Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ:

Well, this will be my last blog of 2006. We have had a good holiday season with family and friends stopping by. I thought I would share two photos with you from our "family time" this last week. On the left that is our oldest son-Brandon- who is our in-house wine expert. (he spent several years in France in the nineties and acquired a good knowledge or wines to go along with his fine palate. He lives in NZ ( not with us but in Auckland where he is in the food business-he came to visit us in NZ and liked it so much that he moved there too!!!!) and was home for the holidays. He has been one of the main forces behind the scene to push us forward to get our wines into America. While in Nashville in December, he really enjoyed going by the many various bottle shops that he used to haunt regularly looking for deals on wines and finding our Hawks Nest Wine on the shelves. Here he his admiring our 2005 as it was just first placed on the shelf at the Wine Shoppe in Green Hills. Ed, Courtney, and Josh there have been most helpful to us to get us going with sales here in West Nashville. Thanks ED!!!!! The other shot is of my bride of 40+ years and one of her best friends-Dianne Sussman (on the left). You will have to agree that they both look pretty good to be "women of a certain age" as we say at the senior citizen's center. Dianne and her husband, Craig, have a real wine cellar and that is where we keep the good stuff. They also have supported our wine efforts here in Tennessee from the beginning. The have been to New Zealand several times and seem to love hanging out there with us at Hawks Nest Vineyard and Orchard. (I think they both love that terrible job of repeated barrel sampling of the wines--heck, someone has to do the dirty work I guess!!) So, we will enjoy New Years with them and watch a lot of football (gridiron for my Kiwi friends who read this) over the next week as we get ready to return to NZ on Jan 8th for the NZ summer. It will be nice to get back to the vineyard and summertime. A touch of winter goes a long way with me now so I look forward to long days, and lots of sunshine over Matakana!!!! Finally Sandra and I wish you all a Happy New Years and a healthy 2007 for you and yours:):):) Dr. Jim and Sandra -heading downunder soon!