Opou Vegetable Garden

A small space in Opou Vineyard has been tranformed into a nourishing organic vegetable garden. Garlic, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Zucchinis and Phacelia flowers to keep the bees happy.

James Mac, Ross & James Millton harvesting Garlic in the distance. One of the looooong rows of Potatoes. This vintage potatoes are going to play a large part on the menu.

Agria Potatoes planted 13/10/2011 in the star sign of Aries

 Bees enjoying the Phacelia

Harvesting the first of the potatoes for the festive season.

Millton Vineyard Ute filled of freshly harvested produce. Garlic, Cucumbers & Potatoes. Tomatoes are not too far way!

Melbourne

Last week we spent some time in Melbourne... what a drag..... Eating, drinking, a touch of shopping and to finish off with a wonderful trade tasting with World Wine Estates - our new Ozzie distributors. 


While the lucky people of Melbourne have such a huge everyday choice of where they will wine & dine The Millton Vineyard has a few favorites that we love to return too:

The brief Millton Vineyards weekend guide to eating & drinking in Melbourne.

Cumulus Inc.

 Shakshouka- Backed eggs with roasted peppers & marinated Persian feta. With of course the daily baked fresh bread and a good coffee.

http://cumulusinc.com.au/

Golden Fields - St Kilda

The new partner to Cululus and Cutler & Co.

 No better way to spend a Grey Sunday afternoon at Golden Fields listening to Records and experiencing some very well thought flavors.  A modern Asian influenced menu that leaves you completely satisfied and wanting to return for more.

It seems that we have a thing for oysters.... & I think we do. While in Melbourne I seemed to take food photos of only Oysters but we did eat a lot more....

Golden Fields afternoon consisted of,

Oysters,New England Loster roll , Crispy soft shell crab, Rustic pork dumplings, Twice cooked duck in steamed bread and the perfect ending was Shredded cabbage salad with Morton Bay bugs. A menu to view

http://goldenfields.com.au/home/

We all know Movida & all love it.

Oysters with Cider & Garlic foam......  wow.

We are a slight fan of  Chenin Blanc. While at Movida we drank a seriously beautiful Demi-Sec Chenin Blanc that went with every dish we devoured 2007 Pichot Vouvray Demi- Sec Chenin Blanc. If you can find it try it and maybe you would like to send a bottle to the Winery also please.

Melbourne, were do you stop.

Chin Chin, Cutler&Co, GingerBoy, City Wine Shop, Coda, and many many more.

Cheers to World Wine Estates for taking us under your wing and also to you fullaz across the ditch for having such a massive interest and support of what we do.

As I type, funny enough, the truck has arrived to pick up Crazy by Nature Dry Flint Chenin Blanc, Te Arai Chenin Blanc & Riverpoint Viognier. Leaving us and ready for y'all to drink in Australia.

World Wine Estates 

James Johnston

james@worldwineestates.com.au

Good luck for the Rugby ..........  

; )

The Millton Vineyard & Ussco Bar & Bistro Spring Dinner

 Sunday afternoon..... What better way to spend a Spring like day with friends, family, 4doz Pacific Oysters, a stunning bottle of 2009 Clos de Ste. Anne Chenin Blanc and sitting at Wainui beach gazing into the horizon.

 

Wainui Beach, Gisborne

2009 Clos de Ste. Anne Chenin Blanc is our new addition to the Clos de Ste. Anne family.  This wine presents itself with chipped stone minerality, aromas of pear, honey & bees wax and a hint of warm wool and starched linen. The savory acidity and austere dry textured tannin are refreshing while a quince-like fruit flavour gives lift and great length to the overall taste.

This wine with the oysters and the ocean breeze is a dreamy match that gave us not only  a visual treat of paradise but a taste of satisfaction while drifting into a Sunday afternoon coma.

Chenin Blogging

We love Chenin Blanc and it takes a long time to get spotted when you produce something that is idiosyncratic and less than 1% of the overall wine production, that does tick all the boxes of normality, that doesn't rely on the use of any of that makeup stuff some use in the vineyard and cellar to make them look pretty, that comes from the oldest biodynamic wine estate in the New World.

Robert Giorgione has something to say about our Crazy by Nature Dry Flint Chenin Blanc & Te Arai Chenin Blanc.

 http://www.robertgiorgione.com/wine-reviews/who-says-new-zealand-cant-produce-decent-chenin-blanc/

 

Hello! We are back after not a peep since 22 October 2010!!

 The sun has joined us again and the feeling of spring is in the air.

Te Arai Vineyard. View from the office window.

Vernal

Rather than observe the beginning of September as the arrival of spring, the biodynamic rythyms we follow are much more aligned with the equinox which follows some weeks later.

Since this image was captured on the equinox, near the end of September, the shoot growth has more than tripled while enduring our typically bracing North-Westerlies, two brief hail storms and enough rain in one day (220mm!) to fulfill almost a quarter of our annual rainfall. Vibrant luminous green life has emerged through a gentle start to spring...

l'élagueur

To the unschooled eye the vines all look the same, creating a daunting sight walking into the vineyard to begin pruning. Each vine, however, displays it's own idiosyncrasies from seasons past. Within a minute or so each vine's potential quality (and quantity) for the 2011 vintage will be determined.

Winter, thus far, has been unsympathetic to pruning. We don't prune in the rain - due mainly to increased risk of spreading potential disease between vines. Hence we're currently about 2 weeks behind schedule.

For us in the winery we relish pruning our superior parcels - we walk out of each row with the vines and  soil essentially undisturbed until spring. This includes burning all of the previous years growth removed from the vine. This serves two mains purposes - repressing the spread of potential diseased cuttings while avoiding the need for a tractor to pass over the soil to mulch the cuttings. While we minimise all tractor passes through the vineyard, we finely mulch and forage many of the cuttings as an essential ingredient during our compost assemblage.

The result. Two canes, each with 3 or 4 upward facing buds, tightly wrapped around the wire.

Fleetingly in the cellar to top barrels the music tends to be alluring and pensive...

happy new year?

Erm, happy new year! With our first post of the year it seems we've missed both summer & autumn in our aim to pass on our daily reflections. A cool and forlorn summer followed by a beautiful autumn resulted in a belated, amorphous harvest that has resulted in vibrant aromatic whites & restrained, elegant reds. More on their evolution soon...

As harvest concluded a few of our senior staff escaped to Taruna for a weekend recap on biodynamic preparations. Here's a few of our captivating creations...

Yarrow flowers matured in a stag's bladder (prep 502)

 

Chamomile flowers stuffed into a cow's intestine (prep 503)

 Burying firmly packed nettle (prep 504)

millerandage

With successful flowering a distant memory and berry growth accelerating, the Mendoza clone Chardonnay already exhibits the shot berries for which it is known. From our Riverpoint vineyard in Matawhero, it's likely harvest here should commence some time in the fourth week of March. These old chardonnay vines (originally established in 1978) will form the backbone of our Crazy by Nature Shotberry Chardonnay.

Elsewhere on the estate we're labelling a special order of Opou vineyard Chardonnay for our friends in Ontario and gift wrapping Christmas orders from our latest Tastevin newsletter.


In the cellar, our special 2009 Clos de Ste. Anne cuvees of Viognier & (for the 1st time) Chenin Blanc have been eased out of barrel in preparation for bottling next week as the moon begins it's descent. This involves rigorous (but pleasurable) fining trial tastings...

harmony

A challengingly enjoyable time of the year as juvenile vines of impetuous nature as Gewurztraminer, Marsanne & Muscat a Petit Grains threaten to run amok in the vineyard. In the cellar the natural malolactic fermentations of the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Viogniers subside. The aim is always for harmony in all our wines but sometimes you just need a little help from a few friends...

Lama Shedrup and Rinpoche Toulong enjoying the maceration of 2007 Malbec

Lama Shedrup returns to ensure the same wine is dispatched....with happiness & harmony

Lamas Shedrup's infectious smile is illuminating!

...a further example of pure harmony - from Grizzly Bear's album, Veckatimest - sure to be near the top of best albums of 2009...on high rotation in the cellar

Fiori!

A distinctly floral post. Snaps taken yesterday as the moon passed through Libra, a flower sign. Blossoming growth in the vineyard - flowering in Chardonnay & the olives while there is constant blossoming (and picking) of the flowers used in the biodynamic preparations...

50% flowering in clone 95 chardonnay

flowering frantoio olives

chamomile : about to be picked for preparation 503

drying dandelion flowers for preparation 506

a tea of Valerian flowers for preparation 507

Amphora and beyond

Amphora at Domaine Viret, and my daughter Monique...

Maybe these are the stones you can smell in this wine...

We just finished a long lunch, kinda like our crew downloading after our very long Labour Weekend of Muskats@Millton and the Clos Ste. Anne en primeur. Annie cooked delicious pink roasted lamb with kaffir lime and rosemary, Hohepa Cheese, garden fresh green salad and estate olive oil. A host of wines have been enjoyed but primarily we did credit to an amazing wine from Domaine Viret, Amphora Rouge, from Saint Maurice/Eygues in the South of France. Fermented and aged for over three months in amphora the wine is blacker than hell, tannin that has harmonised onto the natural acidity that it resounds like a cathedral organ in the tempest of an Egyptian tomb. Most probably a lot of Grenache and Mouverdre here but you can smell, in the glass, the gravel in the entrance to this most enchanting cellar. I managed to keep a good glass full to "look at" over these next 4-5 days because this wine does not, as well, contain added sulphur dioxide. So it has nothing from science to keep it alive, only the spirit and the wholesome sense of place and intention. Truly amazing that it even exists. Annie and I visited here in July, met with Philippe and his son They were cordial, French and with a reserved welcome. But when they found out that we were part of Renaissance des Appelations, we were then part of the 'Metier' kinda like 'the business'... the arms opened. Domaine Viret is available in New Zealand at Wine Circle, Huapai, West Auckland.

James M

New Arrival

Introducing Zepelin, and her proud mother Xena. The latest addition to the Millton family, born this past Thursday, already he's as inquisitive & friendly as his mum & five aunties.

Our herd of red shorthorns play an essential role in our vineyards. Not only does their manure contribute to our compost and preparation 500, as animals with a strong connection to the earth, they embody biodynamic culture.

With so many legally required statements on modern wine labels we've decided to use the cow as a symbol of our biodynamic wine estate on all our 2009 vintage wines and our new Crazy by Nature range...


This coming Saturday 24th October we'll be letting our hair down to celebrate the official release of our 2009 Muskats @ Dawn & 2009 Merlot Rosé with Muskats@Millton. This afternoon in the sun is headlined by the glorious Cut off your hands. Here's a taste of what to expect. Dust off your skinny black jeans...