TOURISM IN MATAKANA VALLEY

This week the new Matakana Wine Country tourist map came out and it looks good. Our Valley is a late entry in NZ wine tourism but we are making up for lost time quickly. Very few visitors from abroad have even heard of Matakana Valley before they get to NZ. We are unique as we located in one of the most scenic areas of NZ with the coastal vistas and nice beaches. We are also only 45 minutes north of the big smoke -Auckland. Thus we are well suited for day or overnight visitors who want to sample some wine and the ambience of a Vineyard visit and our region. We only have 28 vineyards and NONE are corporately owned by the big guys. So, when you stop in to visit one of the Matakana Vineyards you are going to meet the owners, their children, or workers. That gives a really nice personal experience that one cannot find in other wine regions of NZ, Australia, or in Napa Valley in Calif. Our "state" is called Rodney District and we are in North Rodney by regional definition. This nice discussion below by Robin Ransom of Ransom Wines expresses it well.

We had a really big holiday weekend here over the NZ Labor Day. It is the traditional 3 day holiday of early summer--similar to Memorial day in the states. Matakana Village was all spiffed up with lots of visitors. I poured our new 06 wine that we just released here in NZ over three days and it was well received. It is called Back Paddock red as the good cab Franc grapes that make up the majority of the wine are from our back paddock on our orchard. The wine has been well received and is selling well. I worked out yesterday that you can buy a take away bottle of wine in 5 different places in Matakana. That is amazing as the village is really just a wide spot in the road. One can also buy lunch in 9 places here as well. That is truly amazing considering the size of the village.

Sandra and I will be going to Paupa New Guinea this next Fri for a 16 day cruise around the island. It should be fun and exotic for us. We signed up for the "optional dinner with the natives" I wonder why I they wanted to know my girth and weight? Oh well, I read that it is a "pot luck" dinner so it will be interesting I am sure.

So, there will be a delay in my postings until in mid Nov. when we return. By then our garden will be hopping I am sure.

More after PNG if we don't get roasted and eaten:):):):):)

Dr JIM- here is Robins thoughts on our local wine tourism.

“LOCAL MATTERS” CONTRIBUTION APRIL 2007 ISSUE

Wine Tourism – Bringing Visitors to North Rodney

North Rodney has experienced huge change in recent years. Some of this has been driven by the emergence of the wine industry, which has been partly responsible for bringing many more visitors to the district than ever before. Visitors come from far and wide: a survey undertaken at Ransom Wines during February this year indicated that one third of our visitors were from overseas.

We know there may be some ambivalence amongst residents about the desirability of tourists flooding the area, and this is understandable. But there is no doubting the contribution they make to the economic well-being of North Rodney.

Consider the impact of the wine industry on the local economy; a Matakana Winegrowers Inc. survey in mid-2006 indicated more than 100 full-time-equivalent jobs in the local wine industry. But in addition to employment opportunities, visitors who come to sample the local wines spend a good deal of money on other products and services - food, activities, accommodation etc.

So it is clear people are coming to the Matakana region because of the reputation of the wines – just as they visit Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the Barossa Valley to try the local wines. And when people visit those regions they are seeking a local experience – local stories and local wines. When you go to Burgundy you don’t expect to be offered wine from Bordeaux.

We are starting to see in Matakana some of the features of established wine regions around the world. For example we now have a fine wine centre in Matakana Village, “The Vintry”, where you can taste all the Matakana wines; Heron’s Flight performs an educational role with informal talks and a printed guide to the wine region, and many of the excellent local accommodation establishments are opting to provide local wines and regale their guests with local wine lore.

These are signs of a region starting to take pride in its unfolding wine heritage and to acknowledge the economic importance of its wine industry. Meantime, by the time you read this we will all be well into the wonderful but crazy annual event called vintage……

Robin Ransom

President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.

robin@ransomwines.co.nz

Garden time!!!!!

We have gotten some plants into our garden now. Here in the photos you can see Sandra peeking around our wisteria vine by our out door fireplace. The smiling couple are Helena and Marcel who used to be our next door neigbours on our little hill. The sold several years moved back closer to Auckland. I was pouring wine today at a local cafe and they showed up to visit to ole neighbourhood. We miss them as they were good next door neigbours. Marcel is a good consumer of wine so we were glad to share some our just released Hawks Nest Back Paddock.

Anyway, he said he checked out this blog occasionally so I promised to post this shot of the two of them. Good to see you guys today!!!!

The other shots show Sandra shopping for the vege plants and me digging in the dirt to get them started. I will try to occasionally post a "progress report" on our garden over the next few months. It is still sort of wierd to start a garden in Oct:):):):):):):)

So, our wine is on the shelves of local stores and on the boat on the way to Nashville. Sandra and I will be going back to Nashville on Nov 24th for the year end holidays in Tenn. Soooooo, all of you in Tenn can get ready to hear about your first chances to taste our new 06 wine in early Dec.

BTW, if you are in Tenn. reading this post plan to go down to Franklin on Nov 3rd for the nice wine event call "Wine down main street in Franklin" Lipman Bros. will be pouring our wine that day so look for it and help a good cause by attending.

More soon.

Dr JIm

PROTECTING MOTHER NATURE

Here is a good essay that Robin submitted to our local paper last January that really echos how Sandra and I feel about protecting the environment as we grow grapes to produce wine. We could not have said it better. We must all protect our home-mother earth. We try to avoid all chemicals whenever possible in our vineyard and use biodynamic processes whenever possible. For example, we use talcum powder (finely powdered silica) to broadcast onto our ripe grapes just before a predicted big rain to dessicate the grapes to absorb the water thus minimizing grape skin rupture which allows fungus to attack the sweet pulp of the ripe grape. (mildew) It leaves a fine white dust on the grape skins which is harmless and just goes back into the soil to aid it's enrichment. That is a simple biodynamic process that actually is very cost effective and safe.

I wanted to add a few photos to this blog about out garden but my computer is on the blink so check this site soon to see us digging in our garden.

All for now.

DR JIm and Sandra

LOCAL MATTERS CONTRIBUTION JANUARY 2007

Winegrowing With Integrity

These days there is considerable public concern about environmental damage from careless farming practices, and awareness of the need to farm more sustainably. So it is understandable that people feel concerned when they see sprays being used in vineyards.

Most vineyard spraying involves use of products which are relatively benign in the environment, indeed many are acceptable for organic farming regimes. Most protect vines against fungal diseases – black spot, downy mildew, powdery mildew, and various forms of bunch rot. A whole new range of horticultural sprays has been developed in recent years involving use of natural control agents, generally bacteria or other fungi, which either attack the harmful fungi or move into their ecological niche and prevent them from developing.

All chemical sprays are subject to MRLs – Maximum Residue Limits, which are readily measurable in wine, and legally enforceable. MRLs restrict the amount of such sprays winegrowers can use, and the times they can use them, ie- not to be used within a certain number of days before harvest.

In addition, New Zealand Winegrowers, the statutory industry body which all winegrowers must belong to, has in recent years established an organization called Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand. Winegrowers are not obliged to belong to this body but currently 60% of New Zealand’s vineyard area belongs and is accredited to SWNZ.

SWNZ was developed to provide a “best practice” model of environmental care in the vineyard, to promote responsible behaviour in terms of the well-being of staff, neighbours and the community, and to guarantee better quality assurance from vineyard to bottle. SWNZ places stringent restrictions on the use of agrichemicals and addresses issues such as soil health and water quality. Members are audited on their compliance, and failure to comply results in loss of accreditation.

Even without restrictions and regulations winegrowers know that in order to compete in a crowded world wine market we all need to manage our vineyards as closely as we can to New Zealand Winegrowers’ motto “the riches of a clean green land”.

Robin Ransom

President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.

WARKWORTH SPRING WINE FESTIVAL

Today was the annual Saturday spring village festival and we had a wine booth for the first time in NZ. It was super fun and Sandra and our manager, Jeremy, helped me man the booth. We sampled a lot of wine, met a lot of nice people and caught up with many of our NZ friends. The photos tell it all.
Note the nice shot I took in our front yard of two of our magnums and one normal bottle of our 05 Orchard Block. Kiwi's rarely get to taste this, our best wine so far, as it sells mostly in Tenn. It was a hit and everyone loved our little wine bibs in lavender to match or wax of that color. (see a recient blog for the story of our waxing!!!)

We were located right next to a couple selling fresh oysters. (did I not mention the matakana has several super oyster farms????) Anyway today I learned how to trade wine for oysters and also determined one adult can actually consume over 4 dozen oysters over a 6 hour period with absolutely no side effects (so far as I write this) What a day!!!!

The other shots show Jeremy and Sandra manning to stall. The group photo is some of our son Brandon''s buddies who came up from Auckland for the day. Neat people and only two dogs in the photo I say. (just kidding guys:):):)) We also sold a lot of fair trade chocolate from Brandon's company-Scarborough Fair. It is really good chocolate and went well with wine and oysters. You can see the colorful bars of choc on the table in front of Jeremy. You can be sure we were the only vineyard offering free choco squares with each drink of our good wine.

BTW, if you are reading this in Tenn. be sure to plan to go to the big Franklin Tenn. Wine on Main Street on Nov 12th,. We will still be here but Lipman Brothers will be offering our wine for that event so go down for the day/eve for a good event.

More soon after I recover from choc/oyster overdosing earlier today.

DR JIM--starting a diet!!!

SPRING IS SPRUNG IN NZ

I keep talking about our two springs in our current lifestyle. Well, it is now officially spring as DSTime has arrived in NZ and it is not dark until 7 now and soon it will still be light at 9. A lovely way to spend Oct. and Nov. The only problem with my wife's love of gardening is that someone has to do the hard stuff. Yep, that is me adding more organic (read higher priced) dirt to our garden plot. The fence is too keep the rabbits out and we do have lots of rabbits about. We have six elevated raised planting beds and today we (me working in the dirt and Sandra directing) prepared the soil. We must have the most fertile soil in NZ as it is full of compost, alpaca poo, and various wonderful soil enriching "organic" agents. YEs, we even have sea weed in the piles. "Watch this space to see how thing grow this year" I say as I will try to do a few shots over spring and summer.

I wanted to post another essay by Robin Ransom and picked this nice one from back in the NZ fall harvest time- May. Robin gives a much better overview of the harvest process than I have on this blog in the past. Soooooo, read all about it below.

More soon;

Dr JIM

LOCAL MATTERS – MAY 2007

VINTAGE IN MATAKANA

Robin Ransom

Matakana grapegrowers and winemakers have been preoccupied over the past eight weeks or so with vintage, which is the most intensely active and demanding part of the winegrowing year.

Grape varieties ripen at slightly different times and in Matakana this occurs between late March and late April. The decision as to when to pick is determined initially by taste and examination of the berry pips and bunch stems, backed up by measurements of sugar and acid levels in the fruit. These are based on juice analysis from a randomly selected sample of berries. The acid in grapes drops as sugar rises, and the rate of each is determined by the weather. Because we want to avoid too much or too little of either, the winegrower’s skill is in deciding exactly when both are optimal.

When this occurs the grape picker’s skill comes into play. Many local people have worked at grape picking for some years now, so there is a pool of experienced grape pickers in the district. Picking is not as simple as it may seem – selecting the right bunches and discarding those which are either “second set” (unripe), or have signs of rot, is not always obvious and takes skill and judgement. The bunches are picked into small bins then transported to the winery.

Processing procedure depends upon whether the grapes are white or red. The colour in red wine comes entirely from grape skins, which along with the pips contribute flavour and the tannins which are essential to give red wine its structure and stability. So the red juice, pulp, pips and skins are all kept together. White wine is a more delicate beverage, so skins, pips and pulp are discarded and only the juice is fermented.

At this point the winery workers really get going. Bunches are fed into a destemmer-crusher, a machine which removes the stems then crushes the berries. This produces a slurry of juice, skins, pips and pulp, called “must”. Red must is pumped directly into a large open-topped fermenting tank. White grapes are also destemmed and crushed, but white must is then pumped into the wine press. This allows the “free run” juice to drain, then squeezes the skins and pulp to extract the remaining juice.

The must can then be inoculated with yeast. Put simply, fermentation is the consumption of grape sugar by yeast, the main product of which is alcohol. During fermentation the winery workers need to be continuously monitoring the progress of the ferments in a range of ways, adding yeast nutrient if necessary, adjusting refrigeration temperature on white wine tanks so the must stays relatively cool, and regularly “plunging” or “pumping over” the red tanks to keep the raised cap of skins moist and healthy, and to assist colour extraction from the skins.

HOW GRAPES GOT TO NEW ZEALAND

I wanted to post another of Robin Ransom's good essays in my last post but I forgot. So, here is some really good info to give you some background how good wines got to NZ and why they seem to do well here.

LOCAL MATTERS CONTRIBUTION – AUGUST 2007

From Noah to Matakana – A 6000 Year Wine Trail

Robin Ransom

There are hundreds of grape varieties which belong to the world’s only true winegrape species vitis vinifera. It is thought to have originated south of the Black Sea, in the region now known as Georgia and Armenia. This area is very close to Mount Ararat, where, according to the Bible, Noah’s Ark came to rest, and where Noah apparently settled, planted the first vineyard, and became the first winemaker. The earliest scientific evidence for cultivation of vinifera dates back at least 6000 years, and the earliest evidence of deliberate winemaking dates to about 5500 years ago.

In the following few thousand years vitis vinifera spread all over the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Europe. In the course of this vast dispersal in space and time, genetic variation would inevitably occur through natural selection. Human intervention in this process would have accelerated it, so that in local areas certain variants came to be valued more than others, and hence the eventual development of the hundreds, maybe thousands of region-specific varieties of vitis vinifera we are now blessed with.

Most of the varieties grown in New Zealand today originated in France. Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley and Bordeaux; Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Burgundy and Champagne; Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc from Bordeaux; Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewurztraminer from Alsace and Germany; Syrah (Shiraz) from the Rhone Valley. As time goes on the range of varieties and countries of origin is extending – Sangiovese and Montepulciano from Italy for example.

Being freed from many of Europe’s restrictive rules and regulations about what can be grown where has ensured a pioneering experimentation in New Zealand, which has demonstrated the great versatility of vitis vinifera varieties and undone many myths in the process. For example the most widely planted variety in the warm, moist, windy, maritime-influenced climate of Matakana is pinot gris, and general opinion is that it does rather well here. Yet this variety originated in the cool, dry, continental climate of Eastern France.

Despite the fact that the varieties we work with have been transplanted into thoroughly foreign soils and climates, the consensus seems to be that New Zealand wines have a uniqueness in their fresh, clean fruitiness which gives them a universal appeal, recognizable but also quite different from their illustrious European ancestors.

LOC

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More soon

Dr JIM

How do they get that nice wax on big bottles????

I mentioned last blog that we have been putting wax on the corks of our 05 magnums of wine. (1500cc bottles). Since we only did 30 of these special edition bottles we were way too small to get the was done professionally. SOOOOOOOO, what to do??? Sandra and I decided to do it ourselves at home. We talked to some of our local experts on wines and got some regular wax used for candles from our local market. We started with a bit of deep red wax but because there was not enough wax for all the bottles we added (that would be me actually) some violet wax that someone had given me as a gift in the past to do fancy sealed letters. (which I of course would never use)... Sandra warned me to not mix in the violet wax into the red as the color would change from deep red to"who knows what color" to quote her. Well, as usual she was corrrect and the final blend color looked light violet but not redish at all. Being one to press on in time of crisis, I insisted it trying some of the mixture of hot melted wax. As you can see, we got a nice "gay friendly" color to the final wax. Oh well, it looks a bit unusual but not a bad color really I say. It appeals to my more artsy side.

How do you do it? Simple really, you just crumble the wax into a small pan deep enough so you can dip the cork into the liquid hot wax deep enough to cover the cork with the wax. We used boiling water and held the smaller pot of wax mixture into the boiling water and stirred until all melted. Meanwhile I cleaned the bottle necks and corks and had them all laid out in the yard. We then rushed outside where Sandra held the hot wax pan at an angle while I carefully dipped the cork end of the bottle into it at a 45 degree angle. I slowly turned the bottle as I pulled it out of the wax and then kept turning the bottle until the wax dripped off the end of the bottle. We did actually use some all dark red wax for some of the bottles. You can see those unlabeled bottles laying on our herb garden wall in one of the photos.

In the other photos you can see a close up of the red wax with unmelted violet chunks added to melt on the burner of our stove. That is Sandra smiling as she says "I told you so" as she dips the magnum into the wax out in our driveway on the back of the car. The last shot shows a nice close up of the lovely "gay"resulting color as the bottle is slowy rotated and pulled back from the pot. All you have to do then is to let the wax dry, clean the bottles and throw on the labels. I plan to bring some of these home to Tennessee for our Christmas use this holiday season. Hopefully no one will comment on the strange color of the wax!!!!!!!!!!

More soon;

Dr JIm-- looking for more dark red wax to use:):):)

SPRING IN OUR ORCHARD

The great thing about our current lifestyle is that we get two springs a year now. The NZ spring is magical as all the fruit and vines burst open with a sea of green. Sandra and I went on a "hunter gatherer" trip around the orchard today --A lovely Sunday here in Matakana Valley. I took these two shots to show what is popping up at Hawks Nest. Note the close up of our avocados. The season starts here in early spring. (read early October- which is now!!!!) We have a smaller crop this year so we are waiting to start selling them from the roadside until it is a bit warmer so we will have a stash to use all summer. Avos are neat as they do not ripen until you pick them so the block of trees are like a warehouse!!! We will be having fresh avos from now until March--if we don't sell them out too soon at our roadside honest stall. (for more on our honest stall go back over a year to one of my old blog postings) Last year Jeremy estimates that we sold 6 tons from our small stall--Holy Moley!!! That is a lot of quacamole for sure!!!!!!

The other orchard shot is of one of our persimmon blocks. Kiwi's call each separate fruit area a block and each open field a paddock. (Thus the etiology of the names of our wines--Orchard Block and Back Paddock, our new local NZ 06 release.) Anyway, this is a shot of one of blocks of persimmon trees just buding out the leaves. The white foil is to reflect the fall light at the end of the growth season so the low hanging fruit gets ripe. (lots of green leaves just before harvest obscure the sun from the lower persimmons--thus the use of this foil.

The final photo is a shot in our back yard that I just took when we got home with our gathered goodies today. (ok, true we don't grow strawberries BUT, our neighbour does and we paid $5 for those two big containers of fresh strawberries on the way home at their honest stall.) The wine, YES!!!!!, that is also from foraging in our red shed today. Those two bottles are the first bottles of our just released 06 Orchard Block Red that is off to Nashville by boat this next week. Jeremy had a few stashed in our shed and I found them today and "poached them" We are going to try it with our neighbours who raise bees on our property. ( Again, go back to an old blog to learn about our beekeeing experiences) We are keen to get a taste of our 06 export as we have not tasted it since the day it was bottled back in June.

Anyway, That is all for now. Next time I will talk about how we became experts on putting wax seals on magnum bottles. (yes we have 30 magnums of our 05 Hawks Nest aging away safely for "special events" in the future.) These will never be for sale but I will bring some home to Tenn for our upcoming Christmas use with friends.!!!

More soon;

Dr Jim

Springtime in the Valley

We have been having lovely spring rain bands this week here in Matakana. First it is sunny, then a rain shower or even hail storm blows by and lots of wind. Just like March in Tennessee!. Lots of lovely rainbows have been poping up this week as well.
Here is a shot I took by our roadside sign that shows a nice rainbow.

The other shot shows my favorite two drinks diet coke and good ole Hawks Nest 05 Orchard Blog. We had a winegrowers meeting here last week with about 40 in attendance. We all took some of our wine to share during the "social hour" after the official meeting. I took one of our 05 vintage 1.5 liter bottles to share. Many of our neighbours in the wine industery here in Matakana had not tasted our export wine before and it was well received. I took this shot of the dual drinks of choice at a recent tasting event. Now with the good news that two glasses of red wine daily can reduce one's risk of heart disease and stroke I guess I can drink more coke:):):):)

As promised here is another short essay on wine by Robin Ransom our local co-op President. Sandra and I agree with Robin when he points out that Matakana Valley is ALL about Quality not quantity when it comes to wine. We are small but we make good wine!!

More soon;

Dr Jim

STRONG SUPPORT FOR LOCAL WINES

In Melbourne recently I read an article in The Age which reported the AGM of the Victoria Winegrowers Association. The meeting noted that the Australian wine industry as a whole markets itself “from the bottom up”. The big Australian winemaking conglomerates focus on mass production of cheap “commodity” wine, and are flooding the world’s wine markets with this sort of product. Because these big companies account for the great majority of Australian wine production (just like a few big companies do in New Zealand) the discerning wine drinkers of the world are developing a picture of Australian wine as being cheap and second-rate.

The flip-side of this is that the small, quality-focused producers are being tarred with the brush which the big producers are wielding, which compromises their ability to sell their wine profitably. The Victorian solution is that the Australian wine industry should develop a two-tiered marketing strategy, which clearly distinguishes high quality from commodity wine.

What does this have to do with the winegrowers of Matakana? The New Zealand market has been flooded with commodity wine in recent years, most of which comes from Australia, but some also from Europe and some from New Zealand. As a group, Matakana Winegrowers operate at the top end of the quality continuum, so we are in a similar position to the quality-focused Victorian winegrowers.

We acknowledge the place and role of the mass-produced product. But the fact that most wine sold and consumed in New Zealand is in this category presents us with a challenge. That is, to educate consumers to understand the distinction between wine which is mass-produced to a taste formula, and wine which is unique, hand-made, and bears the stamp of its region of origin, then to seek out the latter for preference.

Given this challenge it is great to be able to report that the support we are getting from the local population and restaurants is strong and continues to grow. The local winegrowers with cellar doors talk about the enthusiastic response they get from tourists to the region, particularly from offshore. Having such a good home base helps us tackle a crowded global market when it comes to selling our wines outside the region.

Robin Ransom

President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.

robin@ransomwines.co.nz

MATAKANA WINE ESSAYS

Well, we are over jetlag and settled into the Matakana Valley early NZ spring. Lots of wine, showers and green things sprouting. One of the real pioneers in the wine business is Robin Ransom. He and his lovely wife founded one of the earliest vineyards here in 1993. Robin is the leader of our little wine coop and has been writing wonderful little essays on wine, our area, and all areas of the "grape to wine"process that get published monthy in our local paper. I am excited to be able to announce that Robin has graciously agreed to let me post his essays on this blog site for the education of all wine lovers. Knowledge is power and Robin is a fount of wine knowledge as you will see if you read this series of essays that I plan to post over the next few months.

To learn more about Ransom Wines go to their web site at

www.ransomwines.co.nz

They have really good wines, a lovely cellar/cafe, and are fun to visit and talk with if you want to get the real history of Matakana Valley Wines. If you are reading this in the states , you can buy their wines only in the state of Colo. Look for their Dark Summit Red as it is very yummy. If your local store does not stock Ransom Wines from NZ and you live in Colo. do ask them to get some for you!!

Sooooo, here is Robin's most recent article from last month.

LOCAL MATTERS CONTRIBUTION – SEPTEMBER 2007

Matakana Terroirists

If you have read much in recent years about wine you will have encountered the word “terroir”. It has no English equivalent but as you might detect, the word has a geographical origin. A very brief definition is that terroir is the total natural environment of any viticultural site, so it includes such things as temperature, sunlight, rainfall, wind, humidity, topography, altitude, slope, aspect, geology, soil, and soil water relations. From the infinite interactive possibilities of this list of variables it is obvious that terroir implies unique.

Why is terroir an issue? Consider this: a large proportion of all the wine available to us, whether from New Zealand or imported, cannot claim a meaningful terroir origin. It is manufactured in industrial circumstances and volumes, often with grapes from a number of regions or sub-regions and then blended or otherwise manipulated to ensure the resultant beverage is much the same this year as it was last year and before. These wines are generally competently made, inexpensive, and for many, enjoyable to drink – they have to be in order to sell. But they can never reflect the sense of place which single-vineyard, terroir-based wines always do, by definition.

It is inevitable that the uniqueness and authenticity which terroir imparts will become increasingly sought out by wine drinkers looking to understand how and why the Bordeaux blend wines from Matakana for example, differ from those of Hawkes Bay, and how and why the Matakana wines differ from one vintage to the next.

The satisfaction which comes with the ability to discern and discriminate in this way cannot be overstated in a world flooded with high quality goods and experiences. It will never lead to the demise of “manufactured” wine because as with most other consumer goods, there will always be a demand for a broad range of prices and qualities.

But for the Matakana terroirists, characterized as we are by family owned, single vineyard winegrowing operations, the notion of terroir cements our place, especially amongst the cognoscenti, as producers of unique and interesting wines. This will ensure that demand for Matakana wines, and in its own small way the prosperity of the region, continues to grow into the future.

Robin Ransom

President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.

robin@ransomwines.co.nz

I learn a lot myself from reading what Robin writes each month and am glad to be able to share some of his knowledge with you. BTW, do pass this blog on to your wine loving friends. I pledge to hold the Hawks Nest wine marketing to a minimum for a bit so feel free to just come back occasionally to learn more about wines and the wines of Matakana Valley here in lovely NZ.

More soon;

Dr JIM

PS We are pouring our new 06 wine just released here in NZ--called Back Paddock-at the annual Warkworth annual spring city party on Sat. Oct 13th. Hours 11-4 by the river in Warkworth. So join us if you live in NZ!!!!