Ausgezeichnet !
April 27th, 2010
A beautiful looking bunch of Riesling grapes from the Georgres Road vineyard in Waipara. Is it ready to harvest ?
Posts by Kirk:
End of the golden weather?…
April 26th, 2010
The weather has been amazing up until now, we couldnt have asked for better. But of course it cant last. This week is forecast to be a little unsettled with 2 or 3 days damp or wet weather. We still have some fruit out there on the vine and the task now will be to manage its arrival into the winery in the best possible shape. Too ...
Another great reason to drink Riesling…
April 23rd, 2010
As if you needed one. Riesling actually goes brilliantly with a lot of Pork dishes.
Shades of Gris…
April 22nd, 2010
Pinot Gris, in all its glory. Harvested by hand a few days ago at 24.5 Brix. But what to do with it ? There seems to some murmuring around both the lack of any defined Pinot Gris style in NZ and the labelling or lack thereof on each bottle which doesnt alert the consumer as to the style they can expect. And fair enough too. Unless you ...
Balancing act…
April 20th, 2010
Punching down - a 2-3-4 times daily occurrence as we attempt to reintroduce the floating 'cap' of skins into the vinous liquid below. The CO2 gas produced as a by-product of fermentation by the yeasts pushes the grape skins to the surface. In our fermenters the cap would easily be strong enough to support the weight of a person, such is the power the ferment. ...
Crop thinning….
April 19th, 2010
Ornithologically Harvested ? Is that a word ? It is now ! Heres a graphic example of what happens when you dont have bird netting in place. The birds werent exactly hanging around waiting for Brix levels to hit 21, for acids to fall into place or for seed tannin levels to mature. Once they got a taste for it there was no holding them back. ...
Uber Riesling, Day 2…
April 18th, 2010
Day 2 of the Riesling and following a brief period of cold settling (10C) I have racked the clear-ish juice over to a new tank to begin fermentation. All the lees were discarded. Back on Day 1 the hand harveted Waipara fruit was whole bunch pressed and the press stopped at a maximum of 1.2 bar to retain only the best juice. No enzymes were used and only the ...
Poetry in motion…
April 14th, 2010
Heres a quick clip of us receiving our first batch of Pinot Noir from Waipara. The fruit is pretty clean but we run it over the sort table anyway just to clear out the odd bit of leaf and dodgy fruit. One great thing we opted to do when building the winery and buying new equipment (2007) was not to have a must pump as I believe they are too harsh on the fruit. Our Pinot is conveyed up to ...
A dark cloud hangs over Sandihurst…
April 13th, 2010
Only literally of course ! Its strangely dark for the middle of the day.
Vintage 2010 underway…
April 12th, 2010
The first fruit of Vintage 2010 is now in. 3 tonnes of Pinot Noir from the Williams Hill vineyard in Waipara was processed last night. A mix of clones 115, 777 and 5, the fruit came in around 24.5 brix, pH 3.5, TA 7.0 g/L, mature seeds, delicate skins, even & moderate sized berries, and tasting great. This same vineyard was picked 12 days ...
Kirk Bray
A native of Christchurch, and a curious wanderer of distant shores, Kirk’s talent for beautiful wines can, at least in part, be attributed to his dark decade in chartered accountancy. There, amongst the spreadsheets, columns and rows, Kirk is said to have developed the finely-tuned attention to detail he was later to apply to Sandihurst’s advantage.
It was following a culturally eye-opening period in Europe and Asia that Kirk experienced the moment of truth that was to drive him to abandon his pinstripes and retrain. He had tasted life, French pastries and dim sum and now he wanted more. So, roll up his neatly pressed sleeves he did. Enlightened and decidedly un-accountant-like, Kirk then took his new-found talents to California and Germany’s Pfalz where he refined his vinous skills and gained further invaluable experience. And a family. Finally, and after several happy years, the lure of New Zealand proved too strong to resist, and Kirk returned home and into the veritable arms of Sandihurst Winery.
Artist and alchemist, whilst Kirk’s Mr Nice Guy persona belies a dry wit and wicked laugh, his genius knows only modesty. When he declares his wine to be “okay”, it’s time to bank another medal.
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