Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

End of the Line

2009-04-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

If you have visited this blog in the last few months you will note that the last post was back in Sept. 08. I am sorry to have stopped posting but wanted to post this last note before closing the blog. We have sold Hawks Nest Vineyard to our long time manager there--Jeremy Noakes. I will continue to serve as US manager for Hawks Nest and it will continue to be imported by Lipman Brothers of Nashville. My wife and I are pulling back from New Zealand and have put our home there up for sale. After 10 wonderful years in NZ it is time to move back to the states so we can spoil our grandchildren who live in Denver even more than we have in the past.

The commute from Nashville to NZ is long and hard and going three times a year is getting too much for the ole bod. I am now 65 and need a new hip and find the long flight leaves me washed out and sore for days. So, now we will go to NZ at least once a year in the NZ summer to keep up with our friends and spend the rest of our time in the states.

Do keep drinking good red wine--such as Hawks Nest- to keep you in good health.

Sincerely and goodby.

Dr JIm

TWO THINGS I WILL MISS NEXT WEEK!!!!!

2008-09-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

We go back to NZ next week and I am really looking forward to getting back to the NZ spring and digging in the dirt, driving the tractor, and watching for coming bud burst of the emerging grape vines. Fall is in the air here in Nashville and that means springtime in NZ. My wife and I do miss certain things in Nashville but know we will be coming back in two months or so. Here are two things I do miss.

We have the cutest dog here in Nashville called Smudge. She is a terrier/railroad dog according to the rescue center vets where we got her four years ago. She loves to sleep on our bed and especially on my pillow as you can see in the photo. Yes, we do miss Smudge when we are gone but she has a second home down in Franklin with Janelle, Kevin, Mo, Massey, and MIA who also love her bunches when we are away. She is sort of a coop dog now and loves both lives it seems. (but dogs never do complain much anyway as we all know)

The other thing I miss in hanging out in some local bottle shops here in town just talking to folks coming in the stores to buy wine. Thanks to those stores that let me visit on occasion and "smooze" with the clientele. This second shot is of the infamous ED Frier who loves to talk wine with his customers in Green Hills at WI. He has a true love for the business of tasting wine and enjoying life to the fullest. Hey Ed???? Who is that lovely customer that you are "consulting with"in the photo.???????

So, my next post will be from down under in the GodZone. Have a good fall if you are stateside and we will start a new spring!!

Dr Jim

more botttle signing

2008-09-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

WELL, I WENT TO THE WINE SHOPPE OF GREEN HILLS THIS LAST FRI AND "WORKED THE CROWD" A GOOD BIT SIGNING BOTTLES AND KISSING BABIES . I TOOK THIS ONE PHOTO WITH A LOVELY CUSTOMER ALONG WITH THE INFAMOUS MR. ERIC BIDELMAN.

I love Eric's hair style--just like mine. "God made a few perfect heads and the rest he put hair on" Anyway it was fun and I induced a good number of visitors to give Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red a try.

We leave for NZ in two weeks and I can't wait. Jeremy, our manager, says the weather has cleared and the vineyard is drying out and spring is in sight. Time to start the old packing routine.

More soon:

Dr JIm

LABOR DAY WEEKEND IN TENNESSEE

2008-08-29T13:29:00.001-07:00

IT is the starting of Labor Day weekend here in the states and that marks the end of summer here. I went over to Ed Fryers neat wine shop in Hill Place next to Whole Foods today and talked to a lot of neat people who dropped in to get some wine. I was able to talk a good number of shoppers into trying a bottle of our Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red. Even with weather still hot and humid here I can smell fall in the air (almost!!!)

Soon it will cool off here and more wine drinkers will think of reds and hopefully Orchard Block. Do remember our wine as you consider a good wine to pair with fish, poultry, or of course lamb and red meats this fall. We are down to about only 40 more cases of our good 06 vintage so stop in today to your local wine store here in Nashville and get some good Orchard Block.

Many thanks to you who let me take your photos today in the Ed's store. As you can see as usual he insisted in getting in one of the photos. He is such a ham it is hard to keep him away from the front of the camera. Oh well , it is his store so I guess he should be allow to get in the shots occasionally. The three lovely ladies in the two first photos with me and then Ed are Whitney Ott, Sarah Manda, and Susan Manda who are all part of a soon to be bridal party--what a lovely threesome!!!!! Thanks for trying our wine--maybe think of a honeymoon in NZ and come work at our vineyard for a few days!!!!!!!

That handsome guy with less hair than me with two ladies on each side was one of "America's finest serving in Ramstein, German in the USAF. He was in there looking for good German RED wine-shows he knows more about German wines than me as I never even tasted any good German reds while living in Wiesbaden, Germany myself for three years from 73 to 76 back when I was delivering babies in the USAF myself. Fond memories!!!

So, all of you have a good long holiday weekend in Tenn and those of you reading this in NZ lets pray for an early dry spring. See you very soon!!!

More soon;

Dr Jim

LOVELY NEW ZEALAND

2008-08-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that NZ is scenic but I just wanted to post a few shots that prove that point. I have waxed poetic in this blog on may occasions about the how lovely the countryside is all across NZ. This weekend here in Nashville I have been cleaning out my computer photo files and find I am having a hard time "letting go" of some of the old shots. For example here are three shots taken by our son, Brandon, over the last decade. The rainbow shot is just as random road scene on the south island where a rainbow suddenly popped up. That is Brandon on the Franz Josef Glacier working on his roping technique. He does a bit of climbing in the Southern Alps and thus has acquired advance rope safety skills. This shot was mid summer in NZ up high on the glacier. The last shot is of Lake Wanaka in the Southern Alps. Wanaka is our favorite spot down south in NZ and most overseas tourists miss it even though it is just over an hour from nearby Queenstown. Be sure to include Wanaka in any tour of the South Isle of NZ.

We are still in Nashville enjoying the US summer. Hard to believe it is mid winter down at Hawks Nest Vineyard. We are counting the days now until we go back down under for NZ spring. Only a month to go for us!!!

More soon!!!

Dr JIM

SOOOO SORRRY

2008-08-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

To the millions of readers to my blog I must apologize for no postings for so long. We got back to the states in June and have been full on with grandkids, children, parents, ectc. It has been a long hot summer here in Nashville. We did have fun at the beach so I better show some shots of the family!!!

So the shots show my wife and daughter on the sand, our two grandchildren, Baylor and Cadance along with their keepers, Megan and Andy- our fine breadwinning son in law. Such a crew!!

We did have a good time but now I have to get back to work as a doc here in Tenn. Down in NZ at Hawks Nest all is quiet as it is dead winter there with lots of cold rain and wind. The vines are sleeping and the wine is ageing!!!! All is well in our two worlds.

More soon;

Dr Jim in the US summer

NZ 07 wine harvest

2008-06-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

I just noted this report on posted last week on the NZ web site and wanted to share it.

www.truewines.co.nz

It looks like the best year ever in our little corner of NZ called Matakana. Our yield was over two tons per acre and we did a lot of bunch thinning just before picking to drop the bad bunches on the ground before our selective hand picking. That is what one does to get the best of fruit for the best of wine. Remember we are about quality not quantity at Hawks Nest. From talking to the local other growers it seems all the whites did really well in Matakana and of the reds the only ones that did poorly were the Merlot. Lucky for us we only have Cab Franc and Malbec which were perfect.

Below is that report I mentioned.

More soon:

Dr Jim

ANOTHER RECORD NEW ZEALAND VINTAGE

Date: Fri 13 Jun 2008

The 2008 New Zealand grape harvest will help the wine industry meet strong export demand and produce a vintage of high quality, New Zealand Winegrowers announced today.

285,000 tonnes of grapes were harvested in 2008, up 39 per cent on last year, according to Winegrowers’ 2008 Vintage Survey. The increase is due to a combination of an increased producing area and favourable growing conditions in most regions over the summer months, which bodes well for the new season’s wines.

New Zealand Winegrowers CEO, Philip Gregan, said that nature had delivered an unexpected bounty in 2008.

“The harvest is larger than forecast pre-vintage as a result of the favourable growing season. This reflects the upside of agricultural risk in our industry which in recent years has often worked against us with spring frosts or cool weather during the critical flowering period.”

The increase in the harvest in 2008 is principally linked to the rise in the production of Sauvignon Blanc. Significant production rises were also recorded for Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, both of which are enjoying strong export sales. The Chardonnay harvest was smaller than 2007.

“The increased harvest is a real opportunity to grow sales in new and existing export markets in the year ahead towards our target of $1 billion of exports by 2010. At the same time, the larger harvest will present a challenge to winery sales and marketing efforts to ensure that New Zealand’s premium image continues to go from strength to strength.”

Regionally, Marlborough produced 195,000 tonnes of grapes in 2008, up 61 percent from 121,000 tonnes in 2007. However, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay regions were down 8 percent and 18 percent respectively, due to a combination of frosts and cooler weather at flowering.

Other regional increases included Central Otago up 177 per cent, Wairarapa up 111 per cent, Waipara up 304 per cent, Canterbury up 304 per cent and Nelson up 35 per cent. In most cases these changes reflect a rebound to target levels after weather reduced crops in 2007.

WINE AND JOINTS

2008-06-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I have your attention with the title of this post I can share with you this very interesting news item in the paper here this week. It seems that a little wine may actually be good for Joints of the medical type that is.

The article below outlines the conclusion that smokers have less arthritis symptoms if the are also drinkers of alcohol. The abstract below is a bid dense but sure is good news to me. I don't smoke, I do have arthritis, and I definitely consume a bit of alcohol daily when I can. Heck, I guess I have been doing the correct think all along.

More soon

Dr JIM

ARTHRITIS

Date: Fri 06 Jun 2008

A study headed by Hanrik Källberg of the Karolisnka Institute in Stockholm, Sweden suggests that drinking alcohol may limit the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, particularly in smokers. Källberg says that moderate drinking should not be stopped by those with a genetic disposition towards the condition.

"Concomitant genetic and questionnaire information on alcohol and smoking was obtained for 1204 cases - 879 female and 325 male - and 871 controls - 645 female and 226 male," the researchers said. Of the participants tested in the studies, the quarter found to more regularly consume alcohol were 40 to 50 per cent less likely to develop RA over participants with a lower intake.

The study concludes; The observed inverse association between alcohol intake and risk of RA and the recent demonstration of a preventive effect of alcohol in experimental arthritis, indicates that alcohol may protect against RA. This highlights the potential role of life-style in determining the risk to develop RA, and emphasises the advice to stop smoking, but not necessarily to abstain from alcohol in order to diminish risk of RA. More generally, the evidence of potential RA prevention, urges for additional studies on how this can be achieved.

WINE GOOD FOR LIVERS???????

2008-06-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

As a doctor I have always been led to believe that any alcohol was dangerous to liver cells. Now it seems that for certain types of fatty liver disease that a little booze may be helpful. When you think of it a bit it does make sense that all these very obese people are getting fat in their arteries as well as in the liver. Soooooo, maybe this article makes a bit of sense. Anyway, this news report caught my eye and I wanted to pass it on.

The solution is to limit fats in your diet (not much fat in a glass of wine) and protect both you liver and arteries. At the same time do take in that good ole glass or two of Hawks Nest Orchard Block red wine!!!

More soon

Dr JIm

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WINE CAN HELP YOUR LIVER OUT

Date: Thu 29 May 2008

Those who are at risk already of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) face the extra possibility of experiencing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

This is the most common liver disease in the US, affecting over 40 million adults, but was almost unknown 20 years ago; it is thought to be linked with obesity.

There appears to be no mention in the relevant literature of any study being carried out to examine the possibility of there being a possible relationship between modest wine consumption and the incidence of NAFLD. Accordingly, scientists at the University of California, San Diego decided to look for this by analysing data collected in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Their study sample consisted of 7,211 non-drinkers and 945 drinkers of modest amounts of wine, selected from those surveyed who reported that they either were abstainers or consumed daily up to ten grams of alcohol.

Multivariate analysis was adjusted for age, caffeine intake, education, income, neighbourhood, physical activity, race and sex.

The possibility of NAFLD being present was based on levels of unexplained serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) being above the cut point of the reference laboratory (ALT > 43) and the cut point based on the 95th percentile of healthy subjects (for men, ALT > 30 and for women ALT > 19).

As a result, based on the reference laboratory cut point, NAFLD presence was suspected in 3.2 percent of the non-drinkers and in 0.4 percent of the modest drinkers of wine. Consumers of beer and spirits were four times as likely as wine drinkers to have suspected NAFLD.

Using the healthy subject cut point, NAFLD presence was suspected in 14.3 percent of the non-drinkers and 8.6 percent of the wine drinkers.

The researchers conclude therefore that there is an association between the modest consumption of wine and a reduced prevalence of suspected NAFLD. They suggest that one glass of wine taken daily offers some cardio protection for people who are at risk of suffering CHD and NAFLD but warn that more work needs to be done to identify the specific compound in wine which confers beneficial health effects.

Hepatology 47(6):1947-1954, 2008 : Modest wine drinking and decreased prevalence of suspected nonalcoholic fatty liver disease / Dunn W, Xu R, Schwimmer JB

FALL HAS COME IN NZ

2008-06-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, today is sad for us as we pack up and fly back to Tenn for the NZ winter. OUr wine is now fermenting in the barrels- in the photo you can see me siphoning off a bit to sample. It is not tasting soo good just now as it needs to settle and age for a year in our French oak barrels. Someone has to taste is so why not me?????

The other shot shows our golden orange Malbec leaves which are starting to drop off now. Early reports from all our Matakana Wine Growers membership is that it was a mixed season. Most all the local whites were excellent but some reds did not fare too well this year as there was a wet week just as they were ripening. For us we did well with really nice Cab Franc grapes but only average for our Malbec. Now we will just have to wait and see how the wine ages with time.

If you are reading this in NZ, we wish you a happy and warm and dry winter. If you are one of our US readers you know it it stormy and already pretty hot in the south. Our son in Washington DC told us last night on the phone that it was supposed to get to 98 F. in the DC area this weekend. Man!!! That is hot for so early in the US summer. Oh well, with my creaky joints the hot humid weather will be good for me. I will surely be sweating when I do my next post. Do remember that more and more evidence suggests that red wine is good for the brain and arteries so even in this warmer weather do drink a glass of red wine daily. Hawks Nest is of course what I suggest to all my patients. (could that be considered a "conflict of interest"??? Never!!!!

More soon from Nashvegas.

Dr Jim and Miss Sandra

BEST TRAVEL AGENT IN NZ!!!

2008-06-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Many of my friends in the states now ask me about travel to and in NZ. I always tell them that NZ travel agents are fantastic to work with and know the country better than far away US expensive "travel experts" Here is our NZ travel agent--Michelle Beretta of Holiday Shoppe, Warkworth, NZ. She is just fantastic and I wanted to post her on my little blog.

We recently had to cancel a trip to AU. and thought we had proper trip insurance. BUT!!! we found out the "small print" in the policy sold to us by Michelle did not cover us for ill parents back in the states. However, you will never beleive it but she was able to retroactively convince the insurance company to change their policy and thus refund our trip expenses in full. I can assure you that this would have NEVER happened in the states. So, Michelle "THIS ONE IF FOR YOU" as the song goes. Thanks for really going to bat for us. You are now stuck with us for ever and ever.

What do this have to do with Hawks Nest Wines, not much but I can say the Michelle is now a good fan of our wines and will be getting a lifetime supply of our good reds!!!!!

More soon;

Dr Jim and Miss Sandra

PS that is Michelle hard at work in her office on her headphones selling someone a good trip overseas most likely. As you can see in the other shot she does like her alcohol:):):)::)

WINES ON LINE IN NZ NOW FOR HAWKS NEST

2008-06-02T21:42:00.000-07:00




We are excited the now have our wines now listed on New Zealand's most popular internet wine sales site--True Wines.
I have listed the link below so you can just click and go.  If you are reading this in NZ, you can now order our wines and get them delivered to you for less than retail prices here in NZ.  Unfortunately, if you are in the States you are out of luck--sorry!   I sure wish Tennessee offer wine sales by mail or on line.  That sure would be nice.
Anyway, I just wanted to put this good news up so you would know where to go to order our wines in NZ the easist and cheapestd way possible.

More soon;

Dr JIm


http://www.truewines.co.nz/winery.php?wid=232713

WIINTER ARRIVES TO MATAKANA

2008-05-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since my last blog as we were traveling back to NZ and had to recover from the trip. I must say doing 6 flights across the Pacific annually is getting to be a hard slog on the old bod. We go coach and take lots of drugs but it never gets any easier it seems.

We missed the fall grape picking at Hawks Nest but did get to taste our fermenting barrel samples with our wine making team today. The three blokes in the photo are Darryl (in the middle who owns Ascension Vineyards that is the nicest and neatest place in Matakana Valley) , Mike, and good ole Jeremy- our vineyard manager on the left. They are holding glasses with fresh samples from our fermenting 2008 "wine in progress'" They are pretending the "wine" tastes good but beleive me it does not as it is still undegoing Malalactic fermentation and tastes gassy and acid-like. Thank goodness we don't try to sell it as it tastes today!!!

As I have noted before we were first an orchard and we are into our fall harvest of mandarins, limes, and Asian persimmons--which is our cash crop. We sell a little fruit to locals from our honesty stall. You can see Jeremy toping up the bags of fruit for weekend customers. It is so nice that we can sell fruit by the roadside with no one in attendance. Honesty still rules here in rural NZ and this is a holiday weekend so we will have lots of roadside traffic and collect a lot of coins over the weekend I am sure.

The third shot is also one I just took today from the roadside of our vineyard showing how our Malbec grape leaves turn a lovely golden orange just weeks after the harvest. Gee, as I look closely at the photo, I must say it is a lovely shot. These three photos capture the essence of what we love about Matakana. Nice people to work, play, and socialize with; lots of fresh fruit, fish, meat, and other products from the clean land and sea; and finally the lovely land, sea, and sky vistas all around us. Come here yourself and you will truly understand why New Zealand gets called the God Zone by more and more people who come to visit and often even stay!!!

More soon;

Dr Jim and Miss Sandra

NEW SIGN AT HAWKS NEST

2008-05-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

We now have a new sign at our roadside. The old sign with the rainbow over it was nice but predated our grapes. It was used to alert those who passed by our site that we had various fruits for sale but said nothing about wine or where to taste and buy our wine.

Now that we have several vintages to sell in NZ, we needed a place so that people could sample our wines. We don't have cellar selling (yet) and thus many potential customers drove by but did not know we sold wine.

In the village of Matakana is the wonderful wine bar called The Vintry. It sells only local wines and we have been lucky to get our wines placed there for sale. So, on our new sign we have our wine label on the sign and add the fact that people can drive on about two miles to The Vintry to get samples, glasses, or even bottles of our wines. You can see the new sign in this photo sent to us by a couple that lives in Nashville but were visiting our area of NZ.
We love it when people stop by our place to take photos--it is scenic there for sure as you can see in the third photo. After the harvest our Malbec grape leaves change to that lovely burnt orange color.

More soon.

DR JIM

Fall in NZ

2008-05-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

WELL, it is turning fall in NZ and I sure missed not being there for our harvest this year. We are still stuck in Nashville due to Sandra's mom being ill. Fall is stunning in our vineyard. Note in the two photos of our vineyard from this time last year to see the lovely colors. Our label reflects why you would see driving by our roadside in late May or Early JUne. The pale orange grapes are the Cab Franc and the brighter orange ones closest to our chimney are Malbec. I think Malbec could be the official grape for the Tennessee VOLS.

We have about 2 acres each of Malbec and Cab Franc and this year we good really good cropping from both grapes. Now that the crush is finished and the juice is fermenting in tanks, we can tally up volumes. WE have 2957 liters of Malbec and 2108 liters of our Cab Franc. If that was all blended together as our future 08 blend we would be able to produce about 6800 bottles or 560 cases. So, we now let our winemaker work his magic and get the barrels ready for the wine that will soon be pumped to start the aging process.

We will follow the progress of the wine carefully over the next year as it is barrel aged in French oak. Finally in Sept of 09 we will get it bottled and off to retailers in NZ and Tennessee. It takes a patient person to wait out all this delay in the true wine making process. Me? I am very impatient by nature.
What about that third photo? Well, our son, Brandon, took that one earlier this year while treking on the South Island of NZ. Gives you a sample of why we love the GOD ZONE so much.

Happy Mothers Day to you all. All of us either are or have a mother. So lets celebrate with a glass of good red wine---Such as Hawks Nest Orchard Block on Sun

More soon;

Dr JIm and Miss Sandra

Still in Nashville longing for Matakana

2008-04-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

That old saying of "into each life some rain must fall" has just hit our family. We were looking forward to going to NZ on April the 30th to get back there and into the wine making process that has now started for our just picked Cab Franc. Our Malbec was picked about two weeks ago. Our manager there, Jeremy, says both crops of grapes looked super with our tonnage being better than last year by about .5 tons. So now, it is out of our hands and in the care of our expert winemakers. They are probably glad we are here in Tenn and not getting in their way with the serious business of making a good wine.

What bad news has hit us? Sandra's 84 year old mom fell three days ago and broke her upper arm near the shoulder joint and fractured the floor or her orbit (eye socket bones). She has been in intensive care getting stabilized and we are on family sitting and support duty. Lucky for me as a long time practicing gyn doc in Nashville I have good specialists to call in to see here and organize her complex needed care. Do wish her and us luck and keep us in your prayers.

Meanwhile I will be at Frugal McDougal's this Friday from 4-6 kissing babies, signing bottles and talking about our good 06 Orchard Blocked wine. The wine is selling very well here and is moving off the shelves at under $20 a bottle. If you are reading this in Nashville, do drop in to gt some soon. It is really getting some age on it now and tasting better each week. ( I have upped my intake due to the family stress so I get to closely monitor the wine's progress.)

More soon;

A sad Dr. JIm

FUN AT Vn WINE STORE TODAY + Tennessee Politics

2008-04-12T13:55:00.001-07:00

Today I went to the new wine shop called Yn next to Whole Foods in Green Hills here in Nashville to promote Hawks Nest. Yn is the new store of Ed Fryer who used to own the Wine Shoppe in Green Hills. In Tennessee a person can only own one bottle shop so he sold his old store to his wife-Virginia. The neat thing about Yn is that they just sell rare unusual wines all under $20 and no liquor at all!!!! Hawks Nest just made the cut for his store as we retail for right at $20.
Today was my first real visit to Yn and I got to do a bit of browsing while there. He has sooo many wines that I have never heard of so it is a very unique shop!! I took a lot of shots and here are some of the better ones. No one was imbibing in the store but that one lady in the yellow blouse was pretty cool to pose with the wine bottles in her ears. That was her spontaneous pose but I bet she is a party animal.
That is Ed smiling in all the photos. (he is smiling because his new store is a hit and he may make some money eventually) The outside shot with the two lovely ladies flanking Ed shows the neat signs and their unique way of spelling wine. (note that Ed always gets to stand by the lovely ladies)

A BIG "THANK YOU ED" FROM ALL OF US AT HAWKS NEST!!!!! We do appreciate you stocking our wine.

The last photo of the cool station wagon needs a bit of explanation and has nothing to do with wine. But!! it is of great importance to me and this is my blog. So, lets talk Tennessee politics.
I have been a life long Republican except for my one vote for Jimmy Carter. Also I have mostly be a listless and only casual voter and never donated to or actively supported any sort of local or national US politician. However, we can all learn from our past mistakes as Susan Tuke tells me!! Thus I am going to work actively this year for Bob Tuke for US Senator. I have already donated money and wine to his campaign and plan to volunteer for him the rest of the race. If you live in Tennessee you will know of Lamar Alexander our career politician current senator. He is ok but pretty boring. Lamar has voted against wind energy which really pi #%ed me off for starters. Then I learned that he has not voted for increased aid to returning Iraq US war vets. That was the last straw for me even though Lamar is my neighbour.

Bob Tuke is a long time friend of mine and is a good, hard working, honest man with a long stellar career as soldier, constant volunteer, family values man, and very respected legal professional. ( can you believe it?--I am voting for both a lawyer and a Democrat!!!) Please go to his web site and listen to him talk on YOU Tube to see and hear him speak for himself. Bob is going to be "the man from Tennessee" this US fall as we have a "Change of Power" in Washington. So join me in supporting him!!!!!!!!

www.tukefortennessee.com

Sorry to divert into politics but it is my blog:):)

More soon;;

Dr JIm

THE PICKING BEGINS!!!!!!!

2008-04-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

WE JUST just talked to Jeremy, our manager, back in Matakana and he told us the they picked our Malbec yesterday. With the warm NZ fall the grapes got ripe about 2 weeks earlier than in the past. He said that we got 4.2 tons of grapes so that is fantastic. The brix level was 24 which is very good. (brix level=sugar content of the grape) One ton of grapes will give about 600 liters of wine which is around 70 cases. So, we could have a pure Malbec if we wanted and get over 250 cases. That is a small amount wine but we are happy to have such a good volume of grapes this year. We thought that we had bunch thinned enough to get small cropping but I guess we should be happy with that volume.

We will be picking the Cab Franc in about two weeks and should get 6 tons of that. If we do blend both together for our future 08 wine we could have 600 cases again!!! More on that in a long time as we won't have that wine ready for well over a year.

Sorry to be slow with postings but I have been busy with medicine. I do have three wine promotion events setup here in Nashville. I will be signing bottles tomorrow - Fri the 11th at Grand Cru here in Nashville. On this Sat from 1-3 I will do the same at the wine shopp next to the new Whole Foods Store in Green Hills Place. Finally on Fri the 25th of April I will be at Frugal McDougals from 4-6 also to promote Hawks Nest.

Here is what Frugals sent out as a pr promotional email about that coming event. Pass it on and do come to one of these three events if you want a signed bottle!!

More soon;

Dr JIM

Dr. Jim Daniell of Hawks Nest Vineyard to Appear at Frugal McDougal’s Liquor Store- Nashville, Tenn. April 25^th, 2008

Nashville physician and New Zealand wine producer Dr. Jim Daniell will appear at Frugal MacDoogal's Nashville store, Friday afternoon April 25th, from 4 to 6 p.m. for a meet-and-greet and autograph event. There is no charge for the event and everyone is invited.

Dr. Jim will be signing bottles of his Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red wine, which is really quite rare. In fact, we're lucky to be able to buy it in Nashville. Hawks Nest imported just 160 of the total 600 cases of the 2006 vintage to the USA, and all of that came to middle Tennessee. The lion's share remains in New Zealand where it has received numerous accolades and sells out quickly.

Orchard Block Red (available for $19.99 at Frugal MacDoogal's) is a signature blend of Malbec and Cabernet Franc, styled to be enjoyed by itself or paired with the bounty of local New Zealand meats and fish. If you're looking for a red that is ideal with New Zealand lamb, while also versatile enough for fresh seafood or free range beef, take the doctor's advice and get some Orchard Block while it's available.

The Doctor, Winemaker, Bottle-washer and Orchardist

Hawks Nest gets its name from the native birds that soar over the hills of the scenic New Zealand coastal area where the vineyard is situated. Hawks Nest is nestled on gently sloping north facing soil in a working orchard block in the midst of picturesque Matakana Valley. At 37 degrees south latitude, Matakana Valley has a climate and soil not dissimilar to some of the great wine growing regions of the world. Less than an hour's drive north of Auckland, the Matakana region is blessed with pristine beaches, grass covered hillsides, and small pastoral communities for which New Zealand is renowned.

A native Tennessean, Dr. Jim semi-retired from medicine and moved with his wife Sandra to New Zealand part time in 1999 to seek a life "no less sophisticated but far less complicated." The Daniells go back and forth a half a dozen times each year from Nashville to Matakana, taking advantage of the opposite weather patterns of the northern and southern hemispheres. Dr. Jim still practices medicine 3 days a week for 4 months out of the year. "I am only 64 and still in my medical prime. Thus I have the best of both worlds," Daniell points out reflecting on the duality of his lifestyle.

When in New Zealand, days are spent in the Hawks Nest orchard and vineyard, tending to the raising of avocados, limes, olives, Asian persimmons and wine grapes. The grapes came most recently to the property, planted in 2001. "We only began to think of growing grapes in 2000 after meeting all our neighbors who grew grapes who told us we had perfect land for grapes." Now a typical April day will find Dr. Jim dressed in scrubs, with his trusty terrier in tow, surrounded by friends, harvesting grapes.

Jim's wife Sandra is a gourmet cook and the Daniells love fine quality fresh food. "All cows in New Zealand are free range and seafood is fresh and local. Don't forget the lamb and green lipped mussels for which New Zealand is famous. We sought to make a wine we could enjoy alone or paired with either meat or fish."

The Daniells have a blog you can visit to follow the happenings at Hawks Nest, and get a taste of life in both hemispheres. Check it out: http://www.hawksnestvineyard.blogspot.com.

BACK IN TENNESSEE

2008-04-01T15:09:00.001-07:00

Well, sorry for no blog is two weeks but we took a bit of time to get over the jet lag of coming back to Tennessee this time and I had t focus on medicine a bit. Here are two good spring shots of Hawks Nest that I found on file as I was preparing a talk on NZ wines for a group here in Nashville this week. It is funny to come back for out second spring in 6 months but Sandra is all excited about digging in the dirt again.

Our wine has been well received here in Nashville over the two months since we left. We have gotten good feedback and the article in the Nashville Wine Press seems to have been read by a lot of my patients. You can read the Nashville Wine Press on line anytime so check it out!!

www.nashvillewinepress.com

Now that I am caught up with family and medicine here in Tenn, I will get back to blogging about wine soon.

See you later.

DR JIM

The Vineyard nest door!!!!

2008-03-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

The nice thing about Matakana Valley is that it is so small and made up of very friendly people. There are not many Americans around but those that are here fit in well. Our very closest neigbouring vineyard is called Heron's Flight and is owned by a lovely couple from Calif. who settled her way back around 1990. David Hoskins and his wife Mary were pioneers in growing grapes in Matakana and reciently opened a lovely modern cafe to compliment their vineyard. They are famous for their good Italian wine and food in their new well sited cafe and wine education center just a half mile from our front gate. A great place to sit and view the valley while sampling good food and wine.

It seems that good happenings in life are often from random events. A doctor friend of ours back in Nashville emailed me a few months ago to say that a daughter of a friend of theirs was wanting to work and live in NZ. In Feb, I got to meet Courtney Battle (that young lady) when she first ventured to our little Valley and was able to introduce her to David at our Saturday morning Matakana Farmers Market. Now, things have worked out well for all and Courtney is working at Heron's Flight and "learing the business of wine and food" from an expert with years of experience. They even speak the same brand of English!!! Everyone seems to benefit and now we have another Nashvillian living in Matakana!!!! It is a small world.

The photo shows David and Courtney at the door of Heron's flight cafe this Sunday. They both have a nice smile as they should. Courtney has a neat informative job in NZ and David has a attractive young American lady with a degree in events planning fresh off the boat so to say and enthusiastic to work and learn. (actually Courtney really is fresh off the boat as she sailed in a small boat accross the Pacific to arrive in NZ--not the usual arrival method for Americans for sure!!!)

I went to Heron's Flight on Sun to see their enteresting set up to sell wine straight from the tank into used bottles brought in by customers. This was the second time that David has set up a day to offer the public the chance to come in and "pour your own" wine so to say. We thought it was a neat idea and a fun way to both sell wine and meet people. It was a very good deal for the wine drinkers as they got good red wine for only $12 a bottle and clearly "fresh out of the pot"
The one photo shows their roadside sign with the announcement and the other shot is of David's son demonstating the method of help yourself wine. Kudos to you David and Mary for the idea. I just wish I could copy it!!!! We have no roadside sales or license so unfortunately we can't offer "take a way, do it yourself wine"

Sandra and I are off to the states in the AM so the next post will be from Nashville once we get over jet lag. We leave NZ with a clear blue sky and lovely soft surf down at the beach at the bottom of our hilll. (I am looking at the waves as I type this!!)

More soon;

Dr JIm and Miss Sandra

A GREAT NZ WINE BLOG SITE

2008-03-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

GOOD MORNING!!!!

Every morning (well, that is most mornings to be accurate) I get up and check my email, then Google News to see what's up in the world, and finally I go to Sue Courtney's neat blog on NZ Wines at the link below. I have mentioned Sue before and even encluded one of her in depth writings on the history of NZ wines on this blog in the past.. Sue has a very informative post EVERY day on NZ wines or wine related information. So, if you want to really be up to date on NZ wines you should bookmark her "Blog of vinous ramblings" --(even the name is cute). She even adds a few jokes occasionally like this latest one that she saw in the Auckland main daily paper-The NZ Herald.

"Had to laugh on reading the humor column Sideswipe in this morning's NZ Herald. It went something like this.

A foreign language couple from Europe, only in the country for three weeks, asked the host what to bring to a party they had been invited to.
"Oh, sauvignon blanc would be nice," said the host to the husband of the European couple.
"What kind of party is it," exclaimed the wife when her husband said he was asked to bring along 'seven young blondes'. ( From Sue Courtney blog of March 13th, 2008)

Anyways I due suggest you visit the links below as Sue really gets around to taste a lot of NZ wine and give good reviews of the wines as well as general wine related information about the wine industry here in NZ. She also edits the wine of the week site as well which is really the same home page as her blog but with tons of news on all things wine in NZ. So check both of these urls out soon and pass on the links to others with interest in NZ wines.

http://www.wineoftheweek.com/blog/index.htm

http:// www.wineoftheweek.com

More Soon from the states as we go back to Nashville for about 5 weeks on March 18th.

Dr Jim and Miss Sandra

How to find a rare wine on line

2008-03-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

If you are like me you occasionally want to get a really unusual and hard to find wine. So, what do you do besides call your local favorate store and ask them to get it for you? Well, you can actually go on line and do a seach at wine-searcher.com. Did you know that one of the world's most popular wine websites is based in New Zealand? . It's a site called www.wine-searcher.com, and it's loved by wine buyers throughout the world but particularly by collectors in the USA and the UK. But it may surprise many people that it is a New Zealand operation.

It is free for a store to list on the website and users can dial up www.winesearcher.com and look up for free where they can buy a certain wine. So how does www.wine-searcher.com make money?

They make their money from users who buy the 'Pro Version', at US$29.95. This version provides much more information and more 'hits' and pricing information for a searched wine. There are many other 'Pro Version' features including 'alerts' if a sought after wine suddenly becomes available. Retailers can also advertise.

It's obviously working because www.wine-searcher.com has over 10,000 subscribers. The site attracts over half a million visitors each month with over 55 million page views each year. Revenue for 2007 is expected to exceed $2million.

"We are a profitable, debt fee company with positive cash flow from our operations," says Martin. Independent statistics show that www.wine-searcher.com is well ahead of competing sites, www.winezap.com and www.cellartracker.com.

Sixty percent of the users are from the USA. The UK, with almost 14% of users, is in second place. New Zealand users don't even figure in the Top Ten user countries.

"We'd like to increase our New Zealand usage considerably," says Martin Brown the founder. "The world knows about us but many kiwis don't".

Dial up www.wine-searcher.com, type in your favourite wine into 'Wine Name', add a vintage if you wish, and see what results you get.

(Incidentally, the most searched for wine is Chateau Margaux.)

Finally, I got this cute one below by email last week and wanted to pass it on to readers in my age group (64+!!!) Seems very appropriate these days!!!!!!

More soon; Dr Jim

New Wine for Seniors
California vintners in the Napa Valley area, which primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic.
It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as

Pi No More

(I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE)

Nashville Wine Press Article

2008-03-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

IF you live in Nashville and buy much wine you will see the Nashville Wine Press in stores. The editor, Jimmy Collins, and his staff produce a very first rate and interesting journal in my opinion. Also, the price is right as it is free and a new edition comes out every two months. The edition that is now in stores has a nice intereview by Jimmy Collins with me. He did a good job of writing the article about Hawks Nest and I thought that readers of this blog who are NOT in Nashville might like to get some background on Hawks Nest and our journey into wine from medicine. So, here is that online version of the article that was in the recent NWP. Hope you learn a bit about me that you might not have known.

More Soon;

Dr JIM

Nashville Wine Press People You Oughta Know
Hawks Nest Vineyard-Dr. Jim Daniell

by Jimmy Collins

Hawks Nest Vineyard, on the main road that leads to Matakana Valley, New Zealand, is the other side of the world from Middle Tennessee. But thanks to Dr. Jim Daniell, it’s never been closer. Dr. Daniell, born and raised in Tennessee, never imagined he would own a winery—let alone in New Zealand. But as his story reveals, sometimes life is serendipitous.

After attending medical school in Memphis, Dr. Daniell served in the military stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. It was there he was introduced to wine, not even knowing how fate was beginning to play its role. After selling his practice to his younger partner over 6 years ago, he jokingly refers to his career as a physician as “his past life.” “I was very active around 1980 in developing lasers through a surgical telescope that is called a laparoscope,” he explains. “I was the first person in America to clinically use a laser through the laparoscope which was great for my medical career and it got me invited all over the world—including New Zealand.” Semi-retiring in 1998, the Daniell family settled on New Zealand. “There is no crime or poverty. It’s clean, green, has good seafood and entertainment, and is devoid of extreme cold or hot weather. That, my friend, is New Zealand,” declares Dr. Daniell proudly.

Hawks Nest Vineyard was initially created for tax purposes. The Daniells were running a successful fruit orchard in Matakana and with taxes at 51.5%, they needed to invest in something that would take some time to be profitable. “We had four acres of vacant land that, when tested, seemed to be suitable terrain for Cabernet Franc and Malbec.” Dr. Daniell began planting in 2001 and remarks, “Our plan was to sell the grapes to our neighbor and have him make some wine for us in New Zealand, never thinking of exporting to the U.S.” Once again, the hands of fate intervened. John Worth, who had studied at the best wine school in Australia and worked in Bordeaux, France, suddenly showed up at the Daniell’s door. “He saw our grapes and wanted to make a demonstration wine. We asked what it cost and he said it would not cost us a thing except for the barrels. I should have asked what barrels cost,” quipped Dr. Daniell. At the time, a new French oak barrel cost approximately $1300. They produced two hundred cases of wine and were extremely satisfied with the results.

Robert Lipman of Lipman Bros., Inc. was traveling to New Zealand and decided to stop at Hawks Nest to taste the 2004 barrel samples. Impressed with the results and knowing his portfolio did not contain Bordeaux-style wine from New Zealand, Mr. Lipman was the catalyst to bring Hawks Nest to Tennessee—providential to say the least.

So what are the results? “The Orchard Block Red is a blend that creates some good, but not too high, tannins and a softness and what I think is a really good wine—but I’m biased,” states Dr. Daniell. Actually, two of New Zealand’s most well respected wine writers concur, giving stellar reviews of Hawks Nest. One in particular, Michael Cooper, the “Robert Parker of New Zealand,” gave the Orchard Block Red four stars out of five. This is no small feat as history has shown that Mr. Cooper only gives out four stars eight percent of the time to New Zealand wines.

The 2005 Orchard Block Red is completely sold out and the 2006 has just been released—in screw-cap form. Primary locations to purchase it are The Wine Shoppe at Green Hills, West Meade Wine and Liquor Mart, Grapevine Wine and Spirits, Grand Cru, Woodland Wine Merchants, and Red Dog Wine and Spirits. If your wine store does not carry it, they can contact Lipman Brothers directly to inquire about ordering some.

Life now for the Daniell family involves traveling across the Pacific six times a year and working two harvests—one for grapes at the end of March and early April (this is New Zealand, remember) and the second for their fruit, whose harvest carries into May and early June. Although semi-retired, Dr. Daniell still practices in Nashville periodically throughout the year. There often are wine dinners and bottle signings when he is here in town, so if you happen to run into him, just consider it serendipitous.

First Matakana Wine Festival

2008-03-03T14:52:00.000-08:00

We had our first annual Matakana Wine and food festival here in our little valley. The only hitch was the rainy weather. We were happy about the rain ourselves as our water tanks were low but it sure cut down late minute attendance from Auckland. The event was from 10:30-6:30 ( yes, a long day in our booth for sure). People were there when the gates opened and all seemed to have a good time.

We printed up some shirts at the last minute that were a hit with everyone. The black shirt and the phrase on the back can be seen in the one photo. We had 8 people out selling away from our booth using plastic buckets who were wearing our shirts and selling wine. Some of the ladies said they got a few "squeezes" over the day as the back of the shirt suggested!!!!

We also sold Scarborough Fair Chocolate and found that giving free samples led to a lot of wine sales!!!! You can see the choc sitting on the bar in the one photo-that is Mike our wine maker holding up the bottle of bubbly that he produced and sold as well. The other photo shows Sandra and I with our NUMBER ONE SALESMAN--Bart Blommaaert who owns the best B and B in Auckland called Ascot Parnell. We stayed with Bart and his lovely wife, Therese, long ago when we first came to NZ and have become good friends. Bart could sell a frig to an Eskimo!!!!

The final photo shows me loading up our truck at the end of the day with our unsold wine. For those of you in NZ who missed the day, you need to put it on your events calander for the Jan-Feb summer of 2009 as it will be held before school starts next year and on a Sat. and not a Sun as this last week. Admission will also be lower next year. Stay tuned for info on that event in a few months!!

So, now we just watch the grapes grow and sit back and rest for a bit as we are all caught up at the vineyard as we prepare for our 08 harvest in about a month.
More soon.

Dr Jim and Miss Sandra

BIRD BURGLARS

2008-02-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

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.

The big First Matakana Wine Festival

2008-02-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-11T22:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-02-06T19:06:00.000-08:00

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 .

EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT TENNESSEE

2008-01-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

WELL, I wanted to include two shots of Matakana Summer so if you are reading this back in the states you will be jealous!!!! I took both of these photos yesterday. The beach scene is Omaha Beach that sits just at the bottom of the hill we live on and is about 4 miles from our vineyard. The vine shot shows how good our grapes look after leaf trimming to get ready for bunch thinning. (bunch thinning is the last thing we do before we but up bird netting) We thin out poorer bunches of grapes soon after verasion (change of green grapes to red skins) but must do this before the nets go on as once then nets are up we can't easily work the grapes. Next post I will show a bit of the netting process and the bunch thinning--I hate to do the thinning as dropping any grapes to the ground stresses me out even though I know it is the "way of life" to get better quality wine with fewer grape bunches.

Sometimes I wish I could wax more poetic but that seems impossible with my surgical background. Here is a nice essay by Robin Ransom who is the president of our Matakana Wine Growers Asssoc. This was in the January 2008 lcoal Matakana Matters paper published here in our valley. Robin says it all below:):):):):))

The promise of things to come

Early summer in the vineyard is an interesting time. We have by now weathered the vicissitudes of spring. You know the stuff - equinoxial gales from the west sometimes combined with thunderstorms bringing potentially devastating blasts of hail, and often colder than mid-winter. All this interspersed with glorious sunny and windless days, when you can almost see the vine shoots growing.

Southern areas suffer the problem of frost in spring. If this occurs after budburst it can destroy new shoots and developing flower clusters. Every region south of Auckland has had its share of frost damage in recent years, sometimes reducing potential crop size by more than half. We have heard stories this year from Marlborough about large numbers of helicopters inverting vineyard air so the colder air on the ground is replaced by warmer air from above.

Early summer is one of the two most critical times in the season – flowering and fruit set. Fortunately grape vines do not need the assistance of bees, as they self-pollinate. But we are still vulnerable. Weather conditions which reduce photosynthesis, ie cold and wet, will disrupt pollination. This process, called “coulure” in France, prevents berry fertilisation, with consequent reduction in crop size.

A reduced fruit set is not always a bad thing. Some grape varieties are prolific, and in most seasons will need some bunches removed to give the vines the best chance of fully ripening the remainder. A dose of cool wet weather about now can avoid the need for labour intensive bunch thinning. In our vineyard cabernet sauvignon and pinot gris can sometimes set huge quantities of bunches. This looks wonderful on the vine but very large crops compromise wine quality, especially if the weather at the business end of the season cools too quickly.

A walk through the vineyard at this time of year can be very rewarding. Grape flowers are tiny and almost invisible, but they are very abundant and in combination produce a gorgeous aroma. The heady wafting fragrance of flowering grapes can be a transport of delight and carries with it the promise of things to come.

More soon;

DR JIM

BACK IN SUMMER!!!

2008-01-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

Boy, it sure is to be back in a second summer. (Actually this is our first summer of 08 as it is still Jan!!!) Sandra and I are all settled in and the weather is wonderful. Dry, hot, and low humidity. Perfect for grape and humans so all is well in our world.

We have caught up on all the local Matakana News and are happy to announce that the first annual Matakana Wine and Food Festival will be March 2, 08 a Sunday. It will be a big event and we are part of it!! Here is a little promo info and the web link. They expect up to 10,000 people for the day and we hope to sell hundreds of bottles of wine--wish us luck. If you are reading this in NZ be sure to pass this on to your wine loving mates as it will be an neat day with music, wine, and food all on a 21 acre site at the Matakana Country Market site.

More about that later.

Dr Jim and Miss Sandra--all settled in here in NZ for the summer.

Big News- the first annual Matakana Wine Festival !!!

The inaugural Matakana Wine and Food Festival is going to be held on Sunday 2nd March 2008 from 10.30am to 6pm at the 21-hectare Matakana Country park on the corner of Leigh Road and Takatu Road, Matakana, about an hour and a bits drive north of Auckland City. Details are a bit sketchy at this stage but it's limited to Matakana Winegrowers' members and the organisers expect a good turnout of the region's 29 wine producers. Modelled on the very successful Toast Martinborough but in a central location, each winery will have its own pavilion and dedicated restaurant or chef to match food to their wines and festival francs will be the currency of the day.

Ticket price is $65 per person, however an an 'early bird' discounted ticket is just $55 per person for those who purchase by January 30th. Tickets are available at the Warkworth iSite or from TicketMaster. Find out more from www.matakanawineandfoodfestival.co.nz.

NEW YORK TIMES "DISCOVERS" MATAKANA

2008-01-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks that little Matakana Valley will be getting more upscale US travelers. On Sunday January the 13th the New York Times ran a full page story in their travel section on our little piece of heaven called Matakana Valley!!! This paper is widely read all across the states and is read each weekend by millions. Sort of like the NZ Star-Times but on steriods!!!

So what does this mean? The news will now be out about the wonders of Matakana and we can all expect more US visitors. This is good for all of us there with stuff to sale. Hawks Nest wine will benefit-especially for our US sales. Speaking of that, I am proud to announce that we are officially out of Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red 2005. ( in the states only- so if you are reading this in NZ you can still get the wine around Matakana!) The good news is we have just released our 06 Orchard Block Red in the states. The only difference you will see with the bottle is that the label says 2006 on the front and it is a screwcap. Early reviews by winelovers here in Nashville have been very good for our new release. Do ask for it when you go to get good red wine in stores around Nashville.

Here is the link to the NYTimes online edition about Matakana. It is good reading and links to many businesses in the Valley. We are now officially on the NZ map so look out for more pushy Americans with New York City accents in the near future!!!!

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/travel/13next.html?ex=1200891600&en=b32e1a7eda6d8b73&ei=5070&emc=eta1

We are all set to get back to NZ and leave in 48 hours. Since snow is due here tomorrow and it is 80 degrees today in NZ you can be sure I have NO problem starting packing for the 24 hour commute!!!

My next blog will be from the God Zone and probably not for a few days while we get settled and recover from Jet Lag.

Happy Winter to you if you read this in the states and "save some summer for me" if you are in NZ!!!

More soon!

Dr Jim

A FOUR STAR RATING FOR OUR O6!!!!!!

2008-01-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to you all. As we start 2008 I have a nice announcement about or 05 Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red. Michael Cooper is New Zealand's number one wine writer. Each Year he publishes his annual review of New Zealand Vineyards and wines. His 2008 book has just been released in NZ and I have scanned the front and back of his book as well as the page where he rated us for the first time. He uses a scale for rating of 1 to 5 and does not give out many 4 and 5's. As you can see in the photos he has just given us a 4 start rating for our 05 Orchard Block!!!

WE are very excited to learn this and wanted to pass it on to all of you who have tasted our wine. I can't wait to get home to Matakana Valley and read his 08 edition to see who else in our valley got such a good rating. Last year only two wines in our entire valley got a four star rating so we feel we have finally "arrived" as far as showing the Hawks Nest can produce a good wine entirely from grapes grown on our little four acres of vines.

More soon!!!

A happy and proud Dr JIm!!

NEW 06 WINE TASTING NOTES

2007-12-30T07:58:00.001-08:00

Well, it is the very end of 2007 and almost time for Sandra and I to go back to the NZ summer. The photo of our pond at Hawks Nest is to show how lovely summers are in Matakana. We go back on Jan. 17th for two months this cycle and I am really ready to get back to summer and growing plants. We don't mind a taste of winter but we are ready to flee the Nashville harsh January weather. I guess we are just like the Fla "snowbirds" except our commute is a bit longer.
Since our new 06 ORCHARD BLOCK RED is being released this week here in Nashville, I wanted to post tasting notes for the wine by our crew down in NZ. Lipman's have imported 120 cases of our new 06 wine and I know it will be well received in Tennessee. It tastes younger but still very similar to our really smooth 05 wine that is now sold out.(except a few bottles in a few retail stores) You might find it still at The Wine Shoppe, West Meade Liquors, or at Midtown in Nashville this week for your New Years libations.

You will note that our new Orchard Block Red is sealed with a screw cap. That may surprise some of you but in NZ and Australia almost all wine makers are going to screw caps. I have talked about that before in this blog so I won't go over the advantages of screw caps again except that to note that it protects the wine better and makes it easier to open and store. You also never will get a corked bottle of wine to spoil your enjoyment of the tasting experience. Now the term "crack open a new bottle" will be accurate since you do have to crack the seal of the screw cap.

I just printed up this flyer below to put in retail outlets here in Tennessee next week and to email out to known wine lovers. The tasting notes below are from our winemaker and vineyard manager- John and Jeremy- and describe the new wine well I think. Do try some soon!!!

More next year!!

Dr JIM

NEW WINE RELEASE!!!!!

Hawks Nest Vineyard

Matakana, New Zealand

RELEASED IN NASHVILLE- JANUARY 2008

2006 Matakana Cab Franc/Malbec/Merlot

“ORCHARD BLOCK RED”

This, our 2006 premium estate wine is a Bordeaux style blend of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Merlot (59, 22, and 19%). The wine was bottled in May 2007 after aging 12 months in 33% new French oak barrels. Dark crimson red, ruby-hued, almost (but not quite) opaque, the nose is scented with the appealing fragrance we expect from these varieties- think violets and spice and hints of pencil box cedar. Finely textured with creamy cedar, spice, hints of mint, dusty blackberries and meaty tannins, the earthy depth of Malbec grapes takes the final bow and leaves a scent of cedar and violets in its wake. Absolutely delicious with Sumac rubbed rack of lamb. The traditional method of fining the wine using egg white (from free range eggs) was used and traces may remain. It has very good cellaring potential and should only improve with age for up to a decade.

We keep a blog site going about our vineyard on the Web at: www.hawksnestvineyard.blogspot.com

So, check out what is going on down at our vineyard in NZ and be sure to email us at jdgyn@aol.com if you ever have plans to visit New Zealand and want to drop by Hawks Nest to visit with us!! (PLAN TO BRING WORK CLOTHES)

Sandra and Dr. Jim Daniell, Hawks Nest Vineyard owners.

THE END OF 05!!!!!

2007-12-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

Well, as we come to the end of 07 I have to report that we are out of our yummy 05 Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red in Tennessee. The last three cases went out of Lipman's warehouse today to The Wine Shoppe in Green Hills. (If you are reading this in NZ there is good news for you as we still have about 40 case left in stock so you can still get it in stores around Warkworth.) This is perfect timing as the new 06 Hawks Nest is ready to be released here in Nashville. We plan a big new release party for the wine this next Sat. at the Wine Shoppe in Green Hills and I will be there most of the afternoon on Jan 5th to talk about the wine, NZ, and sign bottles. Do drop by if you can? The new wine is in a screw cap- as are 90% of NZ wines this year. OUR 06 Hawks Nest is a similar blend to the 05 but has a little of Merlot in it which will give it more body and allow it to cellar longer.

Tennesseans!!! We are proud of how our Hawks Nest wine has been received in Nashville over the first two years that we have sold it here and thank all of you for your support. Do be sure to tell your wine drinking friends about Hawks Nest and let them know our third release is now here. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be better at keeping my blog site up to date and of interest to those who visit.

So, good by for now and I will be in posting again soon!!!!

Dr JIM

NEW WINE STORE IN NASHVILLE!!!

2007-12-15T08:56:00.003-08:00

A new wine store took our wine on this month in West Nashville. This is a really neat place and Austin the manager is VERY selective in what he offers to his clients. The Seller of Wine just sells wine (and a few rare ales) and mostly small select labels in a neat clean store. There is no clutter, excellent display shelves, and a very wine savvy staff. So, we are excited to be able to announce that one of the most unique wine stores in Nashville is now carrying Hawks Nest Orchard Block red. The Seller of Wine on Hwy. 100 in the old McLures has a very knowledgeable staff dedicated to helping customers select just that perfect wine for each occasion. If you want a special wine at a fair price offered to you in a personalized relaxed fashion, you need to drop in for a visit.

I was greeting customers and signing bottles there yesterday afternoon and had a really good time. In the photos you can see the display shelves with Hawks Nest right in the middle of some really cool wines. Austin is the handsome guy in the suit on the right with two customers.
The other two shots show the display arrangement for the store.

So, I have been busy 'meeting and greeting" customers a few afternoons this past week in some of the bottle shops around Nashville selling our wine. It is fun talking to people about New Zealand and telling our story about Hawks Nest Vineyard. At this time of year customers in wine stores are looking for unique Holiday gifts and a signed bottle of Hawks Nest seems to be a good idea to many people that I have talked to in some of the stores.

Sandra and I wish all of you much holiday cheer. Remember that good red wine is a perfect way to get everyone is a good seasonal mood-and Hawks Nest Orchard Block fits the bill perfectly.

If you check in some of the stores in West Nashville, you will probably find a few Hawks Nest bottles with my name scribbled on the label. I will keep popping in the local stores near us to sign bottles this next week as well so do check it out. I plan to go to Grand Cru, Midtown, West Meade Liquors, The Wine Shoppe in Green Hills, and Vinea on 12th Ave. south as well as maybe a few store a bit farther from our home If I get a chance.

More Soon;

Dr JIM

OOPS

2007-12-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

GOSH DARN!! In my last post just done an hour ago I had photos of both of our grandchildren who were just here for 10 days. The lovely blond gal is Cadence who is now 4 and that is Megan our daughter holding Baylor our 1.9 year old grandson in front of the bare tree. Anyway I wanted to be sure to point out just who is who in the family tree!!
Dr JIM

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

2007-12-12T07:55:00.001-08:00

Only two more weeks to Christmas and it was 76 degrees here in Nashville yesterday. Maybe Al Gore is correct!!!! Anyway it is supposed to turn colder this weekend and that should get us in the holiday spirit..

This is the time for giving and nothing is better than a good bottle of wine to give to your friends and family. SOOOOOO, think of Hawks Nest this time of year. We are down to only 30 cases of our good 05 vintage so you better run out and get some now. It is selling fast at under $20 here in Tennessee. You can also get it in NZ as well in the Warkworth area as well.

I am going to make a big pre-Christmas push to help wine sales here in Nashville this weekend and will be signing bottles in four stores between this Thurs and Sat. If you want some personalized signed bottles for gifts either drop by the times below or email me at jdgyn@aol.com and tell me your favorite bottle shop in Nashville that carries our wine and I will go there and sign some bottles for you for the store to hold specifically for you.

I will be at the following stores.
Thurs the 13th--4-6 at West Meade Liquors at the split of Hwy 70 and 100 in West Nashville
Fri the 14th-- 4-6 at The Seller of Wines on Hwy 100 in the old McLures store site.
Sat the 15th --1-3 at the Wine Shoppe in Green Hills
Sat the 15th----4-6 at Grand Cru on Murphy Rd off West End by 440.
I will also be at the grand opening of the new store in Hill Place next to Whole foods on Sat the 15th from 11-1 PM

See you soon!!!

Dr Jim

TIME FLIES

2007-12-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

I note that it has been over two weeks since my last post. Sorry, but we were busy traveling back to Tenn. and hosting all of our family last week. We just celebrated Sandra's 60 something birthday on the 5th with a big party. Here is a family shot of all of us except the little one-Baylor-who is almost 2 but still has an early bedtime. (hey, it is my blog and I can post family photos if I want)

So, we are settled in for the year end holidays and the good news is that our Hawks Nest 06 wine is about to be released here in Tennessee by Lipman Brothers our wholesaler. We tasted a LOT this last week and all agree that is going to be a super wine once it ages a bit more. The good news is that it will still retail in Tennessee for under $20 so that will be a good deal for you and your wine drinking friends. I am still working on some wine tasting events for real soon. SOOOOOOO KEEP WATCHING THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS!!!!!

More after our grandkids leave and we recover!!!

Dr JIM

Nice New Calif. Neighbor beside Hawks Nest!!!

2007-11-18T19:37:00.001-08:00

We have a lovely new neighbour just 200 yards West of our Hawks Nest gate on the other side of the road. Lezlie is the new outgoing and personable owner of the The Dragonfly. She is from California (but we won't hold that against her) and has some fantastic new ideas for her place. Sandra and I had lunch as her guest last week and loved her new offerings. The site has always been lovely overlooking the small stream in back but the food has been so-so in the past and a bit pricey for our rural area. Lezlie has a strong food management background and already the changes that we see are amazing.

The best change is that she likes red wine. (the past owner liked and only stocked white and was an older fairly drab Englishman). Lezlie is a ball of fire and clearly a go getter. She has already put our new 06 NZ release called "Back Paddock Red" on her new menu. That alone shows how good her taste is wines runs!:):):):):):):):) SO THE NEXT TIME YOU ARE PASSING OUR PLACE LOOK TO THE NORTH AND POP IN AT THE DRAGONFLY FOR NICE CRAFTS, NIBBLES, AND HOSPITALITY.

SO "Lezlie with a Z" Welcome to Matakana Valley. We wish you well and will be sure to dine with you often.

Now, back to watching Sun night football on Monday afternoon here on ESPN in NZ.

More soon;

Dr JIm

MATAKANA VERSUS LEAPERS FORK

2007-11-17T20:40:00.000-08:00

Friends in Nashville as me just how big is Matakana. I guess the village closest to it nearNashville is Leapers Fork down in Williamson Co. The difference is that in Matakana one can get lunch in 10 different places and at last count there were only two places to eat in LP!!!! Also, Matakana now has is own real liquor store. I bet Leapers Fork will never match that back in good ole Tenn.!!!!

The photo is of the owners of the just opened Matakana Liquor Center (spelled the English way in NZ as you can see in the shot!!) That is Louise and John Walsh and their two cute boys standing in the doorway. I did a wine tasting there yesterday (yes, in NZ one can actually do wine tastings in liquor stores!!!!) and met a lot of locals in our valley who drive by our place every day but have not tasted our wine. I had a good time and met a lot of nice people with good palates for wine. Here in NZ we sell a Merlot (05) as well as our Orchard Block red blend.

The other shot is our is our our new house guests!!!!! That is a mallard duck mom and 13 (count them) of her chicks showed up the other day in our yard. Sandra thought that they were sooooo cute so she fed them corn flakes (go figgure????) and they won't leave now. The sure do crap a lot on our sidewalks and are driving our neurotic cat-Pepper-crazy. She is afraid of them actually. Fun and games at the Daniell home in Matakana Valley I say.

More soon.

Dr JIM

OUR WINE GOING INTO AUCKLAND'S TOP CAFE

2007-11-15T19:14:00.001-08:00

Late Nov. is late spring here and things are growing like crazy. I took a shot or our garden this AM and you can see the growth since 3 weeks ago. In the far top left bed you can see we have LOTS of lettuce.
The other shot is a close up of our avocados. We sell avos from our roadside starting in Dec until March (if we don't sell out sooner). Last year we had about 5 tons total but our "warehouse" (fruit hanging on the trees) is not so full this year. Avos in the local stores are selling for a dollar each now and we will undercut everyone and sell for a bag of 4 for 3 dollars when we start next week. We do well with our honesty stall sales as all kiwis put their money for our little bags of fruit.

BIG NEWS HERE FOR US

Wine wise, we have just released our 06 wine here locally and have it in 4 new cafes in our area. The number two restaurant in all NZ is in Auckland and called the French Cafe. We have eaten there several times over the years and become friends with the owners. I finally offered them a taste of our mature 05 Orchard Block wine and they really liked it. SOOOOO, I am honored to be able to say that Hawks Nest wine will be on the menu at Auckland's top fine dining establishment this coming NZ summer. We are like proud parents needless to say.

MORE SOON;

DR JIm

BACK FROM PNG

2007-11-13T19:33:00.000-08:00

Sandra and I had a ball on our cruise around Paupa New Guinea for the last two weeks. That is her on the right in the photo with one of the local women who greeted us on one of the small islands we visited who is all dressed up in her "Sunday finest outfit" it seems. No travel problems--unless you count all my sweating gallons each day from the oppressive humidity. (95-95 they all said for both temps and humidity) Hopefully we won't get delayed malaria as we sure did see clouds of mozzies flying around us. I stayed lathered in repellant--hope that stuiff worked!!!!
PNG calls itself "the land time forgot" and man is that true. We were on a small Au. boat with 40 Ozzies who were all seasoned third world travelers. We went to small islands that had not had white skinned visitors in over a year. The little tottlers would all scream and hide when they saw us as the thought we were aliens I guess. Anyway, I could talk about PNG for many blogs but this site is supposed to be about Hawks Nest and our wine. SOOOOOOOO--

While away from Matakana spring has sprung and our grapes vines have shot up to form early leafy canopy that show a field of green now. We will get little buds of grapes soon and so far all is good with the early growth. We will be returning to Tennessee on Nov 24th adn thus will miss the next two months of the growing season here. If you live in Nashvegas, look out for coming wine events soon for new 06 Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red- The wine has arrived and cleared US customs in Nashville. (yes, stuff from overseas can go through US customs there locally). It needs to settle in the Lipman Brothers warehouse for a couple of weeks and then it will be on retail shelves. Start asking for it now at your local store and buy up some of the last bit of the remaining 05 wine as we will be out soon.

OUr 07 wine is tasting good in the barrel as well so this new year looks to be fine as well. But, that story if for the future. The data on the NZ 07 harves is finished and just over 200,000 tons of grapes were picked. That is not much wine in the great scheme of big wine growers. NZ sells under 1% or world wine sales. Attached below is a nice summary of NZ wine this year by or grower's group president--Robin Ransom. Check it out.

LOCAL MATTERS CONTRIBUTION – JULY 2007

Wine and the New Zealand Economy

The nationwide grape harvest in 2007 was an all time record 205,000 tonnes, 11% higher than the previous biggest vintage, 2006, and almost four times the size of ten years earlier, 1997. This indicates both that the New Zealand industry is very young, and that it has been very successful in its short life. It is difficult to think of another industry in recent times which has gone from very modest beginnings to such burgeoning success so quickly.

The phenomenal growth has however had its problems and anxieties. At the millennium the Wine Institute of NZ was concerned about how all of this wine was going to be sold. They were anxious to convey the message that new vineyard plantings should slow down. There was no way New Zealanders could drink it all, and they could see no possibility of an export industry developing in such a short time to soak up the ever-increasing surplus.

How wrong they were! In 2000 New Zealand exported around 19 million litres of wine, for $169m, but by 2006 this had grown to 58 million litres and $512m. A more than three-fold increase in just six years, and we have been able to maintain premium prices with it. Back in 2000 New Zealand wine fetched a higher average price per bottle in the UK than wine from any other country, and that remains the case today. The demand for our wine is such that even with the record 2007 harvest, there are likely to be some supply difficulties in the short term.

To put the importance of wine to the New Zealand economy into context, wine sales are now second only in value to sheepmeats among NZ’s primary product exports to the UK, and that country takes less than one third of all our wine exports.

Robin Ransom

President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.

robin@ransomwines.co.nz

More soon

DR JIm

TOURISM IN MATAKANA VALLEY

2007-10-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

2007-10-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-13T00:05:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

.

More soon

Dr JIM

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

2007-10-09T19:45:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-06T17:03:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-02T11:12:00.002-07:00

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!!!!

"Leaving on a Jet Plane"

2007-09-19T10:40:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-16T06:59:00.002-07:00

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!!!!!!

Good wine store in East Nashville

2007-08-24T08:24:00.001-07:00

Well, I have some really good news for wine lovers who live in East Nashville. The Woodland Wine Merchant has opened at 1001 Woodland St., just West of Five Points and about 100 yards from Margo's. Sandra and I dropped in there this week to check it out. The store (photo above) is in an old bank building and is open and airy with the wines well laid out for one's viewing in nice wooden racks like the one in the photo. We had a nice talk with Will Motley shown in the second photo. They have only been open a week but are being well received by locals and others visiting the new "hot" Five Points area. If you are not used to venturing over to East Nashville you need to go soon for a fun day or evening.

We found Will be be very friendly and knowledgeable about wines as he used to work for the large Nashville wholesaler-Best Brands . His prices are good too--I bought some spirits cheaper than I usually pay over in our area of town so this is good for customers.

The good news for us is that Will is willing to take on our Hawks Nest Orchard Block wine. He will be the first store East of the Cumberland River to our knowledge offering our yummy red NZ blend of Malbec and Cab Franc. So, a big "thank you Will" we hope to send some business your way and do want to do some tasting events with you in the area this coming fall when our new 06 vintage arrives.

More soon!!!

DrJim

PS We just got our US label approval for our 06 wine so now we can print, label, and ship that new vintage to Lipman Brothers here in Nashville. Look for the new 06 in area stores in mid Nov. at the latest!!!!!

WHO SELLS MORE HAWKS NEST IN NASHVILLE???

2007-08-19T14:21:00.001-07:00

Who sells more Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red wine in Nashville than anyone else?

That is a good question and the answer is this guy.

Ed Fryer of The Wine Shoppe in Green Hills has been our biggest supporter of Hawks Nest wines since we had our first tasting event in East Nashville in December of 2005 at the old Chapel Bistro. I wanted to give Ed a big public thank you for carrying our wine, sharing it with others, and guiding us in the successful Nashville area marketing of our Orchard Block Red wine. I estimate that his store has sold 50% of both our 04 and our o5 vintages these last two years. (his staff say he has a fragile ego so I want to really properly praise him in this blog.)

True, he is not much to look at but he sure knows his wines and gives excellent customer service. I know this to be true as I have just spent 9 hours or so over the last two weekends at his store just “hanging out signing bottles and kissing babies"(as he put it in his newsletter) but really all those hours I was also watching him and his team work hard greeting and advising customers on a wide range of wines. If I could have run my medical office with such fun and enthusiasm and with such satisfied clients I might still be working at doing those pap smears and such!!!!!!!

Anyway, thanks Ed and you crew for letting me come in so often to meet and greet so many of your nice customers. Your store sure is cluttered and I never cease to be amazed when Josh or the rest of you team immediately pulls out some obscure requested bottle from under a pile of boxes or mixed other bottles-I can't quite work out your inventory system but your team sure understands it and that is what matters. I even enjoyed carrying out a few cases of wine to customer cars for you guys especially in the 104 temperatures of the last two Friday and Saturdays!!!

SERIOUSLY, THANKS A BUNCH ED, YOUR ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE HAVE BEEN MUCH APPRECIATEDJJJJJ

Dr JIm

More soon!!!

Dog Days of summer

2007-08-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it is the "dog days of summer" here in Nashville for sure just now. It has been 100 or hotter for 12 of the first 18 days of Aug. which is an all time record. Even with this weather our Hawks Nest Red is selling very well. The new price of $20 a bottle is leading to more sales by wine drinkers with a lower budget. Thirteen cases sold this last week. We are happy that more people can now try our wine. I have been going to some of the local stores to sign bottles and visit with customers and that has helped to raise the awareness of our wine. This is a slow time is the red wine business all over the US south it seems. Of course it is still winter back home in NZ and our remaining 05 wine is about sold out there. We will have our new 06 available in NZ by the first of October and also in the stores in Tennessee by Thanksgiving. (hopefully). We are still waiting for final US approval of our 06 label before we can print, label, and then ship out wine over. Hopefully we will get that approval very soon!!!!

We also have our first wine tasting event of this summer coming up next Saturday afternoon as you can see below from the announcement.

If you are reading this in Nashville do try to drop by next Sat. afternoon and join us!!!!!

More when it cools down;

Dr Jim in shorts and sweating a lot!!!

FREE WINE TASTING

Hawks Nest Orchard Block REd

Tired of paying for wine tasting events around Nashville?????

If so, we would like to invite you to join us for a special Saturday afternoon of FREE wine tasting organized by Mark Johnson at Vinea Wine at 2410 12^th Ave. S. I will be pouring some of our NZ red from our 2005 Hawks Nest Vineyard vintage- Orchard Block Red. (a super wine for a 100 degree summer dayJJ)

When? 2-5 on Saturday August 25^th

Where? Corrieri’s Formaggeria (just behind Vinea Wines)

What? Fine fellowship and lots of free wine tasting!!!

Mark, Kristen, and the staff at Vinea Wine look forward to seeing you there as do Sandra and I.

It is never too hot to drink good wine so try to come and please pass this on to your wine loving friends or invite them to come with you this coming Saturday afternoon to learn a little about NZ and especially to get a taste of the God Zone downunder- where the high today was 55.

Sandra and Dr. Jim Daniell

Hawks Nest Vineyards, Matakana, N. Z. and Nashville

How Hawks Nest Wine got to Tennessee

2007-07-27T12:45:00.001-07:00

We are about to start our third year selling wine in Tennessee and so far I have not officially thanked the person who is most responsible for it all. (besides my wife and banker)

Mark Johnson (the dude leaning on the bar in the photo) used to write a wine column for the Nashville Paper that I often read. I emailed him out of the blue several years ago and he was very nice to meet with and answer my questions about wine importing from NZ and wine sale in general. Mark set up a tasting for me and I brought back from NZ some of Matakana Valley's reds sold by our neighbours there.
He then worked at Sunset Grill and immediately organized a tasting there and invited some key players in the wine business to come meet me, taste some NZ reds from Matakana Valley, and hear of my plans to possibly import Hawks Nest red wine to Tenn. That is where I first met the nice guys from Lipman Brothers. The "rest is history "as the saying goes.

SOOOOOOO,, Mark Johnson A BIG THANK YOU FROM SANDRA AND I FOR GETTING US STARTED. (now will you pay some of my bills?????)

Seriously, we do appreciate Mark's advice and help. All has come full circle in 4 years as Mark now runs the really cool wine shop called Vinea at 2410 12th Ave. South here in Nashville. He has some neat wines, loves to talk about wine, and runs a nice series of FREE wine tastings next door at the cheese store just behind Vinea called CORRIERI'S FROMAGGERIA. Mark will have Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red in stock for a really good price soon. So drop in and tell Mark, Kristen, and the rest of his staff that Dr Jim told you to stop by. (that is Kristen in the middle shot between the guys)

I am hosting my next tasting event there on Sat. afternoon Aug. 25th so plan to come. More on that soon. Meanwhile I am off back to the pool and my G and T.

DR JIm

Grandkids take priority

2007-07-21T08:40:00.001-07:00

The one thing about this blog stuff is that no one can stop me from posting whatever I want. Sooooooo, since just now my mind is filled with thoughts of our two lovely grandchildren who live in Denver but just left us here in Nashville after two lovely weeks wearing Sandra and I completely out. Here they are in all their glory. Baylor is the cool one in shades and his big sister who is a charmer is Cadance.

The other shot? Well that actually is all about wine. The handsome guy with all the black hair is Jimmy Collins who is the publisher of The Nashville Wine Press. The NWP is a neat free publication available at all wine shops in the area. The quality of the publicaton is amazing for a give away journal. Do look for it if you live in Nashville. Jimmy was interviewing me for background on a story he is considering doing about Hawks Nest and for one of his pod casts.

He is a really nice guy even if he is from "up North" as we day in rural Tenn. More soon about the Nashville Wine Journal. Meanwhile HOT NEWS for Nashville Hawks Nest drinkers!!!!!!! You can now get our wine at shops for just $20 dollars. This is a good deal so take advantage of the nice lower price.

IF you liked it at $38 dollars a bottle--you will love it at $20 and remember.

"Life is too short to drink bad wine"

More Soon

DR JIM

Hawks Nest 06 vintage is on the way to Tennessee!!!!

2007-07-13T13:17:00.001-07:00

HELLO WINE LOVERS!!!!

It has been a busy month here in Nashville as our grandchildren have been visiting and we have have been buys with entertaining the 1-4 age set. (also I guess I have been affected by the "lazy, hazy days of summer" her in Tennessee) There have been lots of visits to ice cream parlors, playgrounds, and the wading pool for Sandra and I but now we are recovering.

Finally I got to focus a little on Hawks Nest Wine business. When we came back to Nashville in mid June I brought two barrel sample blends for our 06 wine to share with our importers-Lipman Bros. here in Nashville. Yesterday I got to sample our newest Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red with Robert Lipman himself along with Jason McMurray, and Dave Bidelman and was hoping they would like our new offering and would be willing to again import for us into the states this year. As you can see from the shot of Jason and Dave above they gave our wine a thumbs up!!!! (note Dave's calculator on the table--those guys drive a hard bargain but know their wine and customers.) Clearly I was excited that our wine pleased them. SOOOO, come this Thanksgiving you can expect to see Hawks Nest 2006 Orchard Block Red on shelves and menus here in Nashville. The good news is that it is that our 06 is a really good vintage and the better news is that we are able to offer it retail in the low 20's price-wise so more people will be able to taste and share it this coming year. I know you will like it.

Meanwhile we have more good news. We have also been able to work with Lipmans to lower the price on our remaining 2005 vintage now in stores around Nashville. The wine was a good value in the mid 30's and now will be a SUPER DEAL at the now lower price around $20 a bottle. You better get down to you favorite store now to get some at this new price. The second photo is of Josh and Rick at The Wine Shoppe of Green Hills lined up to take you order now!!! I am going to sign a bunch of bottles for Ed and his gang at The Wine Shoppe so drop by to get some for a special gift.

Remember even in summer Tennessee weather or smooth red bled goes down really really well with a nice barbecue. It is a urban legend that only white wines are good to quaff in the hot summer time.. Break the mold and get some Hawks Nest Red for you next summer meal on the deck or by the pool--it goes good with hotdogs, trust me!!!!

More soon:

Dr Jim headed for the pool!!!!!

2007-06-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

A tale of barrels

YEAH!!!!!! WE HAVE ALL OUR 07 WINES IN BARRELS NOW AND THE AGING PROCESS HAS BEGUN.

This shot from last year shows how we store our barrels on metal racks after they are full. The racks can be easily moved with our fork lift attachment on our tractor for storage. Each French oak barrel holds 300 liters or 24 cases of wine so we have to be very careful when we move them. We use only French oak as our winemaker is very particular about that. Some of our area winemakers are using what is called "European Oak barrels" from Romania which are one third less and supposedly from the same species of oak tree except from a few hundred miles more Easterly but we are still using the real deal. We use new French for the best juice and then one year old oak for the rest. After two years we sell the barrels empty for garden planters. Each new French oak barrel costs about $1300 Kiwi and we sell them for $60 so barrel cost is a significant part of our winemaking costs. "You get what you pay for in life" is what my dad always said so we will keep up this process as long as our wine comes out as good as it has so far.

More next time on labeling processes which can be a maze of regulations and lots of paperwork.

Dr Jim in Tennessee

2007-06-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long time with no post. I am sorry for the delay but in NZ we had a very busy time and our slow dial up internet connection was out for several weeks. We just got back to Nashville (and high speed access) so now I can catch up on our activities at Hawks Nest this last month.
We had a very busy 6 weeks there this time. Our grape harvest went fine and we got 8 tons fo grapes with our Cab Franc getting very ripe with high sugar content. (that is good) The Malbec harvest was not as good but still ok. The grapes are all crushed, fermented, and in French oak barrels now starting to settle down for a long rest to mature slow for the next year. We bottled our 07 harvest and have selected two blends this year. Both have a small percentage of Merlot added for body. Thus or 06 wines to be released this coming US fall will be a nice blend of Cab Franc/Malbec/ and Merlot. The initial opinions of a local group of winemakers were all very favorable. Each harvest the winemakers of Matakana get together to discuss the just pressed grapes and critically review the previous year's aging wine that is to soon be released. In a blind tasting of 5 local Cab Franc predominant red blends our two did very well.

Now we will offer our two 06 blends to Robert Lipman and his staff for tasting and hope they like one or even both. This new wine should be on shelves in Nashville by Thanksgiving. It will be our third vintage offered in the states and we feel that it will be well received. Our 04 and 05 wines are just about sold out in NZ but there are about 90 cases still here in Nashville for Tennesseans to taste. If you have not yet tasted our 2005 Hawks Nest Orchard Block red, ask for it not at your local favorite outlet.

What about the photos? The one of the rainbow is from last week as a shower blew in on our hill. That is from our front yard looking down toward the ocean. The orchard shot shows the picking trollies that we use for our persimmon harvest. In the back ground you can see the yellow bins stacked on the ground after being filled. We the pick them up with the tractor. We have 14 acres of persimmon trees- about 1500 trees- and had a record fruit harvest of sweet Asian Persimmons this year. It took 10 pickers 6 weeks to pick it all as we had over 100 tons. They picked over 5,500 of those big yellow bins!!!! What a harvest.

The Vintry is our new Matakana Wine center that sells only local wine at cellar door prices. That is Nicki (on the right) and Che who own and run the center. They are our official wine sales outlet as we do not have on site sales at our vineyard. Nicki, the owner, is super knowlegable about wines and the area. The Vintry has just opened for a few months and has quickly become THE PLACE to see and be seen in Matakana. Thanks Nicki for supporting all of us local vineyards and especially Hawks Nest.

The final shot is at the Vintry again and shows me (the fat one) with the local head political guy of our region. In NZ the country is divided into districts similar to our states. Our district is called Rodney and the head guy is call the Mayor--similar to our governer. So this is a big deal for me to get to meet the head honcho. His name is John Law--a good name for the top politician I guess. He dropped in for a local opening of a tourist information center and came in to see the new wine center while I was there hosting a tasting. Thus I got the photo op and he a some free wine!!

So, sorry for the log post but it has been over a month since I have written anything at all. I will try to be more active over the next few months while we are in Tennessee for the US summer.

More soon and happy wine drinking

Dr Jim

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

2007-04-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-03-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, itt has been a while since I have blogged as we are back in Tennessee and had to get over jet lag and then go for 4 days to Washington DC to see our son, Jon, and check out his new row house that he just bought in the Capital Hill area of DC. His first home looks really nice and he is busy improving it. Now two of our three children are homeowners--or more accurately have big house payments to banks that actually own their homes.

This shot has a story. Just down the road from us in Matakana we have a new vineyard owned by a weathy Kiwi who is sort of rowdy it seems. The name of his wine and vineyard certainly catches the eye of all that past. Actually that big rooster on the sign and label is pretty cute but we are not too sure about the choice of names:):):):):):) Anyway, he is selling a good bit just off of the novelty of the name for sure. It is not a bad merlot based red wine actually-- but not in the class of our Hawks Nest Malbec/Cab Franc for sure.

We all resettled into Nashville and I have 4 wine tasting events this next month so lots of Tennesseans will get to taste our good wine this Tenn spring. It is still March here and routinely in the 80's the last two weeks. This global warming stuff must be real!!!

More soon and sorry for the hiatus in posts.

Dr JIm in Tennessee

2007-03-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

It is the end of summer here in NZ and this weekend Matakana had a small wine tasting festival in the village. It was my very first time to participate in such an event and it was a lot of fun. We poured 150 cc glasses and we used over a 30 bottles of wine over 4 hours on Sunday afternoon. Here with me in our small booth is Steve Horriwitz who is a doctor friend of ours from South Africa who now lives in Syndey, Au. Steve and his wife were over visiting for the weekend and he was helping out. ( Steve turned out to be a good salesman-one guy wanted a very light white wine and Steve sold him a glass of water!!)

The other shot is at our new very nice wine bar in Matakana called the Vintry that just opened in Jan. This shows a "line up" of only local Matakana Valley grown wines which are offered there for a glass or to take away a bottle. Our bottle is second from the left and the label stands out pretty good against our neighbours bottles I think. Our little village is really gettting upscale now. Movies, wine bars, gourmet bakery, tea room, fine dining--we are well on your way to replacing Napa Valley as "the place for a day trip to experience wine country"

This will be my last post from this side of the pond as in 3 days we fly back to Nashville to get ready for spring, Easter, grandchildren and to host several wine events. If you live in Nashville look for info on upcoming wine dinners with our Hawks Nest Wine at Watermark on April 12th and then at The Red Pony in Franklin on April. They should both be a lot of fun.

More soon.

Dr Jim -about to leave downunder!!!

2007-02-21T15:16:00.000-08:00

Time to NET!!!

Our Malbec grapes have changed color now and the birds are circling around looking hungry!!! Thus we went through and did one more bit of bunch thinning this week to drop off any bad bunches or clumped together bunches as a last "trim" before covering the ripening grapes with netting. (once they are netted you really can't directly leaf pluck or actually easily mess with the grapes of course) In the photo you can see some grapes on the ground and the remaing bunches on the wines. Note there are no leaves around the bunches--just higher up on the vine. Thus the sun can shine directly on the grapes.

In the next photo you can see my wife, Sandra, clipping on the tops of the netting. Tied on her waist you see a plastic container which is avery specialized and high tech device holding a bunch of lime green grocery bag plastic clips-these are the same ones you get on a package of bread. (the high tech holder is the bottom half of a plastic gallon milk jug!!!) We walk along and clip the tops and bottoms of the netting around the grapes to leave no gaps for birds to enter. This is pretty tedious and requires a lot of pale green plastic clips. It took a team of 8 of us three days to lay out and tie down the netting this year. We have 10,000 meters of netting for all our rows. That is 6.2 miles of netting- which was a nice slow walk to place using the tractor going in reverse holding bags of the netting on a wood pallet on the front loader of the tractor. In the third photo you can see the tractor going backward toward the road with the bag holding the netting. The person walking is pulling out and placing the netting along the grapes. The netting is first attached to the clips on each pole and then we walk along with the grocery clips to fix the nets at the top and bottoms to hold it in place and keep the birds out. (I better stop this explaination as my wife says this is way more than any person needs to know about netting!!!!)

Anyway, we now have our grapes protected from the birds--baring a heavy wind storm.
More next time.

Summer is still glorious here in NZ.

Dr Jim Downunder

Veraison and bunch thinning of grapes

2007-02-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

It is getting time to watch out for the birds here in Matakana Valley!!!. Our Grapes are starting to turn red and that attracts the sharp eye of all the birds. Veraison is the term used to signify that the grapes have changed color and when that occurs we know we are getting on well with the ripening process. In these two photos you can see some of the grapes are still green and some are redish already. In the wider shot if you enlarge it and look closely you can see we have thick bunches of the Malbec. Soon we will have to bunch thin. That is when we walk slowly along and cut and thus drop off certain bunches of grapes that are imperfect due to smaller grapes or bunched too close together. It is sad to see the grapes lying on the ground after you finish each row but it is for the better for the future of the wine. If too many bunches are touching each other they will get skin breaks and most likely fungus when ripening. So, we must "cull" some now to give us full growth of the better remaining bunches. I hate to do this job myself as it requires lots of little critical decisions. "does that bunch die or does it live to make wine????" Decisions, decisions, decisions--how I hate that. Alas, as in the animal world is it really "survival of the fittest" when it comes to hand crafted fine wines.

Once we do the bunch thinning we have to apply bird netting. Actually we don't "have to" use nets but if we don't we either have to pick before full ripeness or accept a very low yield at harvest. That is because we have many many birds in Matakana Valley. We are coastal with lots of sea birds and our grapes ripen at a time when other area fruits are not quite ripe enough to suit the bird's taste buds. Thus they really hammer the ripening grapes. Our ratio of birds to acres of grapes is highly in the favor of the birds. Also, locals do not poison birds here as they do in many grape growing regions of the world. New Zealand is not just nuclear free but also bird poison free (mostly!) Thus we net.

SO, next time I will talk a bit about netting and show some photos of that process.
Until then keep drinking Hawks Nest Matakana Red wine and thinking of summertime in the God Zone!!!!

Dr Jim downunder

Alert!!!!!! We now have two NZ themed wine dinners set for Middle Tennessee in April after Tennessee Easter Break. One will be at Watermark on April 12th and for those of you in Williamson County or elsewhere south of Nashville we plan a dinner at Red Pony on Main Street in Franklin. That dinner will hopefully be on April 26th!!!!! Pass the word!!

2007-02-03T17:44:00.000-08:00

Some People have asked me what we have to do with our wine (besides taste it a lot!!!) as it ages for the 16 months that we leave our wine in French oak barrels. Obviously we store the barrels at proper temperatures so not much needs to be done except to top up the barrels with topping wine with evaporation of the wine (yes, there is always a little evaporation even with a tight bung--or could that be excess tasting of the barrel????) The other main task is to rack the wine and remove the lees. Lees and racking--"what is that" you say? Over time the sediment in the wine barrel settles to the bottom and allows the aging wine to clarify a bit. If you just move the barrel around you will stir up this sludge -called lees. So, we "rack" the wine by carefully moving it from one barrel to another one. This racking of the barrels allows the aging wine to be gently pulled off into a fresh clean barrel while leaving the sediment (lees) in the bottom of the barrel. The oldest and simplest way to do this is as shown in the photo. Note we have two barrels elevated using our tractor fork lift and a simple clear clean hose. Gravity does the work as the aging wine flows down into the lower fresh barre. We can tell immediately when the old barrel of wine is almost empty as the wine begins to show a bit cloudy coming out of the elevated barrel. Of course we clean the barrels into which we are transfering the aging wine and first burn sulfa tablets in the empty barrels to reduce the risk of fungus growth. If you note on most wine bottles you will see in small print on the back the words "contains sulfites". That is because a small amount of sulfa in a barrel helps to control the fungus growth that could affect the finished wine. No one wants moldy wine to drink!!!!!!!!

In the second photo you can see the barrel washing and cleaning process-which is done for us by a contract local barrel cleaner who has all the necessary special equipment. Ignore Jeremy on the tractor and focus on the two barrels in the forfront of the photo. If you look closely at the center top of the closest barrel, you will see a black handle on the metal tube shoved tightly into the bung hole. This pokes the hot water gun into the barrel and allows high pressure irrigation and thus "steam cleaning" of the barrel. In the process, high pressure jets of scalding water are used to rinse out the lees (crud on the bottom) and residual wine. The green hose is the outflow pipe by which the flushing fluid and debris flow out into our waste drain.

We dry out the freshly emptied and cleansed barrels before reusing them. In the last photo you can see some the emptied and cleansed barrels "resting" under the big avocado tree by our red shed. By keeping them in the shade while empty the don't get too warm before we refill them with cool wine and but them back in our shed cellar. We move the barrels around as needed using the metal barrel racks that can hold two barrels. Note them under the barrels. The tractor front fork lift fits perfectly into these racks. Unfortunately I am banned by my wife, Sandra, from driving around with full barrels of wine but I DO get to move some of the empty ones. (a full wine barrel has 225 liters of wine or 300 bottles of wine so it would be a shame to spill that much wine due to poor driving skills!!!)

This pretty much catches you up on what is going on down on the vineyard in Matakana in the middle of summer. As far as the grapes are concerned they are loving or long dry sunny days and are coming along just fine. Soon we will be putting the the netting over the bunches but that is another story!!!

If you are in the Nashville area reading this blog post note that we will be back in Tenn before Easter to host two nice wine tasting events in April where you can sample some of 2005 Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red wine. ONe will be at The Watermark on April the 12th and the second will be down in Franklin at the Red Pony on Main Streen. That one will also be in April after Easter break. So,, you have two upcoming chances to taste our wine this Tennessee spring.

See you soon, but now I have to go down to the beach to fetch some fresh seaweed for Sandra's garden mulch pile-maybe I will see some of those famous Kiwi summer time beach mushrooms while there:):):):):)

More next time.

Dr Jim Downunder.

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2007-01-24T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, Sandra and I are back into the full swing of NZ summer. Daylight at 6 and not dark until nine in the eve is really nice for Mid Jan. We are "all go" at Hawks Nest Vineyard and the grapes are growing rapidly. We have completed the leaf plucking as well have trimed off the excess vine shoots so now the vines all look nice a tidy and you can see in the photo I took yesterday from the front of our vineyard by the roadside. Now the long summer sun can hit directly on the growing grapes and the energy of the vines will go into growing good full bunches and not just of shooting off more excess vines. We look to have about 8 tons of total grapes this harvest with about 5 tons of Cab Franc and 3 tons of Malbac. The Malbec are growing a bit slower with fewer bunches this year but all in all Jeremy, our manager, is pleased with the crop to date. REmember we are an orchard as well and we are just about sold out of our avocados. We start selling avos from our honesty stall about mid-Nov and usually run out by mid Jan. We have a better crop this year and will be selling for about another two weeks it seems. We sell all by the roadside in our honesty stall. After hearing of the freeze in Calif two weeks ago I sure wish we could ship off some of ours to the states. We take and eat all the non selling fruit (that which is small or blimished) They are still good inside and we are "pigging out" on fresh avos just now. There is no good way to keep them so just munch away on them!!!

We live on the coast and like to be a bit of kayaking out along the coast here in Matakana. Here is a shot from this weekend showing a nice relaxing paddler enjoying the calm waters just offshore!!!!!!! (actually someone sent this to me and it MUST be a doctored photo) Anyway, Sandra has now sworn off of Sea Kayaking it seems after we got this via email!!!!

We are off the our local cinema tonight. That is the big news this summer in little Matakana. We how have a real live "walk in" movie theater that shows first run movies. We are going to see "the Queen" and hear it is very good. Before this week we had to go 45 minutes to go to a movie and thus rented DVD's mostly. NOw we have a three screen new state of the art cinema and will really love that I am sure. Here in NZ you can take wine into the movies--very civilized to say the least. Attached to the movie lobby is the new Matakana Wine Centre that is serving out wines by the glass. It is pretty cool to have some nibbles and a bottle or glass wine and take them all into the theatre to enjoy the show!!!

More soon and sorry that we are having so much summer fun here in NZ.

DR JIm and Sandra --loving being downunder in Jan.

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2007-01-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ
WE are home to Matakana Valley and all looks very green and lush. It is always strange when we come back from the US winter and awake the first AM here in NZ summer. It is daylight at 6 AM and the sun does not go down until almost 9 PM at this time of the year. That is a shock to our systems used to the Jan dark days of Nashville for sure. These long days of summer are what make our grapes grow so well. We caught up with Jeremy or manager yesterday and had a "walk about" at the vineyard. It has been very rainy the last two weeks and it shows with lots of green grass and much foliage on the vines.

What is going on with the grapes now?? The fruit is "set" in the bunches and the green grapes are enlarging. Now is the time that the sun needs to shine directly on the grapes to get them to grown well and to produce health bunches with large full grapes. To get more sunlight to hit the grapes we do leafplucking. We do it by hand (as we do everything here!!) and the photo shows two local girls busy at work removing the large leaves in the lower part of the vine canopy so sunlight can get through to the bunches. As you can see, they do not pluck off the top leaves as they are important for growth of the entire vine and thus health of the plants. By getting the lower third of the large leaves off the vines the grapes are exposed to sun and wind to dry out. Wind access becomes important as more sugar content begins to occurr in the ripening grapes. After rain and with summer humidy the grape bunches need to be able to "breath' to mature and to stay dry to reduce grape skin damage. If we need to spray we now have easy access direct to the ripening grapes and thus can do select targeted low volume spray application that does not harm the vine or the general environment. We can't be spray free but we try hard to only spray when really needed and with minimal volume of chemicals.

The other photo shows the hard work need in the cellar at this time of the year. Constant tasting of our 06 wine in the barrel is required to monitor the progress of the wine. That is our son, Brandon, working hard at the tasting chore!!!! Poor guy. As it gets warmer in Matakana with the summer temperature peak a bit of the wine evaporates and the barrels have to be "topped up" to keep air away from the juice in the barrels. (this is to minimize the wine oxidization) To protect the wine from fungus we have to add a small amount of sulfites. (that is why wine labels carry the statement--"contains sulfites") Since we want a finished quality wine that can be stored for some time so it can age gracefully, we have to do our best to keep the naturally occuring fungus levels very low in the barrels. Nature is the same in humans as well as with grapes. In my old career as a gynecologist I spent much time treating fungus infections in women that were hard to eradicate. Now I have learned that the darn fungus loves sweet grape juice as much as it does human tissues!!!!!!

So, I need to mow a bit around the vines and help out with the tasting chores so I better sign off for now.

More soon;

DR Jim--happy to be BACK DOWN UNDER!!!!!!

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2007-01-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, Sandra and I go off back to NZ tomorrow via Honolulu, and Sydney. I will be back on my tractor next week for sure. The grapes will in full summer mode--nice full green bunches growing in the long summer days of Matakana mid summer. It certainly will be nice to see the daylight early each AM and not have darkness fall until 9 PM. (think about the long days here in Nashville in July!!!) Even though it has been mild here in Tenn for the last few weeks I do now suffer from SAD ( known as seasonal affective disorder or in lay terms as the dark dreary days of mid winter!!!)

From talking to Jeremy at the vineyard all is well. The barrels of our aging 2006 wine are staying topped up and the sampling seems to suggest another wonderful vintage is in the works. Yes, I guess I will have to go back and sample some barrels soon just to confim the status of our new wines. We have a lot more wine aging this year--about 30 barrels. Depending on how we blend our wine later this year we will have up to maybe 500 cases to offer.

Regarding our 2005 release of Hawks Nest Orchard Block RED!!!!! Everyone who has tasted it has really liked it and are surprised that NZ can produce such a nice red blend with just Cab Franc and Malbec. Since Christmas we have hosted three tastings and all have been well attended. At least the word is now out in Nashville and the surrounding area that Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red is unusually good wine. (also in Chatt as well)

I bet the all of you on my email list about our wine are glad that Sandra and I are going back to NZ for 10 weeks as I am sure you are tired of my multiple email invites to events. Well, you now get time off until around Easter. We will be back mid March and are planning a BIG WINE DINNER at Watermark on April the 12th. That is the Thursday after Easter and should be super event. Waterermark is clearly THE PLACE for good food and wine in Nashville now so mark your calander now for that upcoming event. OH, do remember you can taste our wine there over winter as well as it is on Justin's wine menu there!!

My next post will be after I get back home to Matakana Valley and get my hands dirty at the vineyard and generally get in everyone's way as I usually do when there.

Sandra and I will see you in the US spring!!!

Dr Jim--heading off down under!!!!

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2007-01-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ Finally the year end celebrating is over- The eating, the drinking, the gifting, the visiting, the parties, and the cleaning up!!! Now we can all settle down to see how long it takes us to break all our New Years Resolutions. ME? I resolve to be a nicer person to all those that I meet this year and to stop interrupting those who are talking to me. (a life long fault of mine according to my wife since she never can complete a sentence when are are talking) Anyway, we are now starting to pack for New Zealand. So what about these two photos in this blog? Well, one is our lovely granddaughter, Cadance Hurt, who is three now an going to be a party animal as you can see in this photo. She is sooooo photogenic that I thought I should put her on the internet at a young age as I don't think 3 year olds have My Space or You Tube sites yet. The other photo is of Nick Sparks of here in Nashvegas at one of our past wine tastings last year.(on the right with the longer hair) I wanted to publicly thank Nick for his input on our wine. He has two very interesting web sites. (his day job is music, but this is "Music City" of course so that is to be expected of someone with a keen interest in wine) Nick keeps a nice events calender of wine events in Nashville and the region. It is www.NashvilleWineEvents.com and if you live here you need to bookmark it so you will be up to date on all wine events. His other site is self explainatory== www.DecantAndRant.com Do check this site out as well if you have time. I still have two more tasting events here in Nashville-tomorrow at Macke's in Green Hills after work and then on Thurs the 4th at Watermark also afterwork. After that, we are packing up and getting ready to go back to NZ. I probably won't blog again before we get back to lovely Matakana (unless I have a bit of time and something interesing to say about out wine and grapes) I need to get home to our vineyard before I comment on what is actually going on there just now. It will be good to get back to a place where it stays light until after 9 PM this time of the year.!!!! More from Down Under. Dr. JIm

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-12-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

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!

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-12-22T12:12:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

I bet all of you are getting your least minute shopping done for wines before the year end parties. Here in Nashville our 2004 wins is sold out and there are only a few cases available in Chatt. at Riverside Wines??? Once that is gone there is NO more (except in my basement cellar)

ALERT TO YOU ALL IN CHATT!!! I WILL BE IN RIVERSIDE WINES AND SPIRITS TOMORROW- DEC. 23RD FROM NOON TO ABOUT 3 PM SIGNING OUR BOTTLES OF WINE AND HELPING CHRIS AND HIS STAFF FILL YOUR HOLIDAY LIBATIONS ORDERS. DO STOP BY TO LOAD UP AND VISIT WITH ME IF YOU ARE NEAR. IT WILL BE FUN TO TALK WITH YOU.

FOOD ALERT
The really good news for Nashville drinkers is that our wine is now placed in some of the area dining places. We are especially proud that Tayst on Hillsboro Rd. just across from the army navy store and St Bernards is now offering our 2005 Orchard Block Red. Tayst was rated Nashville's best new interesting dining place by the Food Network last year and you will see why when you visit. Very friendly staff, nice quiet and cozy environment, well located, easy parking, and best of all good food paired with yummy Wine!!!
Do call Tayst soon to make reservations and when there ask for Hawks Nest!! Tell them Dr Jim sent you!!!!

So, I will post again after the holidays as soon as I get over the overdose of food and family!!!

Sandra and I wish you and your family well.

Dr Jim

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-12-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, it has been a busy December here in Tennessee as I have had to attend to my medical practice a bit as well as host our lovely grandchildren-Baylor and Cadance from Denver--they are 1 and 3 and are full of energy for sure. They were a hand full for Sandra and I but they have gone home to get ready to give a hard time to Santa and thus all is quiet here now.

So, what is going on in the world of Hawks Nest Wines? The good news is the early opinions by the "drinker on the street" here in Nashville is that our just released 05 Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red is well worth the higher price in the retail shops (it is selling for $37 here). Even though the wine is very young (just 2 months since bottling) it is opening up very nicely. We had a small NZ wine dinner at Mambu's last Monday and that was very successful. Anita, the chef/owner, prepared some wonderful food to match with our 04 and our 05 wine. Also I drove down to Chattanooga, Tennessee where my lovely cousin-Mufti- hosted a wine tasting at her home last Thursday night. Here is a shot of Mufti and her lovely daughter Ellis who is in her second year atd Auburn University. Ellis is soooo charming and mature- and did I mention very attractive to boot? She was great help to us for the tasting for about 90 people. (that is Ellis on the right in the photo but they do look like sisters in the shot I think) A lot of the guests placed orders for our wines which are available at Riverside Wine and Spirits there in Chatt.

We are closing in on the holidays but I do have two more tasting events in Nashville after the new year in the first week. One will be a free tasting (that one will draw a crowd I bet) sponsored by Grand Cru on Murphy Rd. on Sat. afternoon Jan 6th from 3 to 4:30. It is at the Portland Brew coffee shop right next to Grand Cru just off West End. Just plan to drop by for a taste. The second tasting will be a really nice new cafe in Green Hills area of Nashville called Macke's. (for you Nashvillians it is in the old Davis-Kidd upstairs spot) This will be with nibbles and will be from 5:30 to 7:30 on Wed. Jan 3rd. You need a reservation for this tasting and there will be a small fee to attend. This one is sponsored by Ed. at The Wine Shoppe of Green Hills. More by email about these two events.

I have some Christmas gifts to wrap so I better get off and get that work done before Sandra comes home and chastises me for being lazy!!!

Happy Holidays to all of you and think of Hawks Nest Red Orchard Block wine as you stock up for the year end parties!!!

Dr JIm-- covered with unwrapped gifts!!!

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-12-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, the holiday season is for real now in Tenn. with colder weather which is great to get us all in the mood to celebrate. Good time to drink good red wine and I know just what you need- our new Orchard Blog Red of course!!!! . We have just released our 05 Hawks Nest Red here in Nashville and it is being well received. We had a final tasting with our importers last Friday and they really loved how the wine has matured since last July when they tasted our barrel sample. It is a very unique blend of Cab Franc and Malbac--bold but smooth. The wine will retail for around $35 here in Tenn and is well worth it. Reds from NZ other than Pinot Noir are very rare here so we have a whole new catagory of wine it seems. That makes us the catagory leader as they say when the talk "marketing talk"

Good news for all Tennesseans!! We have two wine dinners coming up next week to introduce our wines. One is on Sun the 10th out in Franklin sponsored by Del Rio Wines and one on Dec 11th in midtown sponsored by Mid Town Wine and Spirits. Do try to join us. If you need details, email me at JDGYN@aol.com and I will send info to you!!
Next blog, I will try to include a shot or two from the tastings. Here is one of Colin who owns Del Rio with our dog- Smudge, who will NOT be at the tasting dinners.):):):) He looks forward to having you drop in his store anytime.

More soon

Dr JIm -getting ready for the family holiday invasions!!!!

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-11-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hello to our readers after a two weeks haitus. We were traveling via China and England back to the states for the holiday season. We just got back to Nashville and are back in the swing (almost!!!). The good news for our readers is that I new 05 wine is all rested at the Lipman Brothers warehouse and ready for release this next week. You can now go into Tennesse retail stores and ask for it by name. That is Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red NZ wine. It is not out in stores yet but will be there within the next 10 days we are told. Do ask for it at your favorite store now!!!

We have several tasting events lined up this next few weeks so try to attend to try our new wine. There is a tasting at Bistro 215 in Green Hills on Dec 6th so call 3853636 for reservations as it is only $10 for the tasting event. Hope to see you there.

I wanted to give a little update on my research on coraks versis screw caps for closure of the wine. Clorks of course are the classic closure for bottled wine but corks are scarse and can lead to spoilage due to bottle veriations so called oxidisation or cork taint called corked wine. About 2-6% of bottle wines with corks go bad so this has led to problems over the years. Now we have to advent of screwcaps. They are hated by may especially in the "old world"wineries. New world wines have embraced the screwcap-especially in Australia and New Zealand. It is estimated that 90% of Kiwi wines sold in NZ are sealed with screw caps. For wines to be consumed soon after purchase (95% of all wines I am told) the screw cap is perfect as it allows storage with minimal oxidation of partial bottles and certainly easy to open and store. No one has yet come up with the wine pouring term of "screwed" but I can see that bubbling up in the near feature. So, the next time you get a bottle of wine that has a screw cap don't assume it is bonk. It just means the wine makers are trying to be cost effective and to present their wine for early consumption. Just learn to make a popping sound with your mouth as you open the bottle just out of your guests vision and all will be well.

With all that said you will note that we have used a fine quality real cork for our new wine? Why? Because we hope some of you will put it away in your cellars for a few years to age and for that and for tradition we chose to go with the old cork standby. Now, if we offer a white wine, we will go with a screw cap!!! But I digress!!!

More later.

DR JIm back in Tennessee

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-11-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

I saw this sign a local cafe this week and loved it. All is well in Matakana and we are now starting to release our new 05 wines here and in Auckland. Early feed back has been very positive for both our 05 Hawks Bay Merlot and expecially for our export 05 Orchard block Red. The unique blend of Malbec and Cab Frank has resulted in a very tasty but bold red wine.
I have pasted in the tasting notes for our two export wine from a group tasting here in Matakana last week. This is all a bit flowery but that seems to be the way some of these "palate enhanced" people like to talk about wine- especially John our winemaker.

VINTAGE TASTING NOTES-Hawks Nest Vineyard

John Worth, winemaker

2004 Matakana Merlot/Malbec “Orchard Block Red”

The Matakana valley is located one hour north of Auckland, in the upper North Island of New Zealand. Our climate is well suited to the production of vibrant, medium bodied Bordeaux style wines. This our first release is a 80/20 blend of Merlot and Malbec grapes, this wine is deep crimson in color, with a delicate aroma of cedar and blackberry. The palate is rich with berry-like fruit, with balanced acidity and a persistent finish. The wine was barrel aged 14 months in French oak to provide softness and structure. An ideal partner to most meats, this wine was crafted for immediate enjoyment. This wine will cellar well for 2-4 years.

2005 Matakana Cab Franc/Malbec “Orchard Block Red”

This our second release is a special but unusual Bordeaux blend (60/40) of Cabernet Franc and Malbec that is made 100% from own Hawks Nest grapes that is clearly more complex than our previous 04 wine. The wine was bottled in October 2006 after aging 15 months in 50% new French oak barrels. The wine has a full dark color with initial faint violet and berry-fruit aromas upon opening. The wine is very smoothly textured with good concentration and a complex structure but reveals only midrange tannins at the long finish. This wine is very savory, velvety smooth, and will age well with cellaring. This is an ideal partner for lamb, beef, and chicken dishes. It has very good cellaring potential and should only improve with age up to a decade.

So, we are leaving NZ this weekend and will be back in Nashville the Sat of Thanksgiving weekend. This will be my last post until then as we will be traveling in China and Europe on our way home.

The good news is the if you live in Tennessee you will be able to soon taste our new 05 as well as our 04 that is still available. BTW, we are almost out of our 05 Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red. If you want some for the holidays, you better go to the store soon and get it while it lasts!!!! Do look for some announcements for tasting events in the Nashville area in December as we are finalizing plans for some events now. Once we are set with dates and locations, I will post that info here. So, WATCH THIS SPACE.

MORE IN TWO WEEKS OR SO

Dr JIm leaving down under soon

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-10-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

As I promised earlier in a blog I will keep taking photos of one specific grape vine near our driveway at Hawks Nest so you can follow the seasonal changes of the vine. Today's shot shows some interesting little tiny bunches forming on the stems of the shoots of the vines. No, those are not little grapes alreadly forming. (I made that mistake the first year as we were watching the vines grow in the our first spring and our staff just laughed at me- the neophyte.) These little green bunches are the first budding of the flowers that will soon form to attract the bees to begin pollination. Yes, they do look like very minature grape bunches but that will soon change. The grapes actually form later in the summer.

All is well at the red shed of our winery and we got our last bit of 05 fermenting juice into cleaned barrels yesterday and all the wine is now settled to have slow aging in oak. We used 28 barrels for our 06 wine. Each barrel holds 225 liters or about 300 bottles of finished wine so we have 6300 liters aging now. That is 700 cases of 06 wine if we use and bled it all for release. That is a lot of good wine so we hope you will start to up you volume of intake for Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red Wine!!! :):):)

It is Fri afternoon and I am about to knock off for the weekend. Next we I will start offering samples of our new rose, 05 Merlot, and export 05 Cab Franc/Malbec blend to several local cafes and B and B's. It will have been four weeks since we bottled on next Thursday so that will be my first day to go around the valley and start to sell our wine. It will be really good to get some feedback from locals who have not yet tasted our export quality wine. (last year we sent all our best wine to Nashville so no one here got to taste what you have and can taste in Tennessee now-our small amount of remaining 04)

More next week on my initial sales attempts here for our new wines.

Dr Jim =still downunder

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-10-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

There is one thing very unique to New Zealand that one does not see in Tennessee. That is sheep shearing contests at local bar/pubs. As in the British Isles, rural New Zealand has public clubs in small villages that are still the gathering social centers for the locals. In Matakana Valley the place for fun and gossip has been the Matakana House Bar since 1903. In the photo of the front of the place enlarge the photo and you can see the little sign that says "est. 1903" located just under the word "House". Also note when you enlarge that photo that today is featured a red letter sign "shear a sheep, drink a pint, and eat a pie" For Kiwi's, a pie is not dessert but a meat or lamb pie. That is the local version of a burger and has been the meal of choice for local blokes countrywide forever!!! In the next photo you can see every one with their pies and pints watching a sheep shearer on the small stage. (Speights is a local "man's beer" who sponsor these events) This is sort of like Jack Daniels hosting barbeque cookoffs!!!

A good shearer can shear a sheep in under aminute. The record for one man working all day shearing sheep is 770 sheep. This is all by hand but with electric clips. Oh man, what a back breaking job. (30,000,000 are a lot of sheap to shear twice a year when you think about it!!!!!)

Anyway it was a fun way for us to get some local color over the NZ Labor Day start of summer holiday. From now on the locals will be outdoors a lot boating, diving, tramping, and hopefully drinking a lot of good wine such as Hawks Nest!! In the final photo you can see how we siphon off some of our barrel red wine to use for making Sangria punch which was a big hit over the weekend at our favorite cafe-Cosi's If you look closely at the end of the barrel you will see I have labeled it "Cosi's cooking wine" It is our left over last barrel of our 04 Merlot that we did not use to blend into our first release of Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red. We are glad that the last lonely barrel has now found a home in Matakana. The sangria that was made with it was very yummy and a big hit with all the sheep shearing crowd for sure!!!!

More soon;

Dr JIm -having fun down under

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-10-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, we have had a good week here in Matakana. I had another birthday on the 20th and go a nice telescope from Sandra for the event. Since we live up on a high hill overlooking a nice beach and the sea I will have lots to look at. This weekend is the traditional beginning of summer NZ weekend-their Labor weekend. So, lots of targets are down on the beach for viewing. In the photo we are having a little toast over the gift. I hope to see some "beachmushrooms" down below this summer when it gets hotter.

We had our first bulk wine order this week for a full barrel of wine. That was cool as a local new cafe is using it as their house wine. For the holiday Saturday today I went down to help out with sales and to sample the wine, food, and ambiance . They made a Sangria wine punch out of it and had it in a big white trash bin. In the photo you can see me in shades and my Bob Marley black tee shirt to get into the mood of the start of the NZ summer all ready to pour some of the brew. It actually was pretty good and a lot was poured over the holiday Sat. Good fun was had by all!!!

More soon from sumertime downunder

DR JIm

PS: If you live in or near Nashville be sure to plan to go to the Wine Down Main Street coming up soon in Franklin. There we be lots of wine and food to sample and Lipman Brothers will be pouring samples of our remaining Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red 2004. There is still a bit for sale in Nashville so pop in your local bottle shop and get some for Halloween.

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-10-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, no photos for this blog post as my son has borrowed our digital camera for a week and thus I am not able to incude shots this time. Our grapes are really growing in the nice spring sunshine that we have had here in Matakana. Since we got the wine all bottled last week we have been less stressed at the vineyard. Now we just wait a bit for the vines to start growing then we will go through and do shoot thinning. That is just what it sounds like. We walk along and pinch off new vine shoots that are low on the trunk. (the darn grape vine is always trying to send out more vines and we have to stop that) We only want vine shoots starting to grow where we have them trained to grow and all the rest get pinched off by hand. This is really lazy work as you just walk along and pinch each small new bud that you don't want off with gloved fingers. (gloves optional but the thick cordons and main trunk can cause small cuts as you pinch over and over with your fingers) This is very specialized treatment of course and never done in big commercial vineyards. This is all about our small size and dedication to the best of the best vines and thus grapes later in the growing season.

On the 05 wine front our export wine passed inspection by the NZ wine export board yesterday and thus now our shipment to Lipman Brothers in Nashville who is our wholesaler is all set. Our wine for export--only 128 cases in all- is all wrapped up and sitting in a warehouse at the dock. We are booked to have it sail on OCt 21st to LA. The trip is 19 days they say and there the wine clears customs and goes by truck to Nashville.
I think I mentioned in a past blog that NZ has a panel of wine experts who do blind tastings of all wine submitted for export and will not certify bad wine as allowable to be shipped. We knew our wine was primo so we were not worried about getting export approval but it was nice to get that last bit of paper yesterday and fax it on to the freight forwarder. So, the wine is all set and now it must travel. We are a bit disappointed to have taken this long to get it on a boat to the states as that will mean it will not be in stores near you (if you live in Middle Tenn. that is) until just before Christmas since it has to "rest and settle a bit" in the warehouse in Nashville before being released.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT YOU CAN MOST PROBABLY PLAN A NEW YEARS TOAST IN NASHVILLE WITH OUR 2005 HAWKS NEST ORCHARD BLOCK RED.!!!!

Remember!!! The best things in life are worth waiting- so be patient.

More soon with updated photos of our growing grapes.

DR Jim downunder

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-10-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ:

As promised here are two more shots from the bottling plant this week. Pleasant Valley Winery has been in business over 100 years in West Auckland. They have a long history and reputation as THE place to get quality bottling for small volumes of wine. That is Sandra and I standing by the bottling line like proud new parents as our freshly bottled wine comes down the small line. First the wine is pumped into holding tanks and then the new bottles are flash sterilized. The wine is passed slowly through organic millipore sterile filters to cleanse the wine of paticulate matter ( such as small parts of grape skins). Stephan, the owner there, said our wine was nice and clean and had a nice good solid color. After filtering, the wine is pumped into the new clean bottles and covered with a small amount of argon gas just as the cork is mechanically popped into the bottle and the foil applied. The argon gas is stable and inert and by being infused in the top of the bottle between the wine and the cork keeps oxygen out of the wine. This reduces the risk of oxidation of the wine with long cellaring times. We did the wine bottling this way this year as we know this 2005 Hawks Nest Red is well worth keeping for several years and we want it to age in the best possible fashion.

So, now we have 238 cases of our new 2005 Malbac/Cab Franc blend. We are shipping 128 cases of wine this next week to Lipman Brothers in Nashville and the rest we will sell here in NZ. ( if we sell out in Tennessee we can then ship more over from here if our local allocations are not used up here first.

In the second photo you can see the cartons of our newly labeled and packed wine on the pallet ready to be wrapped for shipment. Note that we are using the new style flat case boxes. These boxes allow the wine to always be stored on it's side so the cork does not dry out over long storage periods. This is another move that we instituted this year to aid in preserving the wine until the bottle is opened. We also have used better quality corks this year so when you first open one of our new 05 wines (hopefully later this year and into the future you will have the pleasure of and the need to open many of these bottles!!!) you will see that the cork is solid and will expand to a bigger diameter than most wine corks you encounter.

So, now what is next in the wine business? Well, we just sent 3 fresh of our new wine bottles to the NZ Wine export quality board. They test our wine for alcohol content, any contaminants, or poisons. (a post 9/11 USA import requirement). They also have a panel of experts on wine who do a blind tasting our of wine to determine that our wine is suitable in quality to be allowed to be officially exported from NZ. (no bad wine is allowed to go overseas--not a bad idea actually as NZ is known for it's good wines and wants to keep it that way). After we pass that test, we get a Certificate for Export and our wine is "good to go". We have the wine reserved with a "supply chain manager" (just like with medicine, you have to learn a new lingo in this wine business-this means a shipping agent) to go to LA on a ship called Hansa Sonderburg that sails from Auckland on Oct 21st. So, the wine should take 19 days by sea, clear US customs in LA, and then get trucked to Nashville. Lipmans will let the wine "rest" in their warehouse for a bit before they will release it for sale in Middle Tennessee. It looks like the wine should be available to Tennesseans by Christmas time--(hopefully it won't get lost on the way!!!)

Now Sandra and I feel relieved to have the 05 wine all settled and finished from this end. WE now will turn our attention to vine management for the 07 grapes and to keeping the 06 wine in barrels topped up and slowly aging. We have some good 06 wine in the barrels but that is for a future report. So Bye for now!!

DR JIM relieved downunder

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-10-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ:

Well, today I became an expert on wine bottling. (see one, do one, then teach one we always say in medicine).
Early this AM the wine tanker truck with 5 separate storage transport containers inside the tanker came to our winery. The back of the truck can be seen in the photo with the white labels above the 5 tank valves visible. It turns out to be pretty simple to the casual observer that I was today. John, our wine maker carefully pumps off each barrel (one barrel=225 liters of wine) into the correct tanks ( that is him in dark sweater holding the pump handle down in one wine barrel sucking out the last of the goodies) and oversees the proper labeling and mixing for the blends of wine. (60/40 is our US export Orchard Block Red Malbec/Cab Franc blend and he got it right today) We trucked off 400 liters of rose, double that for our NZ Hawks Bay Merlot 05 wine that we will sell only in NZ, and then the liters for our valuable export blend of our Malbac/Cab Franc.

We loaded up the wine shipping pallets on the back of our ute and followed the tanker about an hour south to the contract bottler-Pleasant Valley Winery. ( we had to get special plastic new pallets for shipping our wine to the states as no wood or straw is allowed into America as packing material-it is good to know that the US works to keep the bugs and pests out) Pleasant Valley is in a lovely valley west of Auckland and have been in business for 110 years and specialize in small volume runs of careful bottling, labeling, and packing for shipping.

In the next blog, I will show some shots from the bottling line. We noted several very famous and hard to get NZ wines sitting around in the bottling warehouse so we felt happy having our wine "share space" with some well known quality NZ wines. Maybe soon our wine will also be know as one of NZ's small quality vineyards. That is one reason that this year we are keeping some of our export wine back here in NZ to sell. We want to show the area locals what we can do with wine from our grapes and we also wanted to enter our wine in some tasting competitions. To be able to enter a NZ wine tasting event the wine has to actually be commercially available for sale in NZ. So, now we can see if we can do well in winetasting events and maybe get some of those little stars to stick on our labels. I suggested to Sandra we just buy some little gold and silver stars in a kids party store here and put them on our bottles without the trouble of entering tasting events but she nixed that right away-just joking:):):)

Anyway, now I can talk intelligently about bottling wine at future wine events that I host as I have "been there and done that"

Now we have to get this good wine on a boat to Tennessee!!! Look for the wine there in about two months if it is not a slow boat!!

Dr Jim. still downunder

More soon

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-09-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Just to show you how "spring has sprung" here in Matakana Valley, here is our outdoor fireplace and patio at out home. I planted this wisteria 2 years ago and look how well it is now flowering in the NZ spring time!!!!!

We just started daylight savings time here on OCt 1st so now it will be light late in the evenings. Remember that we are very close to the south pole and thus we get the long summer eve daylight similar to lower Canada and Europe or England. In Dec it stays light until 9:30 or so here at the summer equinox.

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-09-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well. I said that our grapes were about to wake up from winter. Here is the first bit of bud burst from that same vine that I photographed in my past blog. Each of these blooms will now lead to fast growing shoots that will grow toward the sun rapidly. Note that the distance between each bud is about equal to one's fist. Shoot thinning will be next. As the buds shot up small vines, we will walk through the vineyard slowly and pinch off any new shoots that are too close to others. Eary vine management is key to getting proper controlled growth. (no sense having the poor vine work overtime growing useless vines that will overload the work of making quality grape bunches later) Bunch thinning is easy and requires just a slow walk amoung the vines and occasionally pinching off a new shoot to keep them all easily spaced--my sort of work.

Bottling update. We are all set to bottle all of our three wines this coming Friday. We will truck out wines in separate containers early in the AM to the bottling plant about an hour away. We will first bottle our own prize Malbec/Cab Franc blend first doing 25oo bottles and then 45 magnums as well. ( a magnum is 1500 cc or two standard bottles). These magnums will not be for sale but for our own personal use and as gifts for special occasions over the next decade. This 2005 vintage is really special and thus we have made the decision to hold some for it to age. Locals tell us that this is the best harvest year ever since the first grape plantings in Matakana Valley in the late 1980's so we thought we better plan to cellar some of our goo year.

Secondly we will bottle the local NZ 2005 wine which is very good Merlot from grapes we bought from Hawks Bay. This wine is very similar to our current Hawks Nest 2004 Orchard Block Red but needs a bit more maturing. We will have about 300o bottles of that as well and will only sell it in NZ.

Finally we will have 500 bottles of Rose that taste yummy and that will sell well here in NZ over the southern summertime. We are excited to get the bottling all done and I promise some photos of that in my next blog.

That is all for now. Time to go to the beach for a Sun AM walk.

DR Jim Downunder

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-09-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

We are well into spring here in Matakana Valley. Thus we just completed a spring cleaning of our wine storage shed and decided that we had four wine barrels that we will not use again. We buy new French oak barrels for our best wine and one year old used French Oak for our second tier wine. After using a second hand barrel three years it is time to retire it as all of our wine is now too good to use older barrels. So,,,, we came up with four "end of life" barrels this week.

What does one do with old barrels? There are many choices but the most common is to cut them in half with a chainsaw and use them as planters. That is what the boss-Sandra- decided was the best executive decision for our four used up barrels. In the shot above you can see me standing by our vineyard truck with one of the freshly bisected barrels still wine stained on the inside. I can now tell you that it takes a lot of dirt to fill a half wine barrel!! Each barrel holds 225 liters of wine which would be 300 bottles of wine--a lot of dirt.

So, we have placed the two new planters by our garden at our home and put rock mellon and watermellon seeds in them. By the end of summer we should have some yummy fruit to sample with friends by our outdoor fireplace along with a nice bottle of wine.

The second shot in todays blog??? Oh, that is me hard at work shoveling garden mix from the back of our ute. (a ute is Kiwi talk for a small pickup truck -called a utility vehicle or ute for short) I am shoveling the mix over the garden fence into the planting beds where the boss is planning to get the vegi garden going soon. Rural NZ has very nice garden centers and good growing soil for sale by the cubic meter which fills up the back of a normal ute pretty well. You can get a truck load for 60 bucks which is a lot of dirt for one's dollar for sure. "Cheap as dirt" is sure true here in Matakana Valley this spring time.

More soon on grapes and bottling but I digressed this time on the blog.

Dr Jim downunder digging in the dirt!!!

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-09-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, as promised yesterday here is a shot of our bare vines up close as they exit winter. Note the green grass between the rows showing that our grass never dies in clean green Matakana Valley. (it is a lawnmower's heaven!!) If you look closely you can see the main vine trunk coming up and then spreading in four vines that are splayed out two up and two down the training wires. These four lateral vines are called cordons and will be the base vines for this year's growth. Our team "trained" them during the winter pruning and carefully laid them down and tied them onto the two lower wires with plastic grocery bag ties (called training wires as they train the vines to grow lateral)

If you enlarge this photo and look carefully at the four cordons that go off laterally you will see little bumps spaced about a fist apart. This is "where the money is" for this upcoming vine growth. These are the vine buds from which will spring the new growth that shoots upwards toward the spring sun. Once you get the shoots (called canes) started upwards there is no holding back the vines as they proliferate like crazy. That is why the higher wires are there--to provide places for the vines to hold on to for support as they grow to reach for the sun. These vines are our Malbec and they have wild proliferative growth over the summer. If you are familiar with the Kutzu vines that grow along roads in the American south, then you can imagine how fast the Malbec vines can grow. I will try to take periodic "timelapse" photos of this one little grapevine this year so you can see the amazing changes. Nature is wonderful and it sure is fun to watch the cycles of the seasons.

Stay tuned for more on our vines.

BTW, if you live in the Nashville area we had a nice short article about our experiences growing grapes and making wine in NZ in today's Tennessean newspaper. (Sept 15th that is in Tenn.) They did a nice job on the article but put in some strange photo of an old bald guy posing as me!!! Man, do I look ancient in the shot but the wine bottles look good:):):):):)

If you want to see the article, the link to it is www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006609150319 so check it out to add a little humor to your day.

More soon. We next have to work on our new 05 bottling plans. I will write about the hassles of trying to book bottling times when you are a microvineyard next time. (being a small fish we have to wait our turn for bottling)

Dr. Jim back down under

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

2006-09-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Well, we are back in NZ and spring has sprung here. Our garden survived the mild NZ winter well and has lots of ripe goodies--onions, kale, mint, and radishes. It sure is nice to be able to experience two spring seasons each year with our commuting lifestyle between Tennessee and Matakana Valley.

Here on the local wine scene all our local growers are bottling their 05 wines and starting to release them to the public. We went to a meeting of the Matakana Wine Growers Assoc. last night and socialized with about 20 of the other vineyard owners and managers. There was a lot of new vintages to taste. I still had a bit of jet lag and so all the wines sort of ran together in my brain after a bit. Everyone is very happy with the 05 vintage and glad to finally be at the stage of actually starting to sell some and receive payment. Wine takes a while to reward you financially since it needs to sit a spell before being offered for sell.
The 06 harvest is looking to be as good as the super 05 local harvest. Our 06 volume was up a bit and the early barrel samples are doing well and tasting yummy. It looks like we are lucky to have started our wine making here in Matakana at a fortunate time where the growing and harvest weather has been perfect for two years in a row. The "old timers" in the wine business here say that is pretty unusual for Matakana.
Anyway, we look forward to "digging in the dirt" and playing in the vines. Speaking of the vines, ours look really bare now just coming out of winter. No leaves--just barenaked vines. Once I get my camera charged I will take some shots of the vines so you all can see what Hawks Nest looks like coming out of winter.
More soon

DR Jim --happy to be Downunder again.

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

End of the Line

TWO THINGS I WILL MISS NEXT WEEK!!!!!

more botttle signing

LABOR DAY WEEKEND IN TENNESSEE

LOVELY NEW ZEALAND

SOOOO SORRRY

NZ 07 wine harvest

I just noted this report on posted last week on the NZ web site and wanted to share it.

www.truewines.co.nz

Below is that report I mentioned.

ANOTHER RECORD NEW ZEALAND VINTAGE

WINE AND JOINTS

ARTHRITIS

WINE GOOD FOR LIVERS???????

WINE CAN HELP YOUR LIVER OUT

FALL HAS COME IN NZ

BEST TRAVEL AGENT IN NZ!!!

WINES ON LINE IN NZ NOW FOR HAWKS NEST

WIINTER ARRIVES TO MATAKANA

NEW SIGN AT HAWKS NEST

Fall in NZ

Still in Nashville longing for Matakana

FUN AT Vn WINE STORE TODAY + Tennessee Politics

THE PICKING BEGINS!!!!!!!

Dr. Jim Daniell of Hawks Nest Vineyard to Appear at Frugal McDougal’s Liquor Store- Nashville, Tenn. April 25th, 2008

BACK IN TENNESSEE

The Vineyard nest door!!!!

A GREAT NZ WINE BLOG SITE

How to find a rare wine on line

Nashville Wine Press Article

First Matakana Wine Festival

BIRD BURGLARS

The big First Matakana Wine Festival

Bunch thinning and Netting

MATAKANA SATURDAY MARKET

VERASION STARTING NOW

Neat History of NZ Wine AND HAPPY WAITANGI DAY!!

EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT TENNESSEE

BACK IN SUMMER!!!

NEW YORK TIMES "DISCOVERS" MATAKANA

A FOUR STAR RATING FOR OUR O6!!!!!!

NEW 06 WINE TASTING NOTES

THE END OF 05!!!!!

NEW WINE STORE IN NASHVILLE!!!

OOPS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

TIME FLIES

Nice New Calif. Neighbor beside Hawks Nest!!!

MATAKANA VERSUS LEAPERS FORK

OUR WINE GOING INTO AUCKLAND'S TOP CAFE

BACK FROM PNG

TOURISM IN MATAKANA VALLEY

Garden time!!!!!

PROTECTING MOTHER NATURE

WARKWORTH SPRING WINE FESTIVAL

SPRING IS SPRUNG IN NZ

HOW GRAPES GOT TO NEW ZEALAND

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

SPRING IN OUR ORCHARD

Springtime in the Valley

MATAKANA WINE ESSAYS

"Leaving on a Jet Plane"

WINE ON THE RIVER IN NASHVILLE

Good wine store in East Nashville

WHO SELLS MORE HAWKS NEST IN NASHVILLE???

Dog Days of summer

How Hawks Nest Wine got to Tennessee

Grandkids take priority

Hawks Nest 06 vintage is on the way to Tennessee!!!!

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

Veraison and bunch thinning of grapes

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Dr. Jim Daniell of Hawks Nest Vineyard to Appear at Frugal McDougal’s Liquor Store- Nashville, Tenn. April 25^th, 2008