Pinophiles Part 5: Wooing Tree

Out Of Madeira? We've Got Just The Thing

Our last stop in Central Otago was Wooing Tree, its namesake being the almost-controversially-removed Oak (?) dotting the vineyard's nucleus (under which several Otago natives claim to have been conceived.) While our first four visits were confined to cellar door tasting rooms, Wooing Tree's viticultural foreman Geoff Bews marched us out amongst the vines for a up-close crash course on Pinot plants.  The first "ah-hah!" moment was Geoff's explaining the wiring system employed at most cool-climate vineyards.  Instead of letting the branches flare out naturally, farmers will weave the vines into a row-long loom of wires.  This is called VSP, or "Vertical Shoot Positioning"; it facilitates airflow throughout the vineyard and concentrates growth to the fruit bearing shoots by exposing the heart of the plant to more sunlight.

Before the jump and more technicality...for whatever reason Wooing Tree inspired Cael, Rick, and Scott to spontaneously "Erin Warner":

Wooing Tree (and I'm sure they're not alone here) cultivates with diamond-cutting precision.  Geoff induces the same branch, shoot, and fruit structure on every SINGLE vine.  This isn't easy, every vine has dozens and dozens of shoots that need to be stunted.  But with diligence, he (the royal he, you know...the editorial) prunes every vine into two cordons (main branches), each cordon two spurs (one spur pictured below), each spur 2 shoots, and each shoot two bunches (of grapes).  By limiting the grape yield equitably, the juices should turn out consistent and more flavorful.

Wooing Tree Pinot Noir Shoots

Geoff noted that this year's Pinot is growing VERY fast, it's looking to be Central Otago's first or second earliest harvest in the past 7 years (keep in mind from '96-'04 the number of Central Otago vineyards almost septupled from 11 to 76, it wasn't really on the map before '96).  Lastly, Geoff cautioned nature's equivalent of dropping the bomb on a Pinot Noir vineyard is frost.  You can lose 2 years of vine production from a bad frost, so April (fall in NZ) is a stressful month in the region.  Geoff's favorite defense is watering an icy glaze onto the grapes to trap in their heat.  It's counterintuitive, but he swears by it.

After our excursion, Geoff handed us off to the cellar door crew to taste some of their wines:

2010 Wooing Tree "Blondie" - $28NZ: First released in '04 as their white option, this 70% French Oaked plonk is a "Blanc du Noir".  In English, that's a white wine made from red grapes (Pinot Noir in this case).  I was pleasantly surprised with the peaches and cream flavors; it was also very well balanced.

2010 Wooing Tree "Tickled Pink" - $38NZ: With 9.5% alcohol and 100g/L of residual sugar, I'll leave this Rosé for the birds.

2007 Wooing Tree Pinot Noir: I can't do it justice, it's their prize fighter.  Here is the full rundown straight from the horse's mouth:

That's all for the Pinophiles, 

-Trevor