Framingham update

News from Andrew Hedley at Framingham

Vineyard:

A large portion of our range is now sourced from our company vineyard around the winery (16ha, planted 1981 onwards):

Dry Riesling, Classic Riesling, Select Riesling, Noble Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris are now single-estate wines, and we should add Viognier to that next year (we planted an acre or so a couple of years ago) if conditions allow us to get some fruit. The volumes of all these wines are quite small by new world standards (DR appr 3600 bottles, CR appr 26000 bottles, SR appr 1250 bottles, NR appr 2400 bottles (375), GW appr 2400 bottles, PG appr 10000 bottles) - we have 40 acres of Riesling on the Estate - we are unique in NZ in that we are making 4 distinctly different styles of riesling from the same single estate - add to that the fact that the vines are nearly 30 years old (easily some of the oldest in Marlborough) and you get the picture.

The first thing I did on the latest change of ownership was to secure the re-employment of our viticulturalist who has been with us since 2004. Anton has made some great improvements on the Estate and has steadily been taking the vineyard practices towards being fully organic. The last remaining hurdle for us is the use of pesticides - we have some areas on the estate where we haven’t used them, and are trying to secure an under-vine weeder soon to allow us to go the last mile. The vineyard is certified sustainable and the winery should be early next year. However, we don’t want to promote our wines on these thing especially, it’s more about what’s in the bottle.

New Wines:

We made six nobly sweet wines this year. We have managed to get them into the bottle now and I did a small function with selected media, on-trade and a fine wine retailer to launch them last week. They comprise: Botrytised Viognier 150 bottles, Gewurztraminer Selection de Grains Nobles 400 bottles, the usual Noble Riesling 2500 bottles, and three separate rieslings imaginatively called Auslese #1, 2 and 3. These 3 range in style from an Aulsese GKA (#2), a Beerenauslese (#1) to a pretty much TBA wine (#3). There are only 250 bottles of each of these and we expect to sell them in a gift pack of 3. We made 100 bottles of a table wine Viognier in 2007 which we will sell in gift packs with the botrytised wine from 2008. This may not be a regular thing as the work involved is massive - I need more staff to keep sane if we want to do this more often!

We are also working on an extra, different style of Sauvignon from a relativley new 1 acre planting on the estate, approx 2000 bottles. This wine was wild fermented in old barriques and stainless steel barrels, with some malolactic fermentation and weekly lees stirring - it’s very much about weight and texture. Another add to the single estate range.

As mentioned, we hope to add Viognier to that list next year.

We will also work on a new riesling with emphasis on richness, texture and complexity, rather like the austrian styles or maybe german GG wines - it may be dry (or it may be not) - we have set up part of the vineyard differently in an effort to get more hang time and some really ripe flavours.

Style Development:

Gewurztraminer was 20% wild ferment in 7 year old barrels this year, result is a toned down, slightly drier wine with same texture but more complexity and food friendliness - it has been well received when we have shown it to the trade.

Last year Pinot Gris was 10% wild ferment in old oak and stainless barrels with some mlf on that portion. This year (2008), 20% of the blend has been treated that way with mlf that got further through than last year. This portion has had aging for 6 months on full ferment lees with weekly batonnage. We are blending the wine this week - remaining 80% is tank ferment as usual - the resultant wine has better texture and more complexity and looks really rich on the bench. Bottling beginning december - pretty late for the average NZ style which is usually bottled in July …..
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A few pictures to show: One from a pit we dug in one of the riesling blocks - it illustrates the spoil and how stony the soils are. Another couple are taken inside the pit so you can see the structure - I have been using these at tastings and they seem to go down well and help tell the tale. (These will be on a subsequent post - Ed) There is one in there as well which could answer the question of where the honey flavours come from in Classic Riesling! It was taken this week in a section of the vineyard where we are carrying out “no herbicide” trials. You can see clover there and we wondered if this was an attractant. We are also involved in the sponsorship of a project designed to help increase numbers of the native New Zealand Falcon (called the Falcon Alliance) which is now relatively rare. Part of the plan is to try and establish more falcons around the vineyard as a natural way of bird pest control. Lastly, we have announced a yearly donation to Margaret Stewart House, run by the cancer society in Wellington. They provide accomodation for patients who need radio and chemo therapy. I stayed there when I had mine - I’m pleased we are doing this (obviously). We bought them a big telly this year.

Marlborough has lost the plot a bit recently - the place is awash in cheap sauvignon and is affecting sales etc. The feeling of factory production is getting stronger. We feel that we are most definitely not a typical Marlborough winery any more.