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.
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