Harvest 2010 - Snapshots

A slideshow of some of the photos we've taken over the last couple of weeks of Harvest...

Enjoy!

Harvest 2010 - Pied de Cuve

We prefer to ferment our wines using wild yeast. We believe that by allowing our wine to spontaneously ferment with the aid of the yeast specific to our vineyards, we will produce wines that are truly reflective of our land.

This vintage we are experimenting with using a ‘pied de cuve’ - a yeast culture isolated from one of our vineyards, and used to help us with the last few days of fermentation.

In some years as a wine starts to get drier and the alcohol increases the yeast population reduces and become more fragile. Adding a fresh population of yeast at this stage helps to re-invigorate and finish the fermentation. This is where the Pied de Cuve comes in, supplying enough yeast to help finish off approximately 3 or 4 ferments.



Moir and Alexis are pictured here checking the progress of our Pinot Noir wild-yeast culture.




The cultures are grown from Seresin grape juice, which is kept warm and bubbled with oxygen. Once the culture develops it is fed every day with freshly pressed juice, high in sugar.



We aim to add the Pied de Cuve to the wine when the fermentation is approximately 90% finished. When the sugar and alcohol levels of our yeast mixture are similar to that of the wine, we simply add about 20 litres of our culture and wait!

Harvest 2010 - Picking

Our full time vineyard staff are assisted throughout the year by a group called Unity in Diversity. Unity in Diversity is managed by Tisa Siale and the staff are made up of his extended family group. Approximately 20 of Tisa's family members work throughout the year in our vineyards, doing much of our hand-work; pruning, leaf plucking, shoot thinning, fruit thinning, weeding, and harvesting.






Over harvest-time, Tisa has a few extra hands on deck to help with our picking. There is a team of between 30 and 65 people picking each day.



Yesterday, Tisa and his crew harvested a lot of the fruit from the vines surrounding the winery, on our Home vineyard. First to be picked was Semillon from right outside the Cellar Door...


The Semillon grapes will be naturally fermented in seasoned French oak, and will make up a small portion of our Seresin Sauvignon Blanc.

After harvesting the Semillon, the pickers moved down to the terrace below the winery to pick some of the rows of Pinot Noir on the Leah block.






Earlier in the year, Tisa and his family work hard at getting the vines ready for harvest. They crop thin, which enables us to acheive our optimum yields. As well, they leaf pluck and shoot thin, which promotes healthy growth and aids ripening. As you can see from the photo, it also makes the fruit much easier for picking hands to reach!
Colin, Seresin's estate manager, says they pick as fast as a machine harvester!

Seresin Dinner at The Modern Pantry

For those of you in London, we are excited to announce an upcoming Seresin Dinner at Anna Hansen's restaurant The Modern Pantry.

We first met Anna in 1999 when she was Peter Gordon's sous chef at our inaugural Waterfall Bay Dinners, and she returned in 2005 as the Waterfall Bay guest chef. She then went on to open The Modern Pantry in 2008.

Anna has developed a mouth-watering menu to match with Seresin wines for the upcoming dinner:

Morcilla scotched quail eggs, tomato relish, sweetcorn, tumeric, feta & green chilli fritters, with tamarind & palm sugar dipping sauce

2009 Memento Riesling

Grilled chicory, aubergine, pandan, date & pine nut salad with Seresin orange oil

2006 Reserve Chardonnay

Slow cooked octopus, curry leaves, tomato & ginger, caramelised coconut & vanilla cream

2008 Sauvignon Blanc

Seared venison loin, wilted wild garlic, chocolate jus

2008 Leah Pinot Noir and 2007 Rachel Pinot Noir

Seresin manuka honey & yoghurt bavarois, poached rhubarb, and fenugreek shortbread

2005 Late Harvest Riesling

This dinner will be held on 19 May, and tickets are £70. If you would like to book tickets for this dinner, please contact Dougal at The Modern Pantry on 020 7553 9210 or enquiries@themodernpantry.co.uk.

Harvest 2010 - Plunging

As our pinot noir fermentations progress our winery team have begun their twice daily job of hand-plunging. During fermentation the grape-skins naturally rise to the surface forming a dense cap. It is important to plunge to release the heat that builds up during fermentation and to wet the cap and mix the skins through the ferment. This ensures that flavour and colour from the skins is evenly extracted.

This pinot noir from the Leah Block in the Home Vineyard has been through a 5-day cold soak before the tank was warmed and the juice allowed to naturally begin fermentation. This ferment only began yesterday but you can already see the bubbles of CO2 formed by the fermentation.

Auckland's 'Old World vs New World' Tasting

This Monday, a friend of ours, the Auckland Food Blog is hosting their very first tasting...

This initimate event is being held at Ponsonby restaurant SIDART, where sommelier Marie Colosimo has put together a line-up of her favourite Old and New world wines for the occasion. Auckland Food Blogger Jesse Mulligan says hearing Marie talk about wine is like 'hearing Al Gore talk about climate change'. And SIDART chef Sid Sahrawat will be creating some canapes to accompany the tasting. You can't get much better than that!

We are really pleased that one of our wines has been chosen for this very cool tasting (even if we can't tell you which one...), and can't wait for Monday!

Harvest 2010 - Raupo Creek Pinot Noir

Having spent almost two weeks in the winery now since picking, it was time to check the progress of our Raupo Creek pinot noir...


Alexis Goodman, Seresin assistant winemaker, is shown here making one of her regular checks of our Pinot Noir.

Each pinot is checked every day - Lindsey will take a sample and check how the temperature and sugar levels are changing, and the winemakers will smell and taste the juice or wine.

As well as this, each pinot noir will be plunged - this gently mixes the fruit and extracts the colour, flavour, and tannin from the grape skins.

This tank of Raupo Creek pinot noir has finished its pre-fermentation cold soak, and has naturally started to ferment.

Harvest 2010 - Harvest Helpers

There are always lots of willing helpers around vintage time, keen to lend a hand and experience some of the magic of the harvest.

One of the regulars is Gabby Tait. Vintage usually coincides with the school holidays and Gabby has been a part of the Seresin harvest team for six years.

Gabby is pictured here delivering grapes to the winery, with her father Scott, the Seresin Property Manager.

Gabby says she enjoys tasting the different grapes and getting to drink freshly pressed grape juice. She says "my favourite part about harvest is meeting all the new people."

Harvest 2010 - Vintage Food

We think our vintage staff are the best fed in Marlborough.

Every year Marcia Chang-Hong prepares fresh hot meals for lunch and dinner, morning and afternoon tea for our hungry staff. For three to four weeks Marcia cooks seven days, never repeating a dish - unless requested.




Marcia is pictured here with Winemaker, Clive Dougall, delivering today's lunch. On the menu this Wednesday?

For morning tea, Zucchini and Chocolate Loaf. Lunch was Silverbeet and Feta Filo, with a warm Potato Salad. Dinner is Shin of Beef with Potato and Sorrel Gratin. Veges are all home grown, either in Marcia's backyard or the Vineyard gardens.

Harvest 2010 - Cleaning

One of the most important jobs in any winery over harvest, and one that keeps us very busy, is cleaning! Everything must be cleaned before and after coming in contact with any fruit, juice or wine.

Today we hand-picked some of the Riesling from our Home vineyard, and it was pressed this afternoon. After pressing the best juice from the fruit, the skins are emptied out of the press, and the press is then cleaned. To do this, someone has to climb into the press to hose it all out. Today it was Lars, our Swedish Cellarhand, who donned his wet weather gear and climbed in.


This photo shows the two main parts of the inside of the press. The tan coloured part on the left is the membrane - which inflates and squashes the grapes against the right hand side. The metal on the right hand side is covered in small holes which act like a sieve, and allows just the juice to drain out.

Here, Lars is about to clean the press, and get it ready for the next fruit to arrive.

Harvest 2010 - Raupo Creek Pinot Noir

After a week of warm days we began picking our still wines on Monday. First in was our reserve pinot noir block, picked from the top of the hill in our Raupo Creek Vineyard, and cropped at Grand Cru Burgundy levels.




Each bunch was hand-picked and berries hand selected. Pictured here are some of our vineyard staff doing a berry selection.

Our Viticulturalist, Colin Ross, is enjoying the opportunity to taste grapes from our different Pinot Noir blocks. He says "the taste profile across contours and rows is a truly fascinating thing. The textural expression is so amazingly evident in the Pinot and every dip, hollow and hillock tells a story."

Harvest 2010 - Vintage Staff

Another member of the winery harvest team, is a returnee to the Seresin team from 2009.

Introducing Axel May...

Axel returns after spending the year at home in Rheinhessen, in Germany, where he has been working in his family winery - Weingut Steinmūhle.

Here Axel is loading some of the hand-picked MOMO Sauvignon Blanc into our press - giving it a bit of gentle prodding with the rake when needed!

Axel says it is great to be working with such a fabulous team this year - both in the winery and the vineyard. He says he it is exciting to come back and see how the wines have developed - that 2009 was a great vintage, and he's enjoying getting to taste the wines one year on.

Harvest 2010 - Vintage Staff

Another of the three harvest additions to our winery team is Jacopo Dallicani.

Jacopo comes from Soave in Verona, North East Italy. He studied winemaking at Conegliano Italy - the oldest Italian university teaching winemaking. Before joining us, Jacopo was travelling the world working with wine, having done several vintages in Italy, Australia, France, and New Zealand. He arrived at Seresin in January, and has been working in the vineyard before moving into the cellar for harvest.

He's shown here taking the first of our MOMO fruit for 2010 - Sauvignon Blanc which has just been handpicked from our Home Vineyard.

Jacopo says he is excited to be working at Seresin, and really enjoying the opportunity to learn about and work with biodynamics.

And as well as being rather handy in the winery, Jacopo makes a mean lasagne... He's a very handy guy to have around!

The Winners of the Capital Awards

We had the pleasure of being involved in the 2010 Capital Awards, which celebrate the best of hospitality in our capital city. The winners were annouced last night at a ceremony in Wellington.

The Seresin Award for outstanding wine list went to Matterhorn. The man responsible for this list, Stephen Wong was selected as the best Wellington Sommelier.

The award for the outstanding restaurant went to Capitol and Logan Brown was recognised for the best kitchen team and their outstanding contribution to Wellington Hospitality.

The ceremony was followed by an after party at the Skyline Restaurant, guests enjoyed a variety of refreshments including the 2008 Seresin Sauvignon Blanc and celebrated into the wee hours of this morning.

For a full list of awards and winners visit the Capital Awards website.

Harvest 2010 - Vintage Staff

Every vintage we welcome several new faces to Seresin. Our vintage interns come to us from all over the world, bringing with them international experience and lots of enthusiasm.

This year three new staff will assist our Winemaker, Clive Dougall, Assistant Winemakers, Carlos Orgiles and Alexis Goodman and Cellarhand, Lars Gabrielsson over the busy months of harvest.

Introducing Lindsey Sesin....

Lindsey joins us from Rudd Winery in the Napa Valley, and will spend the next couple of months working in our laboratory and assisting in the cellar.

Lindsey says harvest at Seresin offers her the opportunity to be part of a small hands-on team and the chance to learn about biodynamic viticulture and winemaking.

2010 is Lindsey's fourth vintage and her second in New Zealand.

Harvest 2010 - Sampling

With our first grapes now in the winery it is even more important for us to closely monitor the progress of our vineyards as they ripen.

Every morning our Laboratory Intern, Lindsey Sesin, selects different grape samples from our vineyards. Each sample is juiced by hand and tested for sugar and acidity. Our winemaking and viticultural team then spend a lot of time tasting - both the juice and grapes, to make sure that the flavours are perfectly balanced before we pick.

Pictured here is a Pinot Noir Sample from our Raupo Creek Vineyard, which should be ready for harvesting in about seven days.

First Day of Harvest 2010

We gave the bees the day off and went for the grapes this time! A beautiful bright and sunny Marlborough morning marked our first day of harvest for this season. We lovingly picked a little bit of Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to go into our sparkling wine base.

Honey Harvest

One of my most memorable days at Seresin was a couple of weeks ago, when I was fortunate to be involved in our first ‘Honey Harvest’. This was my first ‘official’ visit to life in the hive. Rob and I teamed up in our white bee suits and set about taking out the frames that were the fullest for processing. We took out 18 frames all together, brushing the bees from them with a paintbrush! The bees were very patient with us while we fumbled in our first ever harvest. One bee decided that he liked the look of Rob’s legs and got herself stuck down his sock – and a red mark resulted…

The processing of the honey was made able by a kind professional bee man down the road. He leant us a hand powered centrifuge to spin out the honey from the frames. The smoko room was on lock down as the bees could smell honey in the air and came to peacefully investigate the logistics of getting their liquid gold back.

For me, I was grateful to take time to remember and ponder on how wonderful and magical Mother Nature can be. Needless to say we are all about to enjoy 30L of Seresin artichoke influenced honey!

By Leisha Van der spek

It's Pinot we love

Pinot Noir is an incredibly beautiful grape, and a beautiful wine - we love it. It's called the heartbreak grape for good reason, it is a challenge to make and an even bigger challenge to grow but the quest to make the best possible Pinot Noir is something all of us at Seresin are driven by.

A new era commenced at Seresin in 2006 when Clive Dougall took over as winemaker and Colin Ross, our vineyard manager, joined us from a biodynamic vineyard in Western Australia. 2007 was their first vintage together at Seresin. From this vintage six different Pinot Noir were made. The 'Leah' named for Michael Seresin's daughter, is a blend of fruit from our three vineyards; 'Rachel', after Michael's mother, is a Pinot made from the best portions available from our Estate each year. From each of our three vineyards we have also produced a single vineyard wine; the 'Tatou', 'Home' and 'Raupo Creek' Pinot Noir illustrate the characteristics of our different sites and soils.


The unique conditions of the 2007 vintage allowed us for the first time to make a wine we have called 'Sun & Moon'. Cropped at a minimal one bunch per shoot or less, we believe this wine to be our best expression of Pinot Noir. It will only be made when this beautiful heartbreak grape allows us.

Internationally renowned UK winewriter Jamie Goode recently had the opportunity to taste the 'thrilling line-up' of all six of these wines, and has published his tasting notes and reviews on his blog. To see his reviews, check out his blog.

Green Wine for St Patrick's Day

It is St Patrick's Day next week and if you're looking for something 'green' to drink check out the recommendation from CBS's Wine Guy, Matthew Horbund.

Seresin Talk

In the last couple of weeks, we have been getting some good coverage on the internet - here are a couple of interesting snippets for you...

Recently, our winemaker Clive met with Jayson Bryant from Wine Vault TV, to talk all things biodynamic. Jayson has put a couple of videos on their website of them talking and tasting some Seresin wines. In the first video, Clive and Jayson taste two of our Pinots - Leah and Rachel. And then in the second video they taste our 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, Reserve Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris.

And it seems our Gewurztraminer is proving popular in the UK. Old and New World is a wine blog in the UK dedicated to finding the best wines from the old and new world. They publish a red and a white 'wine of the month' and the Seresin Gewurz was the white for February! They say it 'should be enough to win converts' of non-Gewurz fans, and 'gives Alsace a run for its money'. Click here to see the rest of the post.

Enjoy!

Wellington's Excellent Hospo Industry

We're very proud to be involved in the 2010 Capital Awards.

The awards celebrate everything that is fundamentally hospitality in Wellington; from the ground roots kitchen team and baristas through to the award for the outstanding contribution to the Wellington hospitality scene.

The Seresin Award for 'Outstanding Wine List' will be given to a list that reflects the individual style of it's establishment, while being diverse, balanced, interesting and presented in the appropriate glasses, by educated staff.

Have your say and nominate your stars in Wellington hospo through the Capital Awards website.

The Marriage of Figaro

We're proud to support a special Opera event in Days Bay Garden, Wellington.

New Zealanders will get the opportunity to experience the European tradition of outdoor opera, with a fully-staged production of Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro' in a beautiful old-established sheltered garden in Days Bay.

The opera is produced by Rhona Fraser and directed by Sara Brodie, with a cast of professional singers. 'The Marriage of Figaro' will be performed on the 12th, 13th and 14th of March at 5:00pm. Guests are invited to bring a picnic to enjoy in the gardens in the dinner interval, along with a glass of Seresin wine.
Tickets are priced at $50. To book and for further information visit the Days Bay Opera website.

Joanna Simon on Wine

UK Wine writer, Joanna Simon, recently tasted our 2008 Leah Pinot Noir.

She described it as "very pure, very impressive and still young. This is fragrant with roses and summer berries and has a palate of sweet red fruits, savoury mineral flavours, polished oak, a fine acid structure, length and intensity. The hand on the label signifies hand-grown, hand-picked and hand-made (which includes wild yeast fermentation and 11 months maturation in French oak barrels). Drink over the next four years. Gives red burgundy a run for its money."

For more from Joanna check out her website here.

Pinot Noir 2010

This week, lots of the Seresin team are in Wellington for Pinot Noir 2010. It's a 4 day celebration of Pinot Noir - lots of tastings, culinary events, speakers, and thought-provoking discussion. It's also a great chance to meet and catch up with other Pinot-philes from around the world; wine writers, winemakers and consumers alike. One such bunch we caught up with was the lovewine team, who spoke to our winemaker Clive about our Pinot Noir. Check out the video here.

Someone else we caught up with was Jamie Goode, the blogger behind WineAnorak. He has written a wrap up of Pinot Noir 2010, Day 1. See if you can spot anyone from Seresin, or the lovely things he has to say about our wines...

SwirlSavvy Anu a big fan of NZ

For SwirlSavvy guest wine blogger Anu Pohani, the best wine choice is always something from New Zealand. She has been writing about some 'shining examples' of NZ Sauvignon Blanc - one of which was the Seresin Marama. Anu thought it was 'absolutely delicious' and 'really showed the care that the Seresin team put into all their wines'. Thanks Anu!

Take a look at the rest of what she has to say about the Marama, and the other wines she tried.

The end of 2009

Tongan Christmas Party
We thanked Unity in Harmony (the Tongan families) for all their hard work over the past year, with a massive BBQ feast and a toast to Michael Seresin. Michael was presented with a Tapa coth from the Tongan families. The cloth and presentation was beautiful - a very moving and special moment for us all.

Christmas Milking

Life on the farm carried on over Christmas. While most of the Seresin crew had holidays, a few of us took over the holiday milking, animal patrol, irrigation and garden roster. The Xmas morning milking crew celebrated with a pancake (fresh eggs and milk) breakfast before commencing the Christmas milking and even the cows got into the spirit of things (with a little encouragement from us of course!).

WWoofers

We say a HUGE and heartfelt thank-you to Robert our Canadian wwoof-er, who completed some pretty major and physical tasks for us while here for a month. The last we saw of Robert, he was hitching out of town in a Santa suit and a backpack.

Our new wwoofers are Rachel and Richard from the UK. We hope they enjoy our time here with us and we look forward to many discussions over morning tea.
By Leisha

Two weeks WWOOFing at Seresin

We've been WWOOFing at Seresin for two weeks now.

It's great to see all the diversity going on - this year is the first year that organic vegetable patches have been planted in between some of the vines to feed the troops at Seresin. As a result there's lots of work to be done and we've spent plenty of time potato mounding - but it's all worth it when you take home your dinner after digging it up!

The diversity of the place has meant that we had a chance to try out loads - from wire lifting and leaf plucking of the vines to milking the cows, pruning the olive trees and harvesting wheat and barley. Plenty of experiences for us to take away, and the wine is pretty good too!

The staff have been very welcoming and spent time going through tasks with us. Thanks Colin and the team for a fab intro to Seresin and biodynamics, we look forward to hearing about how you get on with all the new projects.

By Rachel and Rich, WOOFers from Oxford, UK. January 2010.

Seresin Landfall Residency

This new year, we are pleased to announce the second annual Seresin Landfall Residency. The Residency was established in 2009 with Otago University Press, giving a writer the opportunity to spend six weeks in either Tuscany or Marlborough.

The residency is the result of Michael Seresin's desire to support the work of Landfall magazine, and his commitment to the arts and creative endeavour. Michael says "I wanted to provide a place where writers feel comfortable and can write. We are fortunate to have access to two beautiful properties, which I hope will provide some inspiration for a writer during their six week stay."

Michael's father, Harry Seresin, was an early subscriber and avid reader of Landfall from the 1950's. The Seresin Landfall Residency honours his memory, and that of the Landfall founder, Charles Brasch, who helped establish New Zealand's first literary residency, the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago.

Prominent New Zealand writer, and the Residency's inaugural winner, C. K. Stead says "My association with Landfall goes back as far as 1951 when I first offered founder Charles Brasch poems and has continued ever since. I feel very enthusiastic about the idea of a Residency set up to honour both the magazine and Harry Seresin."

The residency is open to writers over twenty-one, working in any genre, who have been previously published. To read more about the Residency, or for information about how to apply, please visit the Otago University Press website.

Eight new additions to the Seresin family

Quackles, our Indian Runner Duck, hatched 8 very cute ducklings yesterday.

As well as providing eggs and endless entertainment, our Ducks spend most of their days inside our vegetable garden and orchard, forraging for insects and protecting our vegetables and fruit from pests.

By Erin