Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, we are going back to Nashville tomorrow so this will be the last "live report" from Matakana until April the 5th when we return for the fall harvests. We are now worried that our Merlot grapes will be ready for harvest before we return. (the grapes wait for no one!!!) The early fall weather has been sooo perfect here this month that everyone's grapes are two weeks riper than usual. This causes a problem of course because the cycle of the harvest is like a well orchestrated play. The pickers have to be ready and the winemakers have to have all tanks lined up as well as their supplies. The harvest here is done two ways. 1. "friends and family for a party" or 2. contract pickers.
With a two week early date for ripening some of the contract pickers may have other jobs or be in other areas. (they do move about NZ to meet the demands). Thus there is a dash now to line up picking staff. The must fun way to pick of course it to have a big party and invite everyone you know and to ply them with wine, food, and good fellowship. That is how we have done it. We hand pick for quality and since we are small we can usually do it in a day if we get 20 people helping. The problem with the "friends and family" approach is that some people may not show at the last minute or if they do show they may just goof off and be not productive. The might even eat too much at the pickers lunch and go off for a nap under the vines. Anyway, we pick different grapes at different times of course depending or ripening. Usually we are about two weeks later with our Cab Franc than with our Malbac. For our first picking we have just decided to get contract pickers and for the later picking which will be in mid April most likey we will go the party day method that is so fun for all of us.
When to pick? When the winemaker says based on sugar content of the grapes, weather forcast, and vine stability (if there is risk of botrytius we will maybe pick a day or two earlier if the weather forcast is for rain) Picking time is critical as we want the ripest fruit but don't want it over ripe-there is a lot of witchcraft involved it seems.
Anyway, more on the picking process soon.

I will check in again from Tennessee in a few days. ON March 9th we have a NZ wine dinner in Nashville and are all excited to be hosting that later this week. Getting our export wine for sale in Nashville is very exciting for us and I will talk about that process next time.

DR Jim Downunder (for at least 24 more hours)