We are releasing the 2009 Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc this week to the whole country, with only a pallet or so left of the 2008, which is all allocated. The 2009 Durvillea SB has already had some great results, recieving Gold in the Liquorland International Wine Competition earlier this year, and being selected as one of the Top100 wines, Michael Cooper has also reviewed the wine and I have posted his review up today here.

A Grand Celebration

A few weeks ago I was down in Kaikoura for a friends birthday, I got talking to one of the guys there, who turned out to be a co- founder of Sustainable Coastlines, after talking some more about what they do we realised that Durvillea could help by supporting them in some of their events that they hold. The  result of this has been that Durvillea is sponsoring the world film premiere of “A day at the beach” screening in Hokitika this Friday. The evening is also the launch of Love Your Coast a collaborative initiative between Sustainable Coastlines and the Te Wai Pounamu Foundation. This is to be a nationwide clean up of our beaches and coastline- make sure you look out for the clean up near you.

For those of you on the West Coast who may be heading along to the Grand Celebration, we would love to hear your feedback, it should be a good night!

On a completely different note, I’m not sure if many of you have seen the baby seals on the Kaikoura Coast at the moment, but I went down to see them the other day, and they were incredible to watch, below is a video of them playing. It was great to see that the people who were there while we were, were being respectful of them as wild animals. Meg went to see them too on her way down to Christchurch and I know she has some great photos, so she might post some up soon too.

-Sophie

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

As it has been a wet morning, Simon has been in the office, so he was able to give me a run down on what is going on in the winery at the moment. All of the 2010 vintage wines are still in the winery, the Pinot Grigio is to be filtered today, this is to remove any traces of yeast and colloids and to make the wine clear and bright. We are hoping to get this wine bottled this month, as it has been so popular and all been allocated (we still have a wee bit left that we are supplying restaurants with).

The Sauvignon Blanc has been blended and is looking good, it has a nice minerality, and is a fuller wine than in previous years. It still has to be cold stabilised to make the tartrate crystals fall out, so the wine is stable, and can be stored for extended periods of time at cool temperatures.  The Pinot Noir is still in barrel maturing, and is several months away before it will be taken out and blended, though it is already showing bright cherry and plum notes, and has a nice weight.

This time of year is busy in the winery and office, as wines are being finished, bottling dates secured, and I have to keep on top of our allocations to make sure we don’t run of out of a wine before the next vintage is ready.

In between all of this, I attended a NZ winegrowers seminar a couple of weeks ago, one of the presentations that was very useful was a social media one, again highlighting the importance of being online and available to talk to all of you, and to be talked to and about! A lot of different applications and social media tools were also talked about, one in particular that stood out to me was an application that you could attach to your face book page to allow you to buy wine online through facebook. For more information go to www.yourwineyourway.com  and to check out how to buy our wine online click on this link http://bit.ly/bWDSlN

For those of you that are interested, there is still a little bit left of the 2008 Durvillea Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc which is drinking really well, so make sure you get yourself some before it all runs out!

Sophie

I thought I would end our participation in Maori Language week with 2 poems. Beautiful words to inspire you to use some Maori phrases and encourage us all to pronounce our place names correctly. I have always loved this Eileen Duggan poem. Read it aloud. It won’t rhyme if you don’t pronounce Wairau properly. This poem was written in 1937.

The Tides Run Up The Wairau

The tides run up the Wairau
That fights against their flow.
My heart and it together
Are running salt and snow.

For though I cannot love you,
Yet, heavy, deep, and far,
Your tide of love comes swinging,
Too swift for me to bar.

Some thought of you must linger,
A salt of pain in me,
For oh what running river
Can stand against the sea?

And also

Pakeha Talk

When you said kia ora to me
For the first time – uninitiated, unsolicited…
It floated, and it was an object,
New, hard; it waka-ed and defined shores. 

You spoke an unspoken boundary,
Showing the terrain.
You bought a new map into the room
-the same size- more detailed,
In the kete of your kia ora.

Margaret Mitcalfe

Nga mihi na

Jane

Meg is on her way to a young academics’ conference in Brisbane so it is my turn to make an entry for Maori Language Week. I decided to explore Kekerengu a beautiful part of Marlborough on the Kaikoura coast. We source fruit from 2 vineyards there and of course rimurapa flourishes along the coastline.

Rimurapa

My first I thought was “what does it mean in English.”According to The Reed Dictionary of Place Names, AW Reed, 2^nd ed. 1982, Kekerengu is a black beetle. However the name comes from a young Maori chief called Te Kekerengu who had to flee to Kekerengu because he made an enemy of Rangihaeta, who was one of Te Rauparaha’s lieutenants.

This was such an intriguing story I have had a little look further.  The reference librarians at the Marlborough District Library provided me with this first information and then I had a look at http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/maori-tribal-history/4 and a fantastic electronic version of  History and Traditions of the Maoris of the West Coast North Island of New Zealand Prior to 1840, by  S. Percy Smith , ( Polynesian Society, 1910, New Plymouth) on New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-SmiHist-t1-body1-d17-d9.html.

So I am going to retell this amazing story.

Te Kekerengu was the son of Whanake the principal chief of Ngati Ira of the Wellington area, and Tamairangi, his wife. She was a celebrated beauty and a great chieftainess. Following an attack by another tribe Tamairangi and Te Kekerengu were offered protection by Rangihaeata of Ngati Toa. They were taken to Kapiti Island.

Now Te Kekerengu was apparently very handsome and Percy Smith describes him as a fine, handsome fellow and somewhat of a “gay Lothario.” This means that he was a good looking ladies man. Te Kekenerengu had an affair with Rangihaeata’s wife. Once Rangihaeata discovered this, Te Kekerengu and his mother were in great danger. They took a canoe and escaped by night with all of their relations. They crossed Cooks Strait to Aro-paoa Island (which we call Arapawa Island today). This is where Tamairangi came from. However still fearful of Ngati Toa, they moved onto Kaikoura area and joined their distant relatives of the Ngai Tahu tribe.

Te Rauparaha

Once Te Rauparaha heard about this insult to Rangihaeata he sent off to the South Island to avenge him. He saw an opportunity to attack the Ngai Tahu, who would have been viewed as guilty as they were giving shelter to Te Kekerengu. Initially he landed at Wairau (Blenheim) and then went overland to Kaikoura.  The Ngai Tahu had, however, heard of their coming and fled southwards. They were overtaken at Omihi, where they were attacked and defeated with great slaughter.

Te Kekerengu  escaped the slaughter and fled back up the coast. He and his relatives made their way up the Kaikoura Coast towards Cape Campbell.  How long they remained there seems unclear. However it would seem that the Ngai Tahu followed them. They saw Te Kekerengu as the cause of the slaughter at Omihi and avenged themselves by killing Te Kekerengu and all his relatives at the river now known as Kekerengu.

I am a history graduate but like most pakeha people of my generation have little knowledge of the stories of our past. I think we need to tell these stories and I tell this story with respect and apologies for any errors.

Nga mihi na

Jane

Six people entered our most memorable meal with Sauvignon Blanc competition this week! The lucky winner was drawn this morning and was Lynette Woodgate. Lynette’s best meal with Sauvignon Blanc, was a Poule A Pot (chicken in a pot) meal that she had at a french bistro in Akaroa many years back, divine! If you can email me your address Lynette and I will get this wine off to you today- sophie@durvilleawines.co.nz

Do you want a chance to win to win a 6 pack of Durvillea Wine too? This week, as it is our last Durvillea competition for the month, we want to give you all a chance to win! All we want you to do is Tell us is when you last had a glass or bottle of Durvillea wine. Easy! Just comment below on this blog when you last had our wine (you can tell us where, who with or what with if you want), and you’re in the draw to win 6 bottles of Durvillea wine next Wednesday.

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 comment a week will be picked Wednesday mornings each week for the whole of July by the team in the office and that lucky person will win a mixed 6pack of Durvillea wines

On another note, Jane has another blog coming this week, so look out for what has been going on down on the farm later this week!

This week we had six entries into our Pinot Grigio competition, the winner was drawn out of a hat this morning. This weeks lucky winner of a 6 pack of Durvillea Wine is Rebekah. Rebekah loves Pinot Grigio matched with anything that has blue cheese in it! If you can email me your address Rebekah we will get this wine off to you today- sophie@durvilleawines.co.nz

Do you want a chance to win to win a 6 pack of Durvillea Wine too? Last night I made a fantastic blue cod dish with a very easy and tasty Beurre Blanc style recipe that Maree from Hotel d’Urville gave to me. I served the fish with mashed potato, the Butter Suace sauce (recipe below) and a spinach, baby tomato and sliced fennel bulb salad with a squeezed lemon dressing. This was fantastic, so easy to do, and matched perfectly with Sauvignon Blanc.

This week we want you to tell us One of the best meals you have had with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Same as the last two weeks, simply comment on this blog below with your best/most memorable meal you have had paired with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and you are in the draw!

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 comment a week will be picked Wednesday mornings each week for the whole of July by the team in the office and that lucky person will win a mixed 6pack of Durvillea wines

Since Maree’s Butter Sauce (Beurre Blanc style)  was so easy and delicious I have posted it below:

In a microwavable dish add one diced shallot, 2 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar, 4 Tbsp White Wine (I used Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc) and some peppercorns. Warm in microwave for 45 seconds.

Put two egg yolks into food processor and blend

Sieve white wine reduction and add to food processor while motor going

Melt 200g of butter and slowly add to food processor while motor going in a steady stream (like adding oil to make mayonnaise)

Blend until thickens then serve.

With ten fantastic entries for how to enjoy Pinot Noir, we all found it too hard to decide on a winner! So we ended up picking it out of a hat this morning. The winner of the first July competition for the “Best way to enjoy Pinot Noir” is Kate Fisher. Kate Fisher likes to drink Pinot Noir in the sounds while the sun is setting with salty hair and skin under warm clothes after a long day of fine entertaining with best marlborough friends! Kate we have a mixed six pack of Durvillea Wines coming your way. Please email us sophie@durvillewines.co.nz with your address.

Do you want to go in the draw to win a mixed six pack of wine too? At the moment my favourite wine is the Pinot Grigio, so for the new competition this week, we want to know your Best food match with Pinot Grigio, it can be a recipe or simply a food wine match. Just comment on this blog below for your chance to go in the draw!

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 compeition
* One person’s comment a week will be picked Wednesday mornings each week for the whole of July by the team in the office and that lucky person will win a mixed 6pack of Durvillea wines

 I am into my third week being back in the office after three weeks away in South East Asia, I had a fabulous time starting at the top of Laos and travelling right down to the bottom and then into Cambodia. They are both amazing countries, and I recommend it to anyone thinking of visiting either of these places, the scenery, people and food are all incredible!

Durvillea Girl at Angkor Wat, Cambodia

While I was away Jane covered for me, it seems we had a lot of exports and other things going on, so she was rather busy by the sounds of things, she did a great job, and I am very grateful to her!

A few things have happened for Durvillea in the last few weeks. One is that all three Durvillea Wines are now available up at Mt Hutt Ski Field, so you can now enjoy a glass of Durvillea up the mountain.

 The second thing is that we had a great review from Yvonne Lorkin for both our Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio. She named our 2008 Sauvignon Blanc as wine of the week a couple of weeks ago on her National radio show, and then last Friday  mentioned that our 2009 Pinot Grigio was “possibly one of the best Pinot Gris I have ever tried” (http://bit.ly/d57THw)

 The third thing was that as we started to get organised for another promotion on facebook we had it pointed out to us by a kind twitter follower that there are in fact Facebook guidelines against the sort of promotion we were planning to run, which was a bit of a surprise to us! For more information on these guidelines visit http://bit.ly/93IFYq  With social marketing, things are always changing and evolving and since these guidelines have been set in place by Facebook, we are going to follow them.

 We are still running our July competition though, it is just in a different format now! All competitions will be run on this blog and you can enter them now by commenting on this blog post. We will give you four chances to win, and the best comment each week will win a mixed three pack of Durvillea Wine. The weekly winner will be decided on a Wednesday morning.

As we are in the middle of winter, and our Pinot Noir seems to be flying out the door.
We want you to tell us your favourite way to enjoy a glass of Pinot Noir (comment below on this blog). If you have any questions please email me at sophie@durvilleawines.co.nz  Otherwise we look forward to your comments and the first winner will be drawn Wednesday 8th July.

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 compeition
* One person’s comment a week will be picked Wednesday mornings each week for the whole of July by the team in the office and that lucky person will win a mixed 3pack of Durvillea wines