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

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.

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!

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

 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

Last weekend Sophie came up to Wellington to do two tastings at Thorndon New World with me. I really enjoy the chance to do tastings, it is definitely a skill and I am feeling pretty confident with them now. I think the supermarket tastings are really worthwhile – it is such a competitive market at the moment and consumers can feel overwhelmed with the sheer volume of wine available. Having a chance to taste and have a chat with us will hopefully inspire them to pick up a bottle next time they see us on the shelf. The Pinot Grigio was very popular, lots of people who weren’t big Pinot Gris fans were surprised by how much they liked it. I also think customers really appreciated the fact that we are a family business rather than just merchandisers hired to sell the wine (not that there is anything wrong with that either!). As usual our Durvillea aprons made by Jane went down very well. Sophie also did an Astrolabe tasting at the City Market which she really enjoyed – although it is a pretty hard sell getting the public to taste wine early on a Sunday morning! I personally love the City Market – it gives Wellington a proper city feel I think. Gusty Gourmet is a terrific blog which has some recent entries about the city market – well worth checking out.

This weekend I had another go at making Quince Jelly. Last time I had my mum to help me out but I went solo this weekend. I used the instructions from our own quince jelly post. It is a real family tradition for me – my granny is very good at making it and she was taught by her mother who was in turn taught by hers. This time I used more apple and it worked out well. It is lovely and clear and set quite firmly. I think that the extra pectin and the clear apple juice helped. I also strained it through three layers of stockinette which may have kept it clearer. It is also a deeper ruby red this time. The quinces were brought up from Astrolabe Farm for me by Sophie.

The other main news in my life is my lovely new bike. It is going to help me cut down on my car use especially for short trips. I’ll write more about it later but will leave you with a pretty picture of it.

- Meg

Tim in the winery, checking on the wines

While they have been down south it has been all go here. Tim has been doing trials and final adjustments for the 2009 Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc, particulary looking looking at the balance and structure of the wine, to get it just right! We have just booked in a bottling date for the 16th October.

The 2009 Durvillea Pinot Noir is a work in progress, it is still in barrel and we are waiting for the malolactic fermentation (MLF) to finish (rounds and and softens the palate) before we finish this wine ready for bottling.

Photo may have been digitally enhanced!

While Tim has been looking after the winery and production side I have been organising a new promotion for Durvillea. This is for the month of October and is to encourage people to load up fan photos of themselves drinking Durvillea. While the one I have put up is of a a friend and I in Greece earlier this year, you get the point of what I’m hoping we’ll get some people doing( though not necessarily photoshopped). Especially with an incentive of a 6pack of wine to win! (Visit www.facebook.com/durvilleawines for more information)

I am off to Seafest this weekend in Kaikoura, but I look forward to looking at photos of you all drinking Durvillea in different places on Monday morning. Have a great weekend, and I’ll leave you with a couple more photos of Jane and Simon’s trip down south. -Sophie

Durvillea SB as the recommended wine on the Ichi Ni wine list, Melbourne

We started off in Sydney where we met with Shane and James, from Lewis Fine Wines. We had a lovely lunch at Pendolino, and it was a great chance to get to meet them and to get a feel for the market over there. Just by chance it turned out that our Israeli and Hong Kong Astrolabe distributors both lived in Sydney, and neither Jason and I had had a chance to meet them before, so we were able to meet up with them to discuss their respective markets. We now have plans to send Durvillea into Israel, hopefully by Christmas.

Neil, the restaurant Manager and I at Paesano's, Knox City, Melbourne

Next stop was Melbourne where we met with Ian, Andrea and Sarina from Twelve Bottles, they have been doing a fantastic job, and it was great to get a chance to see them in action.

While things have been tough with the recession it looks like things are finally starting to pick up over there.

We ate at some great places that sold our wine, such as Paesanos in Knox City, an Italian family  restuarant, where Frank’s mum still cooks in the kitchen!

Jason, Ian and I with two of the staff at Ichi Ni, St Kilda, Melbourne

Another winner was Ichi Ni, in St Kilda, fabulous Japanese tapas, especially the Wagyu Beef and the soft shell crab California roll. The soft shell crab was fanastic with our Sauvignon, it was also great to look round and see other people drinking our wine.

Then off to the Barossa, after a very early morning flight we arrived into a very windy and warm Adelaide (the place where Meg was born). We hired a car and made our way through the beautiful country side to meet with Kym, Dave and Michael from Teusner Wines. The plan is for our Brisbane distriubutors Smashing Bottles to expand into SA, possibly enlisiting the help of Kym and Dave.  The Barossa is a beautiful place, with the oldest vines I have ever seen, a complete contrast to the young Marlborough vines I am used to.

Kym talking to Jason about the Grenache bush vines

After a great lunch at Wanera with Kym and Dave and a bottle of their Avatar wine, Kym offered to play tour guide, taking us around the Barossa country side, showing us his different blocks, from bush vine Grenache to Mataro.We were also lucky enough to join the boys in their Burgundy tasting they were doing that afternoon.

We are off to Brisbane tomorrow to meet with Kris and Paul from Smashing Bottles.  But before I go I must fill you on on one of the highlights of this week,  Jason and I’s return trip to Adelaide today. Deciding we needed to get some more photos of the gnarly 130+ year old vines we veered off the highway in search of some, finally finding some on one of the dirt roads of the Barossa. Unfortunately on entering one of the drive ways we felt the car sink down into the mud.

We hear there was a lot of rain there last week…..

Fraser, the only other Kiwi we met in the Barossa managed to lend a hand

Afternoon tea at Astrolabe Farm

The 2009 Durvillea Pinot Grigio was bottled on Monday, after worrying that the labels weren’t going to make it in time, we managed to get them flown down from Auckland for the 7.30am bottling! Lucky for me it’s the winemaker’s job to taste the wine off, so Tim was down there bright and early making sure it was all going to plan.

With the new vintage we have changed the labels so we can distinguish between the different varieties, the most common complaint from the 2008 vintage was that people couldn’t tell the varieties apart. So watch this space for the new labels, and the back label – my favourite part.

The rest of the week has felt rather rushed as it is another short week, I met up with Jules (@winewanker) on Tuesday at the Liquorland Top 100 competition where he has been stewarding, it was great to finally meet him after all the tweeting! We didn’t enter Durvillea into that competition, but I have been busy entering a few others, such as the Sydney International Wine Competition, and a few other national ones. So we are looking forward to the results.

In the vineyards all is going well, Jeremy the viticulturist has been looking after the growers, and organising all of the pruning, most of our growers are almost all done now.  This vintage in particular the pruning and vineyard management is going to be one of the most important ways to control the size of the crop, to make sure we don’t over produce. This was one of the most important messages that seemed to come out of Bragato, Marlborough in particular needs to make sure we don’t over crop and repeat the mistake of 2008; producing too much wine with out route to market .

Anyway better go, have just got home to Christchurch for the night, as I am off to Queenstown for the next four days on holiday, hopefully the weather will let us get some skiing in,

- Sophie

Things have actually been very busy, and I have only had a day and a half there this week. Not enough it seems! I flew up to Auckland last Friday, and my dear cousin Bella and I did a tasting at Caro’s on Saturday. While it was an Astrolabe tasting we did manage to open a bottle of Durvillea, to which we had great response. John said it was one of their busiest days this year – on par with Christmas apparently!

Then Monday night we had an Astrolabe dinner for the Auckland restauranteurs who have been stocking our wine to say thanks. We had it at a great Japanese restaurant called Soto. Great food matches for the wine!

Some of the team at Soto

Then back to the office. Slightly sobering, and many emails to come back to! However I did manage to sign off the Durvillea banners that you will start to see around when we do tastings. And print off some shelf talkers to send to some of our retailers- they are on their way guys!

On a slightly different but exciting note – I was contacted by a guy from the ship l’Astrolabe (named after Dumont D’Urville’s ship just like us). They are on a mission repairing huts in Antarctica and want to take some Astrolabe wine because of the name connection. I’m going to try and get them to take some Durvillea as well (since it’s named after the seaweed Durvillea Antarctica).

And now I’m in Hawkes Bay, still flat out! And running a virtual office from up here, working well so far. Jason is over in Europe, basing himself in Holland, although he was in Copenhagan the last couple of days. Est wines in Denmark who already take Astrolabe have just decided to take Durvillea in their next shipment, which is great news. He is off to see the SAS next, who already have our savvy on their inflight wine list.

Jane and Simon are in Hamilton, in fact Jane just did a Durvillea tasting at Te Rapa New World today, so I might go call her, want to hear how it went. … I’ll be back next week to let you know what else has been going on in the Durvillea/Astrolabe office.

- Sophie.

What is your role at Durvillea?: The official title is Client Relationship Manager, but my role is very broad, I am in the office, look after exports, accounts etc. I look after our distributors nationally and am starting to focus on Australia as well. I ensure they are supplied with enough marketing material- both Astrolabe and Durvillea, that they have enough wine, and manage their allocations. More recently I have been doing a lot of the social marketing for Durvillea.

What is your favourite part of the job?: Interacting with people from the many different markets we go into, and getting the chance to understand how each market works. Each market is so unique and must be approached differently. One of the best things is having your wine available in so many different countries- such as Mexico, Israel, Slovakia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Ireland, UK… to name a few!

And your least favourite part of the job?: Not sure if I have a least favourite part… maybe some of the paperwork, but you get that in any job…

What’s your favourite varietal?: Chardonnay – I’m sure it’s coming back into fashion!

Any recommendations for a great meal with a glass of Marlborough Sav?: Prawn and Avocado salad with a citrus dressing.

How did you come to be working at Astrolabe?: I moved to Marlborough in February 2008 to work a vintage at Whitehaven Wine Company. I became passionate about the industry and an administration role at Astrolabe came up at Astrolabe so I applied. This role has changed dramatically since I started and I have started to take on more responsibility, I now have Jane (my aunt) and who comes in to help me out three times a week, which takes a lot of the pressure off.

Meg & Sophie on Wainui Beach in Gisborne showing an early interest in seaweed

What’s it like working with your extended family: Great fun! I miss Jane not being in the office for our morning coffees! [She’s just on a short holiday – Meg]

How do you like living in Marlborough and working in the wine industry?: Living in Marlborough is a bit quieter than what I am used to, but there are enough bars, and a good crew of people that there are always things going on. We are close enough to the mountains to ski in winter and we are so near to the sounds that we can pop down after work for a few drinks or a skurf in summer. Working in the wine industry is great as there are always things going on and the year is never dull. From Vintage, to new release, to Christmas and then back to Vintage it is always busy and exciting and you are always learning. Plus the perk of getting a free bottle of wine now and then isn’t half bad either!

As a relative newcomer to Blenheim have you got any bar or restaurant recommendations?: Scotch is a great new wine bar that has opened, it has an interesting and international wine list and a great choice of tapas- the chilli salt squid is a favourite!

If you could visit or work in any wine region in the world where would you want to go?: I would love to go and visit France and tour around the country, spending a good few months there, exploring all the different wine regions. Friends have just started a winery in Spain, so that would be another option! Or completely off the wine regions, I would like to live in Canada, we are looking to expand our market share there now, and the way they do things is so different, the idea of working for an agent and with the liquor boards there is quite intriguing…

Who is your favourite Durvillea daughter?: Argh, this is awkward….

And finally, who would you recommend Durvillea to?: Anyone who is after a great wine, with an eye catching label and story, at an affordable price.