Pinophiles Part 4: Rockburn Vineyard

Formerly the 3 hectare Hay's Lake started in 1991 as Richard Bunton's hobby, Rockburn now has 40+ hectares of vines and is the first brand we visited that exports to the states.  Contrary to the more rugged terroir of our first 3 visits, at Rockburn, it's business time.  As you can see by their cellar door paddock (located off-site...we never saw the actual vineyard), they are new school.

Our host was winemaker Malcolm Francis, pictured behind the above countertop's queue of glasses who looks like a mulleted Kip Dynamite.  Please, please visit Rockburn's team homepage for a closer picture of Francis (http://www.rockburn.co.nz/team.html), who boasts a second claim to fame as the inspiration for one of the title characters on this classic late 90's toon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_and_the_Brain.

We only tasted two wines:

'07 Parkburn Riesling - $20NZ, 12.5% alc: I'd recommend it; this wine wasn't that sweet and had a Pechy/Mango nose with great balance.  While most of Rockburn's wines combine grapes from both the Hayes Lake paddock and the 33 acre Parkburn plot they purchased in 1999, this is the only one made exclusively with grapes from the original plot.  Because Central Otago doesn't get cold enough (< -8 Celsius) for frozen grape harvesting (a sweetening technique), they have to employ other tactics.

'09 Pinot Noir - $45NZ, 14.4% alc: Too many tannins for me (it's young=stronger tannins...more on tannins from Robert in a bit.)  On taste, it had dark cherry and chocolate flavors...Just take it from Malcolm: pinot-noir-vid.html

Stay tuned for our final stop: Wooing Tree

-Trevor

Let's Go Otago

Here we have Dick's recount of our sojourn's first day trip, and a fitting pic of the shark.

The couples decided to rent a car and included shark and I in their plans to go sightseeing.  Trevor wanted to stay home and watch the NFL playoffs on his computer.  Our first stop was the Otago Peninsula: a coastal drive of about 30 mins outside the city.  We went to see albatrosses, yellow-eyed and blue-eyed penguins (unfortunately they do not come out until 945pm) suffice to say we didn't catch any live ones (or dead ones?).  It was incredibly beautiful and looked like what I’d picture Scotland or Ireland to look like.  It was funny because the group was in awe, however, the kiwi’s consider the area we’re in to be the ugly part of NZ.  After bird watching we went to the aquarium which was awful.  We could build a better one in our backyard.  I was thrilled the aquarium was such a bust because it gave me something to make fun of tim for as it was his suggestion.  {Trevor comment - here's something Tim can use to make fun of me}

After the aquarium we went to the larnarch castle.  It was expensive to get in $20, but I felt guilty about not seeing the sugar plantation in Jamaica (my mother's one suggestion during our family trip this past winter that i shot down) so I made everyone do it.  The castle was awesome as is the story behind it.  Wikipedia it to get the full info.  The gardens are unreal and I was very happy we did it.  After the castle we went to St. Claire beach (where shark and I went the night before to see the sunrise).  Very cool part of town, its where all the surfers hang out and has a really neat feel.  We stopped in an outdoor pub and had one pint before returning home.  

- Rick

An Old/New World: Sauvignon Blanc

The first three Pinophile posts pushed this one back in the pipeline, but last Tuesday we dove into some Sauvignon Blanc.  Prior to my departing Chapel Hill, Avy Gravy and I settled into a nice rhythm of scooping up Harris Teeter's coldest bottle of generic Sauvignon Blanc and capping off episodes (seasons...?) of The Wire, so I was eager to learn more about the grape.

A bottle of Sancerre (Stuck-up French AOC appellation for Sauvignon Blanc), and

Roberre (Fed-up Georgian anticipating ETA of his Sauvignon Blanc)

The highlight of the tasting for me was Kris Kringle (Cael Pulitzer to some) coining the adjective "herbalicious" to describe the wines.  After the jump, Sauvignon Blanc.

With a Name Like That, He Was Bound To Be Good

Sounds like a good man (click picture if you want the fine print).  They say he might have called the top a little early on that Kawarau Falls move but hey, as another William Rees said: "Nobody ever went broke taking gains."

Obligatory shot of William, his ram Bojangles, and I:

- Trevor

Pinophiles Part 3: Quartz Reef

Quartz Reef is Rudi Bauer's brainchild (they argue he is just as dynamic but more personable than his namesake, Jack) and was our third stop in Central Otago wine country.   Founded and run by Austrians, they grow Pinot Noir (surprised?) and Pinot Gris on two 15 Hectare plots (one of which is pictured below).

For the tasting, resident marketing guru Trish Linton teed up a brut sparkling 60/40 P.Noir/Chard sparkling, their 2010 pinot gris, and the '08 Pinot Noir.  We had the privilege of sampling the wines among Quartz' stainless steel jungle of storage vats (see pic), which up till then was the closest I had been to wine production. 

Read more for a breakdown of the vino and how a certain Rees Christmas tradition has been adopted in Otago.

Pinophiles Part 2: Northburn Station

After Two Paddocks we were bussed farther north for lunch and tasting at Northburn Station, which originally earned fame 120 years ago as a gold mining hotspot.  About 12 years ago, landowner Tom Pinckney was getting peppered with offers to source his sheep farm for grape growing.  Instead of lease the land, he decided to take up the vintner mantle himself and has been churning out vintage grape juice since '01.  Like almost all other producers in the region, Northburn makes mostly Pinot Noir (75% of the grapes), but also does a Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Sauv Blanc.  Definitely our most thoughtful hosts, Northburn paired their 5 varietals with some dynamite finger food and a cheese/salmon/bread/pesto/shrimp smorgasbord.

The above handout gives a thorough recap of the wines, I won't go into any more detail except on the Rose, which was excellent.

Kiwi Enthusiasm is...___________

Ubiquitous?

-Trevor

Pinophiles Part 1: Two Paddocks

Yesterday our class stormed the vineyards of Central Otago for an up close look at the region's winemakers.  We visited five after all was said and done, here is a recap our first stop, the Two Paddocks vineyard in the Gibbston Valley, near Queenstown.

Two Paddocks is Sam Neill's hobby (pictured above - best known for his portrayal of Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park).  Two Paddocks grows mostly Pinot Noir (get ready for a lot of Pinot - Central Otago's forte), but they also make a riesling, a very popular combo in Central Otago.

Sumo Riesling

The steep slopes on the Rhine are a popular place to plant Riesling grapes

Our January 17^th tasting involved sampling 7 different brands of the popular and often mispronounced white wine known as Riesling.  So, to start off, the correct pronunciation is “Reesling” (as in Trevor Rees)…..versus “Reezling”, which many people tend to say.  We also learned a little bit about the background of Riesling and the process of producing this type of wine.  Turns out Riesling is an Aromatic (unlike it’s more popular white wine cousin Chardonay), it is usually not oaked, and the general approach used is to create a product that has a crisp and fruity flavor (with many subtle variations).  There are a variety of methods used to create these flavors, most of which revolve around how the wine maker manages the sugar levels (early halting of fermentation processes and harvesting late to reap higher sugar-content grapes) and the aging process (it’s one of the wines most suitable for aging…fun fact: only 10% of wines are suitable for or need aging).  One rule of thumb on alcohol content: 16-17 grams of sugar converts to 1% alcohol (i think on a per Liter basis, not positive).  Keep reading for a quick breakdown of the seven varieties we sampled (and please note all prices are in $NZ).

Grape Apes

Grape Ape - Famous Chardonnay & Pruno Fanatic

On Day 2 of TOUR 214 the morning lecture focused on wine marketing strategy; the evening tasting was a crash course of more than I’ll ever need to know about chardonnay.  The biggest take away on the marketing front was the 8 P's of wine marketing: a customized/expanded version of the traditional 4 P's.  It wasn't that interesting because of the overlap with last fall's outstanding core marketing class. The fun part after the jump.  

What the F*CK am I doing?

Riding the tails of Shark-tini's "I AM DOING THIS TODAY NO MATTER WHAT" coat, he, Tim, Cael and I headed out to the Nevis gorge for bungy-jumping inventor AJ Hackett's 3rd highest in the world (134m) bungy jump (pictured below)

As if freefalling into a canyon for 8 seconds weren't enough, the rubber band keeping you alive is attached to a suspended gondola.  Not to mention, the cable car taking you out to the gondola has a see-through bottom (which is basically the equivalent of AJ laughing at my fear as he's been doing this since I could walk).  I'm sure some reading this have taken the plunge, but for those who haven't and weigh less than 300lbs (at least that was the weight limit at Nevis...Sorry Fat Joe you're going to have to lean back from this one) I highly recommend it.  The "Holy crap i'm going to die" adrenaline rush will be your biggest yet (unless you have already faced and beaten death).  I only wish they had a bench press in the cable car so you could do a before/after max weighlifting test.  I honestly think you could lift about 30% more afterwards.  Anyways, sorry Mom and check out the videos after the jump.  I now have Shark's video up, Cael's should be on the way.  In terms of jumping form, Shark is the obvious #1 and I am clearly the worst.  Also, in case you were wondering, they offer complimentary diapers and changing station at the site.

Back To School

Otago University---the oldest school of higher learning in New Zealand--is, by American standards, a sorta cozy, smallish school, replete with the normal college mix of old buildings and 80's-era abominations alongside a beautiful river. As it's summertime here (enjoy that, New Englanders), there are only a few thousands students on campus (as opposed to 20k during regular term), so our group of Tar Heels constitutes a large , loud school of fish in a small pond. Of course, we wouldn't have it any other way. 

Our academic schedule is broken up as follows: 2-hr lectures on Wine Business and Tourism in the morning on Mon/Tues, followed by a workshop form 4-6 on those afternoons. As much as Cael and Scott are jonesing to open Excel and build some financial models, it seems likely that we wont be messing with too many numbers this term.  Our erudite professor, Cally, is a nice Canadian who recently took her PhD from Otago. While she has yet to drop any "abooots," she did use "eh?" a few times yesterday, much to our mature amusement, and she possesses that distinct warm, maternal nature common of our neighbors to the north. Cally loves wine. Soon she will love us, provided we resist making Canada jokes--a nearly-impossible feat.  After the jump - TOUR 214 Day One

The Lay of the Land

Before I post up a recap of yesterday's academia (Timmy will follow that with the afternoon's more hands-on viticultural knowledge drop), here's a quick description of our digs/the town:

Establishing Landscape Shot

Google images tells me that's what the city looks like from a lofty perch, If they're right we are hanging just off the middle left edge of the pic in Selwyn College.  Cael, Scott, Rick, and I live in a dorm called "The Dollhouse", but given there is nobody other than the Bovard/Baldwin crew (who live a few doors down) living in Selwyn during Summer School, we have no clarity on the nickname's origin.  The University of Otago is a bubbled hamlet on the north end of the town; the 5-0 pretty much leave the students be.  As for the town, you can walk south down George St. well past the "Octagon" and find anything from casinos, Thai food shops that give Robert some quality magazine reading time, or any one of four hundred and ninety three Vodafone shops.  No one's had trouble finding their rhythm; we learned to layer up after day two's weather sequence of sunny/drizzle/partly cloudy/downpour/sunny/hail/sunny and are internet capable as of yesterday.  My biggest complaint: Dunedin's answer to Pantana Bob's is closed for the summer.   The full PBob's deathblow after the jump