Blog

8 Young Lane, Neutral Bay, Sydney

A bunch of us opened a new bar, a new venture for all of us, in Sydney this week. It

Special guest Roi Colbert, humourist, writer and critic.

Ladies and Gentlemen, are there any of you here, or is it just the usual line-up of hooligans and louts here in the Dayglo? Yes, I believe I see one at the back, a small but impressive gentleman from Dunedin, making his way to the stage, a familiar figure ... wait while I put on my glasses ... yes, I’m right, it’s the man who gives a good name to Dunedin ... columnist for the Otago Daily Times, satirist, commentator, and documentarian of his own hapless delightful life.

A very old and treasured friend of Two Paddocks, Roi, while not the world’s wildest dancer, knows more about, and cares more about music than anyone else we know – he has been a master of music criticism since the last King died pretty much. He also ran the best second hand record store in NZ for many years, just up from the Octagon.

Technically blind as a bat, he still plays golf twice a week at Balmacewen – terrifying – FORE! Here he is with his all-vinyl selection, magooing his way to the tables – he makes us laugh, and he’s here to ROCK ... give it up people for our dear old friend ... ROI COLBERT!>>>

Sit up now class!

At this time of year every vine is carefully, painstakingly shoot thinned by hand – vital for low croppping (high quality) and vine management.

Here Mike shows a young riesling vine before thinning ...   And after shoot thinning.        

All that craft and love...

Right, playtime – out you go. And no fighting Jimmy!

Guest DJ Wine Writer and Commentator, The Wandering Menace, Curtis Marsh.

One of the Great Men of Wine, Curtis Marsh, has been based in Honkers and now in Singapore for many years now, and when he’s not clubbing here at the Dayglo, he devotes his time to exploring the world of wine. He is a sound critic and a terrific commentator, and we highly recommend his website thewanderingpalate.com for top info on wines and sheer pleasurable reading. Look him up – we will spare you the bio – but suffice it to say he’s been everywhere in the pursuit of excellence and a decent beverage – they know him in Burgundy, in Central Otago, in California ... he’s out there in your vineyard, he’s interrogating your winemaker, he’s keeping you up all night with hilarity and more of the good stuff. In other words, a major liability. The Wandering Menace ...

So, give it up Clubbers, iPhones in the air please, do a little stretch before maxing the boogie, hit the flloor, and DANCE! Here he is, our pal and yours -The Wandering Palate himself ... CURTIS MARSH!

Something in the air...

Frosts aside (and we have been fighting our share, and have sustained some losses), it's springtime and the world in the vineyards is full of new life and promise.

We have at Alex (Last Chance vineyard) 7 acres of pinot noir grapes, surrounded by 13 acres of wild thyme. And here it is in full flower. The air is strongly scented with thyme. We are sure this accounts for some of the wonderful savoury notes you can taste in our Pinot.

And as well as our sheep providing natural fertilizer, and our extensive composting programme, we also grow cover crops between our rows. These not only conserve water and soil, when dug in later provide heaps of excellent organic matter for the vineyard.

Ok ... lesson over. You can all go out and play now.

Special Guest DJ Oscar Kightley, MNZM.

Ladies and Gentlemen! On your feet, if you please, for a great New Zealander, and simultaneously a great Samoan!  Yeah!  I know ... crazy but true! Here he is in the Disco Inferno -- our good friend and confidant, the completely unique and utterly marvellous Oscar Kightley. "As funny as a fight," as they say in Ireland. Who knows what they say in Samoa? Do they even fight in Samoa? We love what Oscar does here at TPHQ. Excellent Actor, Writer, Producer, Comedian, TV Presenter and All Round Good Guy – all of these. Having said that, who knows what Oscar does, since he is almost invariably part of an excellent collective. One of the amazing Naked Samoans (if you haven’t seen Niu Sile, you haven’t lived or laughed enough), and one of the guys of Bro’ Town, New Zealand’s wildly succesful animated series, about a bunch of kids ar a South Auckland school. If they ad a leader &at all, it was Oscar. Just as he cowrote and starred in the brilliant movie Sione's Wedding probably the best comedy ever from New Zealand, and much loved here at HQ. (Look forward to the sequel ... the Prop should have been in it, but failed the Samoan accent test somehow). The Prop was in an episode of Bro' Town – "To Sam With Love" - check it out.

So here he is - one of the funniest men in New Zealand or anywhere else – our friend and dance guru, on your feet please, lighters up in the DaygloDisco, Let’s hear it from Club Two Paddocks – his sounds, his moves his moment – yes it’s Oscar Kightley!>>>

Special Guest Winemaker and Diva from Neudorf, Judy Finn

Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight in the Dayglo Disco, Club Two Paddocks,  special guest New Zealand Wine Legend Judy Finn!  We love a lot of other wineries here at Club HQ, and some we love more than others. Neudorf, in Nelson, is one we adore.  30 years on, making some of NZ’s greatest wines (try walking past their Chardonnays ... go on, try ... see you couldn’t do it!). And here she is, the glamorous Judy Finn, co-founder of Neudorf with her husband Tim Finn (imagine the sheer inconvenience of that alone -- like a Californian winemaker who happened to be married to an Elvis Presley) ... Judy has immaculate taste in wine and music, and we are honoured to welcome her to Club Two Paddocks, a rousing cheer please for the wonderful ... Judy FINN!>>>

Benedict Cumberbatch the father. Probably.

 

Just the one.

And here they are.

Naked lips.

It has become a tradition in New Zealand that in November men grow moustaches to raise money to fight prostate cancer.

So at Two Paddocks, the boys are under orders to save on razor blades;  the winner will then be able to donate a substantial sum from The Prop.

However the photographic evidence of work to date is not encouraging. With the exception of Mike, no-one yet has managed to sprout a single hair. The question is, are the boys just being truculent and contrarian?

Or could it be that they just ... can’t grow a mo?

Results at the end of the month.

Special Guest  DJ Thespian LEGEND, Alan RICKMAN Star of Bottleshock (Just to show this is in some small way connected to wine.)

Ladies aanndd Gentlemen! Tonight only, direct from Broadway, the utterly unique and completely brilliant Alan Rickman, right here in the Dayglo Disco spinning his discs just for you. And you. And you two in the corner. Yes it's Alan Rickman ... NOW I have your attention. Yes, it's the man who brought you Snape in Harry Potter (if you're under 20), Valmont in the RSC's Dangerous Liaisons (if you are grown up), the bad guy in Die Hard, he IS Colonel Brandon, Truly Madly ... oh alright you’ve got the picture ... and masses of other luminous performances on stage and screen. He is, like his namesake Chicken Rickman, sexy, charismatic and very scary. And here he is ... RESPECT ... sashaying up to the turntables with a stack o’ wax under his immaculately cut  armpit -- give it up, if you please, for one of the greatest actors of his and any other generation -- the simply great, the inimitable the fantastic ...Alan RICKMAN!!>>>

All you need is love.

Our pig, Angelica has moved in with the cows, and they are all getting on well. Lady Caine, a very mothery kind of cow, has taken the pig under her wing.

And Mike managed to capture the moment they met as Lady Caine gave Angelica a big kiss. A kiss that was not particularly well received by Angelica, who really wanted to just get on with his dinner.