Precious pinot

Well, today was our last day at work! This is exciting because it means we are officially on the road again! And sad, because we have both become quite fond of our Kiwi coworkers and will miss them. It was a wonderful experience to work with Kiwis - we feel like we learned something new about the country everyday! This education included an induction to their "language" because they used words we did not understand like "jandals" (flip-flops), "plasters" (band-aids), and "ice blocks" (popsicle). But this education also taught us much about their country, the people, their politics, and the best places to find penguins or geothermal pools.

You are probably dying to know what we have been doing on the vineyards the last few weeks, right? Well, lets just say that now we have a VERY good understanding of why some wines are SO freakin' expensive. We have spent the last 1 1/2 weeks coddling, babying, and singing to the Pinot Noir grapes at the Stoneleigh vineyards. Stoneleigh is owned by Montana Brancott, and thus by Pernod Ricard. I guess their Pinot Noir always wins various wine awards, and we know why! It must be because of all of us hard-working casual vineyard workers! Last week we plucked leaves off all the vines to expose the grapes to the sun. This week we walked down the rows and trimmed off root stock (stalks growing essentially up from the root of the vine) and tucked wandering vines and grapes back in place. And at the end of the week we started fruit thinning. This takes FOREVER. Jay and I barely finish 2 rows in a day! We basically look at all the fruit and decide what fruit gets to stay and become that amazing wine and what fruit has to go to allow the "chosen" grapes to become spectacular. Our coworker Shirley told us that every time we touch a row of vines, the price of the wine goes up by a dollar. True! Imagine the cost of about 10-12 workers all going up and down the rows doing this task for 8 hrs a day - and it will take almost a week for the thinning of this one block! This job not only showed us why good wines are so expensive, but it also opened our eyes to the hard work that people put into growing these grapes. It is not the winemaker out there getting those grapes ready for the wine, it is hard-working locals (and some backpackers) making a living on the vineyards that make that wine so darn good. SO grab a bottle of Kiwi wine, pay the price for it, it's worth it - and kick back and have a toast to those vineyard workers....

Speaking of buying wine - yesterday was our last stint at the various cellar doors and I've got our last wine blog for you! After all this time here we still did not manage to get to all the wineries! Shocking. Anyway, we tried hard. We found excellent wines at Te Whare Ra (pronounced te far-a ra, the "wh" here is pronounced as an "f"), a small family-owned vineyard. They didn't have a single wine we disliked! An additional bonus - the winemaker himself poured our wine for us and answered tons of questions we had about winemaking. The 2007 Toru was a blend of Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Gewurztraminer - a rare combo and wonderfully yummy and creative. Look for their Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer too. They are exported to the states by Fredrick Wildman (www.fredrickwildman.com). We also loved Nautilus wines. Although Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Noirs create the fame for this region, we found that we were not huge fans of these wines at many of the wineries. At Nautilus, however, we loved them both! Framingham specializes in Rieslings (which were great, especially the 06 Classic), but their dessert wine (Noble Selection 07) blew every other dessert wine we have had away (except Prager Port, my favorite dessert wine from CA). Huia is exported right to Boston (Classic Wine Imports), so you should be able to find this golden label with a feather on it fairly easily. The winery is named after an extinct NZ bird - a neat bird because the male and female had different shaped beaks. Neat. Their 05 Sauv. Blanc and 06 Pinot Noir were great. But man, I wish all the wineries would age their red wines a bit longer....

OK - to summarize all our tastings. Julie's favorite winery = Lawsons Dry Hills and Jay's favorite = Bladen (which you can't get in the states). We feel bad naming our favorites, though because almost every winery we mentioned had something we loved. If you are really curious about NZ wines and can't find any of the wines we suggested FEAR NOT, chances are any NZ wine you find will be pretty darn good. Why? Here is an interesting, although unconfirmed fact. We heard that all the vineyards in NZ alone do not even equal the size of one of the large label vineyards in Australia, like Banrock Station or Yellowtail. Therefore, even the largest wineries here are still VERY small in comparison to the rest of the winemaking giants. That means almost every winery here is like a boutique winery. Pretty neat eh? Now go get em' .... Good on ya.

America as seen from Kiwi-land

The sky en fuego last week at sunset

Last night we talked with a Kiwi guy who teaches media ethics at some university here in NZ (does anyone teach this in America?). It has finally prompted us to write about something we can't help but think about regularly--the Kiwi view of America. First I would say that New Zealanders aren't all that different from Americans. Of course they talk different and use descriptors like "wee" and "bloody" (our favorite is "bloody Americans", what we are sometimes called at work and what we believe to be a term of endearment. Our other name is the Americanos). And they drive on the other side of the road. But never, ever confuse them for Australians.

Kiwis, like much of the rest of the world I suppose, are inundated with American culture...pop culture, corporate culture, fast food culture. Thankfully, though, it still feels different enough here that it isn't just like America. In any case, Kiwis have really no choice but to notice America, for as a coworker explained to me when I apologized for my ignorance about NZ--America relations (he was still bitter about US trade embargos after NZ declared itself anti-nuke during the Regan admin.), America's politics and economy exert so much influence on NZ and the rest of the world. Of course I know this, but I feel like I have come to understand it so much more in these past few months. And most Kiwis really do pay attention to it all, probably more than the average American, enough that you would think they could vote in our presidential elections. Part of this is that they are also much more serious political animals than Americans in general. As one might expect, there is little respect for our current leadership. One time back on the North Island we pulled into a campground and this really friendly guy came out to greet us and help us find a spot. He asked us where we were from and when we replied his eyes squinted and through a smirk he grumbled "George Bush"...we were able to smooth things out. We get many comments on our president...they don't understand how he was elected, and are even more puzzled about how he was re-elected. The corruption and conspiracies are so obvious to them. Yet people are rarely condescending about this, just respectfully puzzled.

Understandably, from newspapers and conversations we hear or overhear, Kiwis seem to be worried that NZ will become more and more like America. They are particularly alarmed about increasing violence rates and corporate and political corruption. These are things they associate with America. They laugh about frivolous American lawsuits, which fortunately their laws protect them from...yes, in NZ, YOU are responsible for your actions. At the same time, though, some of the folks we talk to are envious of cheap American fuel prices, and being able to save money because we pay much lower taxes. The guy we talked to last night told us how lucky we were to have something as rock solid as our Constitution.

Almost every day there are constant reminders of America and that we are American. More than anything we think about all the wonderful things about home that we miss and have taken for granted. The other day Julie tried to convince a woman that America had much more to it than just processed cheese products and fast food joints, which were her only outstanding memories of her time there. A few weeks ago at work a guy said somthing like "man, your country has really turned to shit" in reference to some silly pop culture topic. This was light hearted enough, and all I could do was shake my head in tired frustration with my mouth full of food. But later on I thought about this remark and was at first sad and angry, then just overwhelmed by the America I know and love and wish could replace people's perceptions.

Gluttons for punishment have an alpine adventure

Today we were the only gluttons for punishment left after lunch working in the veritable monsoon that seems to befall usually sunny Marlborough on Tuesdays...only Tuesdays for some reason, but I bet this pattern is only temporary. Julie wisely donned full rain regalia but I stubbornly stuck to my shorts as the day got progressively wetter and windier, to the point that I was getting slightly nutty by the end, sloshing around in my boots. We worked on either side of the vines plucking pinot noir leaves add nauseum. We sang a duet of "Somewhere over the vineyard", and I kept talking about Gondwanaland, mostly just repeating the word because I love the sound of it. Walking through a New Zealand forest always makes me think of what Gondwanaland must have been like. Gondwanaland was the ancient southern continent that broke apart millions of years ago. They say that many of NZ's plant species have remained relatively unchanged since this time. A topic I'd really like to expand on...but, more exciting and important than this is what we did over the weekend...Here, Julie gazes down at the hut we stayed in on Sat. night up at 1600 meters. Thats nearly 6000 feet for us Americans. What a climb! We started out in beautiful beech forest along a stream, then followed the streambed into the alpine zone where the trees gave way to grasses and a fantastic diversity of alpine plants the likes of which neither of us had seen before. More about this in a bit. But we finally made it to the hut after 6 hrs, then had a big hummus, cheese and pita lunch followed by some chillin'and swimmin'in the lake you see in the photo. It was chilly but not nearly as chilly as one would think given that it was frozen only a month ago!
The hut is popular and was jam packed with trampers, but it was worth it. Best of all, we couldn't have had it much better weatherwise. The next day we walked back a different way--along a ridge with spectacular views of mountain ranges from all sides. Excellent visability.

OK, now here's something for all you botany AND coral nuts out there.
If you think this is just another lame close-up shot of a coral head, you're wrong! This is in fact an alpine plant that was very common on our hike...but it has an uncanny resemblance to coral. What does this mean, you ask? Nothing, but isn't it neat? I really wanted to know what this was after our hike, and found out that it is called vegetable sheep. Terrible name. But, at least this allowed me to google it and learn a bit more:

"Some of the most striking plants on rocky mountains are the vegetable sheep, or species of Raoulia, belonging to the Compositae family. The apt name, vegetable sheep, is principally applied to R. mammillaris and R. eximia, which as densely compacted, rounded cushion plants grow to several feet across and sometimes 2 ft high. R. eximia occurs in the Southern Alps from about mid-Canterbury southwards and the white colour of its flowers and also of the hairy covered leaves gives it the appearance, from a distance, of sheep. The cushions are formed by a multiplicity of branches, the ends of each branch being covered with the small woolly leaves. The stems and leaves are packed into a dense, hard, rounded mass. The inside of the cushion rots to form a spongy peat and into this the living branchlets send roots."

http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/V/VegetableSheep/VegetableSheep/en

I will leave you with that!

The biggest brown trout ever

We are off on another backpacking trip (called tramping here) this weekend - this time in Nelson Lakes NP, where were were for Christmas. Last weekend we tramped along the Pelorus River, a gorgeous emerald green river. The tramp wasn't too long, Jay carried a bottle of wine for us, and it was mostly through a lush forest with views of the river about 1/2 the time. Our destination was a DOC (dept. of conservation) hut right along the river. NZ has 900!! huts throughout their country, and you can tramp into them and spend the night there for a small fee....handy because you don't have to carry a tent! I want some of these in the US! Anyway, once we reached the hut we spent the afternoon lazing in the river, and later on Jay went fishing. He claimed saw the "biggest brown trout" ever, but the trout saw him before he saw the trout. He proceeded to fall in the river, although this "dip"was apparently not associated with the trout sighting. I was too busy reading my book and did not get to view the splash.
I hope he will get a chance to write more about the fishing.... but if you look at the January albums, we have updated them and added more pics - including the Pelorus pics (Julie's album).
Cross your fingers that we have good weather this weekend - we are trying to tramp into an alpine hut next to an alpine lake! We need good weather to get there..... updates on that when we get back.

Vineyard workers and wine tasters

Hi! I've been wanting to write a blog for a long time about what we actually do at the vineyard and give you an update on some of the wineries we have visited... but first of all - I think it is important to notify you of how we have been spoiled by our employer (Pernod Ricard, who owns Montana Brancott and is the second largest wine and spirits company in the world). It is common custom in NZ for employers to occasionally treat their employees to a few hours of paid work to drink....beer. Free beer. Free beer on a Friday afternoon when no one has good work ethics anyway. So why not recognize that and bribe them into thinking they are the best employers ever because they give you free beer. Why is it that this custom has not been adopted in the USA? We think action is called for so this custom will be common by the time we return to the states. O.K.? Work on that folks. =)

Now - onto the wire lifting. What we do all day, for 8 hours, is walk up and down and up and down rows of vines. There are usually two or three wires that start out the season on the ground, well below the vines. As the vines start to grow, the wire lifters briskly walk and lift them up to a wooden pole with nails in it. We place each wire on the lowest nails....and the vines are pushed up and together - "nice and tidy" as our supervisor would say. Then the damn vines keep growing like a freakin' jungle (see the photo to the left, this is a tame example) and we have to go back to the same rows a few weeks later to do a "second lift" - simply lifting and moving the wires up to the next highest nails. The "final lift" is for tall folks or men with strong biceps only - because you are now lifting the wires completely over your head (for the most part) to the top nails on the post. Sometimes the jungle vines have gone completely mad and grown too fast for us to keep up. This creates tunnels of vines as they fall over the wires and reach for the ground - and you have to grab someone (like strong Jay) to help you lift the vines and any freed wires back up to the post. Certain people (Jay and other members of the male species) can lift these tunnel vines on their own, but alas, the only woman on the team (Julie) never seemed quite capable of fighting the tunnel vine curse on her own. Erghhh.

We actually just finished the final lift on all the portions of the vineyard our team is responsible for (see the photo to the left for an example of a "tidy" row). So, starting today we began "leaf thinning." This is fairly straight forward....all we do is wander down the rows and pluck off the leaves that are surrounding the grapes. They do this to increase the amount of sun that hits the grapes. Depending on how the winemaker wants his or her wine to taste, they tell us what percentage of the leaves to pluck off. For example, we are doing a 90-100% pluck right now on Riesling vines. This will eventually make the grapes quite sweet and these grapes will be harvested for a dessert wine (yummy).

We plan on working for another 3 weeks, including this week - and then we will be done (yipee!) and ready to travel for the remainder of our trip. This is a good thing because our brains are turning to smoosh while our muscles get quite the workout (as Jay demonstrates to the left).

WINE TASTING UPDATE: When I left off, I was raving about Lawsons Dry Hills, Saint Clair, and Mount Riley. I still hold these wineries in very high regard, so don't forget about them! Of all the wineries we have been too, Lawsons has remained my favorite. We have been to about 12 more wineries since our last wine blog update. Where to begin? Cloudy Bay gets a lot of hype for a lot of O.K. wine. None of their wine bottles were under $29 NZ and none of their wine was worth it (in my opinion). I think people there are interested in buying the label more than the wine. Although, I did think their Chardonnay (2005) was darn good. By far, my favorite from this batch of tastings was a little family-run winery called Bladen. You can't find it in the states, but you can get it in Singapore! Wanna come and visit us there to sip some excellent wine together? They had a great red blend (Malbec/Merlot) that blew us away. We also loved their Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir. Another winner was yet another small winery owned by the Bourgeois family (no joke) called Clos Henri. They produce only Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, and they put a lot of French energy into their wines, you can taste it. This is the only cellar door (aside from Lawsons) where we actually left with wine in hand. These folks are not afraid to age their Sauvignon Blanc, whereas the rest of New Zealand seems to think if the wine is over a year old it will not be good anymore. The Clos Henri 2004 Sauv. Blanc is the best we have had yet. Other stand outs that might be really hard to find in the USA include Mahi and Wither Hills. We liked everything these wineries gave us to taste, although the 2006 Pinot Noir from Wither Hills was gorgeous (I sound like a real wine snob now). Also of interest is the wine produced by our winery - Montana Brancott. We have been wine tasting there again and discovered that some of their wine is actually quite good. We also learned that their wine is sold under the Brancott label in the USA, not the Montana label as I may have mentioned in an earlier blog. We love their Ormand 2004 Chardonnay, dripping with oak. Yum. We have nothing bad to say about Matua, Fromm, or Villa Maria. All decent wines that we would buy and happily drink, but nothing really stood out. I'll leave on a little environmental note with Grove Mill wines. This is the first NZ winery to be 100% carbon neutral. They have converted some of their land back to wetlands, they have neat energy efficient buildings, and they buy carbon credits to make up for the energy they cannot avoid using in the process of making wine. Their wine though, wasn't half as cool as their ideals. I'd still buy it and drink it anyway in a salute to a company that is concerned about global climate change.

The morepork family

Hello! Sorry that we have not updated this in the past week or so...we have been busy having fun. We have so many great stories to tell! You will have to keep reading on to find out what the title of this post is all about! And first of all – happy 2008! You can see in this photo what Jay and I did to bring in the new year. We parked Tinkerbell, the van, next to a beach in Golden Bay, had some bubbly, and went to bed at 10pm. What a blast! =) It was actually a gorgeous spot – with the “Christmas tree” in bloom right next to the van (see the updated pics to look at this tree and more. The tree is obvious). Nice sunset, tons of oystercatchers to remind us when it was light outside, and a picnic table just made for us. Happy. Where to start with our other stories? We spent the first full day in the northwest corner of Abel Tasman National Park. This is a super famous park in NZ, and now we know why. Although with fame comes people, yikes! This corner of the park was supposed to be a bit less busy than other spots – and it was! Anyway, we wanted to hike along some of the “great walk”trail – and we spent about 6 ½ hours doing so. What an astounding place. Rolling hills and cliffs coming right down to Golden Bay, white sandy beaches, beautiful forests (only rebounding from farming since the 70s and already quite wild). Lush, green manuka (tea tree) trees and turquiose waters. Needless to say, we were in a little paradise. We had lunch on a rocky ledge, fell asleep on the rocks, watched a NZ fur seal for a bit, laughed at the shags (cormorants) on the rocks, and lazed about some more before continuing on the hike. That night was new years eve and you arleady read about that wild party we had. The next day we headed a bit inland from Collingwood to walk on the Kaituna track, a gorgeous trail that follows the Kaituna River through a steep gorge with lush forests surrounding all sides. It was here that we lucked out and passed a Kiwi father and son who had discovered three owls right next to the trail. These owls are known as Morepork because apparently that is what their call sounds like...didn't get to hear that but we did get a fantastic view of the mom (or dad?) and two big fluffy chicks from only about 5-10 feet away. They were chillin in a tree fern and the adult didn't seem too concerned about us but the chicks were a riot as they opened their wide eyes and twisted their necks in every possible angle to try to figure out who the heck we were. Just had a photo in here of the chicks but deleted it by mistake...too hard to get it back in there, so you must see it in our photo site (Julie's)! Anyway - I've always wanted to see owls in the wild, and this was a true highlight of our entire trip so far. Check out the video of the family in my album.

The following day we went up to the Farewell Spit and walked on the beach a bit, almost walked right up to a few fur seals that we thought were logs! Then we headed back down south towards Nelson, and on the way we picked some boysenberries and had some boysenberry ice cream. The day ended with a much needed swim in the Pelorus River...crystal clear and perfect temperature.

Then, after only two days of work, it was the weekend again! So we rented kayaks and did an overnight trip paddling around Queen Charlotte Sound. This is a busy sound, where the inter-island ferries come and go, but there are very few houses on the steep hillsides that surround the sounds and there are lots of coves and bay where you can escape. The water is really clear and as we paddled we could see tons of moon jellies and even a few fish hanging out below. Jay brought a mask and snorkel but could not bring himself to get in the water once the wind picked up and it felt a little chilly.

What next? Not sure. But we only have three more weeks of work on the vineyard after this one, and there's lots more we want to do in the area before we go....