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