Time warp

This week seems to be flying by and we have to keep checking what day it is!

Aaron and I continue to be ‘ships in the night’  – passing each other in the doorway as he heads to work or bed.   The week began with the online Twitter launch of our Black Pearl Pinot Noir.   It was well received and the experience enjoyed by all  those who took part -  we are certainly keen to do more twitter tastings in the future.  Thanks to a great post from our twitter friend, Bron, an excellent sum up can be viewed here.  

Tuesday was another big day as our fruit was harvested.  Fortunately we had perfect weather conditions leading up to harvest day and the quality was pleasing and promising for the wine to come.     Aaron is still working 14 hour night shifts every night and both the Black Pearl launch and the harvest have seen him awake during many of his precious daytime sleep hours.   I tried to enthuse him with the news that the end is in sight and post vintage parties are currently being planned…he responded that his only wish right now would be to have a catheter inserted and be left to sleep for a week!  However, he tells me that the volume of grapes coming into the winery has reduced a lot in the last few days, with the last vineyards now being harvested.  However, they will be back-logged with the processing of it all (particularly filtering)  for a little while yet.    

Yesterday I saw some excess grapes being harvested onto the ground - it cannot be left on the vines to rot due to disease risks – and so there is yet another cost and a painful zilch return.  I also know of excess fruit being sold for as little as $500 a tonne to simply cover the costs of growing it (compare this to last year’s $1500 - $2300 per tonne!).  When I say ‘excess’ I refer to fruit that the wineries were just not willing to take on this year due to the problems of oversupply that happened last year.  2009 vintage will certainly be remembered as unique in terms of all the fiascos of the oversupply - but hopefully one where the pain was shared by all for the good of all and ultimately our niche wine market preserved.

Speaking of grapes on the vine, my Dad has offered us some of his excess Gewurztraminer.  It has been ripe for a few days now and Aaron reckons that if left just a little longer, it will have the makings of a great little limited release dessert wine.  If anyone is keen to come to Marlborough in the near future for a few hours grape picking – let us know (we’ll confirm the date asap).  There will of course be free wine and food on the day and a very generous discount on the eventual end product!

Life outside the wine world:  The kids and I took a short break to Christchurch late last week and returned Monday night.  As it is school holidays, it seemed an easier battle than the ongoing failed attempts to keep them quiet while Dad slept.  We stopped in Kaikoura a night to catch up with good friends and were spoilt by an unexpected visit from the endangered Hutton’s shearwater.  My friend Jodie works as the Biodiversity Officer for the Kaikoura Council and had a late night phone call from someone who had found one of these rare little beauties on the roadside.  It was a great privilege not just to see one but to actually hold it and release it the next morning.  The sight of it flying back out to sea for a second chance was nothing short of awesome.   

Finn gets up close with the precious Hutton

Hutton's Away!

We had a lot of fun in the Garden City at QEII, at Science Alive, malls, movies and spending time with old and new friends.  The kids are still getting over the sight of me at QEII  in hired togs rolling around like a whale in the pool – the midwife said swimming may help my breech bubs turn head down!  And you’ll be pleased to know that at my check up on Tuesday the baby is now head down (whether it’ll stay that way for the next 9 weeks is anyone’s guess).  Only now my iron levels are low so both Aaron and I are getting about in a state of fatigue.  I’m scoffing iron tablets and embarrassing the kids even further by gnawing on red meat and moaning about constipation every chance I get!

THE WINE VAULT REVIEWS THE BLACK PEARL LIVE ONLINE!!!

CHECK IT OUT HERE!!

THANK YOU TWEETS!

Dont’ forget…

Don’t forget that this Sunday is the big Twitter debut for our Black Pearl Pinot Noir.  Ever since we started Fiasco, there have been hard core red wine fans relentlessly requesting a wine for them and now we have it!  Our 2008 Black Pearl was bottled and labelled only a few weeks ago and we think you’ll be impressed.    As we like to do things a bit differently and enjoy experimenting with technology, we are launching it in a non-traditional way – on Twitter.  So in these hard times you don’t have to get all dressed up and head out on a chilly autumn’s night.  You don’t have to listen to endless wine waffle – instead we can all rip the top off a bottle in the comfort of our own homes and feedback is short and sweet in the form of tweets (see below if you’re unsure about Twitter)

For those of you who aren’t into Twitter yet – it’s really easy.  You just go to the Twitter website and sign up a free account.  Search ‘fiascowines’ to find us and send us a message saying you want to join in the Black Pearl launch.  We’ll send you a bottle asap at the special price of $20 and then you’re ready to go.  On Sunday all you have to do is taste it and tweet your response!  If you don’t want to buy a bottle, feel free to still join up Twitter and check out our page on Sunday to see how it goes down with everyone else .

24/7

They tell me about two thirds of the region’s grapes are now harvested.   There is light at the end of the tunnel for all those involved – by the end of the month some workers will see daylight and their families for the first time in weeks!  And the now familiar sound of harvesters rolling by in the middle of the night will soon be forgotten.

2 am and there’s fruit coming in all across Marlborough…

Dad checks on some fruit – not bad leg muscles for an old bugger

 

It seems that last year the fiascos with fruit volumes were all had in the winery, but this year the problem has been largely shifted to the growers.  The wine companies have given the growers strict maximum tonnages per hectare and anything over is the grower’s problem.  It’s a problem because the grower is  either fined for not stripping enough fruit out beforehand (not an exact science by any means!) and/or the grower is left having to try and find another buyer for the excess fruit at the last minute.  There have been plenty of adverts in the local paper as last minute efforts are made to sell excess fruit.   We have been rung by grape growing friends with offers of free grapes for Fiasco and it was great of them to think of us – but we’ve had so say no for two reasons – firstly,  we don’t have the tank space booked to make it into wine and secondly, we don’t have large enough markets to risk the costs of making it into wine.  It seems a terrible waste for grapes to be left on the vines in many places, and to have been stripped out onto the ground elsewhere – but hopefully it will be a lesson learned and endless expansion will pause and wait for demand to catch up with supply again.

Apologies

Hey all – apologies for the lack of posts lately and thanks for continuing to pop by and check the blog. 

Vintage is a bit of a crazy time for Aaron and I.  Aaron leaves for work at the winery at 9.30 pm each night and gets home about 10.30 am the following day.  He then often has an hour or so of Fiasco delivery jobs to do (heavy lifting that my big belly wont allow!) – all adding up to continuous 100 hour working weeks for him during the month of April at least.    So we don’t see a lot of each other!  He gets out of bed at night as I get in and in passing we have a five minute update of life in the winery vs life in daylight…

Life in the winery:

Well  Aaron had no idea it was even Easter!  He tells me that despite the usual long hours, vintage so far has been less of a fiasco than last year.  This is because of two key things: firstly in response to last year’s over supply, growers have been made to thin out fruit so there has been a lower volume of grapes to process and secondly, the weather has been such that ripening has been more gradual, with fruit from different areas becoming ready at different times.    I remember last year everyone wanted their fruit harvested at once and crops were far bigger than wineries had anticipated, putting massive pressure on all involved.  There were even punch ups at one winery as over-tired truck drivers ran out of patience in long winery queues.   

Our own fruit hasn’t been harvested yet as the brix (sugar) levels are not quite as high as we would like them.  It is tempting to just get it harvested as it is a nervous time knowing that rain or frost would destroy the crop that looks magnificent at the moment.   We think it will be ready by the end of this week, and to have it all in the winery tanks will be weight off the shoulders .

Life in daylight:

I have just finished teaching the first secondary school term, which is always a busy time and tiring with a growing pregnant belly (11 weeks to go)!  It is nice to now be looking at a fortnight’s break.  The only challenge is keeping the kids quiet at home during the day while their Dad sleeps!  So we have been trying to get out and about.  In saying that, Aaron has now reached a level of fatigue where it takes a fair bit to wake him.    I am a member of what is nicknamed the ‘Vintage Widows’ Club’.   Viticulture has become such an integral part of Marlborough that there are now a large number of women who find themselves without their partner over vintage.  And in fact given that there are plenty of women also working in the industry- many men must find themselves in the same situation (not sure if they have a club!)   We had a vintage widows’  brunch last weekend – it was a great morale lifter and a lot of fun!   Vintage also means a dose of solo parenting for those of us with kids.  It gives you a real respect for how hard it must be for those folk in situations where they are long term parenting on their own.  Tahlia and Finn miss their Dad but we are lucky to have close family around which does ease things somewhat for me.  I’m not sure whether Grandad Max will offer to take them to the Classic Fighters Omaka Airshow again after Finn got lost and decided to head for the  main tent to instigate a show stopping announcement calling for his Grandad over the loud speaker!  

The whole family is involved with vintage in some way or another at this time of year.   My Dad grows for various companies (Nobilo, Montana, Spy Valley…) and has been out with my brother Andrew overseeing the harvest of the fruit.  Mum’s even been baking scones for the truck drivers.  The kids have had a ride up high on the harvester and have been doing plenty of taste testing of the fruit for ripeness.  I had to laugh at the shot below of the my two nephews strolling down the vines like a couple of old vintners!

The next generation strolling the vineyard!