ALL THE BUZZ AT THE BEEHIVE

Over the years our wines have been served to more than a few VIP’s. They include Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, the President of the United States and the President of China, to mention but a few. We were thus delighted to have the opportunity to present our wines to not one Kiwi celebrity, but a whole bevy, or perhaps we should say Hive. That’s probably the most appropriate collective term to use when referring to Kiwi politicians.

Sometime back we were asked if we would be prepared to have our wines featured at a special degustation dinner at Parliament House, hosted by the speaker, the Honourable Margaret Wilson. We didn’t think twice and jumped at the chance. The dinner was open to all MP’s and more than a few have a reputation for partaking of the finer things of life, including good wine and food. In addition, we thought,“Aren’t these the people who determine laws and regulations related to wine, including excise duty?” It wouldn’t hurt to try to get them on the side of wine producers.

Winemakers Lynnette Hudson and Matthew Donaldson with Speaker of the House, Margaret Wilson, at the Parliamentary dinner.

It’s amazing how much planning goes into a wine and food experience like this, especially as we wanted as much as possible, to use fresh local produce in the dishes. Accordingly, there was much consultation with Charles Noville of Bellamy’s Restaurant at Parliament House and more than a little trial and experimentation. The dinner was held in the Grand Hall of Parliament House with our winemakers, Matthew Donaldson and Lynnette Hudson, talking about the Pegasus Bay wines they had chosen to match with the food. Sauvignon Semillon went with passionfruit soaked paw paw and lychee on a bamboo skewer and duck parfait with stewed prunes. Our Riesling matched chicken terrine, the Chardonnay - baked ling and crab, the Pinot Noir - charred venison and our MAESTRO (merlot and malbec) - lamb cutlet and braised sweetbreads. Finally FINALE helped wash down poached pear in an 8 Moon saffron elixir. It was a modest little repast by most standards and it’s good to know our parliamentarians don’t go overboard!

COOL RESTAURANT

One of the great things about running a vineyard restaurant is that if it is chilly you can dine indoors and if it is hot you can be out in the fresh air, sitting under a sun umbrella or a tree. There are, however, occasions when the weather is very hot and you might want to dine inside. We decided that this summer we will become a cool restaurant. Cool, not just because we were named the Best Casual Dining Restaurant in New Zealand by the prestigious Cuisine Magazine, but also because we are going to have the interior of our restaurant and tasting room complex temperature controlled. You will be able to dine indoors or outdoors in any weather. The choice will be yours.

Our restaurant is open throughout the year, with the exception of 25th, 26th December and 1st, 2nd January. Our menu changes regularly and features outstanding dishes made with fresh, local seasonal ingredients. If it is cold outside, the log fire will be going and we can assure you of a cool reception should the weather be hot. It’s best to book on weekends or public holidays by ringing 03 3146869..

PINOT PIGEAGE OR UP TO YOUR NECK IN PINOT

In the flickering candle-light a group of young men and women form a circle, holding each others arms. The men are in shorts and the women have their dresses tucked up around their thighs. They chant, way and dance to the throbbing background music, first to the left and then to the right. Their feet and legs are purple as the grapes in the large stone trough are bruised and then crushed, while the juice runs across the sloping floor and into a pipe which siphons it off into a vat. The day’s harvest is in, but the night’s work, (or is it fun?) is only beginning. This sounds like a scene out of a film or a passage from a novel based on making Port, where it was traditional to crush the grapes by treading on them.

They have some strange traditions in Europe; many are tucked away in small villages and never seen by visitors. One such relates to pigeage, which is the French term for pressing down the almost solid mass of fermenting skins and other grape parts, which have become filled with carbon dioxide and floated to the top of the vat. If left there they dry out, but they need to be kept moist to help extract into the wine the colour and tannins, which are in the skins of red grapes. The cap is usually broken up and then punched down using special plungers. It is tiring, heavy work, but it sure develops the arm, shoulder and chest muscles.

In some places in Burgundy it is claimed the best pigeage is done by getting into the vat of bubbling grapes and breaking the cap up with your body. It is said to be gentler, more thorough and adds a certain “je ne c’est quoi”.

Pinot Pigeage the Burgundian way

Now, if you make your pinot noir in large tanks you may not pigeage but just take some juice from the bottom and spray it over the fermenting cap to keep it moist. As we make our pinot noir using traditional Burgundian methods, including using small vats for fermentation, we pigeage. We had French winemakers working with us during the 2005 vintage and the subject of the really, really traditional method of French pigeage arose. Somehow, they decided to convince us that it might be
a good thing, so we decided to give it a trial. Did it work? We don’t know yet as we are still assessing the result, but a few things we can be certain about. Firstly, as the temperature in the vats is over 30° during fermentation, it is a great way to get warm on cold, autumn days. Secondly, thorough showers both before entering and after getting out of the vat are mandatory. Thirdly, it has the potential to oust female mud-wrestling as a sport!

THE MYSTERIOUS MALBEC

Malbec is a grape that is not commonly used in New Zealand. In fact, the official statistics from NZ Wine Growers shows that less than 1% of NZ vineyard plantings are devoted to this variety. What is it, where does it come from and why on earth do we have it at Pegasus Bay? Intriguing questions. By Kiwi standards the Argentinean wine industry is huge and its most extensively planted red grape is malbec. In fact, it can be regarded as Argentina’s signature wine. There it seems to perform quite differently from in New Zealand or, for that matter, from in its native France.

Malbec comes from the Bordeaux region of France, home of one of the most important red wine styles in the world, Claret. Claret usually consists of a mixture of grapes and close to the city of Bordeaux, cabernet and merlot are the main ones, but there may be lesser amounts of others, including malbec. As you move southeast into the hinterlands of Bordeaux, particularly following the great river valley of the Dordogne, the amount of malbec in Claret increases and by the time you reach the village of Cahors, it has become the principal grape variety, making up over 80% of many blends. Why is this, and what are malbec’s special properties?

The mysterious malbec revealed

Some grapes tend to be fickle setting so that cool or damp weather over flowering leads to a small crop of grapes. Malbec is one of these. This means that in Waipara its yields tend to be low, which gives its grapes and wine extra concentration. Malbec is a very deep colour, which lead to it being called The Black Wine of Cahors. It also has a lot of tannin, so that it is very mouth-filling and rich, but at the same time runs the risk of being dry and hard. We soften these tannins by careful maturation in oak barriques for 18 months. The wine can have a beautifully scented floral aroma, with a perfume and flavour somewhat like rose-petals and without green or herbal characters. We have three clones of malbec and the wines are all quite different, which adds additional interest.

Malbec is a splendid blending component in our Claret-style red wines, which are based on merlot, but also have lesser proportions of cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. Malbec provides extra aroma, richness and texture. We think it is great at doing what it does best – blending.

FROM THE PRESCRIPTION PAD

Running a vineyard and winery doesn’t leave you with much time to sit and ponder about life, but when such occasions arise I can’t help thinking that perhaps one of the most important things is balance. When I was actively involved in neurology, I had to juggle hospital ward rounds and clinics, teaching medical students, running private consulting rooms and over-seeing a vineyard and winery. As you will know, juggling is a matter of fine balance. Perhaps the most important balance to get right in your life is that between work and leisure. One can easily dominate to the detriment of the other. But I am starting to philosophise and ramble. What I am trying to say is that we all should have enough leisure time to sit down and enjoy a glass of wine, and if it is any good, it also must have balance.

Balance in wine is not easy to define, but I guess it means that it is in harmony with no particular part protruding awkwardly. It can be seen as referring to many different aspects of wine, but none is more important than the balance at the end of the palate. This is to say the impression that you have as and after you swallow. It is this you are left with and it may determine your overall view of it.

What are those final tastes? They are largely related to the acid and tannin content of the wine. The reason these persist is that the receptors which they stimulate are slow to respond because of their position in the mouth and their physiological properties. Once activated, however, they send sustained impulses to the taste centre in the brain. If you don’t believe me, give an unsuspecting child a slice of lemon to eat. An initial look of pleasure from the flavour will be followed by one of disgust when the acid starts to bite. But why be so mean? Just try it yourself. You will have to rinse your mouth to get rid of the taste.

Acid has a sharp taste, whereas tannins can be bitter or drying. Tannins are present in young red wines in abundant amounts with their molecules joined together in small groups. Such tannins taste very hard and rough. As the wine matures, these molecules coalesce into larger but fewer groups. This results in the taste becoming more mellow and agreeable. Some of these groups of molecules may become so large they precipitate out and form a reddish deposit in the bottle.

Your entire digestive system, including your mouth, is covered by a layer of tissue called a mucous membrane. This is because it continually secretes a layer of mucus to cover the cells and prevent them from being attacked by chemicals which could be harmful, such as acid. Tannins react with this mucus and cause it to coagulate, clot and become detached from the mucous membrane. Then the lining of your mouth is no longer covered in nice, friendly, slippery mucus, but is effectively dry. This is why tannic red wines taste dry. They also taste furry because you are left with a layer of ‘fur’ inside your mouth where the little tags of mucus are hanging partially attached to the membrane. When your mouth is in this condition, the acid can directly attack the surface cells so it’s effect is greatly increased. This is why tannins and acid in wine seem to accentuate each other.

Thus, a wine with a high acid level and hardly any tannin, such as a riesling, may be quite in balance. Similarly, a wine with a high tannin content, but low acidity, such as a ripe merlot, will also be fine. Put even a moderate acid and tannin level together, however, and it can be mouth-puckeringly awful. The effects of acids and tannins can be balanced by residual sugar in wine. This isn’t an issue with most red wines, but it is in many whites. High acid varieties, such as riesling, often need some residual sweetness to keep them in balance. This is not the case with chardonnay, which tends to have lower acidity, especially if it has gone through malo-lactic fermentation. While white wines have fewer tannins than reds, they do have some, particularly those made from pinkish berries, which are varieties that have mutated from red grapes. Pinot gris and gewürztraminer are examples of these. They naturally have low acids, but appreciable phenolics, which is another word for molecules which are the building blocks of tannins. Such wines often have slight coarseness or hardness in the back of the palate and need a little residual sweetness to balance them. By contrast, if a wine has residual sweetness without sufficient acid or phenolics, it will taste flabby, fat and cloying. Like all things in life, it is a matter of getting the balance right.

Cheers, Ivan Donaldson