Wine of the Week

Sue Courtney's Wine of the Week features the Seresin 2007 Sauvignon Blanc alongside the Seresin 1997 Sauvignon Blanc. We look forward to tasting the 2007 in 10 years time too !

Sculptures at Seresin

Our friend Hazel from Oriel Gallery in Picton has arranged for an exhibition of sculptures at Seresin Estate. Four pieces were installed yesterday afternoon on the upper terrace at the Home Vineyard - pieces by Rebecca Rose and Duncan Leask.

Pictured here is 'Juice of Life' by Rebecca Rose (top), fittingly constucted using grape vines and 'Passively Drifting' by Duncan Leask (bottom) resplendent in this morning's sunrise.

Harvest Starts

We celebrated the start of the 2008 harvest with breakfast and glass of Moana Methode Champenoise in the early morning sun.




The beautiful tables and bench seats you can see were made by Christian who headed back home to Switzerland earlier this month.

The first grapes harvested were Sauvignon Blanc from young vines on the lower terrace - Nicholas Block - accompanied here by Luca.

Seresin Supporting Slowly

Slow Food has come to Marlborough and Seresin Estate is pleased to be supporting the movement's establishment here.

Slow Food is a non-profit, member-supported organisation encouraging people to take an interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and to think about how their food choices affect the rest of the world. Today there are over 80 000 members internationally.

MJ Loza (Seresin General Manager) and Colin Ross (Seresin Estate Manager) are part of Slow Food Marlborough's Founding Committee, working to build an awareness of Slow Food concepts in Marlborough and build membership support for a local 'convivium.

Seresin Estate is hosting the first Slow Food event, a 'Picking Party' where people will have the chance to spend a morning as part of Seresin's harvest team - handpicking and handsorting grapes - a 'hands on' way to learn about organic and biodynamic viticulture and winemaking.

Newest Addition to the Family

On the night of Thursday February 28th, our cow Pumpkin, gave birth to a new calf. Here's the proud mom with her new beauty.

Making Rainbows

At the start of veraison, the time when the berries begin to ripen, we apply biodynamic preparation 501 – the horn silica preparation. This preparation is made from quartz crystal (silica) that has been ground to a very fine powder and then buried in the soil in cow horns over the summer. It is said that the properties of the silica help the vines to connect more strongly to the cosmic or airy forces, particularly sunlight. By applying this to our ripening grapes, we hope to increase the amount of photosynthesis the plant is performing and the amount of sugar in the plants, therefore the fruit. It’s like giving the vines a boost of liquid sunshine.

The application of preparation 501 begins well before sunrise… at 5:30 a.m. our dedicated team begins by filling barrels (to be hand-stirred) and our flow form with warm water – it needs to be right around body temperature before we can add in the 501. The preparation 501 is first mixed in a bucket and then introduced into the larger volume of water. We use 2.5g of the preparation in 32.5L of water for one hectare. We stir this for one hour, creating vortices, everyone taking turns.




Just as the sun is rising, we set out to apply all we have made in just one hour – before the sun begins to warm things up. We use a very fine mist that hovers in the air... Here you can see Sonya at Raupo and Kevin off in the distance, and if you are lucky you get to make a rainbow!

MINDFOOD

MINDFOOD, a new multi-media lifestyle publication, is now available at news stands and online.

As well as news, food, travel, culture and shopping the first online issue features an interview with Michael Seresin by wine writer and MINDFOOD wine editor, Joelle Thomson.