Over the years Huia have taken quite a bit of blog space here on B Times. They’ve always got a story to tell and whether it’s their involvement with MANA and natural winemaking, a cheeky Pinot Noir wine of the week or harvest news from the team in Marlborough, we love to tell you all about what’s going on at one of New Zealand’s most exciting wineries.

What makes the winery one of the most interesting and exciting in New Zealand is their approach to winemaking. Not only are they a very small outfit, so there’s not much to go around. The team operate with an artisan approach to producing wine, with all their grapes biodynamically grown, and from 2012 onwards all their hand crafted wines will also be certified organic. Not stopping there, last year Huia were officially awarded Carbon Neutral status by the CaroNZero programme. All good stuff, but this wouldn’t be half as interesting unless their wines were top class. Producing some of the finest Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer to come out of New Zealand, alongside a fantastic sparkling, their wines are awesome examples of boutique winemaking in Marlborough.

So as we enter a New Year, we thought we would give you an update on what’s going on at Huia vineyards -

Seriously Buzzing! -

We recently caught up with the team from Huia, who were all rather excited about a new and unusual initiative they have up and running amongst the vines.  Within any winery that focuses on growing grapes with biodynamic practices firmly in the mind, the winemaking philosophy is always closely linked to the earth and nature.  One of their new vineyard practices fits this philosophy perfectly, and aims to increase the number of bees in and around the vines.

The reason for this lies within that fact that Bees in New Zealand are very much in danger, due largely to a lack of food and increased numbers of predators.  This is very much the case in Marlborough, with its widespread vine plantings. As grape vines are self pollinating, they do not require bees for pollination, and this has meant wild bees find it hard to survive in a landscape where flowers are only formed for a short period once a year.

To support a healthy bee population, Huia’s vineyards need to be full of flowers nearly all year round, calling for more diverse plants such as clover, buckwheat, blue tansy, alfalfa, tagasate, dandelion and yarrow. These plants not only feed the bees, but also protect and feed the soils, while also attracting further benefits such as other insects, bacteria and fungi that protct against diseases and pests that can attack the vines.

The Huia team believes bringing more bees to the vineyards creates a virtuous circle and leads to better soils, healthier vines and ultimately better wines. Interesting stuff…here’s to the humble honey bee!

Riddle me this….

Huia has recently finished hand-riddling their 2006 Brut, which was then disgorged and labelled in December. A labour of love for the team, riddling is the process by which the dead yeast and deposits from fermentation are gently brought from the bottom of the bottle into the neck to be disgorged. A slow and pain-staking job!

This ancient technique devised within the cavernous cellars of Champagne, involves turning the bottles of fizz a quarter of a turn at a time, repeatedly every other day. At Huia, riddling 6000 bottles takes around 5-6 weeks, and they hand riddle each of the 12,000 bottles produced every year.

Owner and Winemaker Mike Allen learnt these skills while working at Veuve Cliquot and the A frames used for the riddling are all from the Champagne region.  For Huia, making their fizz is all about authenticity, taking the time and doing things with the greatest of care to make the best wines.

Keep up the good work Mike…we all are big fans of the Huia fizz!

If you want to try Huia’s fantastic fizz and all their other great wines, as well as chat to the guys about what they are up to in the vineyard, check them out at Just Add Bibendum later this month.

I have a free weekend sans famille coming up that may or may not involve some of the following: a St John Bread & Wine bacon sarnie, half a dozen Colchester natives and a pint of Oyster Stout at Bentley’s,  a plate of jamon and a glass of sherry at Dehesa and a fat ribeye steak from Darragh O’Shea. Happy days.

The steak will require very little to make it wonderful: some salt and pepper, a very hot pan and a large glass of red wine are the essentials. A smear of Dijon, some sort of fat-infused potato and a token bit of watercress come a close second.

My wine choice for said steak is the Te Awa Left Field Merlot/Malbec 2009.

Now Malbec and bloody hunks of cow is an increasingly common match – Wines of Argentina did a brilliant job a few years ago with their ‘Meat and Malbec’ campaign – but this wine has more in common with St Emilion than Mendoza.

The blend relies  more on Merlot than Malbec with a healthy splash of Cabernet Franc in the mix too. The grapes are grown in Hawkes Bay on New Zealand’s North Island in an area known as the Gimblett Gravels, an old dry river bed that is home to most of NZ’s serious (non-Pinot Noir) reds.

What makes the area special lies (as it usually does with wine) in the dirt. The river bed gravel soils are quick-draining, warm and not very fertile; perfect for growing red grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah flourish here, producing perfumed, elegant wines that are a sort of halfway house in style between the restraint of France and the exuberance of Australia.

The Left Field Merlot/Malbec is wonderful. At its core is a heart of dark, spicy black fruit but layered on top you find perfumed violet notes from the Malbec and hints of something herby from the Cabernet Franc. The acidity is quite soft, leaving most of the structural work to some fine but ever so slightly chewy tannins.

It proves there is much more to New Zealand than just Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Noir.

If you are reading this I assume you have a passing interest in wine. And most people I know with a passing interest in wine will have been planning exactly what they’ll be drinking on Christmas Day with something approaching military precision.

However, if you have been too busy working how out to sew together your pigeon in a pheasant in a duck in a chicken in a turkey multi-bird roast to think about what to serve alongside it, all is not lost.

Get thee to Majestic and and beg for some Wither Hills Pinot Noir 2008.

Why? It’s a bloody good Kiwi Pinot for one. For two, the current price (£9.99 as long as you buy two) is daft.

Wither Hills winemaker Ben Glover and his team recently decided that the price of the Pinot Noir had got a bit too high, so they knocked it back a bit.  Then it went on promotion at Majestic taking it out of the good value category into the fill your boots (and the car boot) territory.

The understandable conclusion to reach from this is that the winery (or the accountants at the winery) probably slashed the quality of the juice in the bottle at the same time in order to maintain profit levels. Not so. This is the same vintage that was selling for £16.99 a few weeks back – and lots of people were very happy to buy it at that price.

Here is what wine writer Matthew Jukes has to say on the matter: “At a tenner it is in danger of perhaps losing some of its loyal fans because they might think that something has changed or that the wine is being diluted or repositioned on account of a shift in quality. Nothing can be further from the truth – WH is making better wine than ever and this discount is a one off. Grab all that you can get – it already tastes stunning and it will also age gracefully for a decade and knock the socks off any other pinot in the world at this price.”

What’s it like? It’s a rich, juicy Pinot with toasty oak adding hints of spice and milk chocolate to the ripe strawberry and black cherry fruit. The tannins are smooth and sweet with just enough grip to make it a very well-mannered dinner guest. It is perhaps the perfect pigs-in-blankets wine.

Have a brilliant Christmas.

The 2010s are here already and one of the early favourites at Bibendum Times HQ is Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc. 2010 was a cracking vintage in Marlborough. After the bumper crops of 2008 and 2009 which led to talk of over production and price pressures, all the winemakers want to talk about in 2010 is the quality of the grapes and the wines.

You can read Wither Hills Chief Winemaker Ben Glover’s vintage report here.

But it isn’t just the winemakers who are getting excited about the vintage. It’s New Zealand’s elite rugby players too.

On Monday, three of the touring All Blacks squad descended on Primrose Hill for some pre-Twickenham fun and games and Sam Patten of Lion Nathan collared flanker Daniel Braid to give us his assessment of the 2010 Wither Hills Sauvignon.

A few tropicals in there, Daniel? Bit of gooseberry perhaps? Rugby fans might also be interested in Daniel’s predictions for this Saturday’s game against England…

You can see lots of photos of the All Blacks visit to Bibendum on our Facebook page.

This time last year, I was lucky enough to join in a vertical tasting of Wither Hills Pinot Noir, from its debut vintage in 2007 right up to the then just-released 2007. It was fascinating to see how the style of the wine has changed over the years. Obviously, vintage variation has a big part to play but it was clear that winemaker Ben Glover and his team were also making a conscious effort to make the wines paler, fresher and brighter.

The early vintages were quite muscular and rich with plush oak enhancing the fruit, the later vintages were more fruit-focused and elegant with the power turned down in favour of finesse. In Ben’s words, they have been trying to make the wines less like those of Pommard and more like those of Chambolle.

The 2008 which has just hit the shops in the UK is another step in that direction – the wine is fresh, crisp and focused with oak playing second fiddle to the pure red cherry fruit. Ben has used just 25% new oak on this vintage, a far cry from the 60% plus that he used seven or eight years ago.

But what is really interesting is the two new single vineyard wines that Ben is showing off on the Lion Nathan stand. Taylor’s River and Benmorven are the vineyards that provide the bulk of the fruit for the Wither Hills Pinot and 2007 was the first vintage they bottled a part of the crops separately. But rather than being super-cuvees at sky-high prices, Ben is adamant that the wines are about showcasing the different terroirs in Marlborough.

The 2007 Taylor’s River comes from (as the name suggests) an old river bed and has silt and loam soils. The wine is structured, full and firm with more black fruit than red and plenty of supple tannins. The Benmovern by contrast is lighter, gentler, and more feminine. Perfumed and floral with delicate cherry and strawberry fruit, it hails from clay soils that have been eroded from the Wither Hills themselves. Tasted side-by-side the wines show the two faces of Wither Hills Pinot, linked by classic Marlborough purity of fruit, but separated by their soils.

Personally, my favourite is the Benmovern – I’m a sucker for pale, pretty fruit on my Pinots but there were also plenty of votes for both the masculine Taylor’s River and the regular cuvee which brings the two vineyards together. Pop along to stand N40, ask for Ben and find out which one is your favourite.

Find out more about Wither Hills and watch some videos from the vineyards on its Facebook page.

Huia's Juice Tray

At the moment, we are in the middle of the Sauvignon Blanc pick. Sauvignon crops have been quite small for us this year averaging about 5 to 7 tonnes to the hectare (35 – 48 hl/ha). This has resulted from a combination of factors including cool flowering but also some very careful pruning and shoot thinning by the vineyard crew. We pick our Sauvignon very early in the morning (4am) when the fruit is at its coldest. This means the fruit can retain all the wonderful aromatics that the Marlborough climate gives us. We pick it into small 1000 litre bins and press it cold without crushing to minimise skin contact and phenolics.

Watch the video below the see the Sauvignon make his way from harvest to press

The stony silts at our Rapaura Road vineyards provide ripe passionfruit, melon and citrus flavours into the Sauvignon Blanc. Our Winsome vineyard grows on heavy Orthic Clays. These soils give us more structure and some bright greengage plum, gooseberry and nettle  flavours.

All of our Huia Sauvignon Blanc is grown organically. No pesticides or herbicides are used to grow the fruit. We use careful canopy management and benign biological products to manage any disease. Weeds under the vines are managed using a Braun undervine weeding machine and by hand weeding. We also make lots of compost from our winery marc and prunings to fertilise the soil, encourage good soil biology for healthy vines.

Sauvignon Blanc on Vine

All the Gewurztraminer is organically grown on our Winsome vineyard and was picked a few days ago. The heavy clay soils mean that no irrigation was used and it has resulted in a small crop of lovely perfumed fruit. It has been quite a battle to keep the fruit clean and protected from the birds but we managed it. The only problem we had was to stop the vineyard workers from eating it all themselves.

The Riesling was hand-picked last Friday on a beautiful cool day. Again our Riesling is grown organically and un-irrigated on the Winsome vineyard. The vines were quite vigorous last year but this year they have behaved really well and the spur pruning that we use has lowered the yield to a nice 7 tonnes per hectare. The fruit showed the beginnings of a light botrytis infection which, with the dry harvest weather we have had, dried nicely into sweet raisins. The fruit was whole-bunch pressed and is awaiting a natural ferment.

All that remains of vintage are two more days of picking Sauvignon Blanc, another day for Merlot and Malbec Rose and finish off with a tiny harvest of Syrah.

Huia winery

Vintage at Huia has been its usual hectic pace. Every year begins for us at pruning with expectation and anticipation building over the next 11 months. The weather during this past season has been unusual. Spring brought us a mix of very hot and sunny days, with some long cold wet periods in between. Flowering was good on Pinot noir and Chardonnay, but unsettled weather over flowering reduced the crop level in Sauvignon Blanc. As summer progressed temperatures remained below average. It was not until later in February that things started to warm up. Since then we have had the most wonderful weather, clear dry days with light winds. The effect has been to keep our yields quite low to produce some of the cleanest, most aromatic fruit we have seen for a number of years.

Vintage usually starts for us with a bubbly pick. We try to time our harvests according to the biodynamic calendar. This year was no exception and we harvested some crisp chardonnay for our 2010 Blanc de Blancs. You can buy a bottle in about 4 or so years time when its’ ready!

The next fruit into the Huia winery was Pinot noir. We have harvested Pinot from three key geographic regions in Wairau Valley this year. There are 5 different vineyards, three almost side by side up the Brancott Valley, around 18 separate blocks and over 9 different clones. Yields have been quite low despite a reasonable flowering in Pinot noir, so the flavours in the vineyard have been really intense.

One of the most exciting Pinot Noir vineyards this year is a steeply sloping hillside vineyard in the Brancott Valley which has produced some stellar fruit. The only problem was that the rows are so narrow and the vines so low to the ground that we had to virtually crawl up the rows to hand pick the fruit. Have pity on the 5 six-foot tall German backpackers who came to help out! It was worth it though. Our Pinots are all nearly through ferment now with a couple of the parcels pressed off and in barrel. The rest are being pressed off ready for settling and racking to barrel. Watch video below to see the grapes pressed off and fermentation tanks cleaned with Mr. Hendrix’s kind support.

We ferment the Pinot Noir in vineyard blocks as they ripen and are picked. The separate clones within  vineyards tend to ripen simultaneously. The grapes are all hand-picked and destemmed into tank to soak and ferment. Once ferment is finished and the caps start to move the wine is drained from the tanks. The doors are opened to vent the carbon dioxide fermentation gas, then we get in and push the grape skins, seeds and yeast out of the tanks into the bins. Each tank is pressed separately to keep each clonal set and vineyard separate. This allows greater choice at blending, expressing the individual vineyard terrior.

wine flight menu

I lived in Buenos Aires for 3 years back in the day so I know a bit about Argentine cuisine, even if I was a vegetarian for 2 of those 3  years. Yes, I know, how could I, was I mad, etc… One thing I can say is that I’m a pretty good judge of Argentine cuisine. I can also tell you that when I visited Gaucho at the O2, I was deeply disappointed. The food bearing only a passing resemblence to anything I’d ever eaten in BA.

So, it was with some trepidation that I went to Lola & Simon, an Argentine/New Zealand (?, yes, I’ll get round to that in a second) restaurant in Hammersmith for the launch of their food and wine tasting menu. Lola & Simon is run by a charming Argentine/Kiwi couple, Nico and Kirstin – that’s where the NZ connection comes from. Their idea was to serve the best of these two Southern Hemisphere countries from the lamb and mussles of NZ to the steak and emapandas of Argentina.

The Rupestre and Luigi Bosca

The wine list is also a mix of the two countries with over 50 wines currently on the list and they are set to add another 15 wines in the next few weeks. The specialize in the flagship varietals of each country, malbec from Argentina and pinot noir and sauvignon blanc from NZ. They are taking every step to ensure their customers can enjoy the wine at it’s best, even installing wine preservations machines behind the bar.

Last week was the launch of the food and wine matching flights and platters. They’ve started with the malbecs and are offering 2 flights of 3 wines (50ml each) each paired with an Argentine ‘tapa’ (for lack of a better word). They’re calling it, Mad about Malbec.

The first flight consisted of Picada 15, 2007 Malbec, Luigi Bosca 2006 Reserve Malbec and Rupestre 2004 Malbec/merlot/tannat blend. The Picada 15 malbec was paired with tasty grilled veg in a basalmic reduction. Full on sweet cherries on the nose and palate, velvety soft, easy drinking but good quality, my notes tell me, and it was a good match with the veggies.

Next was the Luigi Bosca 2006 Reserve Malbec with mushroom risotto balls. A lovely wine, oaky, toasty nose with ripe red berries and lots of chocolate coming thru on the nose, great concentrated fruit and spiciness on the palate and a wonderful acidity with smooth, round tannins. A great food wine that was  a welcome partner to the earthy, cheese risotto balls.

provoleta

The Rupestre 2004 malbec blend was paired with one of my favourite dishes, provoleta. Provoleta is not to be confused with provolone. Provoleta is like a salty version of provolone. In Argentina they grill it with brushed with olive oil and herbs and dotted with pink peppercorns, which is just they way they served it at Lola & Simon! This wine had quite a floral nose at first and then loads of fresh berries with spicy cocoa notes floating about. A medium bodied red with great palate cleansing acidity which is just what that provoleta needed to wash away the salt.

Steak,chorizo & empanada

I like the whole idea of wine flights matched with food platters. The next set was for the carnivores amongst us. Argentine chorizo sausage, empanadas filled with hand cut beef and provoleta cheese and pan seared cubes of Argentine ribeye and fillet steak all matched with 3 doozies. The Familia Marguery 2004 Malbec, the Colome 2007 Malbec and the Catena Zapata Adrianna 2006 Malbec. They really brought out the heavy hitters to go with the meats. There is a reason why Argentina wine and steak go hand in hand. These wines were rich and full with excellent tannic structures to stand up to all that meaty goodness yet also showed fabulous fruit character. “Yum” might not be a word professional wine writers use but I ain’t getting paid yet! All the food was expertly prepared and just plain delicious. Lola & Simon even fly in chefs from Argentina to man the grill, what dedication.

Marguery and the Picada

Their wines by the glass are priced starting at £1.60 for 50 mls, 3.25 for 175 mls and £5.5 for 250 mls and going up according to the quality of the wine. The restaurant also does breakfast, brunch and lunch besides dinner so if you ever find yourself feeling peckish in Hammersmith, this is the place to go. I really like the welcoming decor, friendly staff, great food and well thought out wine list. They plan to change the winelist every 3 months but I sure hope to get back there before then.

And who are Lola & Simon if Nico & Kirstin run the joint? They’re the two dogs of Nico’s parents back in Buenos Aires. And as the menu states, they don’t know they have a restaurant named after them in London.

This post has been reproduced with the kind permission of the author. The Winesleuth is one of  the few female winebloggers and surely the sharpest. Check her post and videos here

Hawke's Bay

Hawke’s Bay producers based close to the Gimblett Gravels in ‘The Triangle’ are planning to group together to gain international recognition for their terroir.

While still embryonic, producers including Bridge Pa and Alpha Domus aim to form a ‘Triangle’ association to compete with their well-known neighbours Gimblett Gravels.

Paul Ham, Managing Director at Alpha Domus, said, “We are constantly bombarded with Gimblett Gravels. I’m not complaining about it but it’s up to us to be proactive. Across the road from the Gravels we have this triangle sub-region which offers something else.”

“People have heard all about Gimblett Gravels and they are looking for what’s next from Hawke’s Bay, so we have a great opportunity to get some traction,” he added.

The Triangle – also known as the Ngatarawa or Bridge Pa triangle – first needs to settle on one name for the area and define its boundaries. It lies around one kilometre from the Gimblett Gravels, on the same former river bed but with a clay and sandy top soil. The wines are similar in style to the Gravels but Stephen Daysh, director of Bridge Pa, claims, “The Triangle fruit isn’t as dense or heavy as Gimblett Gravels but is a little more lifted and perfumed.”

This is not the first time people have talked about defining the area but it has not yet come to fruition. It is likely to come against some opposition from other Hawke’s Bay producers and the regional association, which aims to promote the region as a whole. Let’s face it, most consumers don’t even where New Zealand is, let alone Hawke’s Bay! However, in the fine wine market the Gravels have already started to gain recognition and the producers shouldn’t just sit and watch while they run away with all the headlines.

Other vineyard owners in the Triangle include Ta Mata, Sileni, Matua and Church Road.

This post has been reproduced with the kind permission of the author, Rebecca Gibb. Basically, we think her writing rocks so we recommend you also check out her other stuff on www.rebeccagibb.com.

If you’ve been following this space, you might have noticed a recurring theme. Lately we have been almost obsessed with the green (or Vivid in Bibendum speak) aspects of wine production. After discussing the real meaning of natural wines and exploring the philosophy behind biodynamic farming we thought we had covered it all. And then came Matt Oliver.

Matt is the vineyard manager at Huia, a small family owned estate established in 1996  located in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough New Zealand. At Huia the land is worked following biodynamic principles and they are now in the process of obtaining the Demeter certification. But that is not all. Since 2006 and after preparing 12 months of carbon accounts and an emissions management plan Huia has earned the right to label its wines with carboNZero certification. Confused? Watch Matt explains what the process involves:

Talking to Matt is a revealing experience. He is not only worried about the environmental affect of producing his wines has but also concerned about the journey the wine has to make. We all have preconceptions of how bad the environment is damaged when we ship wine overseas. Well according to Matt we need not to worry.  It is greener to ship from New Zealand than to truck from Bordeaux. Watch the video below to hear the real figures.

Most importantly the wine tasted great. All the Huia range shared a clean, elegant and focused character. Is this due to the lack of carbon emission? Matt is positive it played its part.

You can buy the Huia range on the Bibendum Wine website