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! 

Lab Work

I sometimes think a lot of folk get the impression that wine is all about growing the grapes in the vineyard and then converting them to wine in the winery. That is true to a large extent, as is the reality that the making of a great wine comes down to the creative talents of the winemaker. There are no formulas to follow slavishly, unless you are one of the big producers who are looking for the same basic wine year after year.

But there are a lot of technical things small wineries can do to help ensure we make a good wine and avoid risks. At Murdoch James Estate we have a small laboratory where we test sample from the vineyard before harvest to check sugar levels, and during ferments to track the conversion of those sugars to alcohol. We also test for things like acidity. This technical detail is then paired with winemaker Carl's judgement and palate to deliver the final wine.


For the vintage Maria, our Administration Assistant, worked with Carl in the winery over vintage to help with processing, plunging and pressing. But she also did most of the lab work; a very important task she completed with skill.






This year's grapes are now in, and nearly all the ferments are complete. It has been a lovely harvest and the Pinot Noir should be excellent this year. Fine weather made harvest a breeze, and the teamwork was terrific. Now the vineyard looks a treat as the autumn colours are coming out. In fact, when I was driving into work this morning, the poplars at the gate were stunning and I had to take a photo - not a bad place to work is it!!??
                                                        

Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and all the other Pinots!

Followers will have read in some my old blogs that Pinot Noir is a grape that can mutate quickly to Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Meunier. In each variety there are also lots of different clones. All occur quite naturally - no genetic engineering here! 

I found a good explanation of this recently on the 'pinotnoir.com' website. They explained that "Pinot Noir is a genetically unstable varietal. New clones, and to a lesser extent, new varietals are not uncommon occurrences in a Pinot Noir vineyard. Strolling through a vineyard of Pinot Noir, one may find one or more plants with single shoots that have characteristics unlike the rest of the wine. If you try to propagate these shoots into new vines, and all the buds on the new plant display the same attributes on the original shoot, then a new clone, or in extreme cases, a new varietal is born. Pinot Meunier, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc are some of the more successful mutations of Pinot Noir and produce distinct and unique wines on their own. Each differs from its parent, Pinot Noir, in the color of their fruit, and in the case of Pinot Meunier, a noticeable number of white "hairs" on the tip of the shoots".

If you think that this all sounds a bit odd, check out the two accompanying photographs. We are in the middle of the 2011 harvest (which I think could be one our best ever, but more about that in future blogs). When we were picking the Blue Rock Pinot Noir this year though, we found a bunch of grapes that was half Pinot Noir and half Pinot Blanc - yes same bunch. That is the top photo. 

BUT then when we looked more closely we also found a berry that was half Pinot Noir colour and half Pinot Blanc colour - yes, a single berry! All pretty amazing eh! Look at the second of the two photos and you'll see the berry I refer to almost dead centre of the image. I assure you no Photo Shop trickery here.


A few nice autumn shots below too, and a real bunch of Pinot Noir!

Is the Martinborough Region now producing the world's best Pinot Noir?

Now you all know from past blogs, that I have always thought Martinborough is the only place in New Zealand to grow classic Pinot Noir. By classic, I mean complex, layered, textured, savoury, lingering and long-lived. Well it looks to me if the world is about to realise that too!

Many newspapers and wine critics, including Huon Hooke, writing in the Melbourne Age, are head-lining the fact that a $200 bottle of New Zealand pinot noir beat off a strong field, including a $7000 bottle of French burgundy in a blind tasting in the US.

"Martinborough Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir 1998 triumphed over one of the world's most prestigious wines, 1990 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache, to take No.1 ranking in the World's Top 20 Pinot Noirs competition in Pasadena, USA. Twelve judges blind-tasted 20 wines from New Zealand, the US, France, Germany and Australia. The competition was based on the 1976 Judgment of Paris, which caused a sensation when a Californian wine was chosen over famous French wines. As well as being ranked No.1 overall, the Martinborough Vineyard wine also received the most No.1 rankings - from three of the judges".

From a personal perspective, we at Murdoch James came to Martinborough to grow Pinot Noir because it had the potential to craft wines equal to the best of Burgundy. Now we believe the world is about to find out how much the dedicated winemakers in our region have moved from potential to reality in regards to that criteria.

There is something special about the vines, soils, climate and people here that create a very special terroir. What you now need to look for are the subtle differences in Martinborough's sub-appellations. For example, the wines from the lime rich soils of the Dry River region are noticably different to those grown on the gravels north of the village.

Hay in the pond - Makes a change from grapes on the vine!

This winemaking is such a serious business, that I had to share this very different experience with you.

The consequences!

Our vineyard is about 32 hectares in size, but we only have around 22 hectares in vines. We also have about 10 hectares that we graze cattle on. This time of the year we close off a couple of paddocks to cut enough hay for me to get the cows through winter. Usually we cut the hay on one of our low lying blocks, but this year we decided to cut it on one of the sloping paddocks. That was no big deal if we had also stuck to cutting and storing the hay in the traditional small square bales. However, I decided to be efficient and to store the hay this year in the big round bales. Now, any intelligent person would have seen the consequences of this combination, but not me!

Chris to the rescue!

Round bales on a slope do only one thing. They roll downhill, and fast. So I have had to drag them out of drains, ditches, holes, but worst of all, out of our ponds!!

When it came time to call for volunteers to swin out and retrieve the floating one in the big pond, candidates were few and far between!! In the end, Chris jumped in and pushed it to the side where, after 3 broken ropes, we finally managed to drag it out with the vineyard tractor. Remember these big bales are 10 times the size of a traditional one, so are pretty heavy, even before they get water-logged!

On dry land at last!

All great entertainment on a Friday night for sure!!

Monday it was back to vineyard work - somehow not that exciting by comparison! That said, we are having a wonderful year with the grapes. A warm and dry Spring followed by a hot, dry Summer. Just a few more weeks of this and we should have a stunning harvest in terms of both quality and quantity.

On the road again.......

I'm in Singapore this week for the NZ wine promo. Tonight (Saturday evening) was a consumer tasting at Loof. Loof is a rooftop bar/restaurant in that great city. They describe themselves as: "loof is a bar on a roof, a playfully versatile space which is multidimensional, split-level, and a juxtaposition of raw against refined. loof is designed as a refuge for the bedraggled office worker, a respite for the brilliant mind, a sanctuary for fools, a canvas for the budding artist and the launch pad for a brilliant night." Sounds great eh? That's what I thought too, but try pouring tastings for a big crowd in 30 degrees plus, and near 100% humidity! Anyway, good fun and lots of new converts to Murdoch James Estate wines. And a great location. The bar is on the roof of an office block with spectacular views of Singapore and nearby skyscrapers. Think I'll just come for a glass of Murdoch James Pinot Gris and enjoy the view next time though.


Tomorrow is a free day then Monday is full on with trade and media promotions. 

While I am away working hard to get Murdoch James established in the key Asian markets, back at home wine-maker Carl is preparing to bottle our specialty wines: 'The MacIntyre' (our port style fortified red, named after a much loved old friend who died last year), the 'Rhiannon Rosé (this is our Pinot Meunier rosé named to celebrate the birth of my first grandchild), the 2010 Riesling, the 2009 Blue Rock Pinot Noir and the 'Trafalgar' (our ice-wine style late harvest wine). Lots on, but very exciting. There are some great wines in this grouping! Make sure you are on our contact list if any sound interesting as most of these will just be sold at cellar door or direct to our regular internet customers.

Our Chardonnay vines bite the dust!

A few months ago, we made the hard decision to remove our 26 year old Chardonnay vines.

They were ungrafted plants which, for those that do not know, meant that they were vulnerable to phylloxera which is a sap-sucking bug related to aphids. This bug eventually drains so much goodness from the vines that the plant will die. Martinborough was free of this problem until about two years ago when poor quarantine practices at one of the local wineries saw it established here. Now with phylloxera one thing is certain - if it is in town it will spread to all the local vineyards eventually. So the upshot is that all ungrafted plants here are going to die.

What folk now do to avoid this risk is to graft the vines you want (i.e. Syrah, Reisling or whatever) onto phylloxera resistant Amercian rootstock

But phylloxera was not the main driver for the decision. We are in Pinot Noir territory and if we make a great bottle of Pinot, we can sell it for upwards of $40, while a chardonnay will command a much lower price. So it came down to simple economics. In this difficult financial era we have to optimise our efforts, and so we have decided to replace the chardonnay with Pinot Noir.

Now that is an easy decision to make in the winery office, but as you can see from the photo above, heart-breaking when you look at the consequences for these old vines. Specially when one then looks at where the other vines are up to at this time of year. All are now bursting with new life as the sap starts running and the buds break out; as the accompanying shot of our Pinot Noir vines shows.

As you can see we have cut the charonnay right back and will pull out the roots by tractor, leave the ground fallow for a year, then replant with grafted Pinot Noir. For those wondering why everyone did not just graft from day one, think about this: an ungrafted vine is free (just stick a cutting in the ground and the vine will grow), but a grafted vine comes from a nursery and costs between $4 and $6 each. So you can see why folk were tempted to go with ungrafted plants when they might need thousands of vines!

The saddest day at Murdoch James Estate

Obituary: Pepper Fraser.

Pepper - The Chardonnay 'Guard Dog'!

Last week we lost our beloved Pepper. For those that do not know she was an Airedale we raised in Australia and brought back to New Zealand when we came home to plant our first vineyard. She has been Jill's and my companion for over 14 years and she welcomed many folk at our the cellar door all that time. Everyone got an inspection and had to pass approval before being allowed in, and a few pats on the way past were obligatory. In later years, as she aged, the process changed a bit. In the last few years, she just lay there happily, lifted a leg for visitors to scratch her tummy, then they had to step over her to get to our restaurant or tasting room. 

Lovely, gentle and friendly, she converted many children who were frightened of large dogs to dog-lovers. It was great to see, and over the years many kids have come back to the winery looking for her. It was always a great thrill to see them recognise her and rush to pat her, pull her tail, or just cuddle her. 

Sadly no more now, but our memories of those 14 years are rich and rewarding;  'walkies' every morning and night, a big wagging tail at the front door on arrival home (no matter how late we were), a big snuffly head out the window of our cars as we drove through the smells of the New Zealand country-side, a patient companion sitting at our feet in the office while we worked at nights communicating with customers all over the world, but best of all unconditional love from a wonderful dog. 

As I write this I find it unbelievable anyone can abuse pets. In doing so, while demonstrating they are undeserving humans, they are missing out on one of the most uplifting experiences anyone can ever enjoy.

Raising a puppy teaches you patience and tolerance (think chewed favourite shoes and furniture!) but most of all it taught me that most of the stuff people consider important in the world pales beside the experience of sharing part of your life with a very special pet. The sad thing is that they don't live as long as we do, so parting always seems to come too soon and with a rush.

While we knew the end was approaching, it was still heart-breaking the day she passed away.  

Pepper - all your family and friends, your acquintances, visitors to the winery, your buddies in the local dog population, the postman, and our neighbours, as well as Chardonnay, Rocco and Winston, will miss you for terribly. But in the fullness of time we will recall with increasing pleasure the best dog anyone could have been fortunate to have been given the gift of sharing 14 years with. 

RIP

Are elections all bull?

Lot's been happening in the last few weeks. Firstly one of our New Zealand distributors has merged with another company and no longer need us, so we have been given the 'pink slip' and asked to move on. Not too bad an outcome actually as they did not sell a lot of our wine, but still disappointing after all the work we put in. However, that's life and as consequence we need to identify a new partner to help us sell our wines in the domestic market. While we are doing that I have been out an about in the market calling on key customers and filling the gap. To that end I was recently in the Hawke's Bay to see a key on-line marketing company, and on the way back to Martinborough I spotted the accompanying scenario in a paddock just outside Havelock North. Nothing to do with wine, but it really made me smile. Does this bull know something we don't? Or is he telling us to vote for Mr Mackintosh? Or does he just think local politics is a load of 'old bull'?

In the vineyard, the team is almost finished pruning and the canes they have had to work with look great, so we are looking forward to a good vintage in 2011. But the most exciting news of the month is the recent arrival of Rhiannon, my first granddaughter (and maybe our future wine-maker!). Well.........  maybe I should not get too far ahead on myself, but as the great granddaughter of Murdoch James Fraser, she is the 4th generation of the Fraser Clan to be involved with our winery so it is all just wonderful.

With spring upon us and summer just around the corner, the restaurant and cellar door are picking up as well. Quite busy most weekends and great feedback on Bloom Restaurant and Terrace. We have a wonderful team there who lease the restaurant from us. Michael and Jerry have been open just under 12 months and the number of repeat visitors is amazing. With a lovely deck ready for summer, and their decision to move to a full organic menu, we can only expect that to continue and for their business to grow. And this is good for Murdoch James of course, as visitors to the restaurant often stop for tastings, to but wine, or to do one of our 'Grape to Glass' tours.

Our Man in Japan

Yesterday was one of the hardest days I have worked in a long time!  We participated in the New Zealand Winegrowers Toko Wine Fair, and the turnout was exceptional. There was a trade tasting first, from 12.30 to 5.00pm, than a short break, followed by a consumer tasting from 6.30 to 9.00pm. There were over 400 people at each event, tasters were often 2 or 3 deep in front of our stand, there was the excitement of working in a language we had little knowledge of, we were on our feet all that time, and no time for coffee or a snack - so, don't let anyone tell me that travelling and promoting wine is a junket!!

That said, while it was a very long day, it reminded me of the need to be out talking to all our customers worldwide. This event gave us the opportunity to present our wines to customers directly and to start continue building a bond with them. The wines were extremely well received and our importer Pony Group Inc has indicated they will add another 2 wines (Pinot Gris, Martinborough Pinot Noir or Syrah) to the two they already carry (Fraser and Blue Rock Pinot Noirs), so that was a great outcome. We have worked with the Pony company for about a year now and we could not wish for a better partner. A great hard working team, organised and capable of selling premium wines in a challenging market. Mr Wada is the sales manager (here in the photo on the left) and he is very supportive of our wines. We also had assistance from one of the Pony team as at each session and that was invaluable for someone whose Japanes does not go much further than 'konichiwa'. Tomoko (in the photo below) helped us in the morning session and one of her colleagues did the same in the evening session.


We found the Japanese public to be highly knowledgable about wines, and very keen to taste new releases from New Zealand and I am really enthusiastic about the prospects for our wines here. We presented the 'Fraser', 'Blue Rock' and 'Martinborough' Pinot Noirs, the Pinot Gris and the Syrah. What really motivated were the large number of people who came back later in the day and said our wines were among the best they had tasted at the show.

Tonight and tomorrow we have wine and food match dinners at Tokyo restaurants, then a few days break before we move onto Korea, so watch this space for more on our Asian sales adventures.