEst) where I’ve just posted my first Tweet! That was about the first taste of our 2008 Syrah which we are now finalising the blending of for release in January.

Also doing some great stuff on sella (www.sella.co.nz). Check it out!! Log onto sella, then Stores, Murdoch James and bid in the auctions!!

Feel free to comment and/or make suggestions as to how I can improve our communications with wine lovers. My long term goal is to be able to talk directly to as many consumers of our wine as I can.

Flowering approaches

We are about to wind up for the day here at the vineyard, but before heading off, I thought a quick update was timely. The vines look great, and the weather is very settled, as you’ll see from this photo of my Airedale in the vines which as proud owner I’ll share with you.

But in thinking about today’s enjoyable weather, I am mindful that over a month ago I was boasting about how far advanced the vineyard was and that we were off to a flying start. Well, nature again has proved me wrong. We have had continuous and strong winds which have really knocked the vines about. The vineyard has gone from lush green to a dry brown in only a few weeks. While a little bit of wind is great, helping reduce disease risk, gales of 100km/h plus are certainly not.

The team has had to clean up branches from the wind-breaks, re-tuck vines we just tucked a few weeks ago and replace some wind-damaged trellising. Let’s hope things are a bit more settled from now on.

We hope for flowering next week, and want dry conditions with just gentle breezes. That combination will give us ideal flowering conditions, so fingers crossed. For interest I have included an image of a grape flower for you. As you will see, a pretty insignificant flower from which the magic nectar will flow!

In fact, if we have really good flowering, we may be faced with dropping some fruit to avoid the vines struggling to ripen more berries than they can handle. With the slowdown in growth we need to be careful we do not stretch the vines beyond their capacity. Always a tough decision, but it needs to be made early, so we don’t waste nutrition on grapes that won’t ripen.