Viticulturist for Burgundy

Mike off for Northern Vintage

Mike Wing, our whizz viticulturist, has the singular honor to be selected as one of four who are being sent to Burgundy for vintage. Mike is off in a few days, along with 3 other Central viticulturists -- Blair Deaker, Max Marriot, and Dylan Turnbull. We wish them all a great time.

In the meantime, Mike is dreaming about his upcoming Top 10.

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From Mike:

One week to go until the exchange programme which will take me to Burgundy to experience a vintage in the Cote D’or. I am one of four from Central Otago that will be placed at selected domains in the Cote D’or for the 2011 vintage to get a hands on appreciation of the home of Pinot Noir. The Burgundy/ Central Otago exchange programme allows up to four people from each wine region to gain the experience of a vintage on the other side of the world and has been running for several years now.

So off to sorting tables, horse pulled ploughs and 0.1ha blocks of very low cropping vines it all sounds a bit like Two Paddocks really although we are still very young in comparison and I have not convinced the proprietor to buy a horse yet. We spend most of our time in the winery learning all the crucial operations (hosing and sweeping) and untellable secrets (wine and cheese for breakfast) of Burgundy’s success at producing great Pinot Noir. I am becoming very excited at the opportunity that awaits me and plan to immerse myself in the culture and history.

We are lucky enough to have a couple of days to travel to Burgundy from Paris and the proprietors wife has done a great job in booking us a tour of Moet & Chandon in Epernay and we also have booking at William Fevre in Chablis. Don’t get the wrong idea though this is a work trip and all effort will be made to gain large amounts of knowledge to return to Two Paddocks rather than drinking and eating our way through a five week trip.