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Spring has sprung down on the farm

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Riesling vines ready for the experiment

Seed ready to go

Blossom trees are in full bloom. There is now a green haze over the vineyard as the vines leaf out. This year Nick and I have decided to plant alyssum under the first 20 rows of the vineyard. This will mean that we don’t have to spray for weeds and will provide a habitat for insects. Nick mixed the seed with compost and sprinkled it along the rows. In preparation Nick has sprayed every second row for weeds. We are experimenting to see how this will influence germination. Jane

Nick mixing the seed and compost

Art and Craft-musings on the banks of the Thames

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Lois Waghorn

This morning Simon and I woke ridiculously early as we struggle to adjust to Northern Hemisphere time. We went walking along the Thames. It was breathtakingly beautiful looking down the river as we crossed the Vauxhall Bridge. We marvelled at everything from the lamplights to Westminster. Walking back through St James Park Simon won the spot the squirrel competition.
As we wondered down the river pathway we thought about Simon’s Great-Great Grandfather Arthur Waghorn who worked as a lighterman on the Thames. He left England with his wife Louisa and young family to settle on Banks Peninsula. I always think it is interesting to consider the influence of these ancestors on who we are. These people we assume left in the hope of making a better life and taking an opportunity. They were brave and bold and I hope we reflect a little of that strength of character.
One of the traits that undoubtedly runs through the Waghorn family is creativity. As I listen to Simon discuss his wines I think it is clear how important his skill as a winemaker is balanced with his creativity in crafting the wines. Art or craft – maybe both?
Creativity is openly expressed by the women of the extended Waghorn family. Simon’s mother was a potter and a painter. His sister Sarah carries on this and is indeed a wonderful potter. “Sarah’s pots are hand built sculptural pieces. Using the coil method she uses a few simple tools and concentrates on form and natural shapes. The majority of her work is in sculptural and earthenware clay.”
www.sarahford.co.nz
Our niece Julia Waghorn is a talented graphic designer.

Julia Waghorn

She is stylish, creative and also very funny. Stealing from her website she describes the influence of a creative family. “Julia’s grandmother was the person who began her interest in Graphic Design. As a child they would spend hours in Lois’s games room drawing and painting. “
www.juliapenelope.com
Arabella, our youngest daughter is also bitten by this creative bug.

Arabella screen printing Meg's wedding invitation

She is in her 3rd year at art school at Auckland University. She is currently involved in an interactive installation in Myer’s Park as part of the Fan Trail project which is part of the Rugby World Cup activities.
“Inspired by Myers Park’s history as a colonial shanty town, Elam students combine what little is remembered from the past with the contemporary. Abstracted dwellings of geometric forms, clustering and lacing through the grassy hills, suggest community and a collective culture.“

“The living sculpture explores the displacement of those who once lived on this site as well as travellers who’ve come from near and far to attend the Rugby World Cup 2011 games. “

http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/events/amped-in-the-park

Check out their blog.

http://elamfantrailproject.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy a glimpse at the artistic work of our crafty lot.

-Jane.

Winter Ramblings

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Now is the winter of our discontent…….
So it’s my turn to write a blog. Yes, I could tell you what is happening down on the farm but that essentially is pretty much the same as last year. It is mid-winter. Pruning is the keyword. For the past week the sun has shone every day and every morning there have been frosts -3, -5 that sort of thing. While Nick is working his way through the vineyard I have been working my way around the garden. In the vegetable garden very little is happening but the garlic is in.
Tonight I made friends with an old friend on facebook, which set me musing on using social media. Of course we use it communicate our brand story and it feels a very immediate way to reach people. I love the contact with “old friends” and new. I like keeping in touch with my girls , their friends and my lovely neices and nephews. I love the random nature of the comments and being able to engage and disengage at will. But most of all I love Skype. I love seeing the girls. This week was also a first as Simon held a skype tasting with our new agents in the US. It was fantastic to meet their team and for Simon to take them through the wines all without leaving home. I’m not sure it will replace market visits but it is a good option, cheap and ecologically sound.

Really my main focus is getting the garden ready for the wedding.

“The wedding” you say… “wasn’t that in March?” Indeed Meg and Henry’s was, but now Libby and Peter are getting married next March. I am so desperate to start planting. I have lists of seeds I plan to buy from Kings Seeds.
www.kingsseeds.co.nz.

Pink Peony Poppy

I also plan to do a mass planting of hydragenas. This all works out quite well for the company as we hold all tastings here at the farm. It is a nice side effect to have things under control. I have quite a sense of urgency because in September we are off to the UK on a sales trip (no skype date this time). We will be serving Durvillea at a wine dinner at Providores in London.
So if you are in London come along we would love to see on Tuesday 13th September. Here is the link:
http://www.theprovidores.co.uk/news/news_2011.php

 

 

[Up date]: I have come home today to finish this blog quietly in front of the fire. There is a polar blast sweeping up the country and this afternoon it has been snowing. This is extraordinary in Marlborough. It has been cold but beautiful. I have spent most of the afternoon gazing out the window. We just don’t see snowflakes in Marlborough. My sister Nicola lives in Christchurch. Here is a photograph she took of Reilly the Jack Russell stretching his legs.
So it’s quiet winter focused on family, garden, books (the Man Booker Longlist out) and trying to keep warm while dreaming of flowers. However there is also Friday office drinks……watch out for Miss Ferrier’s social report in our next Durvillea dispatch.

 

Oh, and to finish: http://vimeo.com/27709878 Check out this lovely video of snow on Cuba St in Wellington by Ro Tierney

 

 

 

Well, hello cyber world.

Posted on by Jane
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“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Meg and Henry united

We are back. It has been a slow start for us at Durvillea Wines on the blogging production line. However the lives of the Durvillea Women have been action packed.
Before I begin filling you in on what the Durvillea’s have been up to, I have to acknowledge all those suffering in the world. We have family in Christchurch and they are all safe and facing the future with resilience. Our niece Louise is an English teacher in Japan and thankfully she too is safe. We are very fortunate here and I think that all the economic turmoil and now devastating earthquakes have helped us all remember what is really important.

The end of 2010 was a whirlwind. No sooner were Simon and I back from Canada, Ireland and the UK than we were packing for Brisbane. Libby graduated from University of Queensland with a BA and LLB(hons).

Libby graduates

We had a great time as Dad joined us. Then home for Christmas with the McLernon ‘s here as Astrolabe Farm. Food, family and dancing.

Family dancing

However the big event was just building up. On the 5th March we held Meg and Henry’s wedding here at Astrolabe Farm. It was a wonderful day full of happiness, love and fabulous dancing. There were many elements that we created ourselves. We sewed the bunting and the tablecloths.

Sewing bee

Invitations in progress

The finished effect

Arabella designed the invitations and we screen printed them here. Libby made the little figures for the top of the cake. My sister and Henry’s dad did the flowers. Simon’s sister made the cake. So many people helped out. Here is a little album of Meg and Henry’s Civil Union.

Then to top it all off Sophie decided that she would hold a fundraising auction for Christchurch. If I had not been distracted by the wedding I would have been a bit of damp squib. How can you pull it together in time was in my mind. Well she did.

Sophie at work

It was a terrific event. Sophie and her co-organiser Kate Cameron raised $33,618. We are very proud.

So we are very proud of the women involved in Durvillea Wines. They are an astonishing bunch of young women.

Tis the season – Yule log recipe from Jane & competition

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The raspberries are ripening and on Saturday we bought our first cherries of the season. Christmas is upon us, so what I have I done? Well, I have done quite a few good and interesting things in the last few weeks but very few to do with Christmas preparations. I keep saying it is just one dinner, a few presents, and family to stay. However after three weeks away on a northern hemisphere tour we are home and I have a small sense of panic. Just a sniff.

Foremost for me at Christmas is family. This year we will have all the girls home, my sister Nicki and her family, which of course includes our Sophie, and my father. We are fairly traditional at Christmas. Breakfast, presents, champagne, lunch, lounging about, fun activities (planning croquet this year) and left-overs for tea. As you may have read we like to decorate the house for Christmas. Arabella takes the role of Christmas decorating fairy. I also enjoy setting the table with my Christmas napkins and wearing my Christmas apron.All accompanied by various drinks. Christmas lunch will be a roast turkey, but my favourite part is making desert. It is decadent and fun. Actually I really love the whole thing of the people I love best in the world gathering around the table.

Last year we (Libby the baker daughter) and I made a yule log for Christmas lunch. The combination of chocolate and fresh summer berries is excellent. This recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Christmas.
Yule Log
For the cake:
6 eggs, separated (luckily my new chickens have come into lay)
150g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-5 tsps icing sugar to decorate

For the icing:

175g dark chocolate, chopped
250gg icing sugar
225g soft butter
1 x 15ml tablespoon vanilla extract

• Preheat the oven to 180 C
• In a large , clean bowl whisk the egg whites until thick and peaking, then, still whisking, sprinkle in 50g of the caster sugar sugar and continue whisking until the whites are holding their peaks but not dry.
• In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining caster sugar until the mixture is mousy, pale and thick. Add the vanilla extract, sieve the cocoa powder over, then fold both in.
• Lighten the yolk mixture with a couple of dollops of the egg whites, folding them in robustly. Then add the remaining whites in thirds, folding them in carefully to avoid losing the air.
• Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment, leaving a generous overhang at the ends and sides, and folding the parchment into the corners to help the paper stay anchored.
• Pour in the cake mixture and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let the cake cool a little before turning it out onto another piece of baking parchment.

- Jane

Here is how to enter the competition. We already have one entry on last week’s blog from Sharon for a Midori & Bailey’s trifle!

Competition details:

Post up your favourite Christmas recipe, meal, or serving suggestion on this blog and we will do the second draw this coming Friday 10th December for the next two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this competition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

O’Tannenbaum – Arabella’s Christmas trees, recipe and competition

Posted on by Jane
7

It’s less than one month until Christmas which means that it is time to start erecting and decorating your Christmas trees! At the farm we have already put ours up, we tend to get a bit overexcited by decorations and already have three trees fully decorated. We have a big tree with all of our old decorations on it, a smaller red and white tree with lots of ribbons and gingerbread men and our latest addition is a radical white tree with colourful Dr Suess-esque decorations.

Another festive thing we get a bit excited about is the food. Although we love traditional Christmas cuisine, being in Marlborough we also have lots of summer produce ready for eating at the farm. There are always plenty of berries, new potatoes and peas from Jane’s vegetable garden. One of my favourite Christmas dinner dishes is peas and pancetta. This salad looks lovely and green on the table and is a delicious interval to rich ham and turkey.

 

Peas and Pancetta

Olive oil

Pancetta (100 grams or so)

1 cup white wine

1 small onion

5 cups fresh picked peas

1 clove garlic

Cook chopped onion and pancetta in olive oil until brown. Add garlic and keep cooking until it smells nice! Add wine peas and black pepper and simmer until peas are tender and wine is absorbed.

We already have some delicious entries into this week’s draw: Danielle’s mushroom and bacon pate, Kathie’s Ham with Spicy Plum and Mustard Glaze, Erin’s Meat Sauce, Lucy’s Sultana Cake, Cynthia’s Christmas mince and Claire’s Parsley Butter. Check them out on last week’s blog. To enter your recipe see the info below.

- Arabella

Competition details:

Post up your favourite Christmas recipe, meal, or serving suggestion on this blog and we will do the second draw this coming Friday3rd Decmeber for the next two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this competition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

Meg’s Christmas recipes & a competition

Posted on by Jane
9

Ok, it’s the second week of our Christmas competition. We already have some entries that were posted on Sophie’s last blog. So far the recipes submitted are Florentine Tarts from Sophie Parker, Amy Maxwell’s Scallops on Cauliflower Puree and Claire’s Chocolate Trifle Supreme! Yum! I think those recipes show the range of foods that we think of as “Christmassy” in New Zealand! To enter this week’s draw see the competition info at the bottom of this blog.

One thing that I really enjoy about Christmas is having so many drinks and nibbles! As you can imagine we always have a well stocked drinks fridge at Astrolabe Farm and as we all know it is very important not to drink on an empty stomach. My favourite classic Christmas nibbles would be Jane’s mini mince pies (which her grandmother used to make for my grandfather) and the delicious smoked salmon pate from the Mapua smokehouse. Another Waghorn family favourite are Devils on Horseback and the recipe is very simple!

All you need are pitted prunes and streaky bacon (free range bacon pretty please!). Wrap the prunes in the bacon stick a toothpick through and bake. Super easy, sweet and savoury, delicious crowd pleasing appetisers!

Last year we celebrated Christmas in Canterbury. We had Christmas morning in Akaroa with the Waghorn’s and Christmas lunch/dinner in Christchurch with the McLernon’s. For lunch our responsibility was the dessert.

We made a chocolate log and a lemon/lime cheesecake. For the top of the cheesecake I made some sugar lemon slices. They are quite easy to make and can hide a multitude of sins on top of any kind of cake!

Step 1. Thinly slice lemons (or limes), put in a bowl and pour over boiling water.

Step 2: Leave to cool, take out and rinse to remove bitterness.

Step 3: Simmer one cup of sugar with half a cup of water until dissolved. Add lemons and simmer for five mins.

Step 4: Place on drying rack. When dry toss them in sugar (caster sugar is probably best).

Then use them for decorating whatever you like!

Competition details:

Post up your favourite Christmas recipe, meal, or serving suggestion on this blog and we will do the second draw this coming Friday 26th November for the next two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this competition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

 

Hope springs eternal

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Spring is such a wonderful time here on the farm. As we wake in the mornings the birds are going crazy. We are enjoying hearing and sighting tui. An added excitement has been a young wood pigeon visiting. A report in the paper said that a wood pigeon sighting at Spring Creek is the first in 27 years. Part of the farm is our large pond which is surrounded by native plantings. We also have several kowhai trees. It is wonderful to see the native birds returning. The white heron has been wintering over on the pond.

It has been a sad winter in the chicken coop. My dear old Wyandotte Winnie died and a couple of months later my little red hen Hettie dropped dead too. These hens were quite elderly and, while I love River Cottage, I ain’t no Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and I have to bring in hired assassins if a hen needs killing. However, hope does spring eternal and I now have four young hens housed in the dog run until they get a little bigger and can be introduced to the older girls. They are brown shavers. My aim is to have continuous egg production throughout the year. The others all went off the lay over winter. I want egg production units! These plain but oh so charming girls are, I hope, the answer. As if in fright the others are all producing again!

The old girls

It is also asparagus time. Alas the crop is poor. The crowns in the bed are over 20 years old and it is time for new ones. The potatoes are sprouting and the weeds are flourishing. I am so keen to get out there. I had my foot reconstructed 5 weeks ago and my gardening has been curtailed. I have my King’s seed catalogue at my side and oh so many plans.

The ground is finally drying out after a very wet winter. The Chardonnay is budding out. We gave Simon Cider Apple trees for Father’s Day with the glorious names of Sidero, Broxwood Foxwelp, and Kingston Black Semi-dwarf. Apple blossom, pear blossom, cherry blossom, quince blossom…….. Hope springs eternal.

Mother's violets in my garden

In memory of my mother Ruth Forrest who died on 26 August, the Durvillea girls’ Nana.

Mother’s Sweet and Sour Pork (a trip back to 1970′s)

1 1/2 lb lean pork cut in strips

2 tablespoons fat

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup green pepper strips

1 med. can pineapple chunks

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 cup thinly sliced onion

Brown pork in the hot fat, add water, cover & simmer until tender – about 1 hour. Drain pineapple, reserving syrup, combine sugar, cornflour & pineapple syrup (3/4 to 1 cup), vinegar, soy sauce and salt. Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Pour over hot cooked pork and leave to stand 10 minutes or longer, add pineapple, green pepper & onion. Cook 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with rice or noodles.

South Australia and a lovely review

Posted on by Jane
2

One of the obvious side effects of your parents being in the wine industry is that you always live in a wine region! We have lived in Marlborough since 1995 but all we three girls were born in different regions. Before Blenheim we lived in Gisborne where Arabella was born in 1990, Libby was born in Huntly in 1986 when Simon was working at a winery in Te Kauwhata and I was born in Adelaide in 1985. Dad did his wine making training in South Australia. So, yes, that means I am technically Australian by birth!

When we last visited South Australia as a family we spent time in both the Barossa and Clare Valley wine tasting. Unfortunately, at that time Libby, Bella and I couldn’t care less about tasting and stayed in the car listening to cds at half of the places! Adelaide is famous for its food and wine culture and although we didn’t take advantage of the wine at the time we did have some great food experiences. The most memorable was probably visiting the Jerusalem Sheshkabab House – an Adelaide icon that Mum & Dad frequented as young people! Lebanese food is very popular in our household – hummus and tabouleh were some of the very first things I learnt to make. Dad taught me his own variations on recipes that I think came originally from the Moosewood Cookbook. Just quietly, I make the best hummus ever (as long as you like heaps of lemon and garlic)!

Anyway, I would love to go back to Adelaide as an adult to really take advantage of the great wine and food. My partner’s parents were just over there last week and really enjoyed it. His mother spotted a great review for the Durvillea 2008 Sauvignon Blanc in the Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine and kindly brought the magazine back for me. The reviewer was Bob Campbell.

 Thanks Bob! We are glad you enjoyed it! If you are keen to see if you agree with this review we still have a little ’08 Sav available. Just visit the Astrolabe site here: http://www.astrolabewines.co.nz/wines/durvillea.

Also, if you are interested in reading more reviews please check out our “Nice things people are saying about us” tab up at the top of the page.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Meg