End of the Line

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!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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.