Tag Archives: arabella

Art and Craft-musings on the banks of the Thames

Posted on by Jane
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Lois Waghorn

This morning Simon and I woke ridiculously early as we struggle to adjust to Northern Hemisphere time. We went walking along the Thames. It was breathtakingly beautiful looking down the river as we crossed the Vauxhall Bridge. We marvelled at everything from the lamplights to Westminster. Walking back through St James Park Simon won the spot the squirrel competition.
As we wondered down the river pathway we thought about Simon’s Great-Great Grandfather Arthur Waghorn who worked as a lighterman on the Thames. He left England with his wife Louisa and young family to settle on Banks Peninsula. I always think it is interesting to consider the influence of these ancestors on who we are. These people we assume left in the hope of making a better life and taking an opportunity. They were brave and bold and I hope we reflect a little of that strength of character.
One of the traits that undoubtedly runs through the Waghorn family is creativity. As I listen to Simon discuss his wines I think it is clear how important his skill as a winemaker is balanced with his creativity in crafting the wines. Art or craft – maybe both?
Creativity is openly expressed by the women of the extended Waghorn family. Simon’s mother was a potter and a painter. His sister Sarah carries on this and is indeed a wonderful potter. “Sarah’s pots are hand built sculptural pieces. Using the coil method she uses a few simple tools and concentrates on form and natural shapes. The majority of her work is in sculptural and earthenware clay.”
www.sarahford.co.nz
Our niece Julia Waghorn is a talented graphic designer.

Julia Waghorn

She is stylish, creative and also very funny. Stealing from her website she describes the influence of a creative family. “Julia’s grandmother was the person who began her interest in Graphic Design. As a child they would spend hours in Lois’s games room drawing and painting. “
www.juliapenelope.com
Arabella, our youngest daughter is also bitten by this creative bug.

Arabella screen printing Meg's wedding invitation

She is in her 3rd year at art school at Auckland University. She is currently involved in an interactive installation in Myer’s Park as part of the Fan Trail project which is part of the Rugby World Cup activities.
“Inspired by Myers Park’s history as a colonial shanty town, Elam students combine what little is remembered from the past with the contemporary. Abstracted dwellings of geometric forms, clustering and lacing through the grassy hills, suggest community and a collective culture.“

“The living sculpture explores the displacement of those who once lived on this site as well as travellers who’ve come from near and far to attend the Rugby World Cup 2011 games. “

http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/events/amped-in-the-park

Check out their blog.

http://elamfantrailproject.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy a glimpse at the artistic work of our crafty lot.

-Jane.

O’Tannenbaum – Arabella’s Christmas trees, recipe and competition

Posted on by Jane
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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

Easter Eggs and Pinot Noir

Posted on by Meg
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We hope everyone had a good easter break!

It has been a busy easter weekend here at Astrolabe Farm. Arabella is home for the university mid-term break and Meg arrived home on Good Friday. We got straight into some chores – waterblasting, mowing, harvesting the quince and picking up walnuts. This was all in preparation for Saturday which was a full on day as Jane and Sophie were hosting a wine tasting at Astrolabe Farm for some American visitors off a cruise ship and Meg & Bella were scheduled to pick some of the Pinot Noir grapes.

It was beautiful weather so picking the Pinot Noir was not too difficult a task. We were picking what we call the “sandybank Pinot” which are grapes from a small section of the vineyard that grow on an old creek bed. The soil is very sandy so it doesn’t retain water as well as other parts of the vineyard. It was easy to see which grapes needed to be picked as the vines had started to yellow and defoliate. The Pinot is under nets as that part of the vineyard is very attractive to the birds who populate the hedges that border the property.

The first task is to lift the nets so that we can pick under them. This is quite difficult for some of the more diminutive members of the family! Simon came out to double check the fruit and confirm the rows that needed to be picked. We pick using snips and wearing gloves. You end up with pretty sticky hands by the end of the day. Although it looks a bit silly we often pick in cotton dresses and skirts as they are nice and cool to work in. We often add a flowery apron to hold our snips in too! We place small yellow bins out along the rows and when the row is finished Arabella drives the truck along and we empty the small bins into a larger one that then gets driven out to the winery.

We had almost finished when the visitors from the cruise ship came out to see what we were up to. They were very interested in the whole process and we even managed to get them to help out with some picking. When we had a pretty full bin Dad came to pick it up and we cycled back to the house for some refreshments.

On returning home Arabella was straight into the kitchen working on a spectacular easter cake. We will post a recipe later in the week but until then here is a preview!

There are heaps more pictures from the Pinot Noir picking on our Flickr account here – check them out, it will make us happy!  – Meg & Arabella.

Who’s that girl? Introducing Arabella!

Posted on by Meg
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bellaball2cropThe fifth ‘Who’s that girl?’ interview in an occasional series – questions and write up from Meg.

Born in sunny Gisborne in 1990, Bella is the baby of the Forrest-Waghorn family. She’s in her first year of a fine arts degree & BA at university and contributes an eye for design and a palate beyond her years to the Durvillea team. Arabella is a pretty busy girl but always finds time to help out with tastings in the Auckland area – in fact she and Sophie will be at Farro’s from 2:30 -5:30 tomorrow! (Saturday 10th October).

What is your role at Durvillea?: 

So far I have been helping with tastings in stores, I also help out at home with tastings and functions.  I suppose because I am home more than the others I am often involved in discuss visual look of the brand with Jane (ma).

Where do you live?:

Half of the time at home at in Grovetown on Astrolabe Farm  and half in Auckland in a hostel during the university term. I am in my first year of study at the university of Auckland  studying arts and fine arts

Forrest004

Arabella at Sponge Bay, Gisborne.

 How has your family being in the wine industry impacted on you?:

I spent a lot of time hanging out and playing at wineries, drawing on white boards and those gigantic office pads, climbing on the tanks, riding on pallet jacks  and  investigating the lab. I remember when I started high school and all my friends were really excited and fascinated by the science labs but to me they were pretty normal.

 Any childhood memories of being a winemaker’s daughter?: 

Definitely having a winery as your playground, which had perfect concrete for riding your scooter! The mysterious witches garden behind the winery and eating too many sour grapes from the vines.

What’s your favourite thing about coming home to Marlborough?: 

Being at the farm, relaxing and catching up on sleep, and the endless supply of my favourite tasty home grown foods, garlic, basil,  raspberries, redcurrants and  lemons.

Arabella enjoying some of her favourite Astrolabe Farm produce

Arabella enjoying some of her favourite Astrolabe Farm produce

Any Blenheim local knowledge or tips you’d like to share?: 

Well my favourite place is definitely Cruzies cafe, we have been going there for as long as I remember, I love the decor with its old plates and kitchenware. If you go be sure to have a mince savoury –  my personal favourite is the potato top which sadly no longer fits in my gluten-less diet.

Cruizies Cafe in Blenheim

Cruizies Cafe in Blenheim

What do you like about Auckland?:

After being at boarding school in the very chilly Christchurch it is nice to be in a sub-tropical climate. I also enjoy living in the busy centre of the city with walking distance to all the nice shops, cafes and galleries.

What’s your favourite wine?: 

Savingon blanc, I was practically reared on it (just kidding) but it ismy favourite variety, perhaps because I have grown up in a region that excels at it so I have never had a bad glass. My favourite red wine possibly ever and I’m not just saying that is the Durvillea Pinot Noir, I love the lightness of it and the bright raspberry and fruit flavours.

Arabella in Italy, the home of some of her favourite things - pizza, pasta & red wine!

Arabella in Italy, the home of some of her favourite things - pizza, pasta & red wine!

 

 And a meal to go with it?:

With the Durvillea Pinot Noir I would have one of my specialty pizzas which I have been able to successfully develop into a gluten free version, it has to have plenty of parmesan, fresh basil, pesto, feta, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and blackball salami.

Who would you recommend Durvillea wines to?:

Probably someone a bit older than me, I fear  my peers would just funnel it!

Can you sum up the Durvillea range for us?: 

 Seaweed, my mother and my sisters – oh and the wine (thanks Pa).

Libby, Meg and Arabella.

Libby, Meg and Arabella.

Behind the scenes…

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Today we had a photo shoot in Wellington with all three girls and Jane – so we have a few nice pictures of us all together. The last group photos of the four of us are from Libby’s 21st & we are all dressed as Cowboys and Indians so it will be nice to have something a bit more dignified and slightly more p.c.!

Libby is currently in New Zealand from Brisbane for her university holidays so we had a one day window to meet up and have some photos done.

It was pretty fun to get all made up and we amused ourselves in between by taking quite a few silly photos. We all dressed in black, so we looked like mafia widows when we grabbed some lunch after.

Now we just have to wait and see how the professional ones turn out!


Libby’s best Top Model/Covergirl style shot.


Bella is unimpressed by our candid photography.


I included this picture purely because Libby looks so much like Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl in it!

See?

- Meg

Harvest ’09

Posted on by Durvillea
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Claire & Arabella

Looking back towards our house from the vineyard

Here are a few pics from this year’s vintage. Picking the Pinot Noir at Astrolabe Farm this day were Jane, Bella & Meg. We also had much appreciated help from our cousin Claire and her partner David.

It was a great Marlborough day that day. We really do get great weather! We were handpicking obviously and because we are all somewhat ‘vertically challenged’ we didn’t bother taking the nets off – we just picked underneath.

Handpicking grapes is pretty social & pleasant work. The grapes are at a nice height and you aren’t carrying anything much around with you.

Just after these were taken we went inside for a delicious lunch of pinwheel scones made by Arabella & picked some walnuts & pears for Claire and David to take back to Christchurch with them.


Nets on

Jane picking


Claire & Jane


Claire, David & Jane ready for lunch


Bella emptying a bin

Note the iPod headphones – for avoiding mother & sister!

Who is this?

Posted on by Durvillea
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Durvillea is a ‘little sister’ wine for established label Astrolabe Wines. It’s made by Astrolabe’s winemaker Simon Waghorn. Taking responsibility for the wine after Simon’s actually made it are his wife Jane, and three daughters Meg, Libby and Arabella – with lots of help from the Astrolabe team. This is a great chance for all of us to be more actively involved in the industry that’s been a big influence in all of our lives.

A 25 year involvement in the wine industry can’t help but have some effect on the whole family. It’s shaped where we’ve been born, where we’ve lived, the pattern and rhythm of family life and even some of our family values. We’ve been very proud of our dad’s (or husband’s in Jane’s case) work so far and it’s exciting to be able to support it in a material way.

This is just a little introductory post to introduce some of the people you will hear from on this blog:

Meg – hi internet, I’m the one writing this post so I will go first! I’m 23, born in Adelaide and now living in lovely Wellington. I’m working in a library (another family profession!) and starting some (more) postgrad study.

Libby – Libby, the middle daughter, is 21 born in illustrious Te Kauwhata. She is currently in tropical Queensland studying law and international relations. In her spare time she works at a bottle store, subtly promoting quality Marlborough wines to Brisbanites.

Arabella – Bella the youngest is 18 born in Gisborne. She’s studying Fine Arts in Auckland and getting her relatively sophisticated palate used to the typical first year’s drinks of choice. There may be a bit of Durvillea winging its way to get her through if she’s lucky!

Jane – Jane, of course, is the mother. She lives on Astrolabe Farm (a vineyard and olive grove) in Grovetown, Marlborough. She manages the farm as well as working for Astrolabe Wines in all sorts of other capacities. She also spends a bit of time being the supreme hostess for any waifs and strays that find themselves on her doorstep.

Anyway, that’s all for this little post. Must go to bed as Jane, Bella & Sophie (our lovely cousin and Client Relationship Manager for Astrolabe) are arriving here in Wellington bright and early tomorrow to meet with our fabulous designers, Neogine.

-Meg

P.S – excuse the slightly crazy picture – it was surprisingly hard to find one of all five of us on my computer – this one’s a bit old really but we’ll update soon!