Everyone knows Chardonnay is making a come-back.
Durvillea is eager to annouce that in addition to our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir, our 2011 vintage will also include our new Durvillea Marlborough Chardonnay!
We are thrilled that the 2011 Chardonnay will complete our list of classic varietals in the Durvillea range.
Not on shelves yet, but due for release in early 2012. Get excited!
…Oh, and … “it’s pronounced Chardonnay, Kim.”
-Genevieve
You may have recently heard (or seen on 3 News NZ) about our parent label – Astrolabe – having 3 shipping containers of our wine aboard the “Rena” stranded on the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, New Zealand.
As a winery, we live off nature and the land. At Durvillea, we are interested in working towards a more sustainable wine industry. The cartons are made from 100% recycled fibre, the bottle is lighter in weight, and the grapes are sourced from sustainable vineyards. With luck, the environmental impact of losing wine at sea should be negligible; the glass should return back to sand, the wine will dilute. The impact of some of the other cargo on board and the oil leaking from the ship, however, is of real concern. The Durvillea/Astrolabe team is saddened by the damage being caused to our ocean, sealife and shoreline by this ship, and we can only hope the situation does not get worse.
-The Durvillea/Astrolabe Team.
Genevieve is the newest member of the Astrolabe/Durvillea team. She has taken over from Sophie who has left Marlborough on an exciting overseas adventure! Gen’s official title is Sales & Marketing Administrator. You will see her posting on this blog and on our facebook and twitter accounts. She is also the person you will most likely come into in contact with should you ring or email Astrolabe Wines.
Here is Genevieve’s “Who’s that girl? interview” – questions from Libby.
What is your role at Durvillea Wines?
As the new Durvillea Girl, my role at Durvillea Wines is to liaise and facilitate Durvillea Girl business-talk (alright, and chatter), to help man the social media desk, and to assist in promoting this wonderful wine to any and all that would like to know.
What makes Durvillea Wines different from the other wine brands out there?
Durvillea is unique in that it has been a way for the ladies in winemaker Simon Waghorn’s life to share in and celebrate what a lot of their lives have been shaped by; wine making. They have put their unique style, their tastes and their beliefs behind this great product, creating a distinct and personal finishing touch to their husband’s/father’s creation.
How did you become interested in the wine industry?
I have always loved cooking – ever since I was very young – and after graduating high school in South Korea midway through the year (American system) I had 9 months with which to do whatever I pleased before the start of university in NZ in February. Going to culinary school had always been a dream of mine, and thus I enrolled at the New Zealand School of Food and Wine in Christchurch. There, I learnt the basics of classic cooking and delicious wine from a wondrous starting age. And then, my first year of university in Wellington rolled around where something quite magical happened… I met Libby and the Waghorns.
What is the best bit about working in wine?
The people. Everybody you meet is interested in such simple (yet rewarding) pleasures; wine (of course), yummy food, fresh Marlborough air… however whilst still maintaining a positive work-ethic, and producing great products. And I think you can taste this lifestyle in the wine.
How are you enjoying life in Marlborough?
Loving it. I enjoy having the ability to pick oranges from the bush outside and squeeze myself fresh juice for breakfast, to collect eggs from the hen-house for scrambled eggs – and to dry one’s washing in the sun [a wise woman has told me that feeling the sun on them makes wet clothes feel happy]! I also like how most things are closed on Sundays… it lets you know that Sunday is meant for better things.
Most of all; I like how you can see all the stars at night.
What is your favourite wine in the Durvillea range, and why?
My favourite would be the Durvillea Pinot Noir. I enjoy its more subtle qualities. With the Marlborough region not being known for its Pinot Noirs, it is nice that Simon has taken the grapes and created a style a bit different from the full-bodied reds you would find in Central Otago etc. Instead of trying to mimic their successes, he has created his own Marlborough-styled Pinot. I find it quite delicious.
What is your favourite non-DV wine varietal?
Feijoa sparkling wine… the world needs to get ready for this. Okay, okay maybe not. I most enjoy a light sparking white/champagne for special occasions.
Tell us about your best food and wine experience ever.
To me, this is a very big question. To be honest, I have yet to experience the two together in harmony. I recently had the pleasure of dining at Martin Bosley’s … which was out of this world. Popcorn Ice-Cream: Salty. Sweet. Delectable.
Other top food experiences range from fondue in a tiny French restaurant in London shared with my mum, fresh soft-shell crabs sitting at a table on the beach – under the stars – with friends in Thailand… the list could go on…
For the wine, on a recent trip to Wellington I had a glass of Francis Ford Coppola’s Syrah. It was so unique to anything I’d ever had before… very strong bouquet of vanilla bean… I found it so silky – my palate was quite intrigued.
Top tip for a visitor to Marlborough?
For a visitor to Marlborough I would recommend a walk on the Wither Hills (beautiful views to be had), a browse in Thomas’s, a trip to the summer farmer’s market… but perhaps most importantly, to just sit down and enjoy the wine, the people and the peace.
What is your favourite winter comfort food? Give us a recipe!
Being a good New Zealander, I love my lamb… and being a good human-being, I love Jamie Oliver.
For my favourite kind of winter comfort dish, I would use this recipe – but with lamb –and change the white wine to a glass of red… the Durvillea Pinot would be more than just swell here.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/lamb-recipes/game-ragu-with-pappardelle
Enjoy!
To see the previous Who’s That Girl? interviews click here.
As I was scrolling through twitter this morning I saw a link for the 2011 Wine Blog awards. After thinking about it further I thought, why not. So I have just nominated our Durvillea Wines blog in the Best Overall Wine Blog category. If any of you agree, click here to vote, or if you are a keen blog reader, to find out more wine blogs that you could be following!
Blending photo from the 2010 Vintage
It’s a dreary day in Marlborough today and as you drive around you can see that for some vineyards pruning has already begun. There are still some vineyards with the last of their autumn leaves on them. This is more than likely due to them being picked last. All of our 2011 fruit is in the winery, most of the ferments are almost dry. Simon is the checking sugar levels each day to ensure that the wines are stopped at the desired time so the end result provides us with the ideal residual sugar. Blending is also being thought about and will probably begin end of next week. Blending is an exciting time and it is incredible to watch Simon at work.
He has endless glasses of different wines in front of him each with a specific characters that he is looking for. This process is what allows him to create the same style of wine for the brand each year. The wines in barrel are also being monitored.
We have a couple of exciting things going on as well, last week Gary Numan played in Auckland, it sounded like a great gig, with Stuff giving it a great review. We were lucky enough to be approached and along with Stoke beer and Whittakers chocolate were part of the gifts in their rooms when they arrived. We hope you liked the wine team!
Durvillea gift for Gary Numan and Co
We are also supporting Kate Morris, a producer at Page Left a playwright-producers group dedicated to getting new Kiwi work on stage. She approached us last week as they have a show debuting next month in Wellington at Bats Theatre, it is called McKenzie Country and is written by emerging playwright Hannah McKie who has already won the Dominion Post Scholarship and David Carson-Parker Embassy award. We were excited to be approached and as Kate had mentioned to us she wanted “to keep the theme Kiwi – new Kiwi play, Kiwi produced, Kiwi supported!” We agreed, so Durvillea Wine will be available on the opening night, Tuesday 14th June and we hope it is a huge success. Good Luck Hannah. For ticket info: Email book@bats.co.nz or phone (04) 802 4175
We are only a couple of weeks into the duck shooting season and yesterday we were lucky enough to be given four ducks, so it was therefore a given 
that we would be having duck for dinner.
One of the best mobile websites I have been using recently is the New York Times Recipe Search site (http://mobile.nytimes.com/recipes) simply click on the link and you can search for recipes with up to three ingredients. This was exactly what I did yesterday, searching for recipe in which all the ingredients needed I had at home already! Eventually I decided on the Duck marinated in Red Wine and Orange which was so delicious, tender and juicy that I had to share it with you http://nyti.ms/jg4FY0.
I also then reduced the marinating sauce and put it as a side when serving. While I didn’t have a bottle at home, I think our Durvillea Pinot Noir would have been a great match with this dish.
Aside from eating and drinking it has been a busy few months for the Durvillea girls, when I blogged last time, Jane was in Canada and as I blog now, she is in Brisbane visiting our Queensland distributors. I had four emails last week from Queenslanders asking where they can get our Durvillea Pinot Grigio, so for the rest of you QLD Grigio fans who also want to know where to buy it from, check out these retailers, or email Paul: paul@smashingbottles.com.au
Durvillea was also released in Canada last month (30 April) the Sauvignon Blanc is now available at Vintages in Ontario and has already had a great review from Beppi Crosariol. Read his review here.
Bob and Jo tasting fruit with Simon in the Awatere Valley, Marlborough
We have also had a few visitors, with Bob Campbell and Jo Burzynska coming down last month for a look around our vineyards, a tasting and lunch with us, it was a great day and we were extremely lucky with the weather also, a fabulous day to show Marlborough in its best light!
We did an Astrolabe vertical tasting as well, managing to find Sauvignon Blancs all the way back to 2002, one of the most interesting and exciting things was how good these SB’s were drinking, with the 2003 and 2006 being favourites.
Simon and the Astrolabe Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc vertical tasting
On a different note,one of the other things that is going on is that I am sadly leaving Astrolabe and Durvillea Wines (not till the end of June though). I am going travelling through Europe with some of my best school friends and am then planning to get a job in the wine industry in either the UK or Australia. So, while it is going to be hard to leave, at least there are some exciting things in store for me and we do have a fabulous new replacement for me coming on board who we will introduce to you soon.
One of the big questions we have been pondering in the office is whether I can still be a Durvillea Girl…… I sure hope so!
It really has been a busy start to the year, so a belated Happy New Year to you all and a hello. It has been a while. However as Jane mentioned us Durvillea girls have approached 2011 with vigour and with the wedding only just behind us, Jane has already hosted several tastings at Astrolabe Farm. She is now in Canada with Jason and our British Columbia distributors, Christopher Stewart Wines and Spirits, getting ready for theVancouver Playhouse which starts this week.
Making Salsa Verde
One of the tastings we held at Astrolabe Farm was for our Chinese distributors, Jonty and William from New Zealand Wine International Ltd and two of their Chinese contacts. A tasting of our Astrolabe Wines was held before a fantastic lunch prepared by Jane, Jason, Simon and myself. My contribution being a salad and salsa verde. I couldn’t find the recipe for the salsa verde so ended up having to search on our website for it- this blog has been very useful for this. Incidentally we get a lot of visitors to our site because of this recipe!
Vintage is also happening! It has been an earlier start to vintage this year, with the first of our Pinot Gris being taken on the 18th March. Since then we have taken some more Pinot Gris,
Jane Picking Pinot Noir at Astrolabe farm
Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer, making our first Sauvignon Blanc pick this evening. Being an earlier start, it has also been a slower start, with Simon being able to pick exactly when the fruit has the desired ripeness and flavour profiles.
The weather has been perfect, and as I type this I am looking out to a clear blue sky with no clouds in sight. The mornings are getting cooler though- precisely one of the reasons Marlborough is such a unique growing region. The fine days (surprisingly, tomorrow is supposed to get to 27°C!) are great for ripening, and the cool nights are perfect for picking in, allowing us to keep the phenolics down, protecting the wines aromatic potential. Vintage will ramp-up this week, though, as the 12 hour shifts in the wineries come into play, and the bulk of the fruit will be picked in the next 10 days or so, I believe. It is a fantastic time of year that I personally love – the town has a buzz to it, harvesters, gondolas and grape trucks are a common sight on the main roads, and everyone is following the weather!
Pinot Gris being loaded to be whole bunch pressed
If any of you have any questions for us on the 2011 vintage do post them below and I will put it to Simon so he can answer your questions for you!