"Leaving on a Jet Plane"

Well, Sandra and I fly tomorrow back to the God Zone we call Matakana Valley down in NZ. We will be there until Thanksgiving weekend. We wish all our US readers a nice fall season and hope for a nice NZ spring.
We talked to Jeremy our vineyard manager and Sarah who "talks to our grapes" yesterday on the phone and they both say things look good at Hawks Nest and spring has arrived. It will be good to get back and dig in the dirt and drive our tractor to see if I can mow down some more grape vines. (I sometimes have a hard time at doing that safely)

Some people have asked how to get more info on Matakana Valley. Here are two web links that you can visit to check our little valley out.

www.matakanacoast.com

and www.matakanawine.com

you can even order our wine on line if you live in NZ now at

www.matakanacoast.com/indexw.html


More soon

Dr JIM and Sandra

WINE ON THE RIVER IN NASHVILLE

Well, it is the end of the dog days of summer here in Nashville and the weather is changing. Yesterday on Saturday afternoon there was a wonderful wine event held in downtown Nashville- Wine On the River. The day was perfect with the first cool front of fall blowing in cool temps and low humidity. It was the coolest day since mid June in Middle Tennessee and perfect red wine drinking weather.

Lipman Bros. were the main wine sponsor for the charity event benefiting downtown Nashville Tourism and had a lot of their portfolio on offer for attendees. Thanks to Bethany Underwood (that is her in the photo with me showing the Hawks Nest sign over her left shoulder) of Lipmans we got in the event just at the last minute. THANKS BETHANY!!!!!!! KUDOS TO YOU FOR A SUPER DAY. There was a huge crowd and a good time was had by all.

As you can see by the shot of the three " ladies in Red" holding Hawks Nest bottles there were a lot of hotties in attendance as it was an eye feast of lovely lasses. We got to talk to a lot of wine lovers about NZ and Hawks Nest wine. As usually no one had ever heard of Matakana Valley as we are the best kept secret in American when it comes to knows emerging wine regions. Our Orchard Block Red 05 was a hit with attendees so we were very happy.

We were very excited and lucky to get to meet up and share Hawks Nest info and wine with Angela Hart who is one of THE wine ladies here in Nashville. She writes a very popular column in The Nashville Wine Press published by Jimmy Collins here in Nashville. (you can check them out on the web at www.nashvillewinepress.com) I had not met Anglea before so I was really excited when she came to talk and taste. That is Angela on my right side in the third photo. Thanks Angela for stopping by and I sure was excited to get to meet you and very happy that you liked our wine. She came to our booth because Melanie Armstrong sent her over to meet and taste Hawks Nest. ( THANKS MELANIE!!!!!) That is Melanie and her hubby in the photo as they "man" the booth for The Nashville Wine Press. At least Jimmy who is out of the country will now know for sure they were hard at work on the bridge yesterday!!! As you note both Angela and Melanie are pretty photogenic--no wonder Jimmy Collins has them BOTH writing columns in his magazine!!!!!! BTW, Melanie has a cool web site at www.melaniearmstrong.com so check it out!!!

So, Sandra and I are off back to Matakana Valley this next Fri as spring is just around the corner in NZ. We label and pack our 06 Orchard Block Red next Monday and I plan to be there to "oversee" the project. I will post a blog with photos of that next time from Down under.

Remember Hawks nest 2005 is still in stock selling now for just under $20. There is not much left and we will probably run out just as the new 06 arrives. Cooler weather= time to switch to good red wines and you need to think of buying some Hawks Nest around middle Tenneessee before it is sold out!!!

Dr Jim about to head back down under!!!!!!