Looking into the future....heres the picture from this coming Sunday afternoon, around 4pm, when the last grapes for the Sandihurst 2010 harvest have been picked. Sadly the weather forecast isnt all that great so the smiles above may not be quite as wide....

This week Ive been racking the 2009 Central Otago Pinot Noir and Waipara Pinot Noir out of barrel and into various tanks, each group of tanks resembling the final composition for the two different regions. 2009 looks to be a very very good year. Im sure most other producers will agree. It is at least as good as ...

A little action from the grape harvest in Waipara over the weekend. A fine day and a harvest crew who masquerade as an operatic choir proved to be an irresistable mix. Not only were the grapes coaxed off the vine to the sounds of Madam Butterfly and the like, the choir, who all hail from Taiwan, brought out their ...

You have to be mad (or mad about your job) to be plunging Pinot Noir very late on a Friday night. I've posted a few pictures on the Gallery pages (Winery and Vineyard album) showing mad people on a Friday night...

Heres a Poetic reminder to all those people out there content to continue consuming cheap. mass market, homogeneous wines without personality. TRY SOMETHING NEW, BE ADVENTUROUS, TAKE A RISK - YOU WILL BE REWARDED...

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveller, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where

Ive decided to inoculate half of this years Central Otago Pinot Noir and let the other half 'go wild'. So heres a shot of the yeast bursting back into life from their freeze dried state. You just add them to a little warm water (35-40C) and some sugar (in the form of grape juice) and it doesnt take long for them to get active. Once ...

Busy time of year this. Not only is the 2010 harvest in full swing, it is also the time to start assembling the 2009 Pinot Noirs. Bottling date is scheduled for around 4 weeks time so I need to start sniffing, swirling and spitting my way through all of the barrels to get and idea about the final blend of each wine. Also ...

We get asked so many times about the crystals that are found in wine that Celia has compiled a little one-page information piece which we use in various formats to tell people about this wonderful discovery which, if you're lucky, you'll find in the bottom of your glass or on the bottom of the cork.  So for those that are interested, here ...

Riveting action direct from the Sandihurst Winery cellar. Its the fermentation lock of Mike Browns Riesling doing its thing. This wine is part of the 2010 NZ Riesling Challenge. 12 Winemakers from around the country were invited to take part. They each received 4 tonnes of Riesling grapes from The Mound vineyard in Waipara and were instructed to make a ...

Pre fermentation Central Otago Pinot Noir, macerating/soaking, in order to extract the best colour from the skins. The fruit was harvested last Sunday and brought up from the vineyard to the winery in a refrigerated truck the same day. Each clone of Pinot Noir was kept separate and destemmed into 1.5 tonne open top fermenters. The coldness of the fruit together with a little SO2 combines to hold off the ...