Amisfield Wine Company Blog

Harvest on the Horizon!

2012-02-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

As Summer flys by and Xmas becomes a distant memory again, the vineyard and winery crew and busy beginning to think about preperations for the 2012 Harvest.

Currently the grapes are beginning to go through verasion, which marks the beginning of ripening. During verasion, the Pinot noir berries change skin colour and soften, sugars and volume increase and acidity decreases.

The guys in the vineyard are busy finishing up positioning shoots and making sure the vines are holding a crop level that is in balance and low enough for full ripening and flavour accumulation.

2012 Central Otago Pinot noir Celebration

2012-01-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend Amisfield joined together with 40 other Central Otago wine producers, wine lovers and media from all over the world to celebrate our great grape.

The Friday began with the Grand Tasting where delegates spent the morning at Northburn Station tasting their way through 2010 Pinot noirs as well as older vintages. The morning was opened by Jen Parr of Olssens who presented a arguably great cover of Queens "We are the Champions".

Steph and Jasper poured our 2009 Amisfield Pinot Noir next to the 2006 Amisfield Rocky Knoll Pinot Noir.

Delegates also samples some local Whitestone cheeses.

Friday at the winemakers party at Millbrook guests were great on entry with a glass of the Amisfield Brut NV. Before enjoying some great food and local music.

Saturday morning began with a Burgundy tasting which brought up some interesting discussion concerning sub regionality in Central Otago and what can be learnt for Burgundy's history.

Lunch time was spent at restaurants around Queenstown where the 2009 Amsifeld Fume Blanc was enjoyed buy the guests at the Rees Hotel. It was beautifully matched with a deconstructed bread and butter pudding.

The Grand Dinner was held this year at the Skyline restaurant in Queenstown with great wines, food, atmosphere and entertainment. The dinner concluded with a Charitable Auction of a special cuvee of Central Otago Pinot Noir.

Doug Frost MW MS from the USA gave an entertaining speach to get the night going.

A great event enjoyed by all with a great sense of community in the region bringing together our great wines, food and people. Look forward to the next one in 2014!

Remarkables Primary School Induction Day!

2012-01-26T14:37:00.000-08:00

Remarkables Primary School held their induction day at Amisfield Winery & Bistro. New staff members had to complete a series of challenges at Amisfield for a reward of a bottle of wine for lunch.

Under and over our famous tractor!

Max Caulton handing over the coverted bottle of Amisfield Sauvignon Blanc.

Well done guys and good luck for the 2012 school year!

Another convert to Riesling

2012-01-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

How fantastic that there is a movement to promote the enjoyment of Riesling. Another movement sweeping the world but one in which the supporters are not setting up cardboard boxes on Wall Street but laying down their picnic blankets on a grassy knoll. No doubt all of us have memories of a moment, a setting or an occasion when we really enjoyed a great meal, a refreshing boutique beer or a special glass of wine.

My mother, who like many kiwi women of the 1980’s, enjoyed her nightly tipple of sherry was converted to Riesling (or rise-ling as she pronounces it) in the late 1990’s while on a trip to Adelaide. While waiting for me to finish class at the University she sat in the elegant Art Gallery cafe on North Terrace surrounded by Rodin sculpture and tried her first glass of Riesling. Whether it was a Clare Valley or Adelaide hills is unknown but it no doubt was a fusion of lime, honey, honeysuckle, oily in texture but with a dry acid finish. She raved about her new found friend so much that I decided to do my premier harvest, 1998, in the Clare Valley at Leasingham wines. Little did I know how immersed in Riesling I was to become. I lived on the local wine tasting bike trail known as the Riesling trail and spent the first two weeks before harvest travelling by bike or car all around the district lunching and tasting at the likes of Skillogalee, the Mintaro pub, the Watervale pub, kilikanoon. A truly beautiful part of South Australia and the Rieslings were incredible. My first harvest was perhaps one of my hardest working what felt like 3 months nonstop as the laboratory manager alongside a French man from Cognac. I learnt to have a great fondness of Cognac but there’s another story about another great drink.

During my 5 months in the Clare valley I tasted all its great variety from the new vintage clean crisp style of Riesling to the aged Rieslings that exhibit petroleum like characters. The next phase in my Riesling odyssey was in Oregon, tasting wines with my colleague and then boss Paul Pujol. He came to Oregon from Alsace where he had been making wine for Kuentz bas. Paul introduced me to the “old” world style of winemaking. The Rieslings were magnificent and many a night we would travel across the appellations of Alsace by wine tasting. Paul explaining the nuances of each terroir as we went.

For me Riesling really is the prettiest of grapes. It is so delicate and expresses itself and the land from which it has grown in the most beautiful of ways - with refinement and precision. Now I have opportunities to try to emulate my past discoveries in my present and future work in the incomparable Central Otago Region. Experience worth passing to the next generation in due time.

Here’s Cheers Jasper, my lad.

Summer of Riesling at Amisfield!

2012-01-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

The Summer of Riesling is upon us http://www.summerofriesling.co.nz/ and Amisfield is here to celebrate with both the Amisield Dry Riesling and Lowburn Terrace Riesling.

Central Otago
Is one of the regions in the world which has a climate well suited to the variety. We have long hot days and cool evenings, we have mostly glacial and alluvial soils at a range of elevations creating the terraces Riesling thrives on.

Amisfield Wine Company
At Amisfield we make two Rieslings, they are both planted in a small valley protected from the desiccating northwesterly winds. This combined with Lochar gravel soils gives our Rieslings great minerality and length to accompany intense stone fruit and citrus characters.

To read more about the Amsifeild Riesling see; http://www.amisfield.co.nz/wines/varieties/riesling

The Riesling at Amisfield is planted in 2 blocks, the older vines of the Rocky Knoll area and younger vines on a beautiful elevated terrace above the winery. The sites are low vigour and our Riesling yields small berried fruit with excellent concentration and uniformity. Great emphasis is placed on canopy management so that we have good consistency with our Riesling year to year. Below is a picture of what our 2012 Riesling currently looks like and also a view from our block 1 Riesling.

The Riesling passion/bug does not just finish in the vineyard and winery with Vaughan (Executive Chef) and his team at the Amisfield Bistro creating dishes to match with the aromatic Rieslings.

Currently on the menu the kitchen has a couple of dishes that sychronise perfectly with the Dry Riesling. Below on the left is the Apples, orange, hazelnuts, marjoram juice with wild greens and manuka dressing. On the right we have salt crusted beets, foraged cress, aubergine and fresh cheese.

We can't forget the infamous Amisfield pork belly which arguably matches better with the Lowburn Terrace Riesling than the Pinot noir?? We will have to test that theory out a few more times...

Watch this space as events unfold at Amisfield and around Central Otago as the Summer of Riesling continues.

What are the grape vines doing for xmas?

2011-12-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

Summer is in full swing in the vineyard as the guys are busy shoot thinning and shoot positioning as the first signs of the next years harvest beging to show up on the vines.

Currently the vines are flowering which can be seen here. This event starts with the opening of the individual flowers, pollen being liberated and ovules becoming fertilised.

Fertilisiation leads to berries being set and the caps on the small berries dropping off. This can be seen below in our Clone 115 Pinot noir.

Currently we are between 50 and 90% through flowering across the estate.

Speaking of flowering, the wild flowers are popping up all over the vineyard which not only keeps the bees happy but looks pretty good.

While in the winery the little bugs (Oenococcus oeni ) seen below have finished their job in the Pinot noirs.

THE NEW RECRUIT

2011-12-07T18:28:00.000-08:00

Amisfield's winemaker Stephanie Lambert has recently brought young Jasper Lambert to the world. While the rest of NZ was glued to the world cup final Jasper was busy taking his first breath on the 23rd of October.

There is no messing around at Amisfield as Jasper is already showing off his green thumb.

Young Jasper is seen here more than excited to be out in the vineyard getting the early childhood version of flowering and shoot positioning.

Fume anyone?

2011-12-07T11:37:00.000-08:00

How to spend a wed night.... With the sun dropping behing Mt Roy, Wanaka, its not a bad time to crack a bottle of Fume blanc and pull the asparagus and mushroom lasagne out of the oven. Cheers!

The Amisfield Fume blanc was made from hand selected Sauvignon Blanc bunches from the Pisa estate. 100% of the juice was gently pressed as whole bunches directly to new and old French oak barriques, where it fermented with wild yeast. The wine underwent a long slow primary fermentation with wild malolactic fermentation in the spring. This wine is a true pleasure to make as the flavour and aroma profile developed periodically over the 15 months it spent in oak leaving us, as winemakers, both constantly intrigued and fascinated throughout its maturation.

http://www.amisfield.co.nz/wines/varieties/fume-blanc

From Queenstown to Auckland on $10 - how it all began.

2011-11-30T18:30:00.001-08:00

Early this morning we had an interesting group of people walk through the door - contestants from the Accor Hotels $10 Queenstown Challenge - 2011 with Cure Kids. $10 | 3 Days | 1 Country

The teams had to complete 3 Challenges whilst at Amisfield:

1. 'Wine Time' - Can you choose 4 items from the fruit bowl to match the wine?

2. 'Taste with no sight - can you get it right'? Can you guess the food whilst blindfolded?

3. 'Rollin, rollin, rollin' - Can you roll this wine barrel up the hill and around our tractor?

Check out the results ....

And off they go again! Spot the driver for Team Eva's Angels coming through the door... He's our Good Sort for the day.

There are more photos on the Amisfield Facebook page, you can also follow all the teams at the Cure Kids Facebook page.

If you see any of these folk on your travels, make sure to help them out by offering a ride, a bed or even some food, better still, check out how you can help fund research for child illnesses in NZ here.

Christmas Celebrations

2011-11-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

We have a fantastic tradition at Amisfield, every year around the middle of November we celebrate our Christmas Staff Party. The entire day is planned and kept secret from the team ... until we reach the final destination or destinations as the case may be.

At 9am, "tequila roll call" was taken at the Skyline Gondola. We soon found out who the Nanna's were amongst us from the more daring, extreme staff as we hooked on for the ZipTrek Ecotours experience.

From Zip Trek we were on the road with Geoff from Snag Bus to our second mystery location which turned out to be the Wyuna Station Clubhouse. Awesome.

Check out the photos from our 2011 celebration - big thanks to Fleur and all those that looked after us for the day. You guys rock xx

The entrance to Wyuna Station ... we still didn't know what was around the corner.

Tasty whitebait starters

On the lake ... Jason's taking it a little too easy

Deb & Anna

Gav & Sarah

Mrs Heart, Sam & Olivia

Wine Shop Barbie, Lauren Long Toes & Sarah Skinna

Double Thumbs from Robbie

Snowfalls in November

2011-11-03T19:39:00.001-07:00

The nice thing about a daily changing menu is that we can offer soup on a snowy winter's day.

Find on today's menu Dirk's 'Cauliflower Soup with lemon oil, Amisfield bread & butter' matched with the 2008 Amisfield Pinot Blanc.

The Science Behind Amisfield.

2011-10-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

The face behind the Amsifield Lab,

Anna joins Sam and Stephanie as Amisfield's new Laboratory and Compliance Technician. She comes from a background in food and pharmaceutical microbiology, but has turned her hand to a variety of tasks in the past few years - including working for the Department of Conservation as a ranger in the Aspiring National Park and as part of the biodiversity team on Stewart Island.

Anna says she "is really excited to be involved with Amisfield and is looking forward to contributing to its future".

This is Anna setting up blending trials on some 2010 Pinot noir.

And below is our ever reliable pH meter which we use regulary to monitor the acid in our wines, especially at this time of year when our indigenous malolactic bacteria begin to convert malic to lactic acid which helps soften and integrate the acid. This conversion by the bacteria releases CO2 which can be heard as a soft prickle when you put your ear in the top of the barrel.

Another couple of vital pieces of equipment used in day to day monitoring of our wines, sulphur apparatus and our little bench top filter.

Ducklings and Budburst!! The new season begins..

2011-10-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Spring has settled in and with this comes budburst.

This can be seen above in our Block 7 Zone 3 Pinot noir (Clone 115) which currently has wooly buds appearing. And Below Clone 777 Pinot noir which is well and truly bursting.

With this change in season comes new life. Below is Andre's incubator where the duck and Guineafoul eggs (small ones up front) are brewing.

And below a new Amisfield member was born today!

While our winemaker Stephanie is getting some practice in.

Spring has arrived!

2011-08-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

It is the first day of spring and after a dusting of snow over night the sun has come out and this was quickly followed by our Sauv blanc.

The Sauvignon Blanc at Amisfield is planted in 2 blocks, older vines at the edge of the Rocky Knoll and the younger vines on a elevated terrace above the winery.

While this was going on it didn't bother the guineafowl as they continued their hunt for the grass grub.

Amisfield Dogs...Grrrr

2011-08-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful spring day in Central Otago. The crew is busy pruning our Riesling block so I decided to take Mila the winery dog out to visit the vineyard crew and their dogs. Every wine country seems to have a "Winery Dogs" book which highlights all the dogs that work or keep winemakers company in long vintage hours. Well surely we could almost make up a book of our own. We are defiantly patriotic with our black and white colours. However is it telling they are all poodles, spoodles and puff balls? Rather than the classic kelpies,blue healers, boarder collie and Labradors seen in Australian vineyards/wineries?

Margaret trying to round up the chess players.

Mackenzie the puff ball puppy making friends.

Of course who needs kelpies when you have the toughest gang around protecting our wines...those South African Guinea Fowl! Is this telling to?...can we relate all this to the up coming sporting event somehow? NZ=puffy, Oz=witty and SA=tough?

On the wine front, 2010 Rocky Knoll Reserve Pinot Noir being racked today ready for bottling unfined, unfiltered.

Guinea fowl looking for a skiidoo

2011-08-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

The only creatures brave enough to venture out in the cold to do some work.

Andre's Baby

2011-08-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

Here at the Amisfield Winery we take utmost care of all our wines but non more so than our precious Chenin Blanc! Andre has propogated these vines by hand with the original cuttings coming direct from South Africa. A whopping 130kg of Chenin Blanc was picked in 2011 as can be seen from the photo.

This was pressed using a small basket press and innoculated with 2 types of yeast to provide complexity towards the final blend! After 4 months "sur lee" (on lees) the wine has just been hand-bottled meticulously by the winery crew.

Each bottle has also been sealed with wax and hand-labeled making this wine truly unique!

Santé Andre!

Andre'

2011-08-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

Here she comes.....

2011-08-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Its Amisfield's Next Top Model....Ms Rose 2011. Its been a race against the clock for her red carpet challenge but as we can see from this photo shoot she is looking pretty in pink and ready for her debut. In this the 9th anniversary of the season we see another beautiful Rose out to impress.

Rose is again featuring a young and dynamic local NZ designer. Her outfit beautifully designed by Feast of Queenstown. Feast have been designing for us for many years to glowing accolades. While their style can at times be seen as rather risque...especially outfits designed for the recent Queenstown Winter Festival and paraded by chief designer Scott they always give our Rose a stylish, contemporary and sophisticated look.

This year we have had to alter our judging panel for the catwalk presentation. Amanda (our lab technician)who was such a fan of the contestants on season 8 just proved to be a slightly bad influence on the young debutantes. She was often seen sitting out in the sun in Queenstown partying with just one too many of them. So this year we enlisted the only slightly impartial (Amanda's step dad) Murray to be lead judge. With all the expertise and international modelling knowledge of Tyra Banks but without her snake tongue we see Murray here taking a closer look at the makeover of one. It is a tough elimination with a make over administered to any Rose not quite looking her best. For the successful there is sun, bight lights and the chance of domestic and international appearances in some fabulous places. Keep an eye out or invite Rose around to your place. She just loves being seen in all the right spots

E'Sensual Guests at Amisfield

2011-07-31T17:16:00.001-07:00

Over the last 4 days, Central Otago has hosted a number of sommeliers and restaurateurs form around the world, giving them an insight into our region and its wines.

Last Friday Amisfield had the pleasure of showing them to an afternoon through our vineyards followed by a wine tasting from the 4 Central Otago sub regions- Wanaka, Pisa, Lowburn and Bendigo.

Audi A6 launch!

2011-07-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Amisfield Wine Company had the pleasure of hosting the launch of the new Audi A6 this week. The car looked stunning displayed infront of our cellar doors and all the dealers & journalists had a memorable meal at the bistro after a long day of test driving at the Proving Grounds.

And their doing it all again tonight!

Roll on.

Learning to Prune

2011-07-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

The Assistant Winemaker Sam and Cellarhand Dave were busy in the vineyard today learning how to prune from our expert vineyard manager Sue! This is all in preparation for the Young Viticulturalist of the Year competition to be held at Cromwell Polytechnic on Friday 15th July. The competition involves multiple vineyard skills as well as wine tasting, general knowledge and "Hort Sports". After a few hours and multiple hacked-up vines, they both have a greater appreciation to the hard work that goes into vineyard work over the cold months of the year!

AS WINTER HITS REMARKABLES

2011-07-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

As winter slowly rolls in, The Remarkables opened on Saturday and Amisfield was there to celebrate with Arcadia.

While the snow was a little sparse it was enough reason to pop a cork and dust off the snowboard.

Not only were the punters happy about the lifts finally running but the staff were also more than pleased to be busy again.

BUBBLES AT CORONET PEAK OPENING!

2011-06-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

Arcadia was handed out to all the keen skiers and snowboarders that came up Coronet Peak this morning, to celebrate the opening of the 2011 season. Amanda, Debbie and Ruth (the sumo wrestlers) along with Fleur and Scott, welcomed the excited and eager locals and tourists onto the chairlift. The four people in the photo wearing "first on the chair 2011" t-shirts must have been up bright and early to be at the front of the queue!

For the love of Pinot Noir

2011-06-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

A brisk morning start for the Vineyard. The passion for Pinot Noir is evident here with our studious and dedicated vineyard crew pruning in sub zero temperatures. I am continuously impressed by Sue and her staff and their work in the vineyards in Central Otago. They are dressed up like little Eskimos but I certainly would be more inclined to find a nice pruning job on Waiheke Island!

So if you happen to be enjoying a glass of our lovely Pinot Noir over lunch today say a toast to the crew.

Vogue Fashion Shoot at Amisfield

2011-06-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Australian Vouge was on location at Amisfield Winery & Bistro for the winter shoot "Twin Peaks" featuring vintage wool, fur and silk.

Check out the July edition for a stylish winter fashion update. On sale now.

Wine Tasting up Treble Cone!

2011-06-21T17:40:00.001-07:00

The entrance to the Mountain.... inversion layer so thick it was like going up to Mordor!

Halfway up, leaving the thick cloud behind, its beautiful and sunny up here!

The view out to the Lake Wanaka Basin from the Base Building.

The Treble Cone cafe staff...... studiously taking notes!

Back down the steep road to Wanaka, then onto Queenstown.

Thanks Treble Cone, see you on Opening Day!

Robots slowly taking over the work

2011-06-21T14:21:00.001-07:00

It may slightly resemble a tardis from Dr Who but is in actual fact an automatic duck and guinea fowl feeding machine.

Invented and built by our viticulturist Andre and the man who taught macgyver a thing or two, Burt, this is our latest move into the 21st century. Stand back IT experts everywhere, you know the ones, they charge $$$ to tell you how to turn on a computer because they have encrypted a code that only they can unlock when an on/off switch proved to be perfectly adequate. Built from old washing machine parts or was it old Japanese car parts and running off a $20 automatic timer this machine runs like clockwork delivering the daily feed to our resident flocks. Aptly named "The Ron2" after Ronnie one of our vineyard workers who's job it was to manually feed the ducks and guinea fowl previously. Of course we must ask "What is the cost of mechanisation?"

We are preparing all our 2011 white wines for bottling in the next couple of months. I am very pleased again with the Rieslings...but I always say that as I am trying to drum up support (like every other winemaker) for this noble grape variety. Drink more Riesling!

In the winery today we are shutting the doors and snuggling up against the Pinot Noir barrels in the barrel hall, 12C feels pretty tropical when it is 1C and miserably grey outside. The bain of our winter experience the Inversion layer is back and with the ski fields not open so we can drive above the cloud to crystal clear blue skies we all feel a little dreary. Lets hope the shortest day really is the shortest day :)

PM John Key "Adores Amisfield"

2011-06-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

Amisfield Winery & Bistro was lucky enough to host the John Key & his family over the weekend. John has always been a huge fan & supporter of our wines and food and we were delighted to have him return again (twice over the weekend).

I must say the man has taste and says the food was "Better than the Royal wedding". Well done to Chef Jason and the whole Amisfield team.

See you again soon J.K.

The Virgin Pick

2011-05-16T19:50:00.001-07:00

Even after the grapes stop coming in, the vineyard team are still hard at work! No rest for the wicked! Here are some photos of our crew busy hand-picking olives. Yes you heard correctly, hand-picking! Normal olive groves have machines and combs used to harvest however ours are on such a slope, meticulous care needs to be taken picking so they don't go rolling away!

Our olives get pressed and the resulting extra virgin olive oil will go to the bistro to accompany the delicious food Jason and his team prepare for guests! Yum!

Jo is seen here hiding!

All dressed up and one place to go

2011-05-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

The Bistro team really got into the spirit of our Royal Wedding Dinner Tiara & Tails on Friday night.

The evening started as it should with Arcadia Brut, followed by a classic Amisfield pre-wedding set menu.

Clair how did you know lace was the new bridal in?

In this photo: Gavin, Clair & Rob - you look stunning folks!

Working "All through the night"

2011-04-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Pinot Pressing.....Here is one of our Pinot Noirs being pressed off skins after fermentation. Each year we name our batches of Pinot Noir after a theme. Last year it was Mountains of NZ and this year it was the 1980's. Here we see Block 5 terraces aka Cyndi Lauper being shovelled out by Sam our Assistant winemaker....yes he is wearing a skirt but he wanted to get into theme and you know "girls just want to have fun"
The wine really showed its "True colours" when we pressed it oh so carefully through our Willmes bag press. "Time after time" we leave our Pinot Noir to settle for 24hours in tank before we put it to barrels. Mark the aussie who sometimes has his head "Above the clouds" (being so tall) looks very cool and collected as he puts Cyndi to barrel.

Queenstown & Wanaka Trade visit the Lowburn Winery

2011-04-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

After much stress about the weather, Lowburn turned on a spectacular day, with a dusting of snow above the vineyard on the picturesque Pisa Range, strange to be picking grapes with snow on the hills, but that is how we roll down here!

Andre our Vineyard manager was on hand to greet the Central Otago trade clients as they got off the Queenstown Wine Trail bus (thanks guys!)

He had hooked up the new trailer and we took her out on her maiden voyage.......

First stop was to pick the Pinot Blanc, lots of tasting, these grapes are so sweet and full flavoured. We later got to see the basket press in action, pressing the small parcel from just two rows and taste the juice straight off the press, yum!

Second stop, up to the Rocky Knoll and Lowburn Terrace.

Nau and Natsuko from Kappa Japanese Cuisine, enjoying a glass of Amisfield Lowburn Terrace Riesling and tasting the riesling grapes off the vine.

Third stop, into the winery where everyone got to see Steph our winemaker plunging two of the Rocky Knoll ferments with her hands, then into the Barrel Hall for some informal chats about the Coopers and lots of questions about the Angels Share!

above- Sam the assistant winemaker and Ruth from Lake Hayes.

Last stop, relaxing on the banks outside the winery, drinking Pinot Noir and enjoying lunch cooked by exec chef Jason.

Juanita, our Queenstown sales rep, serves drinks ("one for you, one for me") and Jason is on the BBQ in the background.

Group shot- You can drink or find our wines at these local places;

The Yacht Club, Steamer Wharf

Kappa, The Mall

Wai Waterfront Restaurant, Steamer Wharf
Finz, Steamer Wharf

Bella, Brecon Street

Skyline Gondola, Queenstown

The Landing, Ardmore St, Wanaka

Wanaka New World, Dunmore Street

Mantra, Arrow Lane, Arrowtown

Remarkables Primary School

2011-04-01T01:03:00.000-07:00

Amisfield Wine Company has donated some of our premium grapes to the pupils of Remarkables Primary School in Queenstown to introduce them to the wonders of winemaking, a major industry in their home region. The school has a wonderful program set up for this term across the school introducing the pupils to fermentation science from bread, cheese and winemaking. Amisfield is proud to be apart of such a great learning experience for the kids. The kids will be involved with the wine from intake to fermentation through to bottling. They are involved in all aspects of design, promotion and later in the year they will auction off their barrel of wine to raise money for the school. Today we picked the Pinot Noir for the foot stomp. The first "stomper" was the lucky lad whose name for the Pinot Noir "Remarkables Squish, squash, squelch" was selected out of the many enteries. He can be seen below having fun in the grape bin with his teacher and Amisfield General Manager Fleur Caulton. Then the lineup for the rest of the kids to all have a go. They did a fabulous job and this afternoon we received the grapes back and put them into a tank for fermentation to start. Over the coming days video footage of the "Remarkables Squish, squash, squench" Pinot Noir progress can be followed on our you tube channel and Facebook. The kids also did a fantastic job of signing the head of a new french oak barrel which the wine will be stored in until bottling this time next year. It certainly is the most colourful barrel in our barrel hall.

See can't leave them alone for a second

2011-03-30T23:04:00.001-07:00

....they just get in allsorts of trouble...

The South African influence

2011-03-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today we picked the chenin blanc, the pride and joy of Andre our viticulturist. All 131kg of it..sorry in such limited supply Andre gets it all. I thought it was time for a bit of change for the cellar guys and girls so sent them out to pick the fruit.....the did a pretty good job but I did notice they didn't have quite the exacting standards of our permanent staff so they got relegated back to the winery.

Mike picking the grapes....

The crew is working really well together and seem to be having a great time....they have already surpassed all previous crews in that we have a fresh keg of beer after only 2 weeks...hmmm...they may get a shock next week as I would like to pick the rest of our grapes. No time for beer boys and girls!

We went to a great BBQ hosted by Quartz Reef last night to welcome all the foreign cellar interns together . I went home to bed by 9pm but the others stayed on to talk and mingle, until the late hours of the evening. Perhaps a couple of harvest romances blossoming....

So Olivia our Sales Manager wanted me to capture photos of our hard working interns to post on the blog.....so Liv no such luck this year no French men like last year who would strip off at the first oppotunity but here you go Liv some action shots

Mark trying to plunge a... hot...8T ferment

Well time for a beer....if there is any left! Check out our You tube channel/Facebook page next week for some great video action. Hear some insightful winemaking thoughts from our interns..cheers.

Amisfield Gala Dinner at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club

2011-03-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

Photos from the Amisfield Wine Company Gala Dinner at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, March 2011. Executive Chef Jason Innes created a five course Gala Dinner with a focus on South Island and Central Otago products including West Coast whitebait, Fiordland crayfish, crispy duck and New Zealand lamb - full menu below!

Amisfield Executive Chef, Jason Innes

The RHKYC team with Amisfield Winemaker Steph Lambert & Executive Chef Jason Innes.

RHKYC members enjoying the Amisfield dining experience 'Trust the Chef' with wine matching.

'Like' the Amisfield Wine Company Facebook page to view more photos from the event.

GALA MENU- “TRUST THE CHEF”

WITH MATCHING AMISFIELD WINES

FIRST COURSE

Fried New Zealand whitebait, organic sourdough

Amisfield Dry Riesling 2008

FISH COURSE

Grilled Fiordland crayfish, chilli & lemon butter

Green beans, mint, radicchio, marinated artichokes & feta

Amisfield Pinot Gris 2008

BIRD COURSE

Twice cooked crispy duck, eggplant carpaccio & fresh figs

Rocket & cress salad

Amisfield Pinot Noir 2006

MEAT COURSE

Braised Lamb Shoulder with prunes & coriander

Amisfield Rocky Knoll Pinot Noir 2003

Amisfield Rocky Knoll Pinot Noir 2006

New season potatoes with Central Otago olive oil

Fresh steamed asparagus with crème fraiche & fried breadcrumbs

DESSERT COURSE

Chocolate Molten with cream & raspberries

Fried New Zealand whitebait, organic sourdough

Progression of Day 1 of harvest

2011-03-15T23:44:00.001-07:00

Picking the grapes

Sorting the fruit

Meet the team: sam, steph, howie (USA), amanda, mike(NZ), kerri (canada), dave, mark(Aus)

Tip the fruit

Drink the beer

(trying to format blogs....giving up...long day)

No more Nor'westers please!

2011-03-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

Finally all the nets are on - no more of those nor'west gales please! Any claimants for a piece of net landed here from the north? Andre.

Every little bit helps...

2011-03-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend diners to Amisfield Bistro generously offered cash donations to support people affected by the tragic earthquake in Christchurch last week – a total of $825 was collected. Amisfield Wine Company has extended this sympathy and support by doubling this amount - a donation was made yesterday of $1,650.

X-Grape, our Pinot Blanc story is Delightfully Different

2011-02-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

If you are fortunate enough to have visited our Tasting Room or Bistro at Amisfield then you may have come across a little known varietal called Pinot Blanc. Pinot Blanc is easily found across Europe and occasionally you find small outcrops in the New World, soft and fruity pinot blanc is a white mutation of the black grape, pinot noir. At Amisfield we released our very first vintage (Amisfield Pinot Blanc 2008) at our Tasting Room & Bistro last year. We made a limited supply of the 2008 vintage which means you can only sample and purchase directly from us.

The 2008 Amisfield Pinot Blanc, retails for $30 our Cellar Master Brian had this to say “With only two rows of Pinot Blanc in the vineyard, we handle the fruit with great care. The juice was fermented and matured in old French oak barriques resulting in a wine that is delicate and elegant with a silky texture. With a wonderful hint of beeswax, apple, spice and a hint of wood, it is delightfully different”

On today’s menu you will find the Pinot Blanc matched with a beetroot, roquefort, walnut pesto & rocket salad. Sounds good eh?

Salad method:

Prepare pesto by roasting walnuts, remove skin by rubbing in a tea towel, crush in mortar and pestle with garlic, grana padano and olive oil. Add a little honey and season with salt & pepper.

Simmer the beets in salted water with a bay leaf until al dente.

Toss the beetroot with a cabernet sauvignon dressing, rocket and fresh marjoram. Add sliced roquefort and a generous serving of walnut pesto. Serve just like we did with the Amisfield 2008 Pinot Blanc!

Salad prepared by Chef Emma Jones.

Note: You'll find Roquefort at your local specialty store.

2011-02-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

Stunning day in Lowburn ! Harvest just around the corner...

2011-01-30T11:58:00.000-08:00

There's a big, big crop of beautiful grapes in the vineyard, with all sorts wanting a piece of the hard work done till now, from weeds, birds, fungus to even people picking at the odd ripe berry. The purple hue of veraison is setting in to what could be an early harvest. Sue and her crew of 25 are now meticulously thinning fruit.

Did you wear luminous clothing with mismatched fingerless gloves

2011-01-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

...or perhaps your best party dress was a ra-ra skirt? Did you own a thin, black leather tie and were proud of it, or worse it was patterned like a piano? Or even worse still do you remember those hideous "mood t-shirts" that changed colour? Then we need your help.

Each harvest we choose a theme for the names of our Pinot Noir batches and in 2011 we have decided to hop in our DeLoren DMC-12 and go Back to the Future with Marty McFly to the decade that we love to forget the 1980's.

So if you cried to Jason and Kylie or just thought Knight Rider was the coolest....we need your inspiration. A-Z of memorable moments from the 80's. So far Aerobics, Billy T, Ghetto blaster, Jellies, Mello Yello, Ninja turtles, Rubiks cube, Thriller, USSR, zinc. Remember it will be with us for a year....personally I can't wait until blending trials when there will be heated debate over the femininity of "Octopussy" versus "baywatch".

summer fizz and summer fun

2010-12-21T00:39:00.000-08:00

Newly released and available at our cellar door and the Bistro only "Lake Hayes Paradise NV Sparkling Pinot Gris"

I find the best way to unwind and relax after work is to enjoy a glass of wine with a friend sitting beside my piece of paradise the Clutha river. Usually I can co-ordinate all three elements however tonight it seems I am drinking alone watching the river in somewhat suspect weather conditions with only the guarantee that my wine glass will be constantly full. Why is it that even Wanaka which seems to have very predictable weather still manages to bring a storm pre-xmas? I guess even Mother nature feels the pressure of the xmas expectations!
So left alone until I join my friends at the beach in the north of the country I sit here enjoying my paradise. The drangonflies really appear to be gaining in size as I work my way through the bottle! Really have to see to believe. I hope you get to enjoy our "Paradise" in your piece of paradise this holiday period!

Have a safe and happy holiday season! See you in the New Year.....vintage 2011...the first wonders followed by legs eleven. Best wishes steph

Our Kiwiana Christmas

2010-12-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Christmas Decorations are up at Amisfield, the theme this year is Kiwiana.

Check out our living, breathing pohutukawa tree pictured with Tom our beardy Bistro Manager. The tree has been expertly decorated with bright red tiki, well done lads.

Courtney and Nelly guard the pressies in front of the Christmas fireplace. I want the long one shaped like a wine box!

Brian loves to wear his santa hat over the festive period, he's on leave at the moment so we thought it was fitting that we put it on his portrait (by Deidre Copeland).

Oh and that's me (very shyly) standing alongside the Fire.

And because it's Christmas, I thought it best to end the post with a really bad festive joke:

Why couldn't the skeleton go to the Christmas Party ?

He had no body to go with!

Ruth

Friday in Queenstown

2010-12-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

Lunch in the Bistro, helicopter ride over the Pisa Range, welcome greeting at Lowburn winery, tractor tour, Pinot Noir wine tasting.....what better way to spend a Friday?

Another happy Monday

2010-11-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

Some of our Bistro & Kitchen staff took a trip over to our Lowburn Winery for the morning, you can spot the vineyard team in their steel cap boots and Queenstowners in the flip flops!

The crew are seen sampling some of our award winning pinot noir.

Happy happy joy joy

2010-11-21T14:54:00.000-08:00

Its Monday and the winery crew is looking forward to the week! Modelling the new Amisfield t-shirts available at cellar door.

Big Birthday for the Imbiber

2010-11-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Brian aka The Imbiber.

The Amisfield team & friends join in celebrating with the Imbiber at his Big Birthday Bash.

Brian and his beautiful sister, Kaaren toast with a glass of our 'Golden Child' the 2008 Amisfield Pinot Noir. Will and John in the background.

Lance (Queenstown Wine Trail), Maureen (Brian's better half), Kev & Bess from The Gibbston Valley Cheesery

Jason, Olivia & James of the Turret B&B.

Birds in the Rafters

2010-11-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

Yes our iconic Bistro building on Lake Hayes is beautiful.... even the local starlings think so. Two birds, Arthur and Martha made the beams their home last night, keeping me and the friendly neighbor busy to all hours thinking of inventive ways to shoo them down from their 25 foot perch.

That black spot on the top beam.... so high you can hardly see it? Is Arthur.

The man wielding the very large tent poles is Paul, the neighbor. Thanks Paul.

The birds had a lovely stay overnight at the Bistro, but vacated early this morning, leaving us with a little cleaning up to do!

2010-11-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

24C at the Lowburn winery and my team ???......Mate... Oi Oi Oi whats going on? Dave, Amanda and Sam Hambour our new Assistant winemaker enjoying a summer lunch (admittedly someone is taking the photo so also enjoying the sun). Sam a true blue Aussie straight into the puool totally unafraid of the giant trout ready to nibble his toes. Yes, I guess when you have grown up in Adelaide with Great Whites patrolling the shores, deadly spiders living in the bathroom, drop bears falling from the trees, poisonous brown snakes crawling through the back yard....a little nibble on the toes by one of our Indian Runner ducks does not really compare or scare!

Sam pictured below has joined us via vintages in Australia, Oregon, California and Marlborough and we are very pleased that he has joined our small crew at the winery.

In the winery we are being kept busy monitoring our 2010 Pinot Noir batches going through malolactic fermentation. It must have been my sweet song tunes that finally saw the 2010 Fume through primary and malolactic fermentation.

Maybe see you at the next picnic lunchen? Bring "Rose" she is always invited! Cheers steph

Block 6 - far beyond bud burst

2010-10-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Andre (our vineyard manager) took this picture yesterday of our Pinot Noir vines on Block 6

Check out the miniature bunches on the shoots already 10 - 15cm long.
So far it looks like a healthy full crop!

The vineyard in spring

2010-10-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

An early morning frost leading to a beautiful day. The vines are just unfolding their first leaf. A very delicate period which is keeping Andre our viticulturist busy watching for the early morning frosts. If the temperature falls below -2C Andre needs to start up the windmills to ensure the buds are protected.

Kerry is on one of our Classic Ford tractors lovingly restored by Burt. He is preparing a bank to be planted in wild flowers which will act as a "bug bank" encouraging natural predators into the vineyard protecting our vines from the harmful bugs.

The french paradox

2010-09-26T16:55:00.001-07:00

Dave our cellar hand seems to be having a great time in Burgundy for the grape harvest...testing out the french paradox hypothesis that "Red wine truely will make you live for ever"

From Dave:

"Vintage started the other day here with the picking of a hectare of Pinot noir and aligote for cremant. It was a shock to be doing real work after a week of winetasting with 25 other wine enthusiasts. Tried 74 different wines in that week including a vertical tasting of beaune 1er cru "les marconaise" going back to 1969. We also visited clos de vougeot, patriarche (with it's 5km wine cellar), dozens of domaines and the highlight being the damy cooperage. It was amazing to see how much work goes into making barrels. I have a funny movie of me trying to assemble a barrel that goes horribly wrong!

Vintage officially started yesterday with approximately 60 others turning up to pick and sort! They are all staying at the domaine and eating and living together! It's fun to have that many people from all over France here. Many of them speak English which is good because I was getting a little homesick speaking only French all day!

The vintage started by picking "la romanee" which is very special to the estate as it is a grand cru monopole which is situated next to romanee conti and richebourge. "

Meanwhile back at the winery.....while the men are away the ladies finish the work. Today we are filtering the 2010 Arcadia base wine. The wine will then be tiraged(producing the bubbles) and left on lees for 2 years until ready for riddling (turning the bottles) and disgorging(removing the yeast and trapping the bubbles) and drinking.

Amanda our quality control officer spotted here sampling the current release Arcadia....must ensure consistency year to year.

Complexity Launch - Denver, Colorado

2010-09-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

A photo of the amazing 'New Zealand World Map Table' taken from the launch of Complexity in Denver Colorado this month.

Complexity brings together Amisfield and 20 of New Zealand's other great wineries with a single purpose: to establish our nation's credentials in the world of fine wine.

Steph was in Denver and said “the launch was a fabulous event that went off with all the “wow” factor that was anticipated".

If you look very closely on the table, you can make out the 8 growing regions. I can see us!

For further info visit http://www.complexity.co.nz/

Just another day in paradise

2010-09-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

Phil collins had it right...its just another day in paradise for us at the Lowburn winery and vineyard....
Here we see some of our wildlife. You can read all about their duties on our Sustainable Winegrowing web page.

The Indian Runner Ducks are enjoying the warm weather on the pond under the snow capped mountains. While the African Guinea Fowl are moving around in gangs patrolling the grounds.

We also have frogs living in the wetlands....funny I had no volunteers to capture them on film. They provide a vital role as environmental indicators to the purity of the winery waste water that is cleaned through our wetlands.

2010-09-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

The simple things in life often evoke more pleasure then the most complex.

A beautiful morning at the Amisfield Bistro with the sun streaming through our logo branded windows in the gallery.

I often think the non-simplicity of a daily changing menu at the bistro being proof read by four members of out talented team is a fool proof solution for spell check!! A result of this is 'Beard Crumbs' instead of the obvious 'Bread Crumbs' slipping thru our web of intelligence and being printed on the menus. Thanks to our 'Super Intelligent" youngest waitress Courtney, the crisis was resolved by 1pm..........Thanks Courtney!!

Cheers Tom

Au revoir Dave

2010-09-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

Dave part pendant 6 semaines à la Amisfield de travail en Bourgogne. Il mangera du fromage, boivent du vin, danse à 80' ; musique de Français !

He is taking our Amisfield house on an international tour....wait to see where it may go....from the vineyards of Amisfield to Romanee Conti perhaps?

Good luck and have fun Dave! We look forward to some great blogs of your vintage experience in Burgundy at Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair...

Long Live Pinot Noir!

2010-08-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful thing Pinot Noir is! A simple grape that can stir up the deepest emotions from a simple sniff! This is something we take very seriously here at Amisfield. It's a passion that involves everyone from of course our extremely talented wine making team, and spreads its wings throughout every depertment of the company.

Long Live Pinot Noir!!

cling clang go the ladies on the runway

2010-08-25T02:46:00.001-07:00

Bottling day for the 2010 Rose.

Looking just the pretty picture "Rose" is preparing herself for her debut....all in line across the catwalk....with a quick blow dry (look on the left) helps her makeup stick (labels)

Amanda (our lab technician) who is often too shy to capture on film is finally spotted at "Rose"s preparation parade. Not surprising as Amanda is some what star struck by "Rose" and the temptation within.... In fact this may run in the family as Amanda's mum is also spotted here about to run off with some "Rose 2010"

"Rose" now nicely made and looking beautiful is having a lay down before the glimmer ball shines on her future debut. Beautifully perfumed of rose petals and strawberries with hints of water melon she loves to be chilled and be appreciated by all on bright summer days. Where she quietly whispers "look at me aren't I lovely"

Enjoy.....steph

Following the pied piper

2010-08-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

...known at Amisfield Wine Company as Sue (vineyard supervisor) and her green portaloo....

Saw her on the move so decided to leave the warmth and head out to see how the crew was going with pruning. Engaged the hubs and went up and beyond out to block 8 and 10 where I found the crew just starting on our Sauvignon Blanc Vines

The crew is doing a great job. Quite shy but I've got good zoom on the camera. Look closely....he's trying to camouflage himself...trying to sneak a smoke in between vines...tells me it helps with concentration. Pruning is a very precise job...one must select just the right canes so to ensure a good crop next season. It also takes a very deft hand as the two chosen canes must then be gently coaxed and twisted around the wine. A fragile movement...one that requires a gentle touch. Look like the perfect men for the job!

Two cups of tea and the winery was also looking more comfortable than the green portaloo...so I bid Duncan and rest of team farewell. steph

celebrities come to stay

2010-08-12T01:05:00.000-07:00

Loved by 12 year old girls and prized by winemakers...twin girls Mary Kate and Ashley come to stay at Amisfield Wine Company!

Perfectly named by dave our cellar hand, our 2 new 700L tanks arrived on the back of a ute from Milton. Not quite the celebrity treatment but at least like any child star they are destined to live out their days immersed in alcohol.

It may seem quite odd that I am blogging about what does just appear to be ....well...tanks... but you have no idea how invaluable such tanks are! Come harvest winemakers will almost walk over hot coals for little vessels such as these. Ideal for our little Riesling ferments...such as the 2010 vintage where we had just a little portion of "wild" ferment...and so wonderful it turned out. Providing the orange blossom aroma that is evident in our 2010! wait for it!

Anyways I digress....back to the twins....as you can see mary kate has been beautifully transformed so she can look after our 2009 Rocky Knoll Pinot Noir..which is coming out of barrel any day now. Whereas poor ashley is still living the bohemian life and still has the dings and dents of a tough life living on the road. She will be going into rehab in the new year ready for the 2011 "wild" Riesling.

steph

Arcadia travels far and wide

2010-07-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

This pic was taken yesterday at Lake Quill above Sutherland Falls, Fiordland National Park by one of our Arcadia fans. What a decadent way to enjoy a bottle of our fine bubbles.... I LIKE it!

Olivia

new interactive display @ Wine Shop

2010-07-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Tim and I have been busy little beavers at the Wine Shop today, creating this new display (well I've been bossing Tim around, so really he has done it all) that showcases some of the flavours in our 2007 Amisfield Pinot Noir.

Chocolate, Cocoa, Pine Needles, Earth, Dried Berries, Wood Shavings, Thyme, Star Anise, Cinnamon, Nuts & Vanilla YUM...... Well its almost wine o'clock..... "TIM pour me a pinot!" Cheers! Olivia

A winters morning at the winery

2010-07-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

For 3 months the barrel component of our 2010 Amisfield Sauvignon Blanc has been maturing in french oak barriques gaining complexity and texture but on a particularly chilly winters morning we feel the wine is ready for blending. While I am sure Dave wishes he was still snuggled up in bed I am sure he appreciates the sub-antarctic gloves he is wearing....I do worry about those ears though and perhaps we should look into some fluffy ear muffs for such mornings. As you can see (if you really look closely) the wine is being siphoned out of the barrel by the means of inert gas thus ensuring gentle handling of the wine.

Dave finishes emptying the barrels and the sun comes out and so to does "mila" his spoodle puppy to give him a "job well done" cuddle.

Meanwhile I have found a much more comfortable environment to work in.

Building a barrel warming house around our 2010 Fume.

This wine is currently undergoing its natural malolactic fermentation in barrel. We must try and keep the "little creatures" who help us in this process as happy as possible so we try to keep them warm at all times and I sing them a nice tune...think crowded house..."It's only natural" and "Something so strong" but never "Don't dream its over". I like to think this is helping. This wine will stay in barrel for another 8 months to mature.

New Zealand is Cool: Snappy Sauvie & Pinot l Wine Spectator

2010-07-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

2010-07-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

A beautiful crisp winters morning in late June at the Amisfield Winery & Bistro.

Tommy Tiger

2010-06-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

'Tommy Tiger' finds target at Sunday's 'Thriller in the Chiller' Charity Boxing match.

Our own Tom Macaulay took on Ben O'Malley in the Wine Vs Golf match up; the fight was the only one of the evening to be called a draw. As you can see from Tom's 'ripped' biceps, he through some pretty mean hooks, jabs and punches, he also coped a few from 'Ben the Basher' which has resulted in a tough looking black eye with stitch included!

One question remains - who will represent Amisfield next year????

Photo courtesy of the Mountain Scene.

Winter at the Winery

2010-06-21T17:37:00.001-07:00

Frosty cold start in Lowburn - mind the wind chill on the bike!

The crew gets to work.

After a cold, frosty start it soon turns into a stunning Central Otago winter's day!

Kid's Eat Free!!!

2010-06-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

Kid's Eat for FREE over the month of June.

Bring the family to Amisfield Bistro for dinner and your kid’s will eat for FREE. Choose from either the Kid's Pasta or Dinner Box valued at $12.50.

Some conditions apply - check with Tom when you book on 03 442 0556 ext 1. Enjoy.

Amisfield Pinot Noir 2008 ...

2010-06-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

We're celebrating two prestigious international awards for our Amisfield Pinot Noir 2008. The first one being a gold medal in London at the influential International Wine Challenge and the second one, achieving the highest points ever awarded to a Central Otago Pinot Noir, 93 points, by the highly rated American Wine Spectator magazine

Amisfield General manager Fleur Caulton says both accolades are an outstanding result for Amisfield and our signature wine Pinot Noir. The 2008 vintage has yet to be released, we'll keep you updated.

Superman need only apply

2010-06-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Another big week and all our Pinot Noir is in the house.

This week shone as the week I love most about vintage….people management. Over at Lake Hayes you must become quite adapt to working with a plethora of personalities but us over in the winery it can be quite a culture shock. The moods rise and fall like the caps of a Pinot Noir ferment.

We are about to start the ferment of the Dry Riesling, every exciting, I love the Rieslings at all stages. My nerves go up ten fold with Riesling around and as Dave tells me I am always “having kittens” don’t know where this expression comes from? But he has learnt that I need tanks, gased, sealed, caps on valves, labeled and the worksheet back to me before I am satisfied that all is well in the world.

The winery has been inundated with fruit flies! What is their point in the cycle of evolution? And where do they come from and where do they go? So we asked mother nature for cold weather and she gave us cold, rain and a blocked sump pump…..the winery was about to go under. Captain Claire could have gone under with the ferments I was out of here but we sent the first mate down the hole while I held the rope to drain the water.

We have 140 barrels of 2010 Pinot Noir tucked away in our cellar now, resting until spring.

Have a good weekend…better go see all is Zen in the winery.

Cheers
Steph

The days roll into one day for me...

2010-06-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

The days roll into one day for me....the winery feels calm and peaceful today and such a stunning day…in fact this vintage is running very smoothly indeed which we must credit to our diligent and keen cellar hands.

This morning we are plunging and plunging red ferments . Beautiful day and our vineyard crew have the Speight’s chilling in the fridge and looking forward to a bit of a shindig this afternoon as they farewell some of their picking crew….possum and John (our tractor drivers of fruit) have been looking forward to it since yesterday and can’t understand why we would want to sit around having wine options at lunch when we could be drinking a crate of Speight’s. Two very different worlds existing in happy harmony.

Our 2010 Ltce Riesling is fermenting nicely and I’ve managed not to freeze the tank yet. I like to promote super strong yeast. Treat them mean keep them keen. We have some great “wild” ferments going on, which is brilliant! Our barrel component of the Sauvignon Blanc is sitting in some lovely new oak barrels waiting to start ferment. After a triumphant ferment “the Darrens” aka Dazza Pinot Noir may be pressed very soon.

Well best get back to work…I am writing this while my morning coffee wears off….made it a bit too strong this morning.

Have a great weekend.
Steph

Harvest 2010 - How it began

2010-06-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

My first wonders vintage theme for the 2010 decade does not seem to catching on here at the winery but I shall persevere.

Vintage has started well for us with about 75T processed already and 3 active white ferments on the go. This is always pleasant as the winery starts to smell like “tropical notes with nuances of cats pee on a gooseberry bush”

We have a few tanks of Pinot Noir and it is all very exciting. A couple of the best blocks/zones have come in already and we have put some whole bunch grapes into the middle of the matrix and it looks great, we are all very happy with the way things are looking. Some of our Pinots should start their natural fermentation on about Easter Sunday.

So a great start to vintage! We will be ramping up a notch next week when all our Pinot Noir needs plunging and looking after every 4 hrs.

The team here is working really well. Really keen and interested in learning all our secrets….

The amount of times I here “in Italy we do it like….” and I say “we are not in Italy and we are making PINOT!!”

Everyone’s attention to detail is great and a good team certainly helps to make great wine during vintage so Claire and I are very pleased thus far…only week 1 mind you ….wait until week 3….however by then we will have some fresh faces arriving for a days work from the bistro which we will all be very happy about. (Please bring more coffee beans over)

See you soon! Steph

HARVEST '09

2010-03-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

Digging out a small ferment by moonlight.

Tobi & Matt enjoying some red pressings.

Plunging red ferments!

Claire digging out some red grapes.

Amanda digging out a finished red ferment.

Pinot Noir fruit being destemmed into open fermenters.

Here's a sneak peak of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes at the vineyard in Lowburn, Central Otago. While the hours were long, harvest '09 looked like more than a little fun!

JOSH EMMETT AT AMISFIELD!

2010-03-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

Josh Emett, Executive Chef de Cuisine for Gordan Ramsay at The London, New York and West Hollywood created an outstanding five course degustation lunch matched with our own Amisfield Wine Company award winning wine.