Yesterday we pressed off the last of the Pinot Noir for Four Hawk Day. This kind of brings to an end the harvest for the year from a winemakers perspective as all the equipment used for the crushing, destemming and pressing can be cleaning and stowed away until next year.
Adrian and Jo, owners of Four Hawk Day, came along to lend a hand and we eventually got just over 3 barrels of Pinot that will now age for around 12 months.
David, Soren and Adrian (grape grower and owner of Four Hawk Day) discuss whether the teachings of Kierkegaard are an influence of 8 Wired's beers, amongst other things.......
Word is out about our wild ferment, barrel aged Sauvignon Blanc (AKA WFBASB......hardly a winning brand name, still a work in progess!). No sooner had the first barrels started to bubble through the ferment bungs than we were chatting with Champion New Zealand brewer, Soren Erikksen, about whether he could convince us to spare some for an upcoming batch of sour beers he is making.
Soren is the brewer (and part owner with his wife Monique) of 8 Wired brewing. Having a number of ground breaking craft brewers (8 Wired, Renaissance and Moa) in the province is truly inspiring and given that our barrel aged Sav has the same mantra of "daring do" that these guys live by, it seemed a perfect fit.
So armed with more carefully selected grapes, we filled 4 more barrels with Savvy and will now let nature take its course until it is ready to be blended back with Soren's barrel aged beers some time in the spring.
Sauvignon Blanc grape juice being put into old chardonnay barrels. The grape juice will ferment in these with wild yeasts and the subsequent wine will mature for around 6 months inside them.
Today we harvested the first Sauvignon Blanc for the year. We hand picked 10 rows of grapes, selecting only the ripest fruit as this pick is for a new wine Cirro are making this year - a wild ferment, barrel aged Sauvignon Blanc.
This is a style I have been making for the last two years for one of my clients (Hawksdrift) and I have been suitably impressed in how Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc can actually be a horse that can juggle, as well walking on the tightrope.
There are a number of great examples of this type of wine with Seresin, Cloudy Bay and Dog Point making a reserve style in this format for probably the last decade.
We are looking forward to the first release of the Cirro Wild Barrel Sav in October.........now for the hard part of naming the wine!