The Black Hand Brigade

 

They say that you should never trust a thin cook but there is an even more important rule that you need if you are charting your way through the uncertain seas of food and wine. It is to never trust a winemaker with clean hands. What these are really saying is that being passionate means getting involved. When it comes to winemaking it definitely implies a hands-on approach and not just having a finger in the pie. If you have a winery that only produces white wines it might be possible for your mitts to look semi-attractive, but, if like ours, you make red as well, your hands at vintage time should be extremely ugly.

 

Winemakers’ hands get stained by pigment from the grape skins leaving its telltale marks. This contact occurs during picking or sorting through grapes in the winery. Making pinot noir in the traditional Burgundian way, as we do at Pegasus Bay, involves fermenting grapes in small vats. During this skins float to the top, forming a nearly solid cap. This has to be intermittently broken up and pushed under the juice to keep the skins moist and healthy. Hands inevitably get splashed in the process. Pressing the grape skins to drain them after fermentation, pumping the wine into barrels and many other jobs, ensures that the hands get covered in anthocyanins, which are the pigments in red grapes and wine. These pigments are originally purple, but with exposure to air they become black, which does not make a pretty sight.

 

No doubt next time you are introduced to a black pawed individual you will have to add winemaker to your mental check list of mechanic, coal merchant, chimney sweep and the like. It’s going to make your life more complicated but, if you are one of those souls who like solving puzzles, here’s a tip. Just crack a ribald joke and when your new acquaintance laughs uncontrollably sneak a look at the teeth and tongue. Yes, grape and wine pigments also leave their tell tale signs inside the mouth and most other things that stamp the insignia of the black hand club end up in that cavity.

 

But all this is trivia you might say. Not a bit of it. The reason is that you can now kiss your new winemaking acquaintance with confidence as there are good scientific studies of micro-organisms which show that the oral hygiene of wine drinkers is better than other people, including tee-totallers. It is all to do with the health-giving properties of wine!

 

Spring’s the Thing

 

Spring is arguably the most exciting season. It is nature’s time for birth. Lambs frolic in fields, fledglings look out of nests and plants restart the cycle of life as new leaves and flowers appear.

 

It is a period of wonderment, beauty and potential, both in the vineyard and the garden. Over the past quarter of a century Pegasus Bay has built up extensive gardens and we were proud to be one of a small coterie of properties chosen to be toured during the Ellerslie Flower Show, NZ’s largest and most prestigious gardening event. Just one of our many little gems is our rhododendron dell where there are over 300 specimens. These produce a gorgeous display over October/November but there is always something happening in the garden. Make sure you collect a map from the tasting room and treat yourself to a tour.

 

Dropping In

 

Being a winged creature Pegasus tends to be a bit flighty but it is always on cloud 9 when guests drop into the restaurant and tasting room. And they have been literally “dropping in” in increasing numbers recently. That’s right, you hear a dull thubbing and they just drop out of the sky to land on our little pad (aka piece of lawn). At the other end of the transport spectrum we have even had people arrive by horse and cart, but don’t feel inhibited if your transport is more conventional. We will always be delighted to see you. We have now put in a pedestrian entrance from the road so, should the car park be full, you can always stop in the shade on the roadside and walk via the path through the hedge.

 

After their mid-winter break multiple award winning chef, Oliver Jackson, and his team are ready to titillate your palate with an exciting new menu featuring the best of fresh, seasonal, local cuisine. We are open for lunches every day but would advise phoning 03 3146869 ext 1 to make certain of a table. Feel free, however, to drop into the tasting room without calling, any day between 10am and 5pm.

 

From the Prescription Pad

 

We hear a lot about sustainability these days, with the implication that sustainable is good and unsustainable is bad. A glance at the dictionary will show “sustain” has a raft of meanings. These include “to support, hold up, endure, suffer and keep going continuously”, to list only some. While it is in the last mentioned sense that these terms are usually applied to agriculture and horticulture, they also imply that the processes used do not damage or degrade the environment. We at Pegasus Bay are strong believers in this concept and for many years our vineyard has been registered as Sustainable.

 

Now, should you find yourself in a wine producing country of Europe, such as France, Spain or Italy, have a browse around a wine shop or supermarket. I am sure you will be surprised by what you find. The shelves are awash with very cheap wine and some is drinkable, if not exactly inspiring. There’s a significant amount on offer for $NZ10 and some selling for half that price. “So”, you might ask, “Why don’t Kiwi winemakers produce the same sort of thing?” The answer is quite simple. It is not sustainable.

 

The cost of production is generally lower in countries with hot climates, including those mentioned above. Grapes pollinate more easily and thus vines tend to have larger crops. The fruit ripens more readily due to the heat, maturing in mid-summer or early autumn, so it can be harvested without risk of rain damage. This reliability enables growers to treat their crops more grossly, so they can use machines to do many tasks that would require extensive hand work in cooler climes. Curiously, wines made under such apparently favourable growing conditions seldom fetch the same price as those grown in cooler regions, even when crops are restricted and they receive equivalent care and attention. The reason is that they don’t usually have as much flavour intensity, fruit concentration and balance.

 

New Zealand’s cooler climate dictates smaller crops due to erratic pollination and the fact that heavy crops may fail to ripen. Our maritime climate, however, gives a much longer growing season than a continental one. This produces flavour intensity, concentration and harmony in Kiwi wines that are only seen in more expensive European drinks. This is why the British wine buyer has been prepared to pay a higher average price for a New Zealand wine than that from any other country, including France. In essence, conditions mean we can not compete with the bottom tier price of hot climate, bulk-producing regions, although NZ wines look good value when compared with those of equivalent quality from Europe.

 

But there are other reasons why the local product can’t be as cheap as those bargain-bin wines you see in Europe. These result from weapons called “subsidies” and “taxes” that politicians use against us. The former is a secret device which the EU keeps under wraps, like intercontinental ballistic missiles, and then applies to grape growing and winemaking. It is something which New Zealand dumped long ago, as though it was as evil as anything nuclear. “Sin tax”, however, otherwise known as “excise tax”, is employed fiercely by our rulers, but feebly in traditional European wine producing nations. These little inequitable trifles are just something that you, the consumer, and I, the producer, have to bear because politicians, like the weather, are quite uncontrollable by the likes of us.

 

“Hang on”, I can hear you say, “I’ve seen plenty of cheap Kiwi wines recently and you don’t have to look far to find some under 10 bucks. How come?” Well, that’s the result of what in new speak some would call the perfect storm that hit the Kiwi wine industry a short while back. There was a high potential crop sitting on the vines, waiting for the 08 vintage, when New Zealand ran into a lot of autumnal rain. In some regions this lead to berries swelling dramatically with resultant over-cropping and more dilute wines. Paradoxically, in varieties such as riesling it encouraged the development of noble botrytis and actually produced more concentrated wines. Overall, however, the quantity was up, particularly in New Zealand’s biggest wine producing region, Marlborough. The perfection of the tempest was completed by the world’s economic woes. These didn’t stop drinking, but lead to people seeking out cheaper bottles. While the growth in the bargain bins was largely fed by 2008 sauvignon blanc it spread to other varieties, as every bottle of cheap savvie purchased meant a bottle of something else was left on the shelf.

 

Should you be tempted to buy such bargain bottles, what is the effect? For you, it maybe economically positive, although given the likely quality, the pleasure of consumption may not be so intense. The flow-on effects of your bottle of wine will probably not bring a smile to the producer’s lips. From your $10 our politician friends will take 15% GST, not only on the retailer’s price but also on the $1.98 excise and ALAC (Alcohol Advisory Council) levy. That’s right, the clever politicians actually tax their own tax, and I understand it is the only example of this on the statute books. Almost $3.20 thus goes directly to the Minister of Finance. Generally speaking the retailer will take a margin of 30-35% and about $1.20 will have been paid for bottling and packaging. Then there’s a transport cost to the retailer and the expense of winemaking, not to mention the cost of growing, picking and transporting the grapes to the winery. In essence, while the el cheapo formula might work if you are making wine in Spain, the south of France or the like, in our part of the world buying such wine is supporting very unsustainable practices.

 

But even in the time of Noah, perfect and imperfect storms passed and the last time the New Zealand wine industry had a similar bout of inclement weather was in the early 1980’s. Since then things have been fairly sunny. Kiwi winemakers in general have reacted positively, taking steps to keep production in line with demand, while maintaining and even increasing quality. The other factor in the bad weather, namely global economic worries, seems to be on the mend so I am sure the future will be bright.

 

Cheers,

Ivan Donaldson

The Pictures Of Pegasus

 

We are fortunate to have Jonathan Smart Art Gallery which normally hangs an exceptional array of contemporary works on the walls of our restaurant and tasting room. From November, however, we are going to feature for 4 months the unique paintings of Canterbury artist, Mel Brew. She had a very popular display at Pegasus Bay a couple of years ago. Although pictorial, her works often seem to express an emotion symbolically and have an amazing textural dimension. We are sure you will be very impressed.

 

Feathered Friends Or Foes?

 

If you have ever visited a New Zealand vineyard in autumn you may have witnessed what seems to be a war against nature.

 

It is between men and birds, and the armamentarium consists of scarecrows, fluttering ribbons, flashing, rotating mirrors, googly eyed helium filled balloons, kites shaped like hawks, circulating vehicles, noisy gas cannons and even guns. In the vineyards of Europe you see none of this. Why? Quite simply there are very few birds as their numbers have been drastically reduced over the years. Birds are a menace here, not only because they eat the grapes, but because they also just peck. A single hole in a berry can make the whole bunch go rotten. Birds can thus be very destructive.

 

But there is a positive side to birds. They eat insects and thus help maintain the balance of nature. Early on we decided to work with this aspect and protect our crop by totally covering the vines with nets. The result? During the rest of the year birds nest freely amongst our vines so our vineyard has become their home. There is an extra upside to making our feathered foes our friends. We do not have to spray pesticides on our vines, a practice which is common if you make birds your enemies. It is simply a matter of supporting what comes naturally!

 

Recent Seasons

 

January 2004 was outrageously hot with a succession of days over 40°C in the shade. Fortunately, February was cooler, slowing premature ripening and bringing the season back into balance. The 2005 vintage was marked by cool, damp weather over flowering, which produced a yield well below average but resulted in wines of excellent concentration. The weather in 2006 was very even throughout the growing season, resulting in balanced wines from good, but not excessive, crops. Blustery winds in spring impaired pollination and lead to a small 2007 crop, giving extra richness and flavour to the well ripened fruit. Drought conditions were staved off by a mid-summer downpour in 2008. There followed beautiful weather. A period of rain in the latter part of autumn encouraged the growth of noble botrytis in riesling. The growing conditions leading up to the 2009 vintage were amongst the best we have experienced and we are delighted with how both the reds and whites have turned out.

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