BIRD BURGLARS

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I have talked before a a bit about bird netting. All around Matakana Valley you can see white netting over and along side the rows of grapes. Here is a article in this week's local paper that gives a good overview of the bird situation here--burglars is the right name for those feathered devils!!!!

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY here as it is the day of the first MatakanaWine Festival. The bad news is it is now raining cats and dogs outside so we will have a soggy site tomorrow. Oh, well at least it will be cooler and we should have a better demand for our red wines. It is been mostly around 80 here this week and that favors the consumptioin of whites.

More on the big day soon. DR JIM

Robin Ransom Article in Feb Matakana Matters

Bird burglars

Summer of 2008 has to date been like the summers we all fondly remember – warm and sunny, dry and golden. These are the sorts of summers holidaymakers and grape growers dream of, and the kids can go back to school with the satisfaction of having had a great holiday season.

We also had a relatively warm and dry late winter and spring. This sort of weather in the second half of the year means that the bird population can thrive. If large numbers of birds survive the cooler months there are more of them around to breed through spring and summer. We now have more thrushes and blackbirds than I can recall and the small bird population in general seems to have flourished.

Native birds are generally not a problem but small birds of European origin just love grapes. In a dry summer they love them long before they are ripe, because they are a ready source of moisture when other sources are scarce. Birds can strip a vineyard in no time at all. Thrushes and blackbirds take whole berries, but silvereyes and finches peck holes in them, which creates an ideal environment for fungal diseases to flourish. So we are having to take our annual defensive measures earlier than usual.

There is a range of defensive methods. Some involve noise – such as guns, gas bangers, noisy motorbikes tearing up and down the rows, or high pitched electronic noise which only birds detect. Others involve visual deterrents – scarecrows, kites, balloons and wind streamers. In Marlborough winegrowers are experimenting with trained native falcons.

But generally the most effective defense is to erect a physical barrier – netting. Nets are expensive to buy, time-consuming to deploy, easy to damage, and effective only if coverage is complete and seamless. If not, you can sometimes wander into the vineyard and see a net aviary full of grape-stuffed birds. But the cost and inconvenience of netting are minor costs to pay for the peace of mind of knowing that your vines are not being plundered by rapacious avian burglars.

So when you see nets being draped over the hills in the next little while, I trust you will feel more sympathy for the winegrowers than for the birds!

The big First Matakana Wine Festival

Well, the big day is just 4 days from now for our first real large NZ wine tasting event for Hawks Nest. It is all day this Sunday -March 2nd. It should be a cool day and I will be looking for many of my NZ friends to show up. We will have a good number of roving wine sellers who will stroll around the event grounds with bottles of our wine to offer samples or glasses. We also are setting up a pretty good both display. I will be sure to post some photos after Sun!!!

We also have just put up a new roadside sign for our Vineyard. We don't have cellar selling so we have worked out a deal with the Vintry in Matakana Village. Nicki Haller, who owns that neat wine bar, is now offering all comers samples and glasses or even bottles to take away of our wine. This means when you next visit Matakana you can sample our wine at the Vintry any day--rain or shine.
Here is a photo of the new sign. Note a person can even order our wine on line now via Nicki's neat web site. (maybe one day when we grow up we will have our own website for Hawks Nest as we do have the domain name reserved still)

The other photo shows that we have the grapes all tucked into our side netting and ready to safely ripen with minimun "lunching" by the birds!! More blogging will now be after our wine festival--we are hoping for cool but dry weather so the attendees will want some good red wines--e.g. Hawks Nest.

Dr Jim and Miss Sandra
PS If you are reading this in Nashville, sorry that you will miss the Festival here this weekend. You can now get the latest edition of the Nashville Wine Press at most liquor stores there in Nashville. The cover features Mario Andretti but there is a little article inside about me and our ventures into the wine business. So, if you see the current edition do check us out AND be sure to also get some of our newly released 06 Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red. It is tasting now with a bit of age

Bunch thinning and Netting

We went through the grapes today to bunch thin them an to do final leaf plucking before starting to place the bird netting. These four shots show it all. You can see Sandra hard at work walking along the rows cutting off green bunches and pulling leaves along toe level of the grape off and dropping them on the ground. After the nets go up we cannot easily work directly with the grapes anymore this season. so this is the last "touch up" to the actual bunches and leaves.

Note that we store our netting in big sacks and slowly pull them out of the sacks by driving our tractor backwords along the rows. You can see in the photos that we use only side netting. That allows full sunlight to shine on the "engine" of the grape factory--the big leaves along the top. There are lots of types of netting but we like this side netting. It is labor intensive to pen them up so that there are no holes to allow the birds into the netting. The hard part of this is to clip the little plastic green grocery ties along the tops and bottoms of the rows. It takes us about a week to clip up all the netting very carefully. Later we go back and do a bit of touch up if we see obvious holes that could allow the bird into the netting.

This is the last labor intensive chore before harvest of the grapes in about 2 months. The rest is easy--just watch them ripen and put a bit of talcim powder on the grapes to absorbe moisture as we near harvest and worry about botryoitus. We look to have a fine crop of both our Cab Franc as well as the Malbec. ONe good thing about the netting being on is that we no longer have to worry so much about hail damage since the nets block most of the effect of any late summer hailstorms. (those seem to be getting more common in Matakana Valley over the last decade.

SO, we are off on a vacation to Tasmania this Sat for 12 days so I will not be posting anything until after we return. We have always wanted to go to Tasmania which is the Australian island south of South Australia. It was the original english penal colony after the states declared independance from England and the Brits could thus no longer send debtors to America. Van Damens Land was what it was called in the 1830ies when the Brits sent down over 30,00o "criminals" May just had stolen a loaf of bread but that is another story!!

More after we go see that elusive Tasmanian Devil!!!!

DrJim and Miss Sandra

MATAKANA SATURDAY MARKET

I mentioned yesterday in the blog that we were off to the weekly market in Matakana Village as I wanted some of the local mussell fritters. Well, here are two shots from lunch yesterday. Harold. the guy in the cap and glasses is famous in Northern NZ for this local delicacy made with freshly caught mussels. He fries the patty in light butter and just serves it on plain white bread as you can see. He squeezes lemon on it and offers a hot sauce or just catchup. Sandra is getting her's in the photo with lemon only as you can see if you enlarge the photo a bit.

The second photo shows his booth at the market. You will note that his price is $5 kiwi which is about US$4 based on current exchange rates. I always have two so that is a great lunch for 8 bucks chased down with fresh grape juice and then finishshed up with a good cone of organic blueberry ice cream to top it all off. That is my most favorite NZ local summer lunch!!!

More soon on the netting of the grapes this coming week,

DR JIm and Miss Sandra

VERASION STARTING NOW

In the past I have mentioned verasion which is the term to describe the turning of the green grapeskins to the "grape" color of red grapes. That usually occurs in late summer and always is a sign that the ripening will begin soon.

Here in NZ we see verasion as sign that we need to start to worry about the birds!! In Matakana we have a low volume of acres of grape vines in proportion to a high number of birds. As we are coastal we also have to worry about sea birds. Gulls love grapes!!!! So, we will be getting ready to put up our bird nettting in a week or two. If you drive this way in a few weeks you will see lots of various types of bird nets covering the grapes.

First we need to bunch thin. As you can see in the close up photo of our Malbec with the most bluish-purple skins there are a lot of buches close to each other. Over time as the grapes grow and increase their sugar levels they will push physically against other adjacent bunches and damage their skins. Ruptured skins + moisture+ increasing sugar levels with ripening=botrytis. That is the kiss death to our harvest. So, we thin bunches to get better growth, lower yield, but better quality grapes harvest. Since we are about quality and not quantity we will do an agressive "bunch thinning" this week. We have to do this before the netting goes on as once the nets are set we really can't easily work directly with the vines or bunchs until they are removed for harvest.

Photos of netting to follow soon.

Meanwhile, we are off to the famous Sat. AM Matakana Village Farmers Market today for some fresh vegies, flowers, and a bit of local yummy edible goodies. My favorite is mussle fritters that are to die for!!! Maybe I will take a shot of those today and post a photo of that gourmet food item on this site:):):):):)

More soon.

Dr JIm and Miss Sandra

Neat History of NZ Wine AND HAPPY WAITANGI DAY!!

We just celebrated the day in NZ to "honor and remember" when the English screwed over the natives here and made them a colony under British rule. It is called Treaty Day or Waitangi Day. Even now after over 160 years many native Pacific Islanders (whose ancestors sailed here from about 800-900 AD to be the first humans to visit the two main islands now called NZ) are still pissed off about the whole deal. They feel the English fooled them into signing a treaty--- but that is a long story,. What I wanted to pass on today is the history of the founding of the NZ and Australian wine industry.

Sue Courtney, who is the well respected wine writer for the Rodney Times (I have posted her nice review of Hawks Nest wines on this blog in the past) has published in the past a nice article on Mr Busby so here it is again for your review.

DR JIm

More on grape netting next time.

James Busby, Father of New Zealand Wine

In New Zealand, February 6th, is Waitangi Day. It is a pubic holiday in New Zealand, which for some people simply means a day off work - to sleep in, to go to the beach or a chance to go shopping, yet again, for bargains at the predictable sales at the malls. But for others it is a day on reflecting on the birth of New Zealand as a nation. Because on the 6th February, 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi, which placed the colony under British rule, was signed. On February 6th, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, the official commemorations - and unofficial protests - are held in the grounds of what is now known as the 'Treaty House'.

However few people realise that this iconic 'Treaty House' was the home of New Zealand's first winemaker. It was the home of James Busby, the first 'official' British Resident to New Zealand. This is the same James Busby that is regarded as the Father of Australian and New Zealand wine. Busby built the house after arriving in Bay of Islands in northern New Zealand 1833 to take up his position. Using grapevine cuttings he had collected in France and Spain before arriving in New Zealand, he planted New Zealand's first vineyard (vinery) expressly for the purpose of making wine in New Zealand's first winery.

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed at Busby's residence - it was signed at the home of New Zealand's first winemaker. So February 6th is indeed an appropriate time (if indeed you need an excuse) to open a bottle of New Zealand wine. February 6th is the day to pour a glass of New Zealand wine and drink a toast to Busby, the Father of New Zealand wine.

A Toast to the Father of New Zealand wine
by Sue Courtney
Rodney Times

On February 6th, we celebrate Waitangi Day. It is a National Holiday. It was called New Zealand Day for a while but now it is called Waitangi Day because it commemorates the day the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by representatives of the British Crown and the Maori Chiefs in 1840. It marked the start of a new nation. Originally declared as a public holiday, a national day of thanksgiving to honour the treaty, for some it is a day of controversy and protest while for others, it's just another holiday.

So what does this have to do with wine? Quite a lot, actually, because James Busby, the first British Resident of New Zealand and one of the signatories of the Treaty of Waitangi, is also regarded as the father of Australian and New Zealand wine.

Born in 1801 in Edinburgh, James Busby's interest was firstly agriculture and later viticulture and winemaking, which he studied in France before travelling with his parents and siblings to New South Wales, Australia, arriving there in 1824. On the way, via South Africa, Busby made a tour of the vineyards around Capetown. After their arrival in Australia, the Busby family had received a land grant of 2000 acres in the Hunter and James planted his vine cuttings there. While his brother-in-law looked after the vineyard, Busby took up a position at the Boys Orphan School at Liverpool, west of Sydney, where he taught agriculture, viticulture and looked after the farm. There is now a suburb in that area named Busby.

In 1825 Busby published his first book, "A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine, and the Art of Making Wine", drawing on the writings of Chaptal and other illustrious French writers plus his own notes from his studies.

I find it interesting that even in 1825, the health benefits of wine were being extolled. The following extract is from a chapter entitled "Of the Virtues of Wine" ….

"Of all the liquors which the ingenuity of man has drawn from the productions of nature, wine may said to be, at the same time, the most varied in nature, the most excellent in its quality, and the most extended in its use. Besides its tonic and strengthening power, it is more or less nutritious and salutary in every respect. The faculty of fortifying the understanding, was attributed to it by the ancients, Plato, AEschylus, and Solomon, being agreed in according to it, this virtue. But no writer has treated better the properties of wine, than the celebrated Galen, who has assigned to each kind it proper uses, and described the differences effected in it by age, climate, &c."

Busby also writes ... "Excess in the use of wine, has in all ages excited the censure of the legislators......."

So, nothing has changed much, really.

Busby wrote a how-to book on viticulture in New South Wales before returning to England in 1831. He had written a number of reports for the Colonial Office and his report on the state of New Zealand (even though he had never been there) gained him the position of first Official British Resident for New Zealand.

While in the Northern Hemisphere, Busby made a four month tour of the vineyards of France and Spain, compiling extensive notes and collecting hundreds of grapevines cuttings, which were shipped back to Australia.. Busby collected 437 cuttings from the Montpellier Botanical Gardens and 133 from the Luxembourg Gardens all of which were gifted to the government in order to establish an experimental vineyard at the Sydney Botanical Gardens. He also collected cuttings for himself from the vineyards that he regarded as the best in France and Spain.

He would later publish the record of the visits in two publications - "Journal of a Tour Through Some of the Vineyards of Spain and France (1833); and "Journal of a Recent Visit to the Principal Vineyards of Spain and France (1834)". But first he would take up his position in New Zealand.

He arrived in this country for the first time, with his bride, Agnes (they married after Busby returned to Australian in 1832), on the H.M.S. Imogene on the 10th May 1833. The land he bought for his residence was at Waitangi and there he planted the vegetables, fruit and grapevine cuttings they had brought with them. Busby's vines were not the first to be planted in New Zealand, but they were the first planted exclusively to make wine.

Busby's garden's had much acclaim. A visiting American, J .B. Williams of Salem, Massachusetts, wrote the following in his journal ....

" A more delightful and romantic spot it would be difficult to find in the Bay. ..Mr Busby has displayed great taste about those parts of the grounds he improves, doubtless Mrs Busby must share in the credit as his worthy spouse. .. I well remember the first call I made at their pretty, neat and hospitable Mansion embodied in a grove of trees and shrubs, with flowers sending forth a rich fragrance. Mr Busby has quite a large farm under cultivation, and a fine grapery propagating fast."

In 1840 the historic treaty of Waitangi was signed at Busby's residence and I'm sure a glass of Busby's wine would have been drunk that day.

Although the vineyard no longer exists, the vines would have no doubt been a source for many other vineyards in the north over the next few years - perhaps even the source for some of the vines growing here today - syrah, for example.

Busby seems to have been largely forgotten in New Zealand as Treaty issues take precedence, although the house and gardens were gifted to the people of New Zealand in 1932 as part of the Waitangi National Trust. But this prominent political figure is the father of New Zealand wine and we, as wine lovers, should not forget him. So Waitangi Day is a day for wine lovers all over the world to drink a glass of New Zealand wine - a day to toast Busby's foresight in establishing viticulture and winemaking in New Zealand.

Read more about Busby from the Encyclopedia of New Zealand .

© Sue Courtney
6th February 2007.