It's been such a wet and cool spring so far (just 3 days into it) that even our lambs need woollen coats.
Writing in the August/September 2008 issue of Gourmet Traveller Wine, Bob Campbell MW gives Seresin's 2007 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc a 5 star, 95 point rating.
‘The country’s most expensive sav blanc is a strong statement by Seresin that will no doubt encourage others to go higher. It’s a powerful and complex wine with a strong influence of classy French oak, and mineral and ripe fruit flavours.’
Writing for the Times in the UK, wine critic Jane MacQuitty had some lovely things to say about Seresin's 2006 Leah Pinot Noir.
"Pinot noir is not Marlborough’s strongest suit but in the right hands, such as Seresin, aged in French barriques, the result is a spectacular, smoky, gamey red with fine red fruits on the finish."
Seresin's 2006 Marama Sauvignon Blanc has been selected for inclusion in a new book called 1001 Wines You Must Try Before You Die.
Edited by English wine judge and journalist Neil Beckett, there are numerous contributors from around the world. The wines from NZ were selected and reviewed by Bob Campbell MW. Other NZ wines selected for the book come from wineries including Ata Rangi, Cloudy Bay, Dry River, Felton Road, Kumeu River, Millton, Mount Difficulty, Neudorf and Stonyridge.
Graham Beattie, former leading New Zealand publisher, bookseller and book-award-judge, reviews the book on his blog.
Congratulations to Christian McCabe and the team at Wellington's Matterhorn on being awarded Cuisine magazine’s Restaurant of the Year for 2008. As well as it's fantastic food, we love Matterhorn for its great coffee, bar, cocktails and wine list - all brought to you by some of the most knowledgeable and passionate barristas, waiters and bar staff we know.
Next time you're in Wellington make sure you visit Matterhorn at 106 Cuba Street, phone (04) 384-3359.
Chef Martin Bosley, from last year's Cuisine magazine's Restaurant of the Year, Martin Bosley's Yacht Club Restaurant, also in Wellington, is cooking for guests at Waterfall Bay on 15 November to celebrate the release of Seresin's new wines. For more details email Jan Whillans.
Writing in New Zealand's Otago Daily Times, Chamian Smith reviews our 2006 Chardonnay Reserve, with a full complement of 5 stars. She writes "Zesty with hints of smoky oak, lovely ripe fruit and layers of complexity, this is the wine I kept coming back to. It's stylish, textural and harmonious, with layers of flavour and deliciously satisfying, lingering aftertaste. A wine to savour".
Our friend Anna Hansen is about to open her new restaurant, The Modern Pantry in St Johns Square in Clerkenwell.
Just like its home in a beautifully restored Georgian building, The Modern Pantry's philosophy is to use traditional and unusual ingredients in new and exciting ways. As well as enjoying Anna's fusion food in the restaurant, people will be able to buy some of the ingredients featured on the menu from The Modern Pantry's Deli.
One of the founders of The Providores, Anna has been guest chef at Waterfall Bay and so we have an inkling of the interesting and delicious food guests will enjoy.
Seresin's 2005 Riesling, 2006 Leah Pinot Noir and 2007 Sauvignon Blanc are on The Modern Pantry's wine list.
We have known Dave and his Chegworth Valley family ever since they started selling, and we started buying, their apples, produce and juice at the Kensington & Marylebone Farmers Markets.
When they recently opened this brilliant food store in Kensington Church Street, Dave asked if he could sell some of our produce, namely our organic lemon oil.Even if you don't need too much advice on how to eat, drink and live, Fork and Bottle - Jack and Joanne's Guide to Eating, Living and Drinking, is a great resource for things wine and food.
As well as a comprehensive list of biodynamic wine producers (505 of them as at 5 August 2008) there is a great list of interesting and fun wine, food and food-issue blogs and lots more.
Despite popular rumour, we are not branching into aquaculture. While we are pleased to see our wetland areas thriving, we hadn't planned for them to extend quite this far. This last week's weather has surely reminded us of Mother Nature's power.
The latest critters to join our happy farm are 4 Australorp and 4 Barnevelder chickens. We hope they’ll enjoy their new home!
Seresin is proud to support the Millennium Gallery and two new exhibitions which open this Friday.
Stabat Mater, an exhibition by one of New Zealand's most distinguished artists, Melvin Day, brings together painting, music and literature, with a collection founded on the music of Vivaldi and a collaboration with French writer Frédéric-Yves Jeannet. 
My collection contains pieces created by largely untrained, passionate people, often using colour and scale for emotional effect rather than documentation. Kiwis, ferns, cabbage trees and sheep often brought together with striking Maori motifs, make these precious things truly unique to Kiwi culture." Three reasons to celebrate - one year of blogging, American Independence Day (special holiday cheer to Wendy, Jason, and our friends in the USA), and last but not least - Happy Birthday Misha !
Yvonne Lorkin reviews wines for a number of regional newspapers in New Zealand, and going by this review we saw in Hawke's Bay Today, it seems she approves of our 2007 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.
'I know what you’re saying, $50 for a bottle of sav? But for those of you who appreciate the finer points of fabulousness will understand when I say that this is a Sauvignon that will seduce you. Attention to detail has produced a powerfully built, yet delicate wine bursting with crushed lime and lemon zest, fresh herbs, puha and prickly sorbet like characters. Incredible persistence of flavour caps off this stunning organic, biodynamically-produced sauvignon, lovers of which should call Seresin Estate on 03 5729408 or go to www.seresin.co.nz *****'
The winter solstice marks a significant celestial event for us at Seresin Estate – our ‘New Year’. The days are the shortest of the year, harvests have just ended, and the annual cycle is about to begin again, anew.
Noon on June 21st marked the winter solstice this year and we celebrated with a solstice / harvest party and activities of joy and thanks. We took a hayride around to each of the sites in the vineyard…
…Marked the solar zenith on our Wairau strata sculpture (by Chris Booth).
…Gave thanks for 2008 by returning the rewards of the year to the ground that provided them and welcomed the 2009 growing season.
…Blessed the foundation for the new year by laying the first layer of straw on a new compost pile.
…Laid flower offerings at our sentinel stone.
…Made a rainbow of our handprints.
…Planted strawberries for our future.
…Made wishes for 2009 into our solstice fire, and concluded the evening with food, drink, music, fire and frivolity!
Our last day of harvest for this season was Thursday June 19th when we picked the last of our olives. It happened to coincide with the full moon whose breathtaking beauty graced our morning sky as it set, while the sun rose on the opposite horizon. With deep gratitude we give thanks to our land for a bountiful harvest.
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.
"New Zealand - Biodynamics, Poo Pits and Pigs"
Neal Martin, wine writer for Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, had more to say about his visit to New Zealand, and his time at Seresin, in this month's edition.
"The next port of call with biodynamics at its heart was Seresin in Marlborough, where there was an almost evangelical zeal to the practice, evinced by proprietor Michael Seresin. Vineyard manager Colin Ross was eager to show me his series of quaintly entitled, brick-lined “poo pits” where preparations are made and above them was suspended a large crate of eggshells. To quote directly from the website: “Disease is nature's way of signaling an imbalance. Rather than using chemicals to fight "disease", we farm for diversity and balance to achieve balance and "ease" For example we mow alternate rows to maintain a habitat for bees and other insects and "companion plant". As well as grapes, we grow olives, an array of organic vegetables and fruit and raise chickens, cattle and sheep.” As I drove around the vineyard with Colin, observing the orchard of olive trees and vegetable plots, I could not help thinking about the atavism of biodynamics, how practically all vineyards in the Old World were once a polyculture until the 19th century when wine became more economically attractive. One assumes that these “part-time” viticulturalists had grown vegetables and cereals out of economic necessity, but underlying this is the fact that these were men and women of the land, whose techniques had been passed down from one generation to the other. Polyculture would have created a more diverse, ecologically balanced environment within which vines could grow, without recourse to chemical intervention. Perhaps they had the perfect composition of a vineyard all those years ago?....It will be interesting to follow the evolution of New Zealand’s biodynamic wines and given the ecologically sensitive culture, I suspect more exponents of the practice will be added to that list. The more converts there are, the more information can be exchanged and support is on offer, exemplified by the Calvert Vineyard in Central Otago, which provides biodynamically fruit for three producers: Felton Road, Craggy Range and Pyramid Valley. Scientist Steve Smith MW, was gob-smacked by the behaviour of the Pinot Noir from Calvert, a cynic not so much converted, but certainly one whose mind had been opened. More will follow."
We are often approached by people looking for donations of wine to help raise money for very worthy causes. Unfortunately, we don't have enough wine to be able to support every opportunity we are presented with. When we weren't able to support a Gala evening for the Roundhouse Studios, Michael Seresin sent a case of 2007 Sauvignon Blanc from his cellar at home.
We're very glad he did. The case raised 800 pounds at auction (about NZ$2,100) and we're sure the generous successful bidder will enjoy every glass.
Roundhouse Studios is a place where young people 11 to 25 years old have an opportunity to learn about TV, radio, music, digital media and performing arts. The Studios exist in the underbelly of Camden's legendary Roundhouse, with rooms for music and production spinning off the main central hub, around the building's lower circumference - a wonderful facility to nurture the creative talent of young people.
The first day of this past descending moon we began our composting in earnest. Quite a feat at the scale we undertake but nevertheless all of our energy and enthusiasm goes into it, as this will be the life and nourishment that graces our land for the next year. We give life to an otherwise disconnected, physically separate set of materials by gathering and assembling these elements of life and inserting our biodynamic preparations. We started bringing them together months ago. Some woodchips from a local sawmill; chipped up willow from along our creek; hay grown in our paddocks; manure from our favourite dairyman; grape marc (skins and stems) and olive pomace (pulp and pits) from our organic and biodynamic estate; gorse and broom cut and mulched from our terraces; coffee grounds and egg shells gathered from local cafes. Like a squirrel stocking up for winter, we too have been preparing by gathering all the ingredients to give us a wonderful steaming compost pile blessing us with riches for the spring.
We make three types of compost, each slightly different to suit the needs of the land that we will use them on. Our primary compost piles are quite large and will be used on our grapes and olives. They consist of layers of straw, grape marc, lime and reactive rock phosphate (RPR), wood chips, manure slurry, green manure, coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, etc. Here is a picture of a cross-section of a compost pile where you can see an example of some of the layers.
We have a separate compost pile that will be used in the making of our compost teas. We need this one to be very fungally active so we use more woody materials. The compost that we use for the gardens needs to be more bacterially dominant, so we use less wood and more green matter and food scraps.
Our favourite part of making compost is when we get to use our latest invention – “the slurryator 9000” – to spray manure that has been mixed with water into a slurry onto the pile. Great fun! 
All of our compost piles have the biodynamic compost preparations added to them (502-507), temperatures regularly monitored and are turned when the drop to 40ºC, after having risen to 60ºC+. A second round of the biodynamic compost preparations are added when we turn the compost.
We add the compost preparations to the pile by making small balls of cowpat pit, inserting each preparation into one ball, making a hole in the pile with a steel rod and inserting the balled up preparation as far as we can, literally up to our elbows! We do this for preparations 502-506 (yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion), but we mix preparation 507 (valerian) with water, stirring it for 10 minutes, creating vortices, and then pour it into holes on the top of the pile and sprinkle it into each of the holes we made when inserting the other prep
arations.
The primary reason that we make compost is to create a nutritionally and biologically rich substance to nourish our lands and attempt to replace what was harvested from the land this season. It is also a way for us to spread our biodynamic preparations as we apply the compost and use it in our compost tea. We believe composting is a good way to recycle materials that would otherwise be considered waste, for example our grape marc and olive pomace which are rich in nitrogen; coffee grounds which are also rich in nitrogen; and egg shells that are high in calcium.
Here is the first of our creations, approximately 1.4m wide by 1.2m high by 34m long! We added 12 sets of our biodynamic compost preparations (502-507), which gave us about 1 set per 5 cubic meters of compost. That’s 60 ‘up to your elbows’ into the pile plus the valerian!
Second-year Viticulture students from the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) who are interested in organic and biodynamic growing methods joined us for an afternoon of discussion and hands-on making of Cowpat Pit (right) and a compost heap (left). Sharing our techniques and philosophies w
ith future stewards of the land with such hands-on activities gives them the opportunity to gather information and have experiences that will help them form their own opinions and shape how they will choose to interact with the land.
Our olive harvest began on a frosty Wednesday morning. We hand-harvested our smaller trees, used what we fondly refer to as “the tickler” for the medium sized trees, and a shaker machine on our more mature ones (pictured left to right).
To make our oil, the olives are pressed locally in our shared processing 
facility, with a certified organic process. Here is a picture of the liquid joy! The pomace (olive pulp and crushed pits) will be recycled through our compost heaps.
We grow several Italian varieties of olives, including Leccino, Minerva, Frantoio, Pendolino and Maurino, which will be harvested over a period of several weeks. Our olive harvest will be finished by the winter solstice (June 21), which will also mark the conclusion of this growing season for our entire estate.
Suite Gallery would like to invite Seresin customers to attend the opening of highly regarded painter, Callum Arnold's new exhibition, and enjoy a glass of Seresin wine. Callum's work is highly sought after, and according to those in the know, challenging the traditional portrayal of our landscape as static. His current exhibition features the West Coast of the South Island, with paintings reminiscent of journeys - like a blur of landscapes shown through a windscreen.
The autumn is a busy time of year for our biodynamic activities. It is the time when all of the energies and nutrients that have made their way into the vegetative part of the plants now return to the earth (think of it as the earth inhaling). It’s at this time that we make and bury the majority of our preparations so they can receive this returning goodness. During the last descending moon cycle, while the moon was in an earth sign (April 28th and 29th) we made our biodynamic preparation 500 (filled cow horns with fresh manure), 503 (stuffed cow intestines with dried chamomile flowers), 504 (packed a clay pipe with dried stinging nettle) and 506 (wrapped dried dandelion in a cow mesentery) [pictured clockwise]. These were then each buried in their own clay pots, as was our preparation 502 (stags bladders filled with dried yarrow) which had been hanging in our walnut tree for the summer. We also made our preparation 505 (filled a cow and sheep skull with oak bark and submerged them into a barrel of water and decaying vegetation) and unearthed our preparations 501 (cow horns filled with ground quartz) and 504 (the stinging nettle from last year).
Back in January Seresin enjoyed a visit from Neal Martin, wine writer for Robert Parker's influential magazine, The Wine Advocate. Here's what he had to say about Seresin in the May edition of Wine Advocate.
“Cinematographer Michael Seresin does not own Harry Potter’s magic wand to make great Marlborough wine, but he does have the second best thing in the form of estate manager Colin Ross, an Australian who makes Nicolas Joly look a lightweight biodynamist. Having purchased his first 167-acre parcel of vines in the Wairau in 1992 that constitutes the “Home Vineyard,” Seresin’s wines debuted with the 1996 vintage; since then he has purchased the “Raupo Creek Vineyard” in Omaka, which is undergoing organic conversion and the “Tatou Vineyard” at the western end of the Wairau Valley. All fruit is sourced from these parcels, hand-picked and sorted before being whole-bunch pressed with young English-born winemaker Clive Dougall in charge of the winemaking. Seresin is certainly a name to look out for, producing some wonderful, complex, natural wines.”
Robert Parker's rating system employs a 50-100 point quality scale. Any wine scored over 90 points can be seen as 'outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.'
Seven of Seresin's wines received 90 or more.
2006 Reserve Chardonnay - 93 points
2007 Gewurztraminer - 91 points
2006 Leah Pinot Noir - 91 points
2006 Pinot Gris - 92 points
2006 Rachel Pinot Noir - 90 points
2007 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc - 90 points
2001 Riesling - 91 points
In the April/May issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine, Bob Campbell MW gives the 2005 Seresin Riesling 5 stars and 94 points. He describes it as an "Intense and vibrant organic riesling with lovely lime, honeycomb and mineral flavours. Now showing good bottle development, with the flavours beginning to build, mellow and integrate". Cheers Mr Campbell, we'll drink to that !
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