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