‘Full on’

One of the reasons we went with the name ‘Fiasco Wines’ is that we wanted something that reflected the action and vibrancy of making wine in Marlborough.  A ‘place name’ label  just seemed too sedentary to do justice to the reality. 

Before gaining first hand knowledge of the industry here, when thinking of winemaking I’d get pictures in my head of  little vineyards on hillsides, people carrying grapes in baskets and a wrinkled old man fluffing around over old barrels doing tastings.  I guess this was based on what I’d heard of Old World winemaking and it all seemed pretty slow paced and somewhat romantic.  But the reality couldn’t be more different.  There is state of the art technology; a myriad of different types of people working in the industry and the year just flies by with all that needs doing.  Harvesting the grapes is all action, with harvesters and wineries operating 24 hours a day throughout March, April and May.  Then there are a massive number of hectares needing pruning and hundreds of workers brought in from overseas to cope with the workload – so June to August is all go.  Then the new spring buds burst in September and frost fighting starts - with frost a very real risk until November.   There is some amazing technology involved in this and those on the job are often up half the night checking data and making the tough decisions on what action to take – helicopters and wind fans are not cheap and their noise causes a stir with the locals.  This time of year is also time to bottle and label the 2009 wines.  Ours are being bottled later this month.  The end of the year is busy for sales – with all the social events that come with Christmas, summer and general celebrations.  So I suggested to Aaron that early 2010 we should have a chance to have a breather and a Fiasco Wines party in the old woolshed on the vineyard.  “Sure,” said Aaron but don’t forget we’ll only be 8 weeks or so from harvest then!

Fiasco and a Big Mac!

 

You know you’ve made it to the top when your wine is matched with a Big Mac - would have been seriously gutted if we’d been matched to a cheap ol cheeseburger! 

But seriously, why not enjoy a great wine with a takeaway treat?  Loved that good down to earth piece Jayson and thanks for the mention  :-)

New Wine

It’s not long now until we bottle our 2009 Sauvignons and Gewurztraminer.  We have about 1/8 of last year’s vintage left to sell, which we are pleased about.  There is actually more to sales management than meets the eye as the challenge is to sell the stock steadily, not simply to sell the stock.  While it’s tempting to get it all sold quickly, it’s no good for the business reputation to then have to tell customers you have no wine for the remainder of the year.   So we have had to be careful about which deals to pursue while at the same time being careful to keep the sales moving.  

We have kept our Pinot Noir out of supermarkets as we have less of it and it cellars well.  Some wine companies haven’t even released their ‘08′ Pinots yet, preferring to let them age to a better taste.  So we will continue to sell our ‘08′  Black Pearl next year and beyond.  In fact, there is no reason that we can’t also keep selling our 2008 Sav, and we actually think it tastes better now than it did last year BUT consumers do seem to have a incorrect perception that Sauvignon Blanc must be drunk fairly quickly.  Sure, these whites don’t last as long as reds but Sav does in fact cellar well for 2 – 3 years and does mature and change. 

Some wineries have rushed their 2009 Savs out to meet the public demand for ‘new’ and ‘fresh.’  And I guess it’s not a bad move for lower end wines that make their money through a low cost, high sales volume approach.

My advice to wine drinkers out there would be that good things take time and also to enjoy the bargains as liquor outlets feel the need to clear out the ‘old’  ’08′ wine which is actually still far from its use by date.

Foreign Ownership

Peter Saunders wrote a good article in this month’s Wine Technology magazine about overseas ownership of New Zealand wine.   It included the following info:

USA’s Constellation group own:  Nobilo, Kim Crawford, Selaks, Drylands, Monkey Bay, Station Road, Bach 22, White Cloud.  Fosters in Australia own Matua Valley, Shingle Peak and Secret Stone; France’s Louis Vuitton owns Cloudy Bay and the French also, through Pernod Ricard, own Montana, Corbans, Stoneleigh, Deutz Marlborough, Church Rd, Lindauer and Five flax.  An Australian company named Yalumba own Nautilus, Twin Islands and Opawa while a Portugese outfit own Framingham wines.  The Peabody family in France own Craggy Range and so the list goes on (I’ve only picked some to share with you).

I don’t know whether consumers are aware of who owns the wine they drink or whether they care.  I don’t know whether folk are grateful for the involvement of foreigners or whether they resent it.  Foreign investment can certainly  be a saviour for wine companies – providing not just the funds for a business to grow but often also expertise and very valuable distribution channels.  On the down side it means that profits often end up out of Godzone.  But is this a small price to pay if it means the business thrives and New Zealanders keep jobs?  Or is it selling out – do we need to have more self confidence and hold onto the reigns no matter how rough the ride may get at times?  Or does it depend what country is involved – is it just too much to stomach those Aussies  taking the profits?   ;-)  (no offence intended, our daughter was born in Alice Springs and is an Australian citizen!)  

Lots of questions that I don’t have the answers to  – but I’d be interested to hear your views.

Oh, and before you start wondering, no I’m not gearing up to defend a sale of Fiasco to an overseas buyer – we have no intention of doing that nor even getting big enough to be of interest to such buyers.  But um, feel free to present all offers around the “Trade Me’ mark…;-)

New or old wineskins?

 

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, “The old is good.” ’NRSV

Since biblical times, humankind has found change challenging.  The above verse from Luke is generally interpreted as a metaphor for Christianity itself – a new message that wont fit with the old.  But the question of how to integrate the new with the old spans across multiple areas…

One of the challenges with wine is finding the balance between old and new ways of doing things – there is a real tension between:

Tradition and innovation - there is something appealing about the cork but hey screw caps save having to throw out musty, corked wine and are so much easier to put back on the bottle in the fridge!

 Romance and practicality – hand picking and feet stomping of grapes in the late autumn sun is all very well but a machine can harvest much more efficiently.

‘Natural’ versus technological – we could treat the wine with less additives, but  are we OK with murky,unfiltered wine?

Our ideals and what we actually do - why not hand weed between the rows instead of using big vehicles that pump out greenhouse gases…but ohh the labour   :-(

It’s not a matter of throwing out all the old ways of doing things and replacing them with newer, superior methods, but rather finding the right place along the continuum.   It is not easy deciding what is worth retaining and what needs replacing.  At Fiasco for example we love to embrace new technologies, including using the internet for our marketing.  At the same time however, we are experimenting with wines that are made in a way done a long time ago – more naturally with wild yeasts and less additives/processing. 

I suspect that in recent times, in areas not limited to winemaking, there has been a movement back to basics, back a little on the continuum.  People seem to be saying: “Hey, wait a minute, back up the bus – lets take a look at the old way, there may be some value in that.”  I guess the recession has played a part in this move.   Tough times forced us to do things the way grandma did and interestingly a recent survey found that many of us actually found these changes to be a positive thing (sorry I can’t source that survey, heard it mentioned on the tele a couple of days ago). 

  I was aware of it when I had my son Archie, 7 weeks ago at Wairau hospital here in Blenheim.  The protocol had changed since I had Finn, over seven years ago.  Immediately after the birth, Archie was placed on me for skin to skin contact for an uninterrupted hour.  No whisking the baby away for weighing or cleaning up.  In fact bathing the baby didn’t happen until a couple of days later.  The idea is that this will help with mother child bonding and with the early establishment of breast feeding.   Demand feeding is also encouraged, again a move back to how things were done a long time ago when instinct was more highly valued.

But its not as simple as just going back to the old way of doing things.  Rather we need to take the time to evaluate everything we do at Fiasco to determine the very best way of making and selling our product.  Sometimes change can be fantastic.  Many of you have probably seen the clip below, but it does make the point that tradition for tradition’s sake can be just as stifling as innovation for innovation’s sake

P.S  By the way, over on facebook we are giving away free wine this Saturday – check out our fan page and be in to win.

differentiate or die

To be honest we were a little apprehensive when we decided to start Fiasco Wines way back in 2008.  The recession was biting, the glut had set in and people were warning us ‘No, don’t do it’.  Let’s face it there isn’t exactly a shortage of wine brands out there either!  But you know when you want something deep down  – you just can’t ignore it.  We totally love making wine – it satisfies us and in a sense come wine lose or draw, we made the right decision.   But there are some big challenges…

A favourite bloggerof mine and noted agent of change is Seth Godin.  Seth believes that marketing as we have known it – and the proliferation of products to meet market needs, along with traditional advertising is broken.  He also suggests that in general, markets are satisfied and that new products (and associated marketing) need to be remarkable to make their way in the world.  Seth uses this analogy ( I will abbreviate- the story is a little longer): Brown cows standing in a paddock look bloody boring to anyone passing by on a daily basis.  Throw a purple cow in there and you can guarantee that some one will pull over and check out the purple cow and herd.

To me Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is changing colour from purple to brown.  In our ‘Marlborough Appellation (cringe) I think we have rested on our laurels and we have not differentiated enough across all quarters.  Unfortunately, brand ‘Marlborough Sauvingon Blanc’ has become a commodity and markets have become satisfied with $5.99 a bottle. 

I have had a lot of feedback from the market lately and it is “please no more SauvignonBlanc from Marlborough- it all tastes the same”  and  “Well, give us a reason why we should take yours, what’s your story”…….

Well, this is where I think we have let brand Fiasco Wines down!  We need to paint our wines a little more purple

We do things differently here at Fiasco….actually we do it all come to think of it!  Unusually, for a Marlborough winery, we are only small at five acres, we prune and tend our own vines personally, we make the wine, and we sell it to our friends.  There are only the five stakeholders: Jacinda, Tahlia, Finn, Archie and myself.  We really are family run, my Dad is currently spending his weekends helping me prune and we live on Jacinda’s parents’ property (Stembridge Vineyards) where her Dad is always at hand to give valuable advice on the block we lease.  There are no mass produced wines,c orporate backers or foreign monies and that’s how it will stay, we promise!

Ohhh, we have a couple of purple calves in the barn…they are nearly ready for the paddock.  Stay tuned!

Do you have a purple cow?

Cheers a heap!

Aaron

It’s not all about the wine – jerks

I get this…A LOT from people..and some make wine too! “Hey Fiasco, how’s the Tweetering, Twottering or whatever you call it going you big Twit”  and  ”how much piss are you selling on there” or ” I guess people must sucker into buying it because they haven’t got much else to do being on the computer all day”…..I usually don’t say much to these little wind-ups because these people really don’t understand.  Their loss, our gain…

Right. I think the wine industry at large (this is especially so for the bigger brands) have treated their customers like ‘widget grabbers’ or ’stock unit snatchers’ and little attention has been paid to the actual person drinking their wine.  PERSON is the optimal word here too!  Actually, I tell a lie.  The attention towards people is usually centred around focus groups where they brainstorm new ideas, deals, or concepts that will help speed up or increase the ’snatching process’.  We all know that a well run campaign, whether it be a neck tag offering a prize, or a new critter label – or whatever – can do incredibly well for the producer.  But I guarantee this,  at the end of the day that wine producer (through market intelligence etc) may know who buys their wine, but I guarantee they don’t know them!   Well get this…the world is changing, and if you produce anything and you are not actively attempting to know your customer personally, through the tools that are now available, then you could be in trouble.

The Social Media revolution is just starting and it has been a total revelation to us.  We’ve not only met some incredible people but they have become our friends.  I also know this. Take away the wine – they will still be there!

Sure we make wine.  SO WHAT!

Cheers,

Aaron

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!

death(s) in the family!

We’ve got…or had extremely smart yeast, check this out.

 

Contains sulfites – Should I care?

The vast majority of wine bottles have small print on the reverse label stating “Contains sulfites.”  I’m always curious when food or beverages have such a label – is this some sort of warning or something I should be concerned about?  A bit like ‘contains phenylalanine’ on diet drinks.  So, some background for you…

Sulfur is used in wine making as a preservative - it helps stop bacteria and oxidation, which if not stopped will soon transform a beautiful wine into sour vinegar.  Interestingly grape juice has some naturally occuring sulfur which is a byproduct of fermentation (small amounts can be found in bread too).    However more needs to be added to bind to oxygen and stop the vino breaking down into vinegar.  It is also helpful that bacteria also don’t grow well around sulfur.  Bacterial growth could be stopped by pasteurising but adding just a tiny amount of sulfur is easier and more effective.

Sulfur is added at the first stage of wine making – to kill any bacteria and moulds that may be on fruit – and again at the end stage to get rid of any oxygen, when the wine is made but needs preserving.   It is not usually added during fermentation as the little yeasties wouldn’t be happy!

Wikipedia reports that the acceptable daily intake is up to 0.7 mg per kg of body weight (far more than what the average bottle of wine contains) and that sulfites (sodium metabisulfite) have no side effects; and are oxidised in the liver to harmless sulfate and excreted in the urine.

 So if sulfites have been added to food and beverages to effectively and safely preserve them for hundreds of years, why should anyone be concerned?

Well, even though the amounts in wine are miniscule, apparently sulfur may cause problems for sensitive asthmatics – aggravating the mucous membranes of the respiratory system.  Some folk are also allergic to sulfur.  I know I come out in a rash if I take sulfur based medicinal drugs, although I’ve never reacted to wine in that way – I assume because the sulfur levels are so low.  Sulfur ‘allergies’ however don’t usually cause a life threatening auto-immune response but rather the symptoms are more commonly rashes or a headache (not to be confused with the over indulgence wine headache ).  And so it appears that ‘Contains sulfites’ sounds like a warning, but for the vast majority of us there is little to be afraid of.  In saying that, it is only fair that consumers are informed and that if they would like to try a sulfur free wine they should be able to.  Then they can see for themselves if it makes a difference. 

With this in mind, we are trialling a sulfur free Sav Blanc this year.  I asked Aaron how he will deal to unwanted bacteria and oxygen without the sulfur weapon and he explained that there are a few factors that can help:

1.     The more alcohol a wine has, the more it is protected from microbial decomposition.

2.     The more acidic a wine is (lower pH) the more it is protected from bacteria.

3.     The screw top provides more protection against unwanted oxygen than corks ever did.

4.     Good luck would help immensely.

Sounds like it’ll be one powerful brew and one heck of a challenge!