Morning Tea - Seresin style

Keeping up the great New Zealand tradition of Smoko, every Wednesday morning the Seresin team get together for morning tea. Each week someone different is challenged to bring treats in for the staff and WWOOFers, and as well as providing mid-morning sustenance to those who have been toiling, it's an opportunity to catch up with what is happening in each part of our Estate. It's a wonderful moment in the week and there's always something different on the table - from Brett's homemade wild venison pies last week, to Pete's onion bhaji, Rob's saag paneer, Scotty's bangers & mash - all using plenty of Seresin produce of course. 

This week Assistant Winemaker Richard prepared an absolute feast, full of Swedish delicacies and some from closer to home. It looked so good we had to share it with you - this is just some of what he made for us... 

Thanks Richard for a very delicious Smoko!

Diary of a WWOOFer

September 1

Today was another sunny day in Marlborough, and my first day WWOOFing at Seresin. The Seresin vineyards have an abundance of plant growth and the land looks healthy and lively. I met the vineyard team who were warm and keen to help me learn more about organics and biodynamics. They range from PhD graduates to gardeners, from India to Nova Scotia and work in all areas from pruning to milking to biodynamic preparations.

Right off the bat I got my hands dirty in the vegetable gardens in the Home Vineyard where rows of grapes have been removed. Sean (a well travelled farming guru) and I planted hundreds of onions using Japanese Nawashi tools to break up the soil. At 10am the team breaks for 'smoko' where we gather eggs, vegetables and rocket for a snack and people share fresh bread and cheese they've made.

In the afternoon Rob (an ex-Psychology professor) and I suited up like astronauts to go and check the beehives. Thousands of buzzing bees greeted us and we checked for Verroa mites which kill the hive and its honey production. The hive was thriving so we split it to start a new hive and in 21 days a queen will have been chosen and the new hive will grow.

September 3

The vineyard has about 40 chickens, ranging from zebra-striped barred-rocks to 1970's wallpaper patterned barnavelda, which produce eggs for the staff and the shells are used in the compost for their calcium. The chickens spend their days exploring every nook and cranny of the farm, and sometimes lay in the strangest places. This morning Erin (the apprentice) and I cleaned the coops and collected dry pine needles to lay in their cubbies.

Afterwards we walked Bill and Tom, our two clydesdale horses, to a fresh field so we could collect their manure for compost. The friendly giants are used to pull the spray machines in the vineyard.

Wendy and Kevin showed me how to make cowpat pits that result in highly nutritious soil for the crops. We turned a bathtub full amount of cow manure collected from the dairy cow over the week, added crushed eggshells and basalt meal until it was aerated and mixed. We placed the manure into brick pits in the ground where earthworms will work to decompose it. Finally we added biodynamic preparations 502-507; yarrow, chamomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian. In three months this decomposed mix will be spread through the vineyard to increase moisture absorption, earthworm and humus forming bacterial activity, and root penetration.

September 6

First thing this morning, I met Olga the milking cow. Wendy (a biodynamic expert) and I collected her from the vineyard and took her to the milking shed where she was given a treat of molasses, water and a salt crystal to lick. I learned how to squeeze the udder, pulling the milk down to prevent mastitis. From 4 udders and 4 hands we gathered 8 litres of milk! Afterwards I took Olga outside for a thorough brush. We returned her to the vineyard to roam freely and I collected her manure for future cow pat pits.

Back in the meticulously clean milk shed, we filtered and bottled the milk, to be separated from the cream tomorrow. I put yesterdays milk into a huge bottle and churned it for an hour until it turned into butter. Once solid, I washed the rem

aining milk from the butter and molded it into bricks. For lunch our guests from the Nelson Wine Company in Melbourne were served some very fresh butter!

September 7

Today I learned how to make compost tea. On our 1980's Jeep we collected year old compost as dark as 70% chocolate. All organic waste is saved daily to contribute to the compost. We took the compost to the mixing tanks where we added water, biodynamic preparations, molasses and sweet-smelling seaweed which had been aerated in a freeflow tank, and we left this all to mix. This liquid seaweed fertiliser will be sprayed on the estate at a later date to improve the health of the soil and grape growth.

Later on, the rest of the onions were planted and I weeded the raspberry field. I picked fresh leeks and potatoes from the gardens which I used to make a delicious soup.

By Meg Blakeman, WWOOFer from Niagara-On-The-Lake, Canada. September 2010.

Harvest 2010 - Handprints

Every year our vintage team have the opportunity to leave a permanent reminder of their time with us - through their influence on our wines and on the walls of our winery.

These concrete walls are adorned with the marks of past and present harvest staff.

Their handprints, alongside their name and home country, a fitting memento of their hard work.


Today our 2010 harvest staff had their turn.

Harvest 2010 - Vintage Work Experience

Harvest is the perfect time to learn more about the art of making good wine. Seresin staff, employed in marketing, admin and the cellar door, enjoy the opportunity to get their hand's dirty and spend a day or two as part of the vintage team.

Today our Cellar Door Manager, Carolina, spent the day working in the winery, pressing grapes, racking wine, cleaning tanks, warming ferments, sampling and checking the progress of our fermentations.


Carol says she can’t believe how much she has learnt. “Working in the winery during vintage has given me the chance to experience another side of Seresin. I can give visitors to our Cellar Door a better experience because I now know more about the whole winemaking process.”

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!

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 - 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 - 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!

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.

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!"

Staff Meetings, Seresin-style

On Wednesday mornings, the Seresin Estate staff catch up for some morning tea and an informal staff meeting. We all take turns to make morning tea and this morning Jo raised the standard with a bacon & egg pie (using Seresin Estate organic eggs of course!) and a date & caramel cake.

After catching up on various vineyard, winery and marketing activities, we tasted the 2006 Marama - a single-vineyard, barrel fermented and barrel aged Sauvignon Blanc. Not only is this the 10th vintage for this special wine, but it is also Seresin Estate's very first certified organic wine (released 1 October 2007).

To finish off, we went out to Misha block and pruned the 'staff row' of Semillon. If you visit us at the Home Vineyard and want to inspect our work, it's the row alongside the driveway by the cellar door.

Pictured hard at work are: Vicky and Darren, Scott and Jo.

After-Work Drinks

It wasn't your average after-work-drinks, and normally the staff at Seresin Estate aren't the types to be drinking out of brown paper bags either.

We lined up a dozen bottles of 2006 and new-release 2007 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in a blind tasting for all staff. It was a first for many, and a fascinating and valuable exercise. The results aren't for publication here (we were pleased, but that wasn't the point of the exercise), but we recommend you give it a go yourself sometime - it really makes you think about what you're tasting and the differences between wines. Like some of us, you might even find it helps you discover, describe and distinguish what it is you like or dislike in a wine - and knowing what you like is what it's all about, after all.

By the way, the picture is taken in our winery lab, which explains the racks and pipes you can see in the background. The lab is not used for technical-winemaking-trickery, but for analysis and monitoring. We test acid and sugar levels in grapes to help us make picking decisions for example. Also, given our natural and traditional winemaking techniques, with minimal intervention, it's important that we keep a close eye on our wines to ensure they are developing as they should. For example, as we ferment a lot of our wines naturally, using wild yeast, we need to understand which yeasts are at work, and how they are getting on, to make sure they do the job. It's about letting nature do most of the work, but keeping a close eye on things to make sure we get the best wine possible.

Planting by the Moon

Part of Joseph's block on the Lower Terrace of the Home Vineyard was replanted with Sauvignon Blanc last year. However, there were some plants which didn't take, leaving gaps. This afternoon (a fruit day, at the start of a decending moon) was chosen as a great day to plant new seedlings in the gaps.

Almost the whole Seresin Estate team headed down to Joseph's block to plant some vines.




Some of the office staff had extra-special footwear just for the occasion.










Estate Manager, Colin Ross, gave us our marching orders and told us which way is up.







We talked about the moon's cycle and the 'earth's inwards breath' as the moon is in a descending phase - the perfect time for planting to help the seedlings take root.










We watched the master at work.









And got busy ourselves.








When the job was done, we enjoyed some lovely Laurent-Perrier champagne (thanks to our NZ distributor, Eurowine!).








And while Colin cooked us a BBQ (thanks Colin) with sausages made from our own rosemary and organic lamb (thanks lambies), we enjoyed some mulled wine (thanks Jan).