Grape Gobblers

After 8 hours riding he was tired – very tired.  His bones ached and his fingers felt they were glued to the handles of his motorbike. He honked his horn as a warning, but to no avail.  A loud explosion close by caused the bike to waver but he didn’t slacken his pace. There followed a blood curdling scream and he was aware of a dark shape hovering menacingly above him.   It was war!

All this was true until about 15 years ago when we discovered the exciting, but soothing effect of nets – bird nets, not fish nets.  Yes, we used motorbikes, gas cannons, screaming machines and self-launching large hawk shaped kites in our war against feathered friends.  Many vineyards employ such strategies today to try to prevent birds damaging grapes.  It is noisy, tiring, time-consuming work, considering that it has to go on for about 6-8 weeks.  Nets are more expensive, but they definitely give you peace, not only of the ear, but also of the mind.

Visit the wine producing countries of Europe and birds are not a problem.  Why?  Because there are very few.  Why?  Because, over the centuries their numbers have been severely reduced, often by ending up at the dinner table.  By contrast, New Zealand has been a land of birds, particularly due to its natural lack of land based mammals.  Curiously, New Zealand native birds don’t eat grapes.  All of the pesky critters are interlopers from off-shore.  Starlings, blackbirds and thrushes were brought here by homesick British colonists and gobble whole grapes, which at least fills them up.  Wax-eyes, on the other hand, just make a small hole in the skin and suck a little juice, before quickly moving to other bunches as they are not really satisfied.  The damaged grape becomes mouldy and this often spreads to the whole bunch.  These endearing little critters are actually Ozzies and have come from across the Tasman.

But birds are not the only varmints which like eating grapes.  Another Australian import which is partial to them is the possum.  Then we have wasps, pigs, goats, sheep and the like, which will all take a nibble if they can.  Strangest of all, even man’s best friend has a sweet tooth.  Yes, winery dogs are liable to eat their fair share and I’ve seen them pull whole bunches off the vine.  Recently our local newspaper had an article about a dog dying after eating a few grapes and a Veterinary surgeon warned they are extremely dangerous to our canine friends as they cause kidney failure.  “A dog should be taken to the vet, even if it eats a single grape”, was the dire warning.  Our old winery dog, Rieussec, liked nothing more than to sink her fangs into a bunch or 2 as she was frolicking through the vineyard.  The only ill effect they ever seemed to have was to “ferment” in her belly so that she gave off unspeakable organic odours!  She eventually passed away at 16 years of age.  Perhaps they didn’t harm her because she always regarded herself as a person and, as we all know, grapes and wine in moderation are good for us!

Pegasus gets hung up

Recently the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington decided to have an exhibition of Founders and the Current Pacemakers of the Kiwi Wine Industry.  It was called “Looking down the Barrel; The Face of New Zealand Wine”.  It consisted of portraits, both painted and photographic, of New Zealand wine personalities in order to highlight the vinous land marks of the country from the 1800’s to the present.  The flying horse got hung up – not about it, but there.  We were proud that the old nag was regarded as being well hung!

Pegasus Adores The Doors

You have no doubt heard about closing the stable doors after the horse has bolted.  Well, demand is such that our flying horse’s bottles are now available in 25-30 foreign lands. Coinciding with this international recognition we noticed that Pegasus was becoming even more flighty than usual, possibly due to a desire to see these distant parts itself.  Whatever the cause, we decided it was time to do something about its stable doors – or lack of them.  That’s right, for about 20 years the entrance to its home has been a decidedly downmarket, rusty chain stretched between 2 fence posts.  This has greeted visitors when they have come to our winery, restaurant and cellar door.  The chain was so low that you could even step over it so it wouldn’t have stopped a horse! 

This rustic situation has been transformed and we have just had new doors put on its stable.  Being a beast from antiquity it demanded something classical so that’s what it got.  While, not quite as ancient as Pegasus, they were recycled from a decidedly old entranceway.  We merely added Pegasus’ picture on the top to keep it happy.  The doors (or rather the gates) heights are original, but not tall enough to guarantee it will stay at home, which is probably just as well as it likes frequenting classy restaurants, and we can’t say we disapprove!

Hannah Riden hanging around the restaurant

We are delighted to announce Christchurch based award-winning landscape artist Hannah Riden is to stage a major iconic scenes exhibition  at Pegasus Bay commencing the 1st of September.
 

Riden was named the top landscape artist in New Zealand at the latest  New Zealand Art Awards in Tauranga. This was a remarkable achievement  for such a young artist. The award success at Tauranga has only increased her status and her works are becoming greatly sought after. Please feel free to stop in for a look at these exceptional works next time you're passing.

Robin’s Block

It was over 18 years ago and we were doing vineyard winter pruning, when Robin Needham walked down the row and introduced himself.  He had answered an advertisement for a vineyard employee and we knew immediately he was our man.  Sadly, he recently passed away.  He became the most dedicated and loyal friend and was frequently seen around the vineyard well after the working day had finished.  We used to joke that we would arrive one morning to find that he had died on the tractor overnight!  It wasn’t all that far from the truth as he continued working with us almost to the end.  In his memory we have named one of our special blocks of pinot noir as “Robin’s Block”.

Restaurant makes history

During the winter of last year torrential rains fell in Waipara.  Water cascaded down the hills, swept across the road and flooded through the entrance to our restaurant, only to flow out the doors on the other side.  Although it lasted only a short time it left the floor buckled and loose.  As a result our wooden floor has had to be replaced and we have done it using one of New Zealand’s most durable and beautiful native timbers, rimu.  Being environmentally conscious, however, we have rescued this timber from the old Tivoli Theatre, which is being demolished in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, and recycled it.  It matches perfectly with all the other old timber in the building and just think, when you visit us next you will be walking “with the stars through history”.

We apologise for having had to disappoint you by closing while these repairs were undertaken, but we delayed it until winter, when we thought it would be the least inconvenient.  We are now open and ready to serve you again with a wonderful new menu from Award Winning chef Oliver Jackson and his team.  It is best to phone 03 3146869 ext 1 to reserve, but we would be delighted to have you call into our tasting room at any time.  We are open between 10-5pm daily (restaurant from 12pm).

From the Prescription pad...

A friend of mine has a mild fetish about decanters.  He has a modest collection and is always on the lookout for another.  While they are readily available, I suspect that most of you don’t own one and think of them as being rather old fashioned.  Well, I would say, more’s the pity.  They can be very useful and increase your enjoyment of wine.  But when and why do you use a decanter? 

Decanter’s are most commonly used for old wines, especially reds.  When bottled the varietal aromas and flavours tend to dominate and, by and large, the more prominent the wine’s fruitiness the better.  One fascination with wine, which tends not to occur with other drinks, is that it changes with time.  It develops a fascinating array of other smells and tastes as it ages.  These are often savoury resembling roast game, grilled mushrooms, black olives, liquorice and the like.  As this occurs, the primary fruitiness lessens.  If the wine has been matured in barrel “oakiness” may initially stick out, but with time this should integrate beautifully.  The duration it takes for these changes to occur is variable and can be anything from 2 or 3 years to 2 or 3 decades.  Over this time wines tend to taste lighter and softer than initially, which is due to changes in tannic structure.  “Tannins” are naturally occurring molecules, from skins and seeds, which give red wines a firm, drying taste.  With bottle ageing, these molecules stick together, coalescing into bigger forms.  These sink to the bottom as sediment, which contains some of the purple/red pigments, and hence the wine loses some of its colour.  This sediment will form even if the wine has been perfectly clear when bottled.  Because these tannins have fallen out of the wine it will taste less hard and more mellow.

If you have an old red, that’s when you should get the decanter out.  While it depends on the exact wine, I think it is worth considering with anything over 6 years of age.  It’s simple.  Gently take the wine out of your cellar, making sure not to shake it.  Open it carefully and then with a bright light underneath the bottle, slowly pour the wine into the decanter while watching down through the wine to the light underneath.  Stop pouring when the deposit starts getting into the neck of the bottle.  With practice you can get perfectly clear wine and leave only a few drops behind with the sediment.  The wine will not only look better but you will not be troubled by the very firm taste of the tannin deposit.  Aerating the wine in this way also helps the flavour to come out.  If you have got a really old wine don’t decant it more than half an hour or so before you drink it, as after this the characters may tend to become muted.  Even older white wines can be worth decanting, especially if they have natural tartaric acid crystals or so called “wine diamonds” in the bottle.

It is not only old wines that can benefit from decanting but also very young ones.  Some young, full bodied reds can taste too firm and hard and this will be lessened by simply tipping them into a decanter and leaving them for several hours, or sometimes even up to a day.  Generally speaking, the bigger and drier the wine, the longer it needs.   Even a freshly bottled white wine can benefit by putting it into a decanter and letting it “breathe” for an hour or so.

While we are on the subject of older wines we are often asked when is it the right time to open one of our bottles?  The correct answer is any time you think about it!  But if the question really meant, when will the wine be drinking at its best – that is a different matter and depends upon your taste.  A year or 2 back we gave you a vintage chart indicating our views.  We feel it is time to update this and here is another.  We don ‘t release wines until we feel they are ready to drink, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t benefit from some further bottle ageing in a cool place.  I hope you find it useful.

Cheers,

Ivan Donaldson.

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 led 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.