Creepy Friends

What is the most successful type of animal on earth?  Don’t start lining up to take the prize because it is definitely not you or me.  Scientists will tell you that animals’ success is measured by population size, which in turn reflects the different environments and food they can exploit.  At the awards ceremony all Oscars will be taken away by little creeps and their relatives, who will crawl, jump, flit, fly, swing down on threads, or even swim to the podium.  That’s right, they’re insects!  The fact that insects have so many ways of getting about attests to their ability to be able to live just about anywhere.  Turn a stone, dig your heel into the earth, peer into a bush or even look into your bed and you are bound to find them.  Yes, your bed is full of microscopic little mites which feed on tiny bits of skin you shed every day!  Hence, it goes without saying, that vineyards are full of insects.

Whether you are surrounded by friends or foes usually depends on how you treat people.  Respect for others and behaving naturally usually achieves the right balance.  Now, such philosophy applies in vineyards as well as in our interpersonal relationships.  Nature has a way of keeping things in balance and we disturb this at our peril.  Grape vines have not studied morality so their flowers incestuously fertilise themselves, without calling on the aid of insects.  Vineyards, however, are teeming with insects, some of which are “bad” and some of which are “good”.  The baddies  eat and otherwise damage the vines and grapes, while the goodies eat the baddies.  Of the two, the goodies have the most well balanced life style and like to live in grasses, flowers and general ground cover.  Retaining such natural ground cover thus keeps their numbers high.  Spraying against insects indiscriminately kills goodies as well as baddies.  When they repopulate the vineyard it’s the latter that arrive back first and then cause a greater problem as they are unopposed.  Our feathered friends like eating insects and are also good in keeping their overall numbers down.

At Pegasus Bay we retain natural ground cover, do not spray pesticides on our vines and net them to protect our crop, rather than shoot birds.  As such, we have not had significant problems with our creepy crawly friends who help us keep mother nature’s balance as she intended.

Making an Impression

It’s hard not to love the Impressionist painters with their vibrant zest for life and colourful depiction of everyday.  One of our favourites is Monet, and especially his limpid depiction of his own garden ponds bathed in almost luminescent light.  In some of these he depicts his beautiful Japanese bridge spanning the water.  Recently we decided to replace 2 makeshift old bridges spanning the stream and ponds in front of the Pegasus Bay Winery.  The “CEO of gardening”, Chris Donaldson decided to emulate her favourite painter.  Like Monet she searched and found a true artisan bridge builder  in Roger Marshall of Rangiora. We think you will agree her new creations do not wimpily fade into the background, but rather make quite an impression!

Hoofing it up to the Embassy

Germany is internationally recognised as the world’s top riesling producer, although the French region of Alsace, just across the Rhine River, also works its own special charm with this variety.  A few months back 9 of Germany’s leading wineries, including such prestigious producers as Joh Jos Prüm, Dr Loosen, Egon Müller-Scharzof and Robt Weil, held a special riesling tasting and dinner at the German Embassy in London.  Selected invited guests included international wine-writer Jancis Robinson. 

These world renowned producers were generous enough to invite 6 other wineries from around the globe to show what they could do with riesling.  Imagine our delight when the flying horse was chosen for this honour, being the only Kiwi winery to get a hoof in the door.  Not only did the 60 high profile guests and winemakers taste Pegasus Bay Riesling before dinner, but our Bel Canto was chosen to be one of the only 6 wines which accompanied the dinner.  We felt truly humbled to be acknowledged by this association with the world’s best and the general feedback was that Pegasus acquitted itself well in such company and did not horse around too much.

From the Prescription Pad

These days everyone is doing surveys and studies, the topics of which seem unlimited.  A glance at the newspaper will tell you how much junk food Joe Average eats, how many hours kids watch TV each day, the reasons young drivers have car accidents, the religious persuasions of 50 year olds, the sexual orientation of Members of Parliament and much more.  From where I am sitting I can see a virgin topic that is ripe for exploitation.  It is, why have so many Medical Practitioners become involved in the wine industry?  True, as a medico who has started a vineyard and winery, the seat on which I am perched may give me a peculiar slant on the subject, but I don’t think it totally warps my perspective.

In my experience, the medical profession seems to be disproportionately over-represented amongst regular wine drinkers, wine enthusiasts, members of wine and food societies, wine competition judges and the like.  In addition, the history of the wine industry is awash with medics who, not only have owned vineyards and wineries, but who have also dirtied their hands by being actively involved in their businesses.  I can think of at least 7 vineyards which are owned by doctors in my own little patch of the Waipara Valley.  If it was valid to multiply this up on an international scale the numbers would be truly enormous.  Across the ditch in the land of Oz some of the largest and most famous wine companies, such as Penfolds, Lindemans, Hardys, Horton and Mitchenberry, were founded by medics.  Thirteen years ago Philip Norrie wrote a series of little books entitled Australia’s Wine Doctors and he totted up well over 140 such people.  In addition, many iconic smaller vineyards have been the brain children of docs, including Mosswood, Cullen, Mount Mary, Lakes Folly and the like.

As we say in medicine, it is one thing to diagnose but quite another to cure.  Having identified this medical rash spread across our green landscape, how can we stop it spreading?  Like most rashes it can be uncomfortable, especially to the doctors who romantically envisaged a life sipping wine in the shade of their vines, only to find that wine business is a lot of hard work and is a black hole for money which sucks all available cash.  Well, I was taught at medical school that understanding the cause of an illness, for that is what the medical obsession with vines and wines seems to be, is the best way of finding a cure.  Why are there so many doctors involved?  Is it just because they are big drinkers, still clinging onto memories of riotous student days?  I don’t think so, as all of the medical vignerons I have come across are modest drinkers and serious types, at least when it comes to wine quality.  Perhaps it is because they have decent disposable incomes without real financial knowledge or business sense.  Any accountant, including mine, will confirm the latter point!  But no, I don’t think that is the reason, because even if they lack financial nouse, most quacks have a modicum of intelligence and would have quit the business fairly quickly.  Another possible motivation is their personal experience and knowledge about the positive benefits of moderate wine drinking and health.  While this could be related I think there is a more powerful bait which gets most of us poor suckers hooked, and that is the curious and heady interplay of science and art. 

At medical school you learn the science, but those dreary hours of anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology etc, gain a new light when you go out into practice and start to deal with real patients and their problems.  That’s where the art of medicine starts. While its pathways and skills can be explored and developed by working with senior colleagues – a type of apprenticeship as it were – this art  is almost impossible to teach formally.  Grape growing and wine making are just like that.  The same variety of grapes in different vineyards will be subtly different, even if the land and situation look identical.  Split the harvest of the same property between 2 independent winemakers and the final drink will be as different as 2 pictures painted by separate artists, who have been given the same instructions about what they are to create.

Which brings me back to the phenomenon of wine doctors.  Alas, I fear the attraction and synergy of science and art will continue to lure medics into the wine biz, just as surely as it lured them into medicine.  Some would call it fascination, others an obsession, but I like to think of it as a passion.  One thing for sure is that once this disease gets you in its grasp it doesn’t readily let go.  I guess that’s why I am still here.

Cheers,

The Flavour of Yester-Year

Not infrequently people complain that fruits these days do not have the flavours that they remember from childhood.  Are they just looking back through rose coloured glasses or are their memories faulty?  Probably neither.  Much commercially grown fruit is picked partially green and ripens on its way to you.  Most fruits continue to develop sugar after they are harvested, but they really don’t get a lot more flavour.  In addition, most modern cultivars have been developed especially for appearance and not necessarily for flavour.  Appearance is all important in determining popularity – ask any fashion designer.  Another reason why fruits do not taste the same as in the past is that they are not the same.  Like all things, there are fashions in fruit.

Many fruits that you might remember from yester-year have been replaced by trendier varieties.  It’s a shame because, not only do the oldies have striking flavours, but they are often benchmark descriptors for the classical wine varieties.  Thus, quinces (gewürztraminer), gooseberries (sauvignon blanc) black and red currants (merlot/cabernet sauvignon) and mulberries (pinot noir) are now infrequent in gardens and can be difficult to buy.  Even ripe figs (late harvest riesling) can be hard to come by and it’s surprising how many people have not tasted them.

At Pegasus Bay we tend to stick with the classics and hence have all of these fruits in our garden, as well as many more.  We make a point of using them in our restaurant, which features fresh local ingredients.  We feel they enhance and complement our wines.  Come to try them for yourself.  The restaurant is open for lunches daily but you are best to reserve (Telephone 03 314 6869 ext 1).  However, feel free to just pop into the tasting room unannounced to sample the latest wines any day.

Recent Seasons

The summer of 2003 was excellent.  Early autumn rain was followed by a long period of splendid, settled weather.  The 2005 vintage was marked by cool, damp weather over flowering, which produced a yield well below average but resulted in wines of excellent concentration.  The weather in 2006 was very even throughout the growing season, resulting in balanced wines from good, but not excessive, crops.  Blustery winds in spring impaired pollination and lead to a small 2007 crop, giving extra richness and flavour to the well ripened fruit.  Drought conditions were staved off by a mid-summer downpour in 2008.  There followed beautiful weather.  A period of rain in the latter part of autumn encouraged the growth of noble botrytis in riesling.

Retarded Reviews

You may have noted that many of our reviews are retarded.  No, we don’t mean that they are dim witted, but refer to the fact that wine writers’ opinions of our wines frequently arrive when the wines are close to being sold out or we have moved onto the next vintage.  We apologise for this but it is beyond our control.  Our wines tend to sell at a fair old rate and it sometimes takes a long time for a wine writer’s opinion to appear in press, particularly in overseas markets where delays in agents ordering stock, shipping times and distribution issues compound the problem.  Because we like to give you, our valued mail-order customers, the first opportunity to buy our wine, it means that all too often we can only quote the accolades achieved by earlier vintages.  This at least, however, will give you an idea of how our wine styles are received by experts and may be especially helpful if you have some of the reviewed vintage in your cellar.  In addition, we try to hold back some cellar aged wines for you on the mail order, especially those in the more slowly maturing magnums.  With these, the retards are usually completely up to speed!  We hope you find them helpful.