The “team” will be back in again very soon for further thinning of the crop, again with flavour intensity and quality wine in mind.  New Zealand wines are known world-wide for quality. It is our signature and is of tremendous importance in our positioning in export markets. Other countries may succeed with volume and low prices but that is not for us.  New Zealand must compete at the very top of the price and quality scale. Bald Hills, like many New Zealand brands crops at low levels by shoot thinning and bunch thinning during the season.

The big news for us is that we have come away with the Trophy for the best Pinot Noir at the Sydney International Wine Competition! Our 2009 Pinot was awarded Blue Gold and Top 100 and was therefor eligible to compete against other superb wines for the top spot. Blair went over to Sydney to attend the Banquet. He was not certain of the top prize at that stage but he had a fair idea and was delighted when the announcement confirmed our expectations. Much celebrating ensued!  You might remember from the last Newsletter that our 2010 Pinot Noir was also awarded Blue Gold, but not that Top 100 award to allow it to go forward to further tasting. Blair says we are “just hitting our straps.”

The good life at Bald Hills! The garden and the weeds are growing flat out with the regular rainfall we have been having.Trees and hedges are looking very established and the lawns are a lovely bright green. When hedges are trimmed and the lawns cut one hardly notices the weeds. One tree in particular that has done very well is a Robinia “Lace Lady”which obviously loves rain rather than just water. It is located outside the Tasting Room and visitors often ask about it.

We are eating beans, cabbages, sweetcorn and zucchini and have a glut of tomatoes! The red onions and garlic have all been consumed. Herbs are spilling over the paths, except for basil, one of our favourites, which does not seem to do well out in the open down here. A “relly” sends basil down from Auckland. We would love to grow egg plant, capsicums and chilli every year but for that to happen we would need a tunnel house (so ugly!) because of the short growing season.

The Blackboy peaches are now ready for eating, and the lovely dark red plums made a beautiful jam before the possums got to them.

Roses are still flowering abundantly after a short break.Today we picked a huge bunch of the lovely yellow “Friesia” rose, which looks marvellous in a jug for a short while before it drops its petals artistically over the table-top.

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Here’s to all of us!

Estelle and Blair

Bannockburn NZ 27 February 2012

Amidst fierce competition Bald Hills Vineyard of Bannockburn Central Otago, has won the “Best Pinot Noir Wine of Competition” Trophy for 2012 announced on Saturday at the SIWC Awards Presentation Banquet at the Shangri-La Hotel for its Central Otago Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009.

Owners, Blair and Estelle Hunt are former Sydney residents whose love of wine led them to Central Otago where cool nights, warm days and low rainfall combines with light free-draining soils to provide near perfect growing conditions for the pinot noir grape. Planted in 1997, the boutique vineyard comprises some 7 hectares of vines, 5 of which are in various clones of pinot noir and the remainder in pinot gris and riesling.

“It is a huge honour to have been awarded the Trophy” said Dr Hunt. “Pinot Noir is now New Zealand’s second most planted variety and it is planted widely in Australia too. The competition for high awards is stiff. Awards like this open doors in this highly competitive economic environment in which we find ourselves.” ‘We know we sit on an excellent piece of land” he continued “and we see a vintage-by-vintage improvement in the wines as the vines gain some age”.

“This Trophy will sit proudly beside the six Trophies won by our celebrated 2005 Pinot Noir at the Decanter World Wine Awards and the International Wine Challenge in London in 2007,” he said.

Bald Hills began entering the prestigious Sydney competition in 2007 and has since amassed five Blue Gold awards and three Top 100 awards, most of them for its Pinot Noir.

The SIWC’s unique approach to determining the ranking of wines which have progressed through initial elimination is to taste those wines with food, a method proven to be a reliable indicator of quality for merchants and the wine-drinking public alike.

The “team” have been in for a few days attending to bud-rubbing and shoot thinning and the vineyard is looking a picture.  The hills are purple with wild thyme amidst the green of grass brought on by unusually regular rainfall.

Recent Awards  include 90 points for our 09 Last Light Riesling and 91points for our 09 Single Vineyard Pinot Noir from Robert Parker’s experienced taster Lisa Perrotti Brown. The results have been published in the USA’s “Wine Advocate” magazine, considered the bible in that country and highly regarded throughout the wine-drinking world. Anything over 90 is said to be miraculous! We have sent just a pallet of both wines to New York so it will be interesting to see if the demand is there.

The Sydney International Wine Competition has awarded us Blue/Gold Top 100 for our ’09 Single Vineyard Pinot Noir and Blue/Gold for our ’10 Single Vineyard Pinot Noir. Keep an eye on that ’10.  We think it will go places.
The Tasting Room is open again 7 days a week from 11a.m until 5p.m. Have a look at the garden too when you are here and be sure to go all the way around and wander down the paths.

The good life at Bald Hills!  The pullets have started to lay the most divine little brown eggs and they set up such a cacophony after delivery.  The two older hens are still thinking about it. Both of them are frequently clucky and they sit side by side in the nesting boxes with warm undersides and patient expressions to no avail.

We are eating strawberries,”drunken woman” lettuces (can’t resist that name) spinach and florence fennel and a couple of weeks ago we planted 200 red onions and a patch of sweetcorn. A small handful of blood and bone every 8-10 days keeps them all moving.

The roses are looking wonderful.  Today we picked a large bunch of “Lady Hillingdon” for the Tasting Room and another stout little bunch of “Chianti” for the living room plus a wide-mouthed earthenware jar of irises of mixed colours and unknown names.

Kitchen tasting in the old days

Today we do things differently. Still in the home but now from a bedroom  painted raspberry pink and furnished with junk-shop finds and opening directly to the garden.  Repeat visitors speak wistfully of the kitchen days! First-time visitors enjoy the “ambiance” even though crushed in cheek by jowl, not knowing how it used to be. Who knows, we might even re-introduce the kitchen and find a renter for the bedroom – probably it’s wise to think laterally in these hard times!

The converted bedroom

With interest continuing to build at Bald Hills however we often consider building a State of the Art Cellar Door with Winery Attached, but for now the “converted bedroom” works for us!

Bannockburn, soils, climate, water.  The following extract from Soils for Horticulture CENTRAL OTAGO by PD McIntosh ( Scientist with Landcare Research New Zealand) explains a few of your questions about our site:

SOILS, AND CLIMATIC ZONES

“The Bannockburn Valley contains three areas with more than one thousand growing degree days (1000GDD)”.

Bald Hills is located within one of these favourable areas – “the slopes with northwesterly aspect between the Kawarau River and the Eastern Hill Country”.

Soils most suited to horticulture include the highly suitable Manuherikia soils of Bald Hills. These soils are moderately deep to deep fine sandy loam, accumulated as wind-blown loess over free-draining terrace gravels.

ALTITUDE
Around 200m above sea level.

RAINFALL
300-400 mm annually.

WATER SUPPLY
There is an abundance of water from the rivers and streams draining the surrounding mountains.  Bald Hills irrigates by means of drippers, each vine having its own dripper. A bore located within the Bald Hills property derives water from an aquifer some 30m deep.

Recent Awards Another award to our credit is a source of great pride.  Cuisine has awarded us 4.5 Stars for our “Single Vineyard” Pinot Noir 2010 – not long in the bottle so it promises great things though still very young. Did we tell you about Gold from the Australian Boutique Wine Awards?  That’s for the 2009 “Single Vineyard” Pinot Noir offered above. Awards must seem “a dime a dozen” to the casual observer.  Our policy is to enter only well-established competitions which are highly regarded amongst the wine cognoscenti.
The Tasting Room is open again 7 days a week from 11a.m until 5p.m. and it is usually Blair who is in attendance to talk about the wines and the vagaries of the season which produced them. Be sure to call in when you are here.

The good life at Bald Hills!  Sad to say those baby chickens turned out to be 3 roosters and 2 hens contrary to previous predictions. The roosters are practising crowing at present. They are teenagers so their voices are just a kind of strangled cry.

One of our great pleasures is strolling around the gravel paths. Daffodils,violets, hellebores, trilliums, some peonies, grape hyacinths and the early irises make you feel so happy! In the vegetable garden we have planted lettuce, beetroot, side-sprouting broccolli, baby cabbages, red onions, garlic, florence fennel and spinach. The strawberries are flowering and the raspberries and currants are not far off.

Budburst is expected by the first week in October requiring all hands on deck until harvest in April. Vineyard work is very demanding but it is varied and ultimately satisfying, and it certainly beats the daily grind of pure office work.

Bannockburn, a special place! Here is a borrowed description explaining the geography and the wines produced in this part of the country better than we can:

“Bannockburn, the oldest and currently the most intensively planted of the micro climates in Cromwell, is a North facing crescent bordering the Kawarau River as it flows across the base of the Cromwell valley to its meeting with the Clutha River. A very warm and dry area, it has two distinct areas within it of Cairnmuir and Felton Road…..Wine Typicity: Spice, darker fruits and complexity, with well-defined but fine tannin structure.”(COPNL literature)

Recent Awards include Pure Gold from Bragato Wine Awards 2011 for our 2010 “3 Acres” Pinot Noir (see the special offer above) and Gold from the Australian Boutique Wine Awards (Chief Judge Huon Hooke) for our 2009 “Single Vineyard” Pinot Noir! The Pinots continue to benchmark well against earlier successes while the whites are developing a delicious depth of flavour and character as the vines age.

Dunedin visit September 15. Bald Hills will show their wines along with other Central Otago vineyards at the Dunedin Public ArtGallery this Thursday. The Consumer Tasting takes place from 6-8p.m.and you will be able to taste wines from some 30 Central Otagovineyards – a terrific chance to taste them all in one place. In addition you will have the opportunity to win one of several “spot” prizes     of mixed wines. Tickets for this “must do” event are available at “Rhubarb”café, 299 Highgate, Roslyn, phone 4772555, email rhubarb299@xtra.co.nz. The modest entry cost is $30 and all tastings will be provided free of charge. Prior to the consumer tasting a trade tasting (2-5 p.m.) and master classes (1-2p.m.) will be held at the same venue.Tickets for these are free of charge. We will be sending them out to our contacts in the trade, but if we should miss anyone you know of please contact us direct.

The Tasting Room is open again 7 days a week from 11a.m until 5p.m. and it is usually Blair who is in attendance to talk about the wines and the vagaries of the season which produced them. Be sure to call in when you are here.

The good life at Bald Hills! Those baby chickens seem to be all hens at this stage. We must admit though that one of them seems to have a longer neck than the others and perhaps a fuller chest.If we do have a rooster we are philosophical about it. There’s a story amongst poultry keepers that a bloke keeps the girls happy. Any truth in that?

Warmer weather entices us into the garden.The soil’s frozen crust has softened and we are incorporating composted leaves into the vegetable area. Time now to put in peas and potatoes and broad beans. Perennial herbs are putting on growth and the borders of strawberries planted last year courtesy of our friends “Goodies from the Gorge” along with raspberry canes from the same source are suddenly green and perky.

It turns out to be really good living in Central, especially this part, Bannockburn.  When the rest of you all froze to death last week we were warm and cosy because our houses are built for polar blasts. Double glazing, insulation in ceilings and walls, central heating and so on.A bit of snow fell, but that’s nothing unusual, and it soon melted away to add some moisture to the dry earth. Winters are pretty dry here.  In fact it’s dry all year around generally and that’s one of the best things about living up Central. While most of the rest of New Zealand is green with pasture and trees, Central is rather barren.

Budburst is expected by the first week in October requiring all hands on deck until harvest in April. Vineyard work is very demanding but it is varied and ultimately satisfying, and it certainly beats the daily grind of pure office work.

Bannockburn, a special place! Here is a borrowed description explaining the geography and the wines produced in this part of the country better than we can:

“Bannockburn, the oldest and currently the most intensively planted of the micro climates in Cromwell, is a North facing crescent bordering the Kawarau River as it flows across the base of the Cromwell valley to its meeting with the Clutha River. A very warm and dry area, it has two distinct areas within it of Cairnmuir and Felton Road…..Wine Typicity: Spice, darker fruits and complexity, with well-defined but fine tannin structure.”(COPNL literature)

Recent Awards include Pure Gold from Bragato Wine Awards 2011 for our 2010 “3 Acres” Pinot Noir (see the special offer above) and Gold from the Australian Boutique Wine Awards (Chief Judge Huon Hooke) for our 2009 “Single Vineyard” Pinot Noir! The Pinots continue to benchmark well against earlier successes while the whites are developing a delicious depth of flavour and character as the vines age.

Dunedin visit September 15. Bald Hills will show their wines along with other Central Otago vineyards at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery this Thursday. The Consumer Tasting takes place from 6-8p.m.and you will be able to taste wines from some 30 Central Otago vineyards – a terrific chance to taste them all in one place. In addition you will have the opportunity to win one of several “spot” prizes of mixed wines. Tickets for this “must do” event are available at “Rhubarb”café, 299 Highgate, Roslyn, phone 4772555, email rhubarb299@xtra.co.nz. The modest entry cost is $30 and all tastings will be provided free of charge. Prior to the consumer tasting a trade tasting (2-5 p.m.) and master classes (1-2p.m.) will be held at the same venue.Tickets for these are free of charge. We will be sending them out to our contacts in the trade, but if we should miss anyone you know of please contact us direct.

The Tasting Room is open again 7 days a week from 11a.m until 5p.m. and it is usually Blair who is in attendance to talk about the wines and the vagaries of the season which produced them. Be sure to call in when you are here.

The good life at Bald Hills! Those baby chickens seem to be all hens at this stage. We must admit though that one of them seems to have a longer neck than the others and perhaps a fuller chest.If we do have a rooster we are philosophical about it. There’s a story amongst poultry keepers that a bloke keeps the girls happy. Any truth in that?

Warmer weather entices us into the garden.The soil’s frozen crust has softened and we are incorporating composted leaves into the vegetable area. Time now to put in peas and potatoes and broad beans. Perennial herbs are putting on growth and the borders of strawberries planted last year courtesy of our friends “Goodies from the Gorge” along with raspberry canes from the same source are suddenly green and perky.

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Here’s to all of us!

Estelle and Blair

Being very much in awe of vineyards, wineries, winemakers and viticulturists and not wanting to make a mistake due to our inexperience in this field we employed the best winemaker and the best viticulturist in Central Otago at the time. We wanted the wines to be good – very good – partly because we knew if we fell on hard times we would have to drink it ourselves or give it away to long-suffering friends. So we were brave, hired the best, and started entering competitions!

Lo! our very first vintage the Bald Hills Pinot Noir 2002 took GOLD at the Air NZ Wine Awards. How easy is that?  Piece of cake this competition thing. But it was to be a long time between drinks as the saying goes. People said first vintages often pulled out all stops, as if the vines worried they might never do it again and put on their best show. Maybe that’s true. Maybe joy in this new-found vocation on our parts and our enthusiasm seeped into the wine! Maybe luck had a hand. Whatever. But we are still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed so we must have been doing something right.

Not long-suffering at all - a happy buyer!

Anyway enough about us. Will talk about living in Central Otago next time.