I was going to title this post Drive-by Shooting in Christchurch but thought better of it. Its easy to get lulled into a false sense of spring at this time of year. One minute its sunny, the next its cold and wet. I took this photo of these Daffodils yesterday out of my car window as I was driving back from delivering some wine to Sezn restaurant (surely one of the citys best). ...

Just a shot of our 2500L tanks which we use for small batch fermentation and for experimental lots here at Sandihurst. Our 2007 trophy winning Riesling was a blend of 7 of these tanks, all dealt with in a slightly different way to add some complexity and interest to the final blend.  This photo is in fact a shot of me cleaning the tanks. Not a job for the mind ...

Now that Spring appears to be in the air, a reminder that theres nothing an aromatic white wine at this time of year. Take a look at our online cellar door and discover our wonderful Rieslings, Gewurztaminer and Pinot Gris wines.    Not only that we also have an amazing deal through our actual Cellar Door on our 2006 Waipara Chardonnay. A brilliant wine, very popular in the tasting room but also practically ...

                    No doubt it wont be all sightseeing, wine tasting and dinners but Hennie and Celia are currently in SanFrancisco on the first leg of a three week trip to the USA and UK. Wedged nicely in between the sales talk, new distributor contacts and distribution issues for the USA will be the International Wine Challengeawards dinner at the Hilton in London where Sandihurst will be presented with the trophy for Best New Zealand Riesling 2010. You can follow ...

                    The 2010 Bragato Conference got underway today in Blenheim. Its New Zealands annual grapegrowers forum where the programme is based firmly around all things viticultural (although there are vineyard based wine awards too). This years conference should have quite and extra bite to it as the industry is experiencing one of its worst economic periods ever, especially for growers of Sauvignon Blanc. There is quite a bit of Twitter activity already and you should be ...

 A beautiful blue sky day in Canterbury today. Warm, with hardly a cloud to be seen. The soil temperature is on the rise, grass and weeds are growing again and its lighter at both ends of the day. It can only mean one thing, Spring is on the way and with it, budburst. Usually around mid September for our Waipara vineyards ...

You cant breathe in New Zealand without some reference to Rugby or next years Rugby World Cup (or the fact that we havent won it for over 20 years). Now Air New Zealand have got in on the act with their new safety briefing. This will be shown on all planes but here it is. Bound to be popular...

We never need any excuse to get excited about Riesling, but it is great to see plenty of publicity recently about this amazing grape. Most recently Jo Burzynska wine author, journalist, judge and lecturer wrote about Riesling in a recent article in the New Zealand Herald. Have a look - it is an interesting read,  Wine - Riesling on the ...

Since the rebirth of Sandihurst only a few short years ago, our wines have begun to earn some serious recognition not just with the general buying public but also at the various wine shows that we enter, both nationally and internationally. The place and purpose of wine shows, awards and scores do attract its share of criticism but you cant escape the fact that third-party recognition is a real ...

China is often seen as the great opportunity for wine exporters (all those people , if only 0.5% of the population drank a glass of wine a day etc etc) but what do we really know about the culture? A friend has just forwarded a few photos from a recent trip to Chengdu in China. Heres a few bugs on sticks at a local street market. Quite nice by all accounts but ...