Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Masterchef...



Cooking class...take one Pinot Gris wine sample, sterile filter and poach at 80C for 6 hours...if the wine looks no different from when you started then its Protein stable, if it goes hazy or cloudy in the slightest then its unstable and time for another dose of Bentonite (a clay no less). All part of the service in bringing you this premium product. All great chefs use wine!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Spring is in the air....




All was quiet at the Georges Road Vineyard on the day before the first day of Spring. A beautiful day and not condusive to hard work at all! Luckily the vineyard is all up to date and ready to go...

Monday, August 29, 2011

Riesling Block Three 2010...



Another great review for our 2010 Block Three Riesling. Read it here in this weeks NZ Herald

And once youve done that, Order some for yourself - go to the website and get 15% off the price AND free delivery nationwide. Now thats great value.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Pinot Gris 2011


Hand harvested, whole bunch pressed straight to barrel, wild ferment and left on full lees until just NOW. Ive just racked the wine out to tank in preparation for next months bottling of our 2011 Pinot Gris. Aromatic and textured with great mouth feel and about 8g/L residial sugar. Should be released just prior to Christmas.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The dirt on Georges Road...

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Heres a look at the soil structure from the area in Waipara where we have our Syrah, Riesling and Pinot Gris vineyard. These soils are called Canterbury Gravels and are the predominant soil type along the western part of the Waipara Valley. Deposited during the Pleistocene period and more recently during the last major glacial advance. Quite a while ago in other words. Looking at the photo above you can understand why most vineyards in the area are very free draining - lots of stones and gravel with minor water holding capacity. The majority of the upper soils are Loess with plenty of deposited river gravel, silt and sand. Underlying this are layers of greywacke and argillite. Geological observation of the Waipara Valley began in 1855 although the major fieldwork from which most information is now derived was carried out in the 1950's.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

New Release - SYRAH 2010

Coming soon to a dinner table near you, the new release Gorges Road 2010 Syrah Block One. Handharvested superb fruit, destemmed without crushing to small opent top fermentation vats, 3 day ambient soak, natural fermentation, hand punch downs, 40 day extended cuvaison, pressed to a mixture of 2 and 3 year old French oak for a period of 12 months, natural malolactic fermentation, no racking of wine until final blending, polish filtration and bottling. 

A wonderfully elegant wine, perfumed with dark berry fruits and licorice showing through, fine grained tannins and hints of spice and oak. A great example of why Waipara is an exciting place for Syrah. A cool climate wine at its best, aromatic and lean with great elegance. Like all great terroirs, the best fruit struggles but shines at harvest. Picked in mid May, a full month after most Pinot Noirs, the grapes are concentrated and delicate but show a wonderful aromatic quality. This is a wine (and region) to watch as we learn more and more about whats best each vintage.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Vineyard walking tour...

Looking a bit barren in the vineyard at this time of year. All the vines are pruned and the vineyard floor is a combination of dead weeds and mulched canes. The next job and possibly the last major one before budburst around mid September, is to drop all the canopy wires to the ground. This makes it easier to train the new growing shoots of the vines by lifting one wire up at a time and also so that those new tips of the vines dont get cut off in a high wind which would then affect the growth and development of the whole vine. This wire job is areal workout as each post has 6 wires clipped to it and I will have to walk up every second row, dealing to both rows at a time. So doing the quick maths - 120 rows of approx 150m each - about 18 kms !

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Winter view in the vineyard...

Another beautiful day in Waipara, only a day after the vineyard was covered in snow. Pruning has just been completed. Time to get mulching those canes and start on a few jobs before the new season  - fix irrigation leaks, replace any broken posts, tighten loose wires etc etc.    

How sweet it is...


Testing the RS on the 2011 Pinot Gris using the time honoured (and cheap) method of using urine sugar pills for Diabetics. Not as weird as it sounds. This wine is at 4g/L which is dry.

Monday, February 7, 2011

hello from waipara

welcome to my new blog where i will be writing about the never ending rollercoaster ride that comes with owning a vineyard and making and selling wine under your own, newly established wine label. georges road is located in the waipara valley, about an hour north of christchurch. here we have our vineyard, growing syrah, pinot gris and riesling. single vineyard wines, handcrafted from the grapes to the glass. you can always find out more on our website http://www.georgesroadwines.co.nz/ or through our facebook or twitter pages.