Monthly Archives: April 2010

Sophie’s Wrap Up

Posted on by Durvillea
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I can’t believe we are half way through April- what a busy month! I have just been on the phone to our Viticulturist and he tells me we are about 80% done for the 2010 harvest. Most of the Wairau and Awatere Valleys have been picked, apart from few blocks of Sauvignon that are being done tonight and tomorrow, and a few blocks of Pinot Noir. After that, there is only the Kekerengu Coast to go.

It feels like this harvest has gone very quickly! For me in the office, vintage time is not too different to a normal day, except there is slightly more paperwork to check off. This year we tried to keep our face book site live with what was going on daily during our harvest. I have enjoyed this and so have Jeremy and Tim, with both of them sending in their photos when they had a chance.

It has been a brilliant vintage, with great weather and picking conditions, now the juice is in tanks and barrels fermenting away and Simon is already saying he is excited about this vintage, and that the flavour profiles are looking good.

This month we have also been holding another competition on our facebook site (www.facebook.com/durvilleawines), this has been a food and wine matching one. We have been asking people to post their favourites recipe and Durvillea wine to match it with and they have won a cook book and gone in to win 6 bottles of wine weekly, this has been one of my favourites competitions we have done, as I love to cook, and it has been great to get new some new ideas and recipes to try out!

As Jane talked about in her last blog, Bella has been home recently, so on Thursday and Friday we went down to Blenheim New World and did a couple of tastings, these went really well, and people seemed very interested in the three wines, in particular the Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir. (The Pinot Grigio was recieved so well is now available at the Blenheim New World, for those who have been looking to try it!) We have also booked in to do one in Wellington next month!

I have also had to start getting myself very organised the last couple of weeks as I am off to Canada for work on Friday, this is for three tradeshows and to meet with our distributors. The trade shows are in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa, and will all be fabulous events. We have been talking with our agents in Toronto about bringing Durvillea into the market, so at the Toronto and Ottawa shows we are showing Durvillea which is very exciting!

However with the trip now so close there is a lot to get done before hand! Hopefully Jane and I will be able to write another blog while we are over there.

PS. An update on my Saint Clair half marathon training, the last few weeks haven’t been going so well, and running seems to be getting harder, not a good thing! It was 3 weeks till the race on Saturday, and they say the week before you should taper off beforehand. This leaves me 2 weeks, in which apparently a 17km should be done- this I am even more worried about. However, I have got my training guide to stick to, and Jane has made sure all our hotels have gyms in them, so fingers crossed I will be able to make it through the race. Any helpful hints/tips would much much appreciated guys!!

‘What’s cookin’- Down the farm

Posted on by Jane
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I said to Sophie I’m off home to write a blog. Well I’ve checked my emails, planned dinner, and fed the cats. I suppose I could get the washing in but no I have finally logged in and scrolled through all the old blogs. We have been blogging for a whole year. I can feel a Seekers song coming on “For every season turn, turn…..” Harvest is in full swing and over the weekend some of the Riesling and Chardonnay were picked. Arabella did a stirling job making morning tea for the pickers. I was away in Auckland with Meg. We went to see Carole King and James Taylor. As promised here is the recipe for Arabella’s fabulous Easter cake. It is particularly useful as it is gluten free and it comes from Cuisine, Issue 133,  March 2009 Pg.100 

Chocolate & Almond Cake 

200g 64-70% chocolate 

200g unsalteds butter 

200g caster sugar 

5 eggs separated 

250g peeled blanched almonds, pulsed to fine meal 

finely grated zest of 1 lemon 

icing sugar for dusting 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter a 23cm-diameter loose-bottomed tin and line it with baking paper. Break the chocolate into small pieces, place in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and heat until melted. Add the butter in pieces and gently stir in. Add the sugar and stir to a creamy consistency. Remove from the heat and cool slightly then add the egg yolks. Stir in the almonds. In a large bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, not too dry or the cake will have a hard crust. Add the lemon zest and gently fold in the chocolate, ensuring you don’t overmix. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30-40 mins until the cake is a lovely dark brown, has a light crust and is shrinking away from the sides of the. tin. 

Meg was home over the weekend and moved up a notch on the domestic goddess front by making quince jelly. The quince tree is laden with fruit and so using Granny Lois’ Constance Spry cookbook (which begins with a chapter on hosting a cocktail party. Here is the recipe: 

Quince Jelly 2.5 kg crabapples 2kg quince 

Pared rind and juice of 2 lemons sugar 

Wash apples and quinces and remove all blemished parts. Cut up and put in a pan with cold water to come level with the fruit. Simmer until pulpy. Turn into a jelly cloth or bag and leave overnight. Measure the juice and allow .5 kg sugar per litre. Put together into a preserving pan rubbed round with a piece of cut lemon, and the lemon rinds tied together, and the strained juice of the lemons. Bring to boil slowly, stirring from time to time to dissolve the sugar. Boil rapidly, skimming occasionally, until it will set lightly when tested. 

Quince Jelly in jars

Taken from “The Constance Spry Cookery Book  (J.M. Dent;1956) 

Lamb Shanks marinating in Durvillea Pinot Noir

Finally Arabella has been cooking a storm and here are  a couple of photos of her efforts. Both were fabulous with the Pinot Noir. 

So if you have been cooking up a storm too, make sure you add your recipe and wine match to our face book page (www.facebook.com/durvilleawines)

Easter Eggs and Pinot Noir

Posted on by Meg
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We hope everyone had a good easter break!

It has been a busy easter weekend here at Astrolabe Farm. Arabella is home for the university mid-term break and Meg arrived home on Good Friday. We got straight into some chores – waterblasting, mowing, harvesting the quince and picking up walnuts. This was all in preparation for Saturday which was a full on day as Jane and Sophie were hosting a wine tasting at Astrolabe Farm for some American visitors off a cruise ship and Meg & Bella were scheduled to pick some of the Pinot Noir grapes.

It was beautiful weather so picking the Pinot Noir was not too difficult a task. We were picking what we call the “sandybank Pinot” which are grapes from a small section of the vineyard that grow on an old creek bed. The soil is very sandy so it doesn’t retain water as well as other parts of the vineyard. It was easy to see which grapes needed to be picked as the vines had started to yellow and defoliate. The Pinot is under nets as that part of the vineyard is very attractive to the birds who populate the hedges that border the property.

The first task is to lift the nets so that we can pick under them. This is quite difficult for some of the more diminutive members of the family! Simon came out to double check the fruit and confirm the rows that needed to be picked. We pick using snips and wearing gloves. You end up with pretty sticky hands by the end of the day. Although it looks a bit silly we often pick in cotton dresses and skirts as they are nice and cool to work in. We often add a flowery apron to hold our snips in too! We place small yellow bins out along the rows and when the row is finished Arabella drives the truck along and we empty the small bins into a larger one that then gets driven out to the winery.

We had almost finished when the visitors from the cruise ship came out to see what we were up to. They were very interested in the whole process and we even managed to get them to help out with some picking. When we had a pretty full bin Dad came to pick it up and we cycled back to the house for some refreshments.

On returning home Arabella was straight into the kitchen working on a spectacular easter cake. We will post a recipe later in the week but until then here is a preview!

There are heaps more pictures from the Pinot Noir picking on our Flickr account here – check them out, it will make us happy!  – Meg & Arabella.