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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

Update from Sophie and a delicious Duck recipe

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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.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1 tablespoon chili oil
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 orange, juiced, rind cut into strips
  • 4 whole duck breasts, skin and fat removed
  • Olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons sliced chives, for garnish

Preparation

1.

In a large freezer bag, combine wine, chili oil, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, orange juice and orange rind. Mix well and add duck breasts. Seal bag and mix again. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
2.
Remove duck from marinade and shake off excess liquid. Heat and lightly oil a grill, ridged skillet or heavy flat skillet. Cook duck breasts to taste, turning frequently, 10 to 15 minutes. If desired, cooked breasts may be wrapped in foil and held for 10 minutes until serving.
3.
To serve, thinly slice breasts diagonally and arrange on a serving plate. Pour any juices in pan or foil on top. Garnish with chives, and serve.

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

  • Chalk and Cheese
  • Spiro’s
  • Thirsty Camel Balmoral

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!

An Ode to Autumn

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The harvest is now over. All the grapes for the 2011 vintage have been picked, except of course the 4 rows of Riesling which we hope will turn into sticky.

Riesling still on the vine at Astrolabe Farm

This is a risky business and we need the weather to be just right. We are also wondering if the weather as affected the mushrooms. For some reason the mushroom harvest this year has been particularly poor. Yesterday Simon and wandered about “shrooming” but we only gathered enough to add to the lamb shank casserole.
It has been a wet Easter weekend so there has been little activity outside. A couple of days rest means I am now eager to tidy up the veggie garden. My vegetable garden has been quite unproductive this year. I still can find potatoes and a few cherry tomatoes from the glass house. However the focus this year has been on growing flowers for Meg and Henry’s wedding. Although that was 6 weeks ago we have marigolds, salvia and dahlias galore.

Dahlias galore

Dahlias have been an absolute highlight for me this summer. They have flowered continuously for weeks.

Marigolds

More dahlias

Dogwood

The Dogwoods are now dropping their leaves. They have been very showy this year. Indeed the autumn colours are lovely. The pear tree is laden and the swans have made a little track across the pond paddock to feast on the windfalls.
We have removed many of our feijoa trees to make way for my firewood coppice but we still have enough to ensure a good supply for eating and cooking . Our good friend James Hall from SPQR was down visiting a week or so ago and he sent me a feijoa cake recipe that has lived on his fridge for some time. Today I made it and include the recipe here for you. I am not sure who created this recipe but it has probably came from the NZ Herald.
The Best Feijoa Cake
125g butter
200g white sugar (approx ¾ cup)
2 eggs 
165g flour (approx 1 1/3 cups)
2tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
30g ground almonds (about one packet)
225g sour cream
1tsp almond essence
Approx.500g ripe feijoas – skinned and cut in a half or thirds
1 Tbsp heaped coarse grained sugar (demerara is ideal)
A generous pinch of ground ginger

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Prepare a 22cm cake tin. Cream together the butter and sugar very well. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined, then lastly the essence. Sift the dry ingredients over mixture and add at the same time the sour cream and ground almonds. Fold in carefully until well combined. (Mixture is quite thick). Spoon into prepared pan and very lightly press in the fruit cut side up. The fruit should be in a single layer. Sprinkle sugar and ginger over fruit. Put the cake into the oven and reduce heat to 180C. Bake 50 mins, turn oven off and leave in oven for an hour or overnight. Serve warm.

(The cake is quite pudding like but very tasty and a change from other recipes I have tried which are more carrot cake in style.)

So Easter is almost at an end. Arabella is back to university tomorrow but has taken all the photos for my blog. We will have to pack away all our Easter chicks until next year. However we love autumn, the perfect season for redheads, and there is nothing quite so nice at the end of the day as drawing the curtains to sit in front of the fire with a glass of pinot noir .

Jane

Update from Sophie

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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!

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

Posted on by Jane
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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

 

Sophie’s Update and a New competition

Posted on by Durvillea
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It is just over six weeks till Christmas  and you can definitely tell. Christmas carols are already being played in stores, lots more orders are starting to come in and finally the weather is warming up- today is forecast for 27degrees in Blenheim!

Tasting new releases at Chesters, Brisbane

Last week Jason, Jeremy our viticulturist and I were in Brisbane for a meeting with our Australian distributors. This meeting went really well, we tasted all of our new release wines with them and all four states seemed to be in line in terms of pricing, the branding, and their views going forward. Interestingly the Kekerengu Sauvignon Blanc from our Astrolabe range seemed to be very popular over there.

Currently we only have Durvillea in two of the four states, QLD and VIC, but in both states the brand is being well received, the Durvillea Pinot Grigio seems to be a real winner at the moment.

Coming back to Christmas however, this year we are having Christmas at Astrolabe Farm, and it will be my family (the McLernons) and the Waghorns. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, and the food on Christmas Day is definitely a highlight. We normally have a hot ham and a turkey and many other delicious treats that various family members bring along. This year Meg and I have decided that we should probably contribute a bit more, so we are being a little bit cheeky using this competition to get recipes and ideas from you!

Family Christmas '09

But we will also be giving you a chance to win!

To enter this competition we want you to give us your favourite Christmas recipe, it can be an entree, a dip, a stuffing, a glaze, a whole meal, a dessert, whatever Christmas food/meal is most dear to you.

At the end of each week the prize will be 2 bottles of Durvillea Wine (for the first five weeks) and then the last week (being drawn 17th December) everyone who has entered the competition will go into the draw again to win a Magnum of Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc.

Each week each of us Durvillea girls will also be posting one of our favourite recipes, so to start of this week I am going to give you two little ones that are almost always used in our family!

One is a fantastic Hot Ham glaze, and the other a Turkey Stuffing that my mum Nicki always uses.

Hot Ham Glaze
½ c runny honey
1 ½ c brown sugar
2 tbsp mustard (any)
½ c juice (pineapple or orange)
Whole cloves

Heat honey in microwave until warm,
Stir in the brown sugar
Add the mustard and then juice

Remove skin from ham, cut diamonds into the fat, stud with cloves and brush glaze over. Bake for a couple of hours at 160degrees. Check regularly to ensure it isn’t burning.

Turkey Stuffing
1 C fresh brown bread crumbs
4-6 shallots cooked in olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic sliced and cooked in olive oil
1 c black olives
200gm bacon or prosciutto-chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary

So post up your favourite recipe or meal on this blog and we will do the first draw this coming Friday 19th November for the first 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 compeition
* 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