According to this Huffington Post article, 'no celebrity career is really complete without their own wine'. They have profiled 10 organic vineyards and their owners in the film and music industries - featuring Sting, Danny Glover, Sam Neill, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Seresin's own Michael Seresin. Although the article is light-hearted, its always nice to see organics in action. Click here to take a look at the article.
The moon and its rhythms has long been an important part of Biodynamics. It has such a huge impact on the tides - why not soils, plants, people, and wine too? Biodynamics aims to work in harmony with these rhythms as much as possible - spraying the biodynamic preparations on the land and plants when they are best absorbed, pruning when vines are at their most resilient - the list goes on.
UK journalist Jonathon Ray, from the Telegraph, has been asking whether the moon affects how wine tastes. Ray discusses how the major UK supermarkets are holding their press tastings according to the Biodynamic calendar, and finding the results convincing. Click here to see the full article.
Colin Ross attended the Organics Aotearoa New Zealand conference in Hamilton last week and was on hand to accept, on behalf of Seresin, the award for Organic Producer of the Year.
We're excited to be part of the first Organic Winegrowers New Zealand, Organic Symposium. The Symposium will be held here in Marlborough on July 9 and 10 and feature some of New Zealand's leading experts in organic viticulture and marketing. For a program please email us.
Organic Winegrowers New Zealand (OWNZ) held their first Organic Viticulture Field Day on Friday 13th June. Seresin Estate hosted the afternoon session, which began with an introduction from our estate manager, Colin Ross, overlooking our compost piles.
We then wandered down to the compost piles where guest speaker Mike Weersing of Pyramid Valley Vineyards introduced the group to the Biodynamic Compost Preparations.
We got 60 willing volunteers to help us finish our second pile by inserting the preparations into the pile.
And finished it off by stirring and sprinkling valerian on it.
Guest speaker James Millton of Millton Vineyards discussed Cowpat Pits with the group while we turned the manure.
From there, Colin led a vineyard walk to show the group our various weeders and mowers.
We finished up the cowpat pits back at the shed where we inserted the preparations and topped them off with valerian.
Mike provided an overview to the group of some of the biodynamic concepts.
The day ended with a wine tasting and conversation. It was a joy to be part of this event and to able to share our story and philosophy of managing the land with the group.
We're not sure where he got the idea that we're "newly organified", but UK Telegraph writer Peter Grogan makes some insightful and interesting points in a recent article about organic wine.
Of our three vineyards, two (the Home Vineyard and Tatou) are certified organic, and have been since about 2000 and 2004 respectively. Our third property (Raupo Creek) is operated under organic principles, and in transition to full organic certification. All of our properties receive Biodynamic preparations and we're heading towards Biodynamic certification as well.
We agree that 'organic' and 'biodynamic' are not synonyms for quality and it's for this reason that we haven't made a big deal about our organic and biodynamic culture. Our first goal is to make great quality wine - the best wine we can possibly produce from what nature gives us in terms of our land and the season. In doing this, we practise organics and biodynamics because it's who we are, what we believe in and the way we believe we make the best quality wine.
While Grogan's article makes the point that some wineries are organic and biodynamic without going through certification, we believe certification is valuable for a number of reasons. Having someone else review our operations is a good discipline and helps bring in new ideas and stimulate fresh thinking. Certification is also being asked for by more consumers to provide assurances that a producer's claims can be backed up.
Our winery has recently been through its assessment for organic certification too, so, it won't be long before you see Seresin Estate wines on the market with a 'Certified Organic' logo on the back label .... watch this space.
Today was an exciting day at Seresin Estate. Our winemaking team finalised three of our 2007 wines:
Being a fruit day, it was a very good day to be tasting wines and we know the wines finalised yesterday will be special, building on the wonderful fruit from the low-yielding 2007 vintage.
"Fruit day?" I hear ytou ask ... it's a type of day characterised in the biodynamic calendar based on moon and planetary influences.
Check out the article in The Observer last year by UK wine writer Tim Atkin at the following link (http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/experts/timatkin/story/0,,1786074,00.html) for a fascintaing perspective on wines tasting different on different days depending on the phase of the moon.
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