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20 August 2012

So, now that pruning season is nearly over it seems like a good time to finally publish a 2012 vintage report…

2012 turned out to be a pretty tough season for nearly all NZ grape growers save those in the lower half of the South Island. A strong La Nina pattern meant wet weather for most of January, February and March. Luckily (I kept telling myself) it couldn’t keep raining forever, and in late March the conditions finally improved, and a beautiful Autumn helped dry out the grapes and the vineyard.

The key to a successful vintage turned out to be keeping the grapes clean and free from disease during the rainy period. And fortunately for us our grapes were in perfect condition to be able to take advantage of the warm, sunny conditions at the end of the season. The 2012 is not going to be a blockbuster wine, but I was impressed with how prettily it was showing already when transferring the young wine to the barrels.

Given the problems the season threw at us I was surprised how much I enjoyed myself this vintage. Disaster was an ever-present possibility, but we seemed to make the right calls at the right times and everything went pretty smoothly in the end. I picked the Malbec grapes a little earlier than usual as I didn’t think their thin skins would remain botrytis-free for much longer. As we only have a few rows of Malbec it didn’t seem worthwhile hauling out the mechanical de-stemmer/crusher and we did these jobs the good old-fashioned way: by hand (and foot). And I had just the serfs people for the job:

The line up

My daughters Zoë (3) and Amelia (5). I’m not sure how many laws and conventions against child labour we’re breaking here, but hey, they work for grapes.

In case you’re wondering how you de-stem grapes without a machine, well it’s highly technical:

The line up

From left: Kim, Amelia, myself, and Brian (see that extra comma after “myself”? I put that in just to keep Brian and other American-educated persons happy. You’re welcome Brian). Zoë is not taking part as she is not tall enough to reach the grapes.

I also managed to make another barrel of Clairet this year which will be welcome news to fans of the 2009. Look out for that in time for the summer of 2014. Hopefully it will be warmer and drier than the one we had in 2012…


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14 Febraury 2012

It was a while ago now, but for those who missed it, John Hawkesby highlighted the Gillman 2006 as one of the best reds he tried during 2011:

“As for our own reds, it has been a great year. Dealing with non-pinot noir grapes first, special mention must go to the 2006 Gillman Matakana Bordeaux-style red. This is a tiny production and hard to track down but worth the effort, especially for fans of cabernet franc.”

His full article for the NZ Herald can be found here.


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31 January 2012

When I started this page, I promised to update it with some news at least once a month.

Whoops.

So, I guess I should make up for lost time…

A few weeks ago we had the neighbours around for dinner and to try our wines against some decent French competition. It’s necessary to do this on a regular basis (no, no, we really have to) – you can’t hope to compete against the best wines in the world if you aren’t prepared to drink them. Given current prices of Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux, “regularly” unfortunately does not mean “often”, so we appreciate these opportunities when we get them.

The line up

The line-up was Gillman 2005 alongside Chateau d’Issan 2005, then Gillman 2004 with Chateau Cheval Blanc 2004 (with a half-bottle of Coutet 2005 Sauternes to follow).

All the wines were showing particularly well. I was a bit nervous about how the Cheval Blanc would be, having also tried a baffling 2007 bottle at an event last year, but the 2004 is (or at least will be) a beautiful wine. At the moment it is still rather tight, but as the wine opened up you could glimpse its nascent complexity, yet to come to the fore. Even though Cheval Blanc is known to be approachable earlier than its other Premier Grand Cru rivals, this wine still needs another 3-5 years in the bottle before it is ready to show itself properly.

The d’Issan was quite different in character, coming from a riper vintage, more forthright and powerful. Those with “modern” palates who may be inclined to write off a wine with any brett-like characters may not have been impressed, but I enjoyed it. Again, needs more time, but the extra fruit makes it more appealing at this stage than the Cheval Blanc.

And the Gillman wines? It would be ridiculous to pretend to be objective about this, and anyway, the purpose of these tastings isn’t really for the wines to compete against each other. Instead the question is, how does the Gillman stand in such company? Very well, I’m happy to say. Both the 2004 and 2005 Gillman are drinking very well at present, and for sheer enjoyability the consensus was that the 2004 was the wine of the night. But this is probably to be expected as we’re aiming at this stage to make wines to be drunk at about 5-16 years of age (the Bordeaux wines here would be looking at a drinking window of, I would guess, around 10-25 years). More importantly, the Gillman wines were comparable in texture and elegance to the Grand Cru Classés. All too often I find that a wine that has been highly praised for its fruit, power and “structure” (read: huge amounts of tannin), are just undrinkable next to truly great wines. The pretender will come across as one-dimensional, coarse, bitingly acidic, or god help us, all of the above. Frankly, they taste cheap.

Luckily the only thing that made the Gillman wines look cheap that night were the price stickers on the Bordeaux bottles…


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9 May 2011

I had promised to report on the work we did to wrap up the vintage over Easter, but it seems our friend Jolene, who had come up to help out, has already blogged about it. This is great news because (i) it saves me the effort, and (ii) she is a better writer than me (than I?). You can read her post here.

But I would like to thank everyone who has helped us out over the vintage – pickers, sorters, bottlers and corkers – as a small vineyard we are completely dependent on our friends and family (and, as it often happens, their friends and families) at this time of year. All they ask in return is some good food and wine to keep them going through the day. Oh, by the end of the day they usually also want a taxi service or an escalator to carry them back up the slope, and someone mentioned a swimming grotto like at the Playboy Mansion, but they’re going to have to settle for the good food and wine.


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5 May 2011

Well, Easter was a very busy time for us (it usually is). Two pressings, a bottling, and an end to Vintage 2011. I’ll have a report on all this activity up later, but one of the highlights of the weekend was reading a very gracious write-up of our wines by John Hawkesby in the NZ Herald. If you missed it (and it seems like a lot of people were too busy over the break to read the paper) it can be found here.

I also discovered that he had earlier mentioned our 2009 briefly in a radio slot with Paul Holmes – you can check it out the full audio clip here.


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18 April 2011

Currently, our most successful market is in the UK. There’s a story behind that, and I will get to that soon, but for now I just have time for a little spoiler:

Ryan Nelsen Gillman Vineyard Signature World Cup


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12 April 2011

For some time - in fact, for far longer than I would like to admit, I have been planning to add a “News” section to our website. But it always seems that looking after the vineyard and cellar (as well as real life) fills every given hour and it never has seemed a high enough priority.

But now, in spite of the fact that the 2011 vintage is in full swing, it is time to bite the bullet and start typing. I am not sure how often I will get a chance to add to this page, but hopefully I will get some news on here at least once a month. Bare minimum. Promise.

And, speaking of the vintage, thank you to all the friends and family who helped us pick this year. The harvest was particularly early this year (the final pick was on April 2nd), due to an earlier than usual Spring and a very warm Summer. I began to worry that the weeks and weeks of humid days (and nights) would encourage botrytis and other fungal infections in the vineyard, but the grapes this season were incredibly clean and uniform. The work at the sorting table was the easiest in years.

The fermentation is at its peak about now, requiring around the clock care. It’s much like caring for a new baby, but luckily the sleepless nights only go on for a few weeks, rather than months.

Back in the vineyard, the grapes may be gone but the vines are looking very neat and orderly, waiting for their Autumn colours to arrive. Soon the new wine will be safely stowed away in the barrels and another season will come to an end. It won’t stay quiet for long of course, but it’s always nice while it lasts.

Anyway, cheers until next time (and yes, there really really will be a next time!).