Tuesday, October 27, 2009

One Man's Vinious Musings

Aussie wine blogger Andrew Graham had a good look through all the wines shown at a recent NZ Winegrowers tasting of newly released New Zealand wines. He made special mention of the 2007 Seresin wines - 'extraordinarily good' he reckons! Check out his blog for more...

Friday, October 23, 2009

The joys of Spring

The weather is noticeably warmer and its finally starting to feel like spring time so we thought we'd celebrate in style with a long lunch at our Waterfall Bay Restaurant.

Seresin’s favourite Cook, Marcia Chang-Hong, will prepare a four course menu of new season local produce; Asparagus, Marlborough Sounds Scallops, Spring Lamb and Strawberries.

Marcia first cooked for Michael Seresin, while working as Chef at iconic London restaurant Kensington Place, and we have been enjoying her food since she moved to Marlborough six years ago. Seresin staff will serve lunch and matching new-release wines in the relaxed setting of the small dining room on the water’s edge.

Lunch: Sunday November 15th
Tickets: Lunch with matching wines $120 per person, water taxi $40 return from Picton.
Boat departs Picton at 11.30am, limited to 40 people.
Reservations: Contact Moir Laird:
moir@seresin.co.nz or Ph +64 (0)3 572 9408

And just in time for the long weekend a spring recipe from Marcia using freshly picked artichokes from our garden and Seresin Lemon Olive oil.

Artichoke and Goat's cheese dip
6 artichokes
2-3 tbsp lemon oil
4-5 tbsp goat's cheese. You can use either a hard cheese, grated or a softer creamy one.
salt and pepper to taste
juice of 1 lemon

Bring artichokes to boil in a large pot of salted water. Simmer gently till artichokes are just cooked. Test by gently pulling at an outer leaf, it should just slip off with the slightest tug.

Drain and cool the artichokes. Peel off the tough outer layers till you get to the heart and use a teaspoon to scoop out the hairy centre. Puree the hearts with coarse sea salt, pepper, cheese, lemon juice and lemon olive oil. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve with crusty bread or as a spread on sandwiches. Will keep up to a week refrigerated.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

A new staff member

We would like to welcome Moir Laird to the Seresin team. Moir joins us as the new Marketing Assistant. With a degree in Commerce and Marketing Moir has already experienced several sides of the wine industry – including wine sales, cellar door, trade shows and getting her hands dirty over vintage.

She says "my love of great wine, good food, and looking after the world we live in brought me to Seresin. My first day here, I was initiated with a mass application of one of our biodynamic preparations to the vineyard – the whole team applying 500 by hand across the Estate. A perfect way to start what I’m sure will be an interesting and fulfilling role!"

Monday, October 19, 2009

Logan Brown 350 Lunch

We're proud to be supporting the Logan Brown 350 lunch. The Wellington Restaurant has teamed up with climate action group 350 and Greenpeace to offer a three-course lunch for the princely sum of 350 cents ($3.50). The lunch is designed to raise awareness around the issue of climate change and to highlight the International Day of Climate Action festival on 24 October.

Steve Logan was inspired to do something after watching a film produced by a New Zealand documentary maker, Lizzie Gillet. The Age of Stupid looks at climate change from the perspective of future generations looking back at 2008 asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?

Thousands of people registered online to go in the drawn to attend the 350 Lunch, which is being held this Wednesday (October 21). Eighty have been selected to enjoy the bistro menu, which will be matched with a glass of Seresin 2007 Rachel Pinot Noir.

Why 350? This refers to the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (in parts per million), which scientist have deemed the maximum safe level to prevent catastrophic climate change. Their goal, this year, is to get the Government to agree a 40 per cent emission reduction by 2020 at the UN climate summit at Copenhagen in December. Greenpeace have a similar mission - a 40% reduction by 2020 is what scientists recommend is necessary to meet the 350 target.

Logan Brown are also offering a special screening of the film that inspired it all. Paramount Cinema will show The Age of Stupid at the Paramount Cinema on 27th October at 6.30pm. Tickets are $3.50! To buy a ticket click here.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Creative Cultivation

Our newest addition to the family… 2 little (mostly) wild pigs. These girls have been ‘hard’ at work cultivating a plot of land that we will use for planting veggies. They do an excellent job turning the soil as they root around for insects and roots.

Hands-On the Land

This spring, to nourish the land with both physical matter and our energy, we went for a real hands-on approach in applying Preparation 500 to our land. While we always hand-stir a portion of our Preparation 500, and always apply it by hand to a few select areas, because of the size of our Estate, most of it is generally stirred and applied with machines. Stirring and applying the Preparation 500 by hand is said to allow your energy to enter the Preparation 500 and bring a sense of aliveness to the property. We thought we’d give our land a little extra love by trying to stir and apply as much of our Preparation 500 by hand as we could. We put in an excellent effort! We hand-stirred a total of 32 barrels, with 4800 litres, over a 4-day period and hand-applied Preparation 500 to as much of our Estate as was physically practical. As part of this, we were able to cover our entire home block by hand, grapes, olives, orchards, gardens, animals and all! Staff, family, friends and colleagues joined us to form a band of over 35 merry stirrers and flickers. The joy and positive energy that spread over the Estate was palpable as we twirled and skipped, flicking our 500 on the land that provides for us in so many ways.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Seresin Estate's own Food & Wine Festival

We are looking forward to February and to welcoming guests to our occasional restaurant at Waterfall Bay. Chef for our 2010 February dinners is Hamish Brown from ROKA restaurant in London.


Chef Hamish Brown spent his formative years growing up amongst Canterbury’s farming community. Inspired by his father, a successful chef with restaurants in New Zealand and Australia, Hamish developed a sense for the quality of local ingredients and a passion for combining the Asian cuisines which make up the Western Pacific Rim.

After a successful early career in New Zealand, Hamish worked his way up to the position of Executive Chef at Christchurch’s George Hotel. Eager to broaden his culinary base Hamish left New Zealand for England. His first employer was expatriate Peter Gordon at his London restaurant Providores. After 18 months working with Peter Gordon, in 2006 Hamish left for ROKA and a position as Head Chef. Part of the worldwide Zuma-ROKA restaurant group, ROKA is renowned for its contemporary Japanese-inspired food.
Michael Seresin says “all the wine lists at Zuma-ROKA restaurants worldwide feature Seresin wines, and it was a natural progression to build on that relationship and welcome Hamish to Waterfall Bay. His imaginative cooking combines the best ingredients for texture and clean flavours, a perfect match for Seresin wines.”






Monday, October 5, 2009

Down the Rabbit Hole

The Wellington City Gallery re-opened last week after some major renovations and we were there for the opening celebrations.

As the official wine supplier of the Wellington City Gallery, Seresin wines were served alongside the opening night menu created by the team at Nikau Cafe.

In fitting style the gallery re-opened with the eagerly awaited Yayoi Kusama exhibition. ‘Mirrored Years’ features much of Kusama’s earlier seminal work, alongside some new creations.

The Japanese artist describes herself as the “modern Alice in Wonderland”, and certainly creates art unlike any other. A prominent figure in the art world of the 1960s, Kusama’s work is described as idiosyncratic and consistently original. She is considered one of the most acclaimed and respected contemporary artists working today.

For more information on the exhibition, check out the City Gallery Website.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Spring is in the Air


The Spring Equinox marks the beginning of a New Year for us. The Earth is warming, the Sun begins to stay with us longer and life unfolds before our eyes. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, our families gathered to welcome in the New Year together. We strolled through the vineyard collecting dandelions to thread into a garland and then blew and decorated eggs and made omelettes. And in true spring fashion, two little chicks hatched that day!