Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

In the photo you can see two our our barrels sitting outside our shed next to an avocado tree. (if you look closely you will see small geeen avos on the closest tree and olive trees in the distance) The glass pop off valves in each barrel allow fermenting gases to bubble out of the barrel without the cork blowing out of the barrel. Again, we have the barrels outside for a bit because we are chok-o-block full in our shed just now. Don't worry- it is just a temp thing until the fermenting steel tanks can get moved into storage.

Those of you reading this in the states need to rush out and buy the May 06 issue of SAVEUR. They have a very good article about our lovely Matakana Valley in it. Dang!!!! now the news will get out and we will have more of those pushy Americans wanting to move here and spoil it for us locals:):):):):)

Finally, a little update on wineries in NZ. In May 3rd's New Zealand Herald which has the biggest nationwide readership here there is an update article called "New Kids on the Wine Blocks. " It starts off with a neat first paragraph. They state in the article that there are now 550 wineries in NZ when there was only 150 in 1991- that is a pretty impressive increase I think. Here is that entire first paragraph from the article.

"The most popular joke about NZ wine today is the one about bored surgeons, dentists, and orthodontists who turn to winemaking when they tire of their chosen profession and have enough money to loose half of it by pouring it into a new winery." Man!!! Could I have written that or what?????

Anway, life is too short to sweat the small stuff-- and it is mostly all small stuff when your get right down to it most times.

More later;

Dr Jim Downunder