Wine Dinner at The Watermark, Nashville, TN. on April 23

Well, we just had our last wine event in Nashville for the season at Watermark last night. It was super and all who where there had a really good time. Jason, the manager there organized a wonderful dinner and Lipman Brothers (our importer) had five wines from all around the world to pour as pairings with the food. Here are three shots from the dinner. As you can see, everyone was really enjoying themselves.

The lowest photo features the infamous Ed Fryer of the Wine Shoppe of Green Hills. ( note that he always seems to be traveling with a bevy of lovely ladies and brought two to the dinner last night!!! He is our best retail seller of Hawks Nest wine here in Tennessee and has really helped us with the public relations for our wine over the last two seasons. Thanks for all your help ED!!!!!!

So, now we get all packed to go back to NZ next week. They have picked our Cab Franc without us--shame but the grapes would not wait. We got 5 tons of really ripe grapes with excellent quality of grapes. Our wine maker is really happy and is already busy with the fermentation and plunging of the grapes as he starts his winemaking magic back home in Matakana.

Our next blog will be from back in NZ so look for some photos soon of our 2007 wine making start. All of you in Tenn have a good spring and early summer as we go back to late fall and the harvest season in NZ.

More postings after I get over jet lag!!!

Dr JIm and Miss Sandra

Hello to you all again. I thought I would do this short blog in bold green just for a change. I was invited to the home of John Brittle last night for a charity wine tasting and had a ball. There must have been a hundred people coming and going. Here are two shots. The man in John's lovely wine cellar is his dad--John senior. He was a ball and showed we the amazing collection that his son has of rare and un)ique wines. The two ladies (note how many ladies where there) just popped into my frame as I was about to take a shot of our bottle mingling with some really first class wines on the counter. They do dress up the photo but I can't tell who they actually are--just that they like good wine.

I got to pour a lot (too much really) of our Orchard Block 2005 Red and got a lot of good feed back. It was a lot of fun. John Brittle does his parties in his home quarterly and asks those who attend to bring one or two of their own good bottles as "entry price" Those bottles are collected and used for charity wine auctions in the Nashville area annually. What a good idea. Last night's charity was a local adoptioin agency that works with prison women who get pregnant and want to adopt. I could not believe that in Tenn they have already helped 25 incarcerated pregnant women in this manner. (so, how in the heck do they all get pregnant in there anyway I wonder)

We are getting anxious to get home to Matakana as we go back May the first. Jeremy at the orchard tells us the grapes may not wait for us to return so we may miss out this season. We hate that but just can't get back any sooner.

That is all for now!!

Dr Jim -slaving at day at gynecology and tasting and sharing good wines at night. An interest dual existence for sure!!!