Seresin Senryu

Pinot blending day.
The winemaker is happy,
smiling broadly with black teeth.

New Faces

We are pleased to welcome Luca (above left) and Christian to the team at Seresin.

Luca hails from Tuscany in Italy where he works on his family's biodynamic farm and where he consults to other farms and vineyards nearby. He is spending a few months working in the Seresin vineyards and olive groves before touring New Zealand and then heading home.

Christian is with us as part of the 'Willing Workers on Organic Farms' Programme from Klosters in Switzerland where he works in forestry, woodworking and in sports and ski stores. Hopefully Christian is with us for at least another month before his girlfriend calls him home.

A truly global community, we now have people from Australia, Canada, England, Italy, India, New Zealand (Pakeha and Maori), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA in the Seresin team, in addition to Chinese, Czechs, Tongans and many more working as part of our team of contractors.

Together at Raupo Creek

A stone each from Home and Tatou.

Held in our hands.

Now holding our wishes and hopes.

Brought together in woven flax.

Buried up high, below Raupo's lone pine.
The stones will be there for a very long time.

Longer, even than four generations.

We are but custodians of this place.

For now. For the future.

Together across boundaries.
Together across cultures.
Together, with the land,
and with the people of this place.

Our dreams held in the land.

In stones. In the soil.

Buried. Protected.

As it protects us.

The Makings of a Cowpat Pit

A cowpat pit (CPP), also known as 'barrel compost', is a fermentation of cow manure, assisted by the biodynamic preparations. It is essentially a process to convert the manure into beautiful compost that contains concentrated amounts of fungi, bacteria and the energies from the biodynamic preparations. There are many variations on how to make CPP, but here's a peek into how we do ours here at Seresin Estate.

It all begins with a good supply of cow manure, fondly referred to as moo poo, preferably from lactating cows. The best way to do this is have your own dairy cows, but in the absence of that at the moment we were able to get some brilliant manure from a dairy farm in Linkwater on the north coast of the South Island to mix in with a bit from our biodynamic cows. The next key ingredient is some willing volunteers to help do the mixing - on this day in December, we had lots of help from Clive, MJ, Jan and Colin. With about 60kg of manure loaded into a trailer, we mixed it with shovels by turning it from one side of the trailer to the other for about one hour. It has been said that it takes 40 minutes to deprogram the manure and then 20 minutes to reprogramme it. While mixing, we gradually add in powdered egg shells (that we dried and ground) - about 200g per pit, or a total of 4-5 half shovels, and basalt dust - around 300g per pit, so 5-6 half shovels full in total. During the mixing the texture of the manure changes, becoming light and airy and then almost silky. You can tell when you are done purely by the changes in texture that have occurred.

While the mixing is being completed, we wet down our pits and get the preparations ready. We like to use balls of CPP from a pit that is fully decomposed as the vehicle for the preparations, to pass on some of the goodness they've got. So we make small balls with an indent large enough to fit about a teaspoon of preparation in, which is then squeezed closed. One ball per preparation per pit, for 502 (yarrow), 503 (chamomile), 504 (stinging nettle), 505 (oak bark), 506 (dandelion). Preparation 507 (valerian) is diluted (around 75ml into 2L of water) and re-energized by stirring it with a stick in a bucket for 15 minutes, creating vortices in opposite directions every 30 seconds or so.

The fluffy, silky manure mix is then put into our pits, about 1 and a half bricks deep, and the top is smoothed over. We put 5 holes into the smoothed top, deep enough to place the preparation balls in. Since all of these preparation have been made in the organs of animals, it can be seen that this action is like placing the organs back into this substance to create a new living organism. We then sprinkle the pit with the valerian solution, by hand. The pits are then covered with hessian sacks that we have stuffed with straw or wool. Another little sprinkle of valerian and then they are left to do their thing for 4 weeks. At that time, we'll uncover them and turn them with a pitchfork to aerate them. After that, they'll be turned about every 2 weeks until they are ready. This helps to not only aerate the CPP but also to maintain a more even moisture level through the pit.

Once the CPP has fully matured we use it in our compost teas, seaweed sprays, cordon drenches, pasture sprays, Preparation 500 applications and compost heaps as an inoculuation of all the concentrated energies and living organisms. Spreading the love!

Care to Dance?

Sup-positions blog carries a lovely description of our 2007 Sauvignon Blanc. Under the subheading 'a reason to drink savvy', Sarah says that "If the Seresin Sauvignon Blanc was at a party she would be the pretty girl all the boys wanted to dance with."

She goes on to point out the careful winemaking behind the wine, and if you are interested to hear more, winemaker Clive Dougall describes the winemaking in more detail in a video.

Making The Cut

Seresin's Moana Methode Traditionelle has 'made the cut' in the December issue of New Zealand's premiere golfing magazine. Wine writer Michael Hooper says that "of the dry styles, Seresin Moana is unbeatable, gaining extra points for its environmentally sustainable and practically organic vineyard status."

Available at The French Café in Auckland or from our cellar door.

Into India

Writing for Ambrosia India, Australian Craig Wedge had some lovely things to say about New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and "In the case of Seresin, the belief in the cause and affect of organic wine philosophy has lifted this producer to the top of the heap. The wines are nothing short of extraordinary".

In Mumbai, Seresin's Sauvignon Blanc is available exclusively at the JW Marriott.

Check Please

We enjoyed meeting and spending time with US wine writer/speaker/consultant Leslie Sbrocco at Pinot Noir 2007 in Wellington early this year. While the event was all about New Zealand Pinot Noir, we're glad she discovered other Seresin wines too. As part of her 'Check Please' series Leslie recommends guests at Marché Aux Fleurs enjoy our Sauvignon Blanc.

Mu Shu Match

It's wonderful to see and hear about people around the world enjoying our wines. Over the weekend, we saw an article from the Miami Herald about wine matches for Asian food flavours where Kathryn Morgan, wine director at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, picked Seresin's 2005 Leah Pinot Noir as a match for hoisin-sauced dishes like Mu Shu Pork.

How's that for a statement about the connected, global village? A wine director from Virgina, USA recommending a New Zealand Pinot Noir as a match for Mu Shu Pork, published in the Miami Herald and seen in Renwick.

Art of Artichokes

We've had a very fruitful artichoke patch this season, so this afternoon we took some time to preserve some of the harvest which we haven't sold at the Farmers' Market.

As a group we peeled, cut and cooked hundreds of artichokes which we then bottled using our own olive oil and herbs from our organic gardens.

Sharing in the fun and a big help with knives were Diana, Kevin and Jason.

For Lovers of (the) Style

Sydney's Daily Telegraph (5 December) had the following to say about the Seresin Estate 2007 Sauvignon Blanc: "Wine like this made Marlborough's reputation as the world leader for fruit-filled sauvignon blanc. And from the great 2007 vintage, this is a must-have for lovers of the style. Forget the rest, this is the best."

For more information about this wine, see our winemaker's video in a previous post.

Dynamic Duo

Alan Parker and Michael Seresin.

The joint contribution of Alan Parker and Michael Seresin as a Director-Cinematographer team was recognised last week at PLUS CAMERIMAGE, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography.

Held annually in Lodz, Poland, PLUS CAMERIMAGE is the most recognized festival dedicated to the art of cinematography and its creators - cinematographers.

The Duo Director-Cinematographer Award at PLUS CAMERIMAGE 2007 was presented to Alan Parker and Michael Seresin who worked together on such movies as Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Fame, Birdy, Angel Heart, Come See the Paradise, Angela's Ashes and Life of David Gale.

Apart from these films, Michael Seresin was also the cinematographer for City Hall, Mercury Rising, Domestic Disturbance, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He also shot one segment of Paris, I Love You and his latest feature Step Up.

Just finishing up a new film project in London, Michael is due to arrive back in New Zealand next week. Before he heads out to Waterfall Bay in the Marlborough Sounds, where he will spend some time with his son Misha for Christmas, we will open a bottle of wine to toast his success.

Staff Thinning

In a big corporation, the phrase 'staff thinning' might refer to an exercise-diet programme or a restructuring/redundancy process. We're pleased that at Seresin it means something entirely different.

A little over 2 months ago, after a Wednesday morning staff meeting, we pruned the staff rows of Semillon beside our cellar door. Check out the previous post to see what the vines looked like at the end of September - very different to now, with flowering in full force.

Shoot-thinning, done by hand, is a process of removing some of the new shoots from a growing vine. There are a number of reasons we shoot-thin; for plant health, for fruit quality and to manage yields, and these reasons are heavily inter-related.

We remove shoots which are growing outside the zone we can manage (eg shoots growing horizontally outwards, or downwards) and we remove shoots which might be 'crowding' in a small space. By having a nicely balanced vine, with shoots growing with even spacing we're aiming to manage yields and provide a framework where grapes can ripen evenly. A well-spaced and well-ventilated canopy also allows air to circulate, reducing disease risk. This is especially important in our organic system, instead of using chemicals to prevent or treat disease.

Having a reasonably open canopy also allows the sun to reach the growing points of each shoot. This is important for next year's crop. Receptors in the plant recognise the sun and respond with a cellular commitment to produce a fruitful shoot next year. If it's too cold or if there is insufficient light, the vine's defense mechanism is to protect and preserve it's energy by growing leaf instead of bunches.

By removing shoots we are also removing potential bunches of grapes. Lower yields are desirable from a quality perspective and also for plant health. We aim for low yields to deliver the style of wine we are aiming for. We also consider what yields are appropriate for the vine and are careful not to put too much stress on a vine by asking it to carry more bunches than we think it can carry and ripen. Again, this is important to our organic practices as we don't artificially 'pump up' our vines with synthetic fertilisers and chemicals.

Our staff thinning activity this morning was fueled by Darren's very accomplished and tasty Sushi and chocolate-noodle treats. Come to think of it, that staff-thining exercise-diet programme might be useful .....

Welcome

"Welcome" to Alexis and Wendy who joined the Seresin team this week. Alexis, on the left, joins us from Canada in a new role spanning the whole enterprise; part of the year in the vineyards and for the rest of the year in the winery, espeically over the busy vintage and winemaking period (March - July). Wendy, from the USA, joins us as Biodynamic Practicioner as part of Estate Manager Colin Ross's team. We're pleased to have them on board, bringing new experience, skills, energy, ideas and expertise to Seresin Estate.

Wine Loft

Congratualtions to our friends David and Graham on the opening of the Wine Loft in Wellington last week. If you know Wine Loft in Auckland (Wine Bar of the Year 2007), there's a lot about the Wellington site that will seem familiar; the warm decor, comfy leather couches, wine-friendly food and, not least, huge wine list with many by-the-glass. Something Auckland patrons can be envious of, the Wellington site (73 The Terrace) also features a rooftop 'Champagne Garden' perfectly situated to benefit from Wellington's afternoon sun and tucked away from the wind Wellington is better known for.

After lengthy delays (see the plaque near the bar supplied by landlord Bob Jones and dedicated to the challenges of the building process), it's great to see Wine Loft Wellington open in time for long festive-season lunches, but we're sure it will be even better when it really gets going in 2008 and then beyond: an institution in the making.

Currently Stocking: Seresin 2005 Riesling (by the glass - you'll then want a bottle!)

Wine for Christmas

Lesley Reidy, owner of online wine retailer Wine Fairy has an article on New Zealand news site stuff.co.nz with helpful hints for those buying wine as a Christmas present.

If you want to follow all 3 pieces of Lesley's advice and buy a special gift of something different and in limited availability from a small, boutique producer as well as make a sustainable choice, we'd be happy to help. Email us or use our online order form or call us (+64 3 572 9408) for personal assistance with your order.

2006 Marama

Seresin Winemaker Clive Dougall introduces the 2006 Marama, a barrel fermented and barrel aged Sauvignon Blanc. This is the 10th vintage of this wine for Seresin and Seresin's very first certified organic wine.

Sweet Memento

Charmian Smith had the following to say about the 2007 Seresin Memento Riesling in today's Otago Daily Times:
"Seresin Memento Marlborough Riesling 2007 (about $27) is medium-sweet, zesty and fragrant with floral overtones, suggestions of tropical and citrus fruit, rich and full in the mouth with a velvety texture and a crisp, limey finish. A smart wine that is delicious now but will develop."(4.5/5)

Lovely Leah

The November-December issue of Ontario's Vines Magazine carries a review of Seresin's 2005 'Leah' Pinot Noir by John Szabo. Awarding the wine 4.5 stars, Szabo writes:

“Seresin Estate practices organic viticulture. This wine is a blend of Pinot from three single vineyards all located in the Marlborough district of New Zealand’s South Island. The nose explodes out of the gates with rich, ripe red berry fruit, fresh butter, plum and well integrated wood-aging notes of vanilla, smoke and sweet baking spice. The palate is generous and concentrated, with a creamy texture framed by firm acidity, gentle tannic grip and a long spicy red berry finish. A classic new world style Pinot that will dance with anything from a fillet of grilled wild-caught or organically farmed salmon to duck breast in a pomegranate reduction.”

Here is an introduction to the 2006 vintage of this wine from Seresin Estate Winemaker Clive Dougall.

(Au)Thor's View

There are a number of wine blogs we like to browse regularly - oenoLog is definitely one of them.

It's worth a daily visit, even if only for a chuckle at the latest clever title for his posts (some of our favourites: Chiquet Magnet, It's a Cru, Cru Summer, Riesling Star, Angelo of Mercy, Too young or Thuaud?). More importantly, there's a lot of interest and value in the enormous range of wines covered.

Blog author Thor Iverson recently reviewed the 2005 Seresin Estate Sauvignon Blanc calling it "one of the most polished and professional Marlborough sauvignons on the market". He comments: "Bitter melon, lemongrass, intense lime and grapefruit, pomegranate, and acidity so vivid it’s palate-drying form the heart of this wine, but what’s striking is the confident, almost swaggering sophistication in the face of all that boisterous sauvignon-ness. Very, very good."

Oh, and 'Original Seresin' is a pretty catchy post title too - wish we'd thought of it first !

New Release Dinner

On Saturday evening, in perfect weather, 40 people gathered at Michael Seresin's private dining room at Waterfall Bay in the Marlborough Sounds to celebrate Seresin's new release wines.

A special 5 course dinner was prepared by Guest Chef Jason Dell, with each course designed to complement a selected new release Seresin wine. Seven wines featured during the evening:

1. After boarding at Picton, guests enjoyed the 2007 Memento Riesling on board the launch Legacy for the quick trip across Queen Charlotte Sound to Waterfall Bay.


2. On arrival at Waterfall Bay, a glass of 2007 Sauvignon Blanc complemented a range of canapés including a selection of featuring assorted California sushi roll; parmesan tacos with crayfish; and dukkah lamb croutons.


3. The Glazed Duck with asian slaw and citrus miso went beautifully with 2007 Gewurztraminer.


4. A sneak preview of the yet-to-be-released 2007 'Reserve' Sauvignon Blanc was matched with Risotto, fine herbs, goats cheese, asparagus and lemon oil (oil also from Seresin, of course).


5. Wood-roasted Marlborough Sounds King Salmon, pearl couscous, chermoula, fennel, and grapefruit was a perfect match for 2006 Chardonnay Reserve.


6. Juniper-crusted Elk venison, sweet potato, blackcurrants and a blackcurrant-pinot noir jus was served with another sneak-preview wine, the new 2006 Pinot Noir (to be released February 2008).


7. Riesling poached pears, toasted macadamia and sticky toffee was accompanied by Seresin's 2004 Noble Riesling.

Jason is Executive Chef at Blanket Bay, which, earlier this year received accolades from Conde Nast Traveller magazine; awarded the ‘Best Hotel for Food in the Australasia and South Pacific Region’. Jason’s has just released a solo cookbook, ‘SAVVY’ featuring recipes for some of the dishes mentioned above.

If you want to know more about Waterfall Bay Dinners planned for 2008, please email Jan Whillans or phone +643 572 9408.

Photographs from Bill Floyd used with thanks.

Jason Dell serving dukkah lamb croutons to Seresin's Assistant Winemaker Carlos Ortega-Orgiles, pictured here with his parents Orgi and Maria-Louisa, visiting Marlborough for the first time from Spain.

Guests visiting from Christchurch for the New Release Dinner (from left) Dr Nigel and Wendy Gilchrist, Shelley and Brian McCauley. Service (with a smile) from Clare Burton and Kara Guilford.

2007 Vintage Overview

Seresin Estate Winemaker Clive Dougall gives an overview of the 2007 growing season and vintage.

Sip of the Week

Along with slapping on 5 stars, Yvonne-Marie Lorkin had the following to say about Seresin's 2007 Memento Reisling in the Hawke's Bay's 48 Hours magazine (3 Nov).

"If this is what organics does to riesling, then bring it on! Lifted apple, apricot, honeysuckle, citrus and a hint of toffee too. On the palate it is lush, chompy and fresh, with mouthfilling, gum-tingling acidity. Love it!"

2007 Sauvignon Blanc

As promised earlier, we've taken some footage of our winemaker Clive Dougall talking about our current release wines. Here is Clive introducing our 2007 Sauvignon Blanc.

From Crystal to Cow-Horn

We've been continuing with the creation of our Biodynamic Preparations this week. It's time for some 501. Preparation 501 works on strengthening the above-ground activity in plants. It helps with photosynthesis and strengthens a plant's structure and cells to resist infection. Made from finely ground, treated silica quartz, it fosters silica activity in plants and helps plants to resist fungal attack.

The image below illustrates the process we used to start the creation of our very first estate-made batch of Preparation 501. Starting from the bottom left with the first small bowl and working clockwise, you can see the silica quartz crystals we started with. These were roughly crushed (bowl 2) using a mortar and pestle-type arrangement until we had a course sand (bowl 3). This was ground by hand (see Colin Ross literally at the grindstone!) between two sheets of glass ( the bowls are sitting on one) until we had a fine, almost talcum powder-like powder (bowl 4). This was mixed with water to create a paste (bowl 5) which was spooned into hollow cow horns and allowed to set (middle bowl).

Once set, the cow horns containing the quartz 'plaster' were buried (on a descending moon) where they will remain for the summer. We'll see what it looks like in 6 month's time and let you know what we do with it then.

Preparation 502

In practising biodynamics, we use a range of 8 different preparations to help balance and enrich our soils, plants and composts.

Preparations 502 - 507 are used in combination to enhance the availability of soil minerals to plants and this week we continued to prepare some 502. Comprising yarrow flowers and a stag's bladder, 502 enhances the activities of sulphur, nitrogen, potassium and trace elements. Pictured here, dried after hanging in the open for about 2 weeks, the stag's bladder is stuffed with yarrow flowers and left to hang in a tree over the summer and then buried in a clay pipe over winter. The remaining material is then incorporated into our cow-pat-pits, composts and seaweed teas.

Why a stag's bladder? Practically, the dried stag's bladder makes an excellent container and is fully natural and biodegradable - an example of traditional, self-sufficient agriculture using the full resources of the farm. It is also interesting to see the structure of the yarrow flower strongly resembles a stag's antlers.

How to Blog Taste and Smell?

When someone works out how to use the internet to convey tastes and smells and please let us know. We would love to be able to let you enjoy our wines over the web. Until technology catches up with us (I bet it will!), we're planing to video Clive Dougall, our wine maker, talking about our wines and we will post the videos here over the next few weeks - unless you sit there with a glass of wine at the same time, you'll just have to listen to him and let your imagination do the rest.

If we had this technology now, we could also use it to let you smell our tractor. We've converted it to run on biodiesel, produced from used cooking oil, and as it goes past it gives off pleasant restaurant-cooking smells. Imagine that.

Wine Weekend

We were pleased to be part of the Marlborough Wine Weekend this past weekend. Along with 34 other Marlborough wineries, we poured a number of our wines for guests - consumers, wine writers and restaurateurs from around New Zealand. Seresin's 2005 Chardonnay Reserve, 2006 Marama, 2006 Pinot Gris, 2006 Leah Pinot Noir and 2007 Sauvignon Blanc all made appearances over the weekend. The Seresin 2005 Raupo Creek Single Vineyard Pinot Noir was selected as one of 3 Marlborough wines in an international tasting of Pinot Noir.

Tastings were held in each of Marlborough's distinct sub-regions illustrating the different characteristics typical of those areas - picturesque settings adding to the memorability of the ocassion and etching the differences in flavours firmly on the mind and palate.

Guests enjoyed fine food prepared by Marlborough's Chris Fortune and Martin Bosley from , Martin Bosley's Yacht Club in Wellington - New Zealand's Cuisine magazine's 2007 Restaurant of the Year.

Whale Watching, Eye to Eye

When a southern right whale decided to spend some time visiting Wellington recently, Polly Greeks had a ring-side seat to enjoy the action; the whale spent 15 hours playing about in the water below her deck.

In Polly's words: "It was up there amongst the most brilliant things I've ever seen. [That's saying something from what we know about Polly's adventures all over the world]. It was 12-metres long and spent the entire day just lolling around off the rocks. Sometimes it lay on its back waving its giant flippers out of the water and other times it raised its whole upper body from the water, nearly causing car crashes all along the coast road. I could still hear it in the evening when it was too dark to see it any longer."

Polly's neighbour, cinematographer Simon Baumfield, took these photos after an up-close-and-personal encounter diving with the whale. "Simon said he was swimming with the whale for about half an hour, and really wanting to get a photo of its eye, when it tucked its giant fin in to the side of its body to allow him to get in close enough. It was also making very low, deep sounds which vibrated right through him, and he found himself spontaneously making the same sounds back".

Thanks Polly, for bringing some magic to our day, and to Simon for the beautiful images.

It's not all black ...

The 'Drink Tank' team at our UK distributor Armit selected the 2006 'Leah' Pinot Noir as their wine of the week after it achieved first or second place from all of the seven judges in a blind tasting of six wines from France, Italy, Spain, USA and New Zealand.

Armit reported:
Whilst the All Blacks are heading home with tear-streaked cheeks and reputations in tatters, there is one New Zealander holding his head high this week. Michael Seresin, the founder, creator and dynamic force behind Seresin Estate can be rightly proud of his winning performance in the armit Drink Tank Taste-Off. The Webb Ellis Trophy will have to wait until 2011 but for those who wish to see New Zealand performing at its best, there can be no better way than cracking the cap on a bottle of Leah. Rich, generous and broad but with the definition and purity of great Pinot Noir for all to see, this is a brilliantly versatile, inspiring example of what can be produced in the land of the long white cloud.