Blog

 Yes its pruning time again and the A team are at it once more.  Supervisor, as always, is Fire.

Followers of T.P personnel will note that Casey of Team America is back in the fold again. For followers of Clyde “H” it should be noted that Mike has a crook finger (as shown) and is on the side lines for 6 weeks.  The home team having a wee slump as a result.

 

Of course wine is not for everyone,and not all wines are to be recommended for the rest. By and large,wine in an actual bottle ,as opposed to say a plastic bladder in a cardboard box is probably advisable.

We say pay a little more, go for quality, and instead drink a little  less. No change in outlay and you’ll feel better about pretty much everything. Also buy wines that are as clean and natural as possible, as free of sprays and other stuff as you can find. Central Otago wines are, in general, pretty clean as we have so little trouble with fungus issues, etc. Nice clean place ... come visit.

BUT ... while we’ve all known  desperation for a drink, nothing at all should drive you to drink your mate’s home brew. That way madness lies. Or blindness. Or worse.

Seen here, and below, Mike and Nathan are starting a brew with some spare grapes.

They are NOT making Two Paddocks. It might not even qualify for “clean skin” by the look of it. Nil by mouth at costs.

Management have warned the boys that any damage will be at their own risk. And that the future of rugby in Clyde is of course dependent on Mike being able to see the ball.  [Clyde, with Mike as captain, doing very well this year, so far.]

Proprietor spotted today in Kuala Lumpur, or thereabouts, working with what seemed from a distance an orang-utan. The orang-utan seemed more competent with a bike than the Proprietor.  So no surprises really …

Further field tests today (assisted by David Wenham, actor) of Picnic Pinot Noir 2007 at Sydney's Rockpool Bar and Grill (ask for it by name). Drank beautifully and may just have contributed to RBG’s 17 points (out of 20) in Sydney Morning Herald today?

We have an answer as to the missing Proprietor at the critical moment of harvest this year; caught in an excellent episode of the splendid Bro’town  (5th and last series) aired on 3rd May. In this episode he teaches the boys drama as guest teacher for a week. A tatty postcard informs us he is still there trying to find the motorway out of South Auckland. But enjoying himself. A case of Two Paddocks to our pals at Bro’town!

 

Field Tests

Of course, the other reason we sometimes (in the interest of fine wine production) go fishing, say, is to try our wine under varied circumstances. This is not simply quality checking, but also we, rather like NASA scientists in the 50’s, test the quality of our staff – in this case the Proprietor.

Here the Proprietor, having shared a bottle of Picnic with R. Tomkins, casts a wet fly upstream.

Result1:   Picnic Pinot Noir (2007 in this case) drinks very well in the High Country and is the perfect accompaniment to salami, lettuce and chutney sandwiches on Vogel’s wholemeal bread.

Result 2:  The Proprietor demonstrates that Picnic Pinot Noir, in moderation, will not impair your cast. There have been instances recorded even of a slight improvement, albeit temporary

With clockwork precision the final bucket of grapes from the 2009 harvest were emptied into the bin as the clock struck 5:00 p.m. on Friday. This was perfect timing, as the truck was busy being loaded with our day’s pickings, to whisk the grapes off to the winery!

In contrast to the last vintage it was our Redbank Riesling that was the last to be harvested; last year it was the first! Everything else was pretty much to schedule, albeit a week ahead of last year. Needless to say, it, as always, is a relief to have this crucial task for the year behind us!

Mike is pleased to have his first harvest at the helm behind him, and was seen racing out the gate to join in the start of the duck shooting season, and a spot of fishing. No doubt a well earned break after many nights enduring frost fighting over the past couple of weeks.

--Mark Field

With clockwork precision the final bucket of grapes from the 2009 harvest were emptied into the bin as the clock struck 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The Gibbston crew posing for a photo op before the harvest.

 

FOOTNOTE: The Proprietor somehow mysteriously absent for harvest – anything that involves perspiration, back bending and so on he tends to regard with a certain hauteur. Idleness in other words.

(One disclaimer after another) We know these days bloggers write about their morning shower, what they had for breakfast, who they fancy … BUT …

We don’t want it thought that we at HQ do anything but work tirelessly towards providing you with the world's greatest Pinot. We are unflagging in our enthusiasm and dedication towards our Great Mission.

However occasionally we do find ourselves elsewhere doing something, which on the face of things, may seem like an irrelevance. For instance:

Here the Proprietor finds himself up one of the South Island’s great fishing rivers... ...in company of R. Tompkins of Cranbrook Films. Seen here in action. And surprise of surprises, the Prop finds himself in company of a 3 lb Rainbow. Let it NOT be thought this is a recreational activity – at H.Q.  we are assiduous in finding food matches for Two Paddocks or Picnic Pinot. We have established, beyond doubt that our Pinot is marvellous with trout, salmon and all manner of other fish (we do not eat whale, so no idea about that one, but then whale isn’t fish).

It is many years since we established the trout verity, and now we do NOT kill them from our rivers. In fact, we gently return them to their gorgeous environment.

They are NOT lunch. They seem entirely at ease with this arrangement.

  For the record here are some other things we match with Two Paddocks or Picnic Pinot:

• Lamb
• Roast vegies
• Thai food (various)
• Japanese food (various)
• Shepherd's Pie
• Tofu and mung beans
• Ship’s biscuits
• Montgomery Cheddar and chutney
• Pickled herrings
• Brassiere/bistro food (various)
• Peter Gordon’s great cuisine
• Comfort food (various)
• Fish and chips
• Vegan sausages
• Roast beef
• Curry
• Southeast Asian food (various)

And so on… What marvellously flexible wines! After all these years of research we have only come up with one food to cross off the list:

                 x   Sticky toffee pudding

So… as they say “bon appétit” and “cheers.”

Here for the purposes of morale, is an entirely gratuitous picture of a dog.  Our dog.

Feeling better?

Once again Two Paddocks’ vineyards were a hive of activity as harvest started in earnest at Alex Paddocks this morning. The Winemaker was heard to mutter “I think I can make something pretty smart with this fruit…” (Last Chance, we hope!)

--Mark Field

The proprietor has been travelling the world in earnest these last few months doing what he can to staunch the haemorrhage in the world economy (5/8 of s.f.a.). However he has come to some fairly firm if mildly delusional solutions – some of which he passed on to the charming P.M. John Key last month.  We await major policy decisions from Wellington.

1. Apart from some really dud banking, some dodgy bilking from Hedge Funders etc, most of what has engulfed the world appears to have been a massive loss of confidence in reaction to an overblown and over confident market and economy in recent years. In short – panic.

However we think we could learn from  (of all people) George W. Bush. Bush, you may remember, rather perplexingly declared war on an emotion - the so-called “War on Terror.” More useful than that dubious enterprise might be a “War on Panic.”

• Our motto could well be that marvellous British WWII number “Keep Calm and Carry On”. Just the ticket for a blitz or a recession.
• In the War on Panic, be careful to handle statistics properly (they are volatile and can damage) for instance, 5% unemployment is also actually 95% employment.
• It is also important to identify and neutralize the purveyors of panic. Here we need to corral the business page editors, the T.V. pundits, the doomsday economists and so on and firmly exclude them from the process. They should be sent out for a good long lunch lasting for, oh, some six months. Their consumption alone at that old fashioned thing, the business lunch, will kick start the most flagging of economies! And fortified by half a year of pinot noir they will return to their desks cheerier and more constructive.

You know it makes sense! You’re either for us or you’re against us!

2. It is well documented that the Royal Navy rationed a tot of rum to its men every day for the purposes of morale. While we should not emulate the R.N. in all things – they did after all invent keel-hauling – we do think there’s something in this. Rum, however would not be our choice as a weapon in a war on low morale – a nice glass of red wine to all citizens looking a little peaky or depressed could work wonders. It certainly does for us. (Do not serve in lead beakers – that seems to have finished off the Roman Empire.)

At C.O.W.C.O. we have bottled our 2008 Picnic Pinot, Sauvignon, and Riesling: all splendid.

And now nets are on for 2009 – what promises to be a good vintage if miniscule in volume. (You may remember the catastrophic frost of early 2008 – the same day the proprietor caught his biggest ever fish. Isn’t life droll sometimes?)