Our latest great release

Well we are all on cloud 9 around here!    At approximately 12.12am this morning we welcomed little Archie into our lives.  This boy is perfect and weighed in at 8 pounds – 12 ounces.  Jacinda did an incredible job, she’s such a good Mum….and the kids and I absolutely love her to pieces!!  We are all totally besotted with this little guy, and it’s amazing how all of lifes troubles seem to pale into insignificance when a bubba arrives on the scene.   Archies birthday is extra special too,  because he arrived on his Great grandmothers birthday, she turned 80 today.  Happy birthday Twinks!

Thanks to all our friends, and especially Family…with out you, well, we’d be lost….LOVE you all!

Just look at big bro, and sis……mmm Finn I may have a job for you boy!

The picton fiasco

At the end of last year we had quite a bit of luck and managed to get our white wines into Air New Zealand Koru Clubs across the country.  This offers great exposure for us, as far as tourists and the like go. So, we thought it would be good to get a bit of leverage from this locally.  We don’t or didn’t have a presence in Picton, so we thought this would be a good place to start because of the tourism associated with the ferries at the local port.

As we don’t have any distributors for the north or the top of the south island, we hit the road and do it ourselves…..

Yesterday I came up with the hair-brained idea…’I'll go to Picton with the camera and show everyone how hard it can be breaking into new territory’…….Things are pretty tough, wine labels aren’t exactly scarce and things are pretty quiet on the restaurant scene.  

 Anyhow, I must confess what took place was a bit of a shambles.  We hear you when you say we expect nothing else(lol)! Decided I would give a brief intro to you guys and gals then stroll into the restaurant with the camera strategically placed.  I didn’t actually want to film anyone, just try and capture some of the conversation.  Once inside the din was incredible and the camera was all over the place….a real Fiasco.

Anyhow, the good news is it looks like we just may have found three new homes for our Fiascowines….fingers crossed.

I’d give up about the 3 minute mark, and really I profusely APOLOGISE FOR THE NASAL HAIRS !!

Down in the dirt with a try hard aaron attenborough

Just thought I’d show you all the quality of the soils in our little Fiasco vineyard.  Our little inspection shows there is a great level of organic matter down there,  rich in invertebrate life, and tasty too.  The soil IS ALIVE!!!

The soil is hugely important for grapevines and the resulting wine.  Vines need/depend on the soil for nourishment as they complete their reproductive-yearly cycle.  Soil quality and composition has the abilty to greatly influence the sensory properties of wine and most imporantly, how the vines ultimately grow. 

Sauvignon a go-go!!

O.k, team!!!!  This your chance to help create a Marlborough wine!!  We have our four different Sauvignon Blanc ferments sitting in our tanks and barrels.  These components need carefully piecing together for us to produce our 2009 ‘Tall Story’ Savvy.  We want you to help!!

This is the plan Stan….

We’ll send you the four samples with some simple instruction.   You mix and match the wines, a dash into this, a splash into that. Or maybe you just like one better than the rest!  Once you’ve found your own little piece of wine Nirvana as we know you will.  Return the info.  This will include the % of each wine that went into your final blend.  We then punch all of the data into the Fiasco super computer…..and quicker than you can say ’dont buy cheap shitty wine ‘ we will have our 09 blend.

And you know what you helped make it!!!!

Out of Body Experience…Swine flu or wine?

Some whacky stuff going on round here!!

Pruners wanted!

Is anyone willing to come and prune for us cause we’ve got a few issues with the current pruning team…..

We are equal opportunity – offer a fantastic work environment, and the boss is a positive hands on guy!!

Fiascos a plenty!

Aaron has headed off to Auckland for a few days on a marketing mission – big thanks to Jayson & family from the Wine Vault for taking him in!  The best flights were direct from Nelson but he got off to a bad start with a couple of hours delay in take off this morning due to a fog fiasco at the airport.   I’ve also had my share of fiascos today trying to sort wine orders and transportation … fighting with a scanner that refuses to scan the dispatch to the wine bottling company…argghh don’t get me started!   Can a husband fire his PA if they are married?

Fog also hit Blenheim this afternoon, to add to what has been a miserable week of rainy, grey days.  It’s not a big deal for me –  hibernating with a giant belly but I don’t envy the hardy souls up at first light pruning day after day in the cold.  Finn didn’t mind the muddy fiasco at rugby practice though… he has just moved from ripper rugby (rip off tags instead of tackling) to the real thing.  He’ll have to cope without Dad on the sideline this Saturday and I’m not sure I’m too good at the job!  After years of telling him not to hurt others, it seems my job on the sideline is now to encourage him to take out anyone with the ball.  Whatsmore, I’m expected to staunchly resist the urge to run on and rescue him from those who pummel him!  Here’s hoping I don’t embarrass him too much!

Evil Wine??

This week the papers have reported a description of Marlborough’s Sauvignon Blancs by British wine critique Jane MacQuitty as “evil, watery, grassy wines.”  Various articles also make statements such as “the region’s wine growers are seeing red” and that “this stinging criticism has winemakers across New Zealand worried.”  As the daughter of a winegrower and the wife of a winemaker, I found the latter amusing as both my Dad and hubby hadn’t appeared too worried about MacQuitty’s description … and I’ll tell you why:

Firstly,  wine tasting is highly subjective.    I can remember asking one of our kids if they thought a sip of wine tasted “grassy” and they responded “Dunno, haven’t tried eating grass before.”  I take their point but acknowledge that taste is dependent on smell, hence the grassy description.  I quite like the smell of freshly cut grass.  Is ‘grassy’ an insult?  And how are we supposed to take ‘evil’ – I mean Austin Powers made Dr Evil something funny!  Do we get this year’s wine blessed…exorcised?  But then we don’t want to add water!  I guess Saint Clair will be safe by default .  

Secondly, we should celebrate honest opinion when it comes to wine tasting – if we don’t, such opinions become worthless – of no more value to consumers than celebrity endorsements (don’t get me started!).   Consumers would soon switch off if everyone offering a critique  was obliged to ramble on about how delightful a wine is.  Plenty of wine reviews do this already and it’s such a yawn that MacQuitty’s comments were a breath of fresh air.   We want our customers to tell us the truth, and then we can investigate whether or not it is a widespread complaint and if so, how we can improve the product.    Many in the industry in Marlborough for example have worked very hard this vintage to focus on quality over quantity.   

Thirdly, there actually are some producers whose wine is a bit ‘watery’, but it is cheaper and it meets a market for those who actually want the low cost option.  Watery budget bake beans can still sell beside Watties.  It is great that consumers now know enough about wine to tell the difference and make their choices accordingly.    We are quite happy that the message is getting out to wine drinkers that not all wines are equal!

So please, if you try Fiasco Wine – give us your honest opinion, we  love constructive criticism!