For the next 6 weeks Libby and her friend Genivieve are in Guatemala, follow their travels on their blog http://henny-eesa.blogspot.com/
Libby at the top of Volcan Pacaya, Guatemala
Libby is in Guatemala!
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Durvillea Girls on Tour – London Update
Well! We’ve been home for two weeks but everything has been super hectic so its taken a long time to put up our update from the rest of our trip, as well as what we’ve been up to for the last fortnight.
- Carnaby Street, London
London:
We had about a week in London. We had rented an apartment in Bloomsbury, which was great as it was pretty close to a tube station. London is a festive place to be at this time of year, especially around the central city, where there are very impressive Christmas shop windows and street decorations and lights.
We took advantage of some down-time to visit galleries and museums (the V & A, the Tate Modern and the National Gallery) and do some Christmas shopping. Arabella and I even managed to join in a huge climate change march, and marched with the crowd from Trafalgar Square down to Westminster Abbey.
One of the most fun things we did in London was visiting the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park, which has an ice-skating rink, carnival rides and a traditional German Christmas market. We ate pretzels and donuts, and Arabella and I went on several of the rides while Meg and Jane, being far more boring sophisticated sipped mulled wine and watched from the sidelines.
- Christmas treats at Winter Wonderland
- Can you spot Libby and Bella?
Jane met with our distributors, Ellis of Richmond, to talk business. On the train to meet them, in a bit of a freaky coincidence, she happened to run into Libby Johns, the daughter of one of our Astrolabe growers!
The next day, all four of us girls (Jane, Meg, Libby and Arabella) traveled out to Richmond to meet the Ellis team. We went out with Mike Webb from Ellis to meet Matthew Curran, who manages a really wonderful hotel, Langshott Manor. Langshott is a fantastic restored 16th century manor house with beautiful gardens. Matthew told us it is particularly popular for weddings, and we could certainly see why. While we were there, we ran through the Astrolabe and Durvillea wines with Matthew and the hotel’s restaurant manager, as they are interested in putting more of the wines on their wine list. We were also lucky enough to eat lunch in the Langshott Manor restaurant, which was beautiful. We even had our first Christmas fruit mince pies of the season!
- Mike & Jane at Langshott Manor
All and all it was a pretty busy week in London.
Over the last two weeks Arabella and I have been home in Blenheim at Astrolabe Farm. Its a busy time in the vineyard, with bud rubbing (removing buds and shoots from the ‘trunk’ part of the vine) and de-lateralling (taking little off shoots off the growing part of the vine to allow more light and energy to reach the fruit-bearing parts), so Arabella and I have been helping Nick with that in the vineyard a bit. As well as that, we’ve been baking up a storm, making shortbread, cheese biscuits, florentines, pastry twists and Christmas cupcakes to give as Astrolabe Christmas gifts. We had the Astrolabe growers’ party last week at the Farm as well.
Now we’re down in Akaroa, catching up with our Waghorn relatives for Christmas. More on that later!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Who’s that girl? Introducing Libby!
The third ‘Who’s that girl?’ interview in an occasional series – questions and write up from Meg.
Born in Te Kauwhata/Huntly in 1987 Libby is the middle daughter in the Forrest-Waghorn family. Now living in Australia she represents the Queensland ‘branch’ of Durvillea. You’ll hear from Libby on our facebook page, this blog and she tweets the occasional update from Oz via our twitter account (@durvilleawines).
What is your role at Durvillea?: As the middle Waghorn daughter, I have so far been involved in the brand development and social marketing aspects of Durvillea. Also, living in Brisbane, I do a bit of pro bono work putting in a good word for the wine to anyone and everyone I meet over here. Inevitably, my role has included a bit of ‘product sampling’ as well. Tough job.
What’s the reason behind your move to Brisbane?: My boyfriend Pete lives here in Queensland; I moved over at the beginning of last year after spending two years to-ing and fro-ing between Brisbane and Wellington. I am now studying Law and International Relations at the University of Queensland. Luckily, my parents were pretty supportive of my move over here – in part, perhaps, because their own love story followed along similar lines: our mother Jane followed then-aspiring winemaker Simon to Australia when he moved to SA to study oenology at Roseworthy nearly 30 years ago. I certainly haven’t regretted the move; Brisbane is a great, easy going city, and I love that the climate means people spend a lot of time being active outdoors. Best of all, its only a three hour flight from home.
Perhaps why Libby lives in Queensland?
What are your other jobs?: Here in Brisbane, I work part time in a wine shop (Vintage Cellars in Indooroopilly for any Brisbanites who want to pop in and say hello), as well as working a few hours a week as a volunteer law clerk at the Refugee and Immigration Legal Service, which I love. At home in Blenheim during the summer holidays I can usually be found in the vineyard at Astrolabe Farm earning some pocket money wire-lifting and leaf plucking.
How has your family being in the wine industry impacted on you?: This is a hard question; Pa’s been a wine maker longer than I’ve been alive so the wine industry has always been a part of our family life. As a child, it meant we spent a lot of time at the winery (Corban’s in Gisborne was the first I can remember). When we moved to Blenheim in 1994 (I was 7) most of the people we knew were part of the wine industry in Marlborough, so a lot of our close family friends are wine people too. Moving to Astrolabe Farm a few years ago, with a vineyard in our back garden, meant getting involved in the practical side of wine production. And it is a direct result of growing up in the industry that I am now involved in wine retail and marketing.
Any childhood memories of being a winemaker’s daughter?: One of our favourite things as kids was this elaborate game we invented called ‘Winery Mice’. I can’t remember the specifics, but I remember it involved a lot of running around the winery and climbing over barrels. Riding on the mechanical harvesters at night during vintage was always pretty exciting. Oh, another of my favourite things was putting the magnetic beaker stirrer in the winery lab on the fast setting so the magnet flung off across the room at high speed. I don’t think we were terribly helpful…
Libby & Meg plunging some pinot c.1996
What’s your favourite thing about coming home to Marlborough?: Marlborough is a really beautiful place – much prettier than I realised when I lived there! I love flying into Blenheim in the tiny single-engine planes from Wellington over the Marlborough sounds. At Astrolabe Farm itself, its great to come home in winter to a roaring fire and Ma’s cooking. A winter trip home isn’t complete without toasting some marshmallows with Pa as well. In summer, sitting out on the verandah on the long warm nights with a book is nice. And I love our Christmas dinners in the Astrolabe Farm garden, with family and friends.
Any Blenheim local knowledge or tips you’d like to share?: Bamboo Garden chinese restaurant has long been a family favourite. I love the Wither Hills for walking, and the Tip Top Store on Scott St to get an old-school scoop icecream on the way home!
How about some Brisbane highlights?: I really like the South Bank cultural precinct for a wander through the galleries, or the New Farm markets on a sunny Saturday morning.
- Libby and Simon on a family trip to San Francisco
What’s your favourite wine?: Being a student, wine I buy has to be affordable. Lately, I’ve been drinking a bit of German riesling; the Dr Loosen Villa Wolf Dry Riesling 2006 is one of my current favourites and is only about $15.
And a meal to go with it?: Dry rieslings go well with Asian foods – I like making a stirfry of chicken and Asian greens like Bok Choy, and onion, garlic and ginger.
Who would you recommend Durvillea wines to? I think Durvillea wines are great for younger people becoming more familiar with drinking wine and who want to branch out from the entry-level big name brands, or for any one who hasn’t got a huge budget but wants to drink a quality wine with a bit of class.
Can you sum up the Durvillea range for us?: Top quality, good value wines that are classically ‘Marlborough’ in style while still managing to stand out from the crowd.