Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Happy Day!!! We got the last half of our Cab Franc picked yesterday. It totaled of 2.7 tons so we now have 5 tons of good ripe Cab Franc in our fermenting tanks. All totaled this year we have almost 11 tons of grapes now picked and in the stainless steel fermenting vats. That should give us around 11,000 bottles of good wine to sell at the end of 2007. (Remember, our wine stays in French oak barrels for over a year after it completes fermentation so we won't bottle until next Sept.)

Again we had a good picking team including Bart who you see in the two photos above. Bart is the first person that we met back in 1998 when we came to NZ to consider moving here. He and his wife, Therese, are from Belgium and run a fantastic small B and B in the upscale Parnell area of Auckland. We stayed with them then and on several other occasions as well. If you ever come to Auckland we say you MUST stay with them at their lovely AscotParnell B and B. Check them out at www.ascotparnell.com It is a wonderful place to stay when in Auckland. He even now offers airport pickup as part of their services.

Bart is a hard worker and picked as a volunteer for us both last year and this one. In the first photo you can see him at work in the grape vines. ( he is a perfectionist in all he does so his bins of picked grapes are always of the highest quality!!) The second photo needs a bit of explaination. If you look closely you will see a case of Hawks Nest wine between his legs at the base of the little scooter. He drove all the way back to Auckland with his bootie riding there--a pretty strange way to transport wine I say!!!! Anyway, thanks again Bart for you help this year!!

As soon as I recover from yesterday's last harvest I will write a bit about the wine making and talk about what happens next with the juice that we hope to turn into outstanding wine over the next 16 months. Thus keep checking this blog for updates!! Who knows? I may also have a bit to say about olive oil as we have 88 trees of almost ripe olives that we will turn into oil in about two weeks. Olive oil processing is a lot easier that making wine and one has instant gradification as the oil is ready to use immediately!!!! So,,,,,,,,, look for future info on olives as well here on the blog.

DR Jim Downunder.