A DECADE OF HORSING AROUND

At a recent job interview we noticed a prospective employee had put his birth-date as the 19th December. "Which year?", we asked. "Every year" came the somewhat disbelieving reply. Now, this date triggers certain harmonics with us, as it is the day we opened our winery and released our first wines. While the winged horse also has a birthday each year, this year is special being the big Number 10. We planted our first vines in the mid-1980's, but it was not until 7 years later, in 1992, that we pulled the corks and proudly displayed our first baby.

Why did it take so long? The reason is that we are a neurotic, introspective, self-critical bunch and we did not want our foal to have its initial canter before we felt it was up to it. The wines released at that stage were Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon and Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot. They were all from the 1991 vintage, wines made from previous vintages being binned, so to speak. It wasn't until the 1994 vintage that Riesling poked its head around the stable door.

Our winery was blessed with good vibrations as that house-hold name in vocal art, Dame Malvina Major, graced our opening by singing operatic arias to an enchanted crowd. As the notes soared upwards, the young horse tentatively stretched its untried wings and took its first uncertain flight in what one wine-writer described as "a vast cathedral-like space."

Have you ever gone back to the place of your childhood and been astounded how small everything is? Things which seemed large shrink and distances contract quite amazingly. The same thing has happened with Pegasus and after putting a bit of winemaking equipment inside that space it started to look quite Lilliputian. We coped with this by building a warehouse and bottling area in 1997 and a restaurant with its tower block, in 1998. This year we have opened our new barrel hall and tasting room complex.

Well, have our first wines stood up to the test of time? We think not too badly, all things considered. They were made between medical duties by Ivan and Chris Donaldson in their garage in Christchurch prior to the construction of the winery at Waipara. Their eldest son Matthew, a professionally trained winemaker, took over for the 1992 vintage. At the last roll call all the initial wines were not only alive, but still in reasonable health.

The Pinot 91 ..... an amazingly Burgundian style and still very much alive. Gamey, slightly funky smoked bacon, mushrooms and wild strawberries - fascinating.

Don Beaven, The Christchurch Star (Oct 2002)

Pegasus has no intention resting on her laurels, or rather, lying in a bed of hay. We think it has taken her a decade to get to know her nest and for us to know how to get the best from our vineyard. Our aim for the next decade - "try harder".

WHAT A BOTTLER!

Bet that when you sit down to have a well-earned glass of Pegasus Bay wine at the end of the day, you have never wasted a moment's cerebration on how it got into its attractive cylindrical glass package. We will bottle it up no longer and pour out the most intimate details. Wine lovers wax lyrical about vineyards, oenologists talk until they are red in the face about winemaking, but the topic of packaging is never mentioned. A lot of wineries, both large and small, have their bottling done by contractors. They either transfer their wine to tanks and take it off to a bottling factory or they "dial-a-bottler", and when a truck with all the gear in it arrives they pump their product into that. Either way, the winemaker who has carefully nurtured his baby up until that point trustingly hands it over to others and hopes that they treat it with the care and respect that it deserves. From the start, we decided the task was so important that we wanted to control the process ourselves. We thus made the investment and bought all our own equipment.

Although the bottles are brand, spanking new, we carefully wash each one to make sure there are no impurities inside. Contact with oxygen can flatten the bouquet and flavour, as well as producing off-characters and making the wine mature too rapidly. Hence, we get rid of the air by flushing the bottles with carbon dioxide. The tube which contains the wine is then inserted in the bottle and a vacuum is applied at the mouth to suck out the carbon dioxide while the bottle is filled with wine. The eventual level of this in the neck or so-called "fill height" has to be just right. At the moment the cork is inserted an extra amount of gas is sucked out to more than compensate for the volume of this closure. This ensures that the cork is not under pressure, even should the wine warm a little and hence expand in volume inside the bottle. A non-toxic metal capsule is applied and it is then "spun" onto the neck to cover the cork and complete the closure. A separate machine applies labels. We have chosen to stick with the old fashioned method of attaching our high quality parchment labels with wet glue, rather than going with the somewhat easier self-adhesive variety. Finally, the bottle are laid in cartons, the reserve wines having been carefully wrapped in tissue paper prior to this. All in all, the bottling process is one of the most timeconsuming and costly parts of our little operation and it takes up to 13 dedicated staff to make it run smoothly. Next time you open a bottle, please spare it a thought!

CATERING FOR ALL TASTES

Tasting wine is a serious business. Not only does it consist of seeing, sniffing, swirling and sipping, but it also needs synthesis. This is the serious bit which occurs between your ears when you stitch the input of these senses together and decide whether you love it or loathe it and why. Previously at Pegasus Bay this activity was undertaken in the restaurant where the main work consists of drinking and dining. We decided these 2 inter-related, but separate, hedonistic past-times deserve separate bits of territory so we have now given tasters their own dedicated space in a specially designed room, which looks down the length of the barrel hall. You can now contemplate the niceties of one vintage while surveying those as yet unreleased and possibly also catching the winemakers in action. This also means a less frenetic atmosphere and more ambience for those who want to try our very special dishes. We look forward to welcoming you either which way.

CAUGHT RED HANDED

In our last newsletter we mentioned how our winemaker, Lynnette Hudson, was spending a sabbatical year in the Burgundy area of France, where she must have qualified for the venerable order of red hands and feet. She has before experienced vendage in top Burgundian wineries but can now also notch the 2001 & 2002 vintages into her belt. In addition, she spent the rest of the year getting brown hands and green fingers in vineyards up and down the so-called Cote d'Or or golden hill. It is great to have her and her new expertise back. 

FROM THE PRESCRIPTION PAD

As a medico I'm used to prescribing things in bottles to try to helppeople. As I put pen to paper I have to be aware that pills and potions have the potential to change in the bottle and thus may havea shelf life. Being a split personality I also end up dispensing that great health food called wine, and I have to keep in mind that this will also gradually alter in the bottle. Unlike inert medication, which is all downhill from day 1, wine, being a "living" thing, has a life cycle of its own. Immediately after bottling it can have a period of "bottleshock" during which it becomes withdrawn and mute. In this phase it shows relatively little of its character, rather like a child that's being told off. How long this lasts depends on how rough you've been. It can last for several weeks or months, but if you've been gentle there may be little, if any, effect.

Generally speaking this is followed by a phase of expansion and growth. The wine becomes richer and its primary fruit characters are replaced by a more complex array of aromas and flavours. During this time the wine is improving and, when it reaches its best, it is said to have "peaked." This is followed by a slow decline, during which intensity gradually lessens and eventually fades so that it is regardedas having "gone over the hill." Doesn't it sound just like our own life cycle?

And just like with us, this ageing results from slowly evolving changesin chemistry, which are only partially understood. It usually occurs over a number of years, and some wines may not peak until 10 or more years after vintage, and certain wines can happily live for many decades. As white wines age, they tend to become deeper in colour, changing from a pale straw to a deep gold and then turning amber. Red wines go from a youthful purple through ruby to being brick colour.

The way in which wines age depends, amongst other things, on the grape variety. If made from sauvignon blanc alone, a peak will be reached quite early, often after several months, and then the wine will start to fall away. If the grapes were not fully ripe, it maydevelop an off-putting canned asparagus character. Generally straight sauvignons are best consumed within a year or 2 of vintage. On the other hand, semillon has rather restrained characters initially, but over several years shows a toasty complexity and becomes fuller structured. Semillon wines can be very long lived.

The amount of oak flavour in a wine does not really alter with time,although the perception of this does. Thus, with a barrel aged chardonnay the oak often seems more prominent initially, but as the wine fills out and enriches this comes into balance, only to appear more obvious when the wine has faded. The trick is to know how much oak a wine needs so that it is drinking harmoniousl yat its peak and this depends on whether it is meant for early consumption or cellaring.

As riesling matures, naturally occurring turpene molecules split in two and in doing so reveal a particularly aromatic part of them, which has been largely concealed. This variety thus changes into something completely different and can be like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. When young the wine may have a subdued apple or citrus character, but with time, a rich, spicy aromatic perfume appears. This change sometimes takes 2 or 3 years.

Much of the weight in red wines is due to tannins and related coloured pigments, which are initially single molecules, or joined in small groups. These can give a hard, furry, drying taste. With age, the molecules coalesce into much larger groups, which makes them taste mellow and smooth. Some may become so large that they precipitate out and produce a deposit, necessitating decanting. Asthe fruitiness in the wine tends to decrease with age, afull structured red will need a lot initially to still have enough left when it has mellowed. The initial fruit characters also alterand tend to become more savoury.

These fascinating changes that occur with time in wine do not happen in other alcoholic beverages, which are "dead" and do not change from the day they are bottled. It is not to say that spiritmatured for a long period in wood does not taste better than onekept for only a short period in barrel, but once bottled, it doesn't alter. Exactly when any particular wine is drinking at its best is alla matter of taste. You may prefer it young and fruity, or somewhatmore complex and developed. If I was asked when was the best time to drink a wine I would have to say -- right now! I think I will just stop this waffling and prescribe myself a small glass of my favourite health food as my throat is feeling a little parched.

Cheers, Ivan Donaldson