THE NEW FAMILY

It's great to be part of a family. You share things, working together and playing together. You can achieve and enjoy more by pulling together. We are delighted to tell you that we are now part of a bigger family who share this guiding philosophy. Enter THE FAMILY OF 12 or F12.

This is a group of like minded wineries who have decided to work together to promote the distinctiveness, individuality and vibrant excitement of New Zealand's wine regions in the export market. As the majority of New Zealand wine is now made by large multinational corporates, it is not surprising that their face and wines are well known overseas. There is nothing wrong with that. There are, however, other wine styles and another side to the New Zealand wine industry which deserve to be shown. As a family, we think we can do this more effectively. Hence F12.

FROM LEFT: Paul Brajkovich - Kumeu River. Ivan Donaldson - Pegasus Bay. Judy Finn - Neudorf Vineyards. Steve Smith - Craggy Range. Phyll Pattie - Ata Rangi. Richard Riddiford - Palliser Estate. Clive Weston - Nautilus Estate. Ross Lawson - Lawson’s Dry Hills. Annie Millton - The Millton Vineyard. Blair Walter - Felton Road. Pol Lenzinger - Fromm Winery. George Fistonich - Villa Maria Winery

The world is overcrowded, so we are great believers in family planning. We planned quietly for 18 months before our family was born, perhaps an exceptionally short gestation for a family of 12! Our privately owned and operated wineries cover all of New Zealand¹s major wine regions with 6 members each from the North and South Islands. We see strength in our diversity, not only regionally, which implies varietal and stylistic differences in our wines, but also in our range of sizes. The one thing, however, in which we are firmly united is that we will strive to make the best wines that we can. We don't claim they are the best in the country, or even in our individual regions, but we will go to great lengths to ensure they are of the best we can produce that season. How will it work? Our vineyards and wineries will remain completely separate and we will each retain our individual importers and distributors. We will, however, work together to focus overseas attention on a spectrum of individualistic high quality wines from New Zealand¹s diverse regions. We believe in the power of not being one! And why 12? We feel we need to be big enough to make an impact, but not so large as to become faceless. At any rate, isn't a dozen a natural number for wine?

And who are the family? They are Villa Maria, Kumeu River (Auckland), Millton (Gisborne), Craggy Range (Hawkes Bay), Palliser Estate, Ata Rangi (Martinborough), Nautilus Estate, Lawsons Dry Hills, Fromm (Marlborough), Neudorf (Nelson), Felton Road (Otago) and ourselves. We are proud to be at the family table.

VINTAGE BIRDS

Birds are not usually welcome in vineyards at vintage as they have a nasty habit of eating grapes. There is one type of vintage bird, which we are very pleased to see. They fly in about the time we are due to start harvesting, stay for 6-8 weeks and then flit off again. Most migrate from the northern hemisphere. We refer, of course, to young winemakers who come to help us for the vintage, gaining experience and sharing their knowledge in the process. The work is hard and the hours long, but over the weeks a real team spirit and camaraderie develops as the new-comers blend in with our permanent winery team. Throughout the vintage they labour together, play together, eat together and, you guessed it, drink together. They end up trying quite an extensive range of wines, not only Kiwi, but international, all assessed blind. There is nothing like genuine comparison to get the unbiased truth!

The vintage birds

For the 2005 vintage we had a most wonderful flock of birds comprised of Nicolas and William (France), Julia and Bastian (Germany), and Bernie (Hong Kong) who joined our local winemaking team of Lynnette, Matthew, Cleighten, Clive and Rhoda. We are grateful that the birds have done a great job and when you taste the 2005 wines we are sure you will agree. (Tragically Bastian was killed in a road accident while on holiday after vintage).

A line-up of some of the wines sampled by the vintage birds.

LEAVES ­ TO LEAVE OR NOT TO LEAVE?

Wine is truly made in the vineyard. Fruit quality determines the potential quality of the wine. It is equally valid that the standard of grapes depends on the vine's canopy, which is composed of its many leaves. These are the power houses which trap the sun's rays and provide energy, enabling the plant to grow and ripen it's grapes. Hence, it would seem that the more leaves you have the better. Like many things in life, it turns out not to be that simple.

The new leaf plucker. The air compressors are at the back. The plucking head is at the front.

It's true you need sufficient leaves to ripen a bunch of grapes and you can work out a formula which tells you what area of leaf is required to ripen each gram of fruit. If this leaf area becomes too large, however, it doesn't ripen the fruit any better and can actually have deleterious effects. Excessive leaves can make the plant especially vigorous and lead to unwanted vine growth. They can also cause shading. Shaded leaves become yellow and unhealthy, which can change the chemical composition and taste of the fruit. Shading of berries also has dramatic effects. In hot climates it can be beneficial by keeping fruit cool and minimising sunburn. Yes, just like us, grapes can get sunburnt. In relatively cool viticultural climates, excessive berry shading can cause a number of problems. Although leaves are the main supplier of energy, the berries are capable of using sunlight to do their own metabolism and alter their composition. This results in riper flavours, better colour and more tannin in red wines. Lack of shading also means the bunches are drier and hence less disease prone.

In the usual vineyard trellising system the bunches of grapes are concentrated in a horizontal line at about hip height, while the canopy of leaves stretches from that point upwards for a metre or so. The common way of preventing leaves shading other leaves is to trim with a machine which keeps the canopy like a thin hedge. Clearing leaves from around the lower fruiting zone is more difficult. In the past we have used a mechanical leaf plucker which acts like a large vacuum cleaner, sucking leaves into the mouth of the machine while rotating blades cut them off. It was not very effective and woe and betide any bunches of grapes which happened to get too close. Hence, most leaf plucking was done by hand. Let me assure you it is a long, tedious, labour-intensive job, which is not beloved by vineyard workers.

Vines trimmed with plucker

Enter the air-blast leaf plucker. This is a completely new concept which puffs pulses of air against the leaves, shatters them and blows the bits away. Fortunately it does not do the same thing to the fruit! We bought one of these new machines last season and have been delighted with the results. It allows us to selectively remove just the desired amount of leaf from any area at any stage in the season. As you know, even in New Zealand you can get sunburnt and the less pigment you have in the skin, the more likely this is to happen. Grapes are like people and it is the white varieties that suffer most. We can now remove a little leaf in early season when the sun is strong and progressively take off more in the autumn. It is much quicker than by hand and there is another bonus: the vineyard workers are smiling!

20 YEARS DOWN THE TRACK

It's our anniversary. Twenty years ago this spring we planted our first grape cuttings, full of hope and uncertainty. Some grew, some sulked and some died. Vines can be fickle beasts. There were plenty of ups and downs, but we persevered and it 'came right'. It doesn't seem like 20 years, but we really haven't had much time to sit around and think about it. Doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself!

TOP RESTAURANT – THE FALLOUT

Several months back the prestigious Cuisine magazine singled out their 2 best restaurants in New Zealand, one for fine dining and the other for casual dining. We were ecstatic to be their casual dining choice. We are not formal dining and as Lauraine Jacobs, head judge for the restaurant of the year awards, said “Pegasus Bay is a restaurant, not a café, there is no doubt about that, but you can have a very relaxing experience there. Having said that, it doesn’t mean the food is in any way casual. It was beautifully thought out, well prepared and well presented”.

FROM THE PRESCRIPTION PAD

Well, what has all this meant? Receiving this accolade resulted in a surge of summer diners. We thought this might be short-lived, but it has continued, even over the winter months when we are traditionally quieter. If you are coming for lunch please phone 03 3146869, ext 1, to make a reservation, which is especially vital at the weekends. We would love to see you and give you our best attention. We change our menu regularly to make certain we use the best fresh seasonal produce and head chef, James Stapley, has come up with a great one this time. We are very proud of the whole kitchen and front of house team.

It seems to me that old wives probably become old for a good reason and it may pay to take heed of their tales. These days we tend to dismiss traditional views unless we can back them with science. Sometimes advances in medicine validate old concepts years after they have been confined to the dustbin. The current campaign to promote eating more fruit and vegetables is based on recent evidence showing it has a positive effect on health so "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" doesn't seem stupid.

Back in 1600 William Vaughan, a doctor of civil laws, without any real scientific evidence, published a book promoting a healthy life-style with clean drinking water, a balanced diet, olive oil, low animal fat, fibre, exercise, red wine and not smoking. He didn't get it too wrong, did he? A recent survey shows that Germans think that wine prevents constipation and villagers in Southern Italy believe their local drop has a similar effect, as well as controlling urinary infections. They don¹t have any real evidence, but statistics show the rate of chronic bacterial infection in their area is 30% lower than the national average. Interesting?

There are now several studies suggesting that a Mediterranean-type diet may protect against developing and lessen the severity of rheumatoid arthritis, but this has yet to be fully substantiated. Not so in the case of the gout sufferer, traditionally depicted as a rotund red faced gent with a bandaged foot on the table, reclining back with a leg of roast meat in one hand and a tankard of beer in the other. Recent medical studies have confirmed red meats, beer and liquor bring on gout attacks by raising the level of uric acid in the blood. This chemical substance then forms crystals in the joints, making them inflamed. Wine does not have this effect.

It's been known for many years that a moderate intake of alcohol is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, principally heart attacks, which are more common with high blood pressure. A new French study in hypertensive men has shown that moderate wine intake is associated with a reduction in death from all causes by 23-37%, even in those with the highest blood pressures. This benefit was not seen with alcoholic drinks, other than wine. Cardiovascular disease includes stroke, which is commonly caused by a blocked blood vessel in the brain, similar to that in the coronary arteries which results in heart attack. Research from the Harvard School of Public Health, published this year, shows that the risk of such strokes is not increased in light drinkers and that red wine consumption actually decreases the incidence, something not seen with the other alcoholic drinks.

Food for thought? Strokes can affect your thinking and wine is a food, as your body metabolises it to energy, something which does not occur with drugs. The most common type cause of impaired thinking in older people, however, is due to Alzheimer's Disease and not stroke. A recent report from the Harvard Medical School shows that in elderly people such mental deterioration is less in women drinkers than non-drinkers. They didn't study the effects on men.

Anyone who hasn't got the message that smoking causes lung cancer must live on a different planet. There are, however, a small number of lung cancers which develop in non-smokers and these are of a different type from those occuring in tobacco addicts. A few months ago a European group published the results of an investigation showing wine consumption appeared to help protect against such non-smoking related lung cancers. This needs to be confirmed, but it would be in keeping with the evidence that the incidence of some other types of cancer is lower in wine drinkers.

Well, I did say wine is food and those trying to lose weight are commonly advised against drinking. Fair enough, because there is no doubt that wine contains calories. A German group, however, has just shown that calories derived from alcohol are no worse than those from other foods when you are trying to lose weight. You just need to build a small amount into your diet, rather than going teetotal. There are various health recommendations suggesting we restrict our alcohol intake to a particular number of drinks a day, which I have outlined in earlier "Prescription Pads". The question arises, however, as to what is a drink. No doubt there could be a temptation to over-pour each glass when the number of drinks is limited in this way. A group in the UK has shown that drinkers tend to pour themselves more than a standard drink, even if daily intake is unrestricted. This particularly applys to spirit drinkers, but wine drinkers are not immune, so take care! Remember, all things in moderation. Including moderation?

Cheers, Ivan Donaldson