Today we made our first pick for the 2010 harvest for Durvillea and Astrolabe, this is the first pick of about 60 picks that we will do over the next month.
The Wrekin
The pick today started at 7.30am at the Wrekin Vineyard, up the Brancott Valley which is part of Southern Valleys. As there are so many clones here we will probably return and do about 4 more picks so all the fruit and clones are picked at the optimum times.
This vintage will start off slowly over the next few days, and probably be all go by the middle of next week, we are looking at picking some Pinot Gris tomorrow, and then some more next week. It is hard to know exactly what is being picked when as it is up to to our Viticulturist and the Winemakers, and the weather of course!
I managed to pop out to the vineyard this morning to get some photos of the picking in action. Below is a video of Marge and the team picking Pinot Noir, clone 114. It is the first video I have taken, so please excuse the sideways camera angles! Should have it sorted for next time!! More photos available on our face book page www.facebook.com/durvilleawines
It has been a good couple of weeks in the office, on Tuesday I headed over to Nelson for the day to visit customers over there, it was a fabulous day and I managed to squeeze in 12 visits and get Durvillea on a couple of new wine lists, I also managed to fit in a visit to Shoe Clinic to buy a new pair of running shoes.
The training hasn’t been going so well for the Saint Clair half marathon, it is 6 weeks away tomorrow and I seem to have half the motivation I had 2 months ago when I started training! A friend has been giving me tips and has started me on an interval training programme once a week, I have been wearing my Durvillea singlet and looking like such a mess at the end of each session I am not sure if it is good advertising! The training is a 2km jog then 400m sprint 1minute rest, 600m sprint, 1minute rest, 1km sprint, 1minute rest, 2km sprint, 1minute rest, 1km sprint, 1minute rest, 600m sprint, 1minute rest, 400m sprint. I must admit, I seem to have long minute rests in between, and I haven’t quite made it to the 2km sprint yet! Am hoping to try out a 12km run at some point this weekend.
As it is Easter next week Meg and Bella will be coming home, and it will be good to see them. Our younger cousin Alice and her friend Jaleesa are over here from Australia doing a vintage with Whitehaven at the moment, and are staying with Jane and Simon, so it will be a very full house-may need to have them at my house for the weekend.
Pinot Noir
We are also starting a new competition in April, so keep watching our facebook website for your chance to win a bottle of two of wine!