Looking Back While Looking Forward

Not so much a Maoist slogan, more a Two Paddocks mantra.

For the very few of you who may have missed some of this (you might have been attempting a solo crossing of the Antarctic on foot for instance), 2014 was a HUGE year for us at Two Paddocks. Milestones from start to finish. So let's catch up ... starting today.

The Fusilier – Now we are Four (Paddocks)!

January was, as they say in the Balearics, massive. We began with the acquisition of a NEW VINEYARD, in Bannockburn and on Felton Road no less. Right in the heart of what some call the “Dress Circle” of Central Otago wine. In fact the new vineyard is pretty much right next door to the esteemed Felton Road Vineyard itself, so close we could put a hole through Nigel and Blair’s windows. Only our innate sense of fair play, and our lack of a decent catapult, prevent such nonsens . Anyway, we had been on the lookout for a good site thereabouts for quite some time, an additional string to the TP bow, so to speak. So late last year, when the opportunity arose to acquire the former Desert Heart vineyard from our friends Denny and Jane, the Prop jumped through several circus-sized hoops to seize the day.

Now the new vineyard on Felton Road, Bannockburn is renamed THE FUSILIER and at 5.6 hectares of top Pinot (116 117 10/5 5 etc, primarily Dijon clones on rootstock). It takes its name in memory of the old Fusilier himself, the late Dermot Neill, latterly Wine and Sprits Merchant and Convivial Wine Drinker of Dunedin.

We believe this makes us the SOLE Central Otago wine producer to own vineyards in ALL three major sub-regions, the three valleys (Gibbston Valley, the Alexandra Basin and the Cromwell Basin.) We are therefore following perhaps the Burgundian model, a small but carefully placed foot in various camps of excellence in our region.

This is the first vineyard we own that we have not developed ourselves, but it immediately came under the tender ministrations of our team under Mike, and fruit from the Fusilier will be an important component of Two Paddocks Pinot Noir 2014. In addition, we will release a premium single vineyard wine -- The Fusilier Pinot Noir 2014. Both will be extraordinary. It is now being fully organically managed.

Now we are pleased to say that the wines from The Fusilier are in the barrel, and await eventual bottling. And they are, at the risk of hyperbole, looking magnificent.

Spiffing stuff!