Big Sky Autumn 2010 News
 
What’s Good
Our 2008 Big Sky Pinot Noir is drinking really well. Ripe cherry and plum flavours, with hints of cinnamon, thyme and pepper on the finish – a great food wine, and good match with lamb, duck, or game (we especially like it with seared venison on berry coulis).
 
With silver medals at both the Royal Easter Show and the Romeo Bragato competition, and 4 1/2 stars out of 5 in Cuisine, its getting quite a following. You can buy it online for $30 per bottle. Buy 6 or more and we will pay the postage.




The 2008 Big Sky Sauvignon Blanc continues to impress. Not your run of the mill savvy -- the combination of minerality, tropical fruit, and zesty lime character make it a taste sensation. You can buy it online for $20 a bottle. Buy 6 or more and we pay the postage.
 
Green
The hills girding Te Muna valley are green. Usually by now they would be straw coloured, since the grass would have turned to…well, straw. But summer rains meant that the dry country farmers have more feed than they know what to do with, and are cheerier than I’ve seen them since ..
 
And it has also meant a lot of mowing in the vineyard. Between the rows is fine, but mowing under the vines is a real headache.
 
Here at Big Sky we are committed to sound environmental management and sustainable viticulture. We’ve been exploring organic practices wherever we can. And as a part of that, we have sheep in the vineyard to keep the grass and weeds under the vines down, rather than use weed spray. We put them in in autumn, after harvest, and take them out in spring, just before budburst so they don’t eat the vines. Usually that works well. The understory is kept nice and short, we get more biodiversity in the vineyard, and it’s good for the soil.
 
But this year, with the rain over summer, the grass under the vines kept growing, and growing, and growing. Every week we would say “well it’s going to stop soon” but it didn’t seem to. No bad thing in itself, as it took up water and helped keep the soil moisture not too high. But when the grass was up to the fruiting wire, and growing into the canopy, we knew it was time for action. Linetrimmers seem to work best, and so far we are on to number three…
 
Maybe next year we will just get some of those really short sheep.
 
Birds
There’s a week in summer when you notice the grapes starting to get colour – veraison. The fruit goes from hard green berries to shades of purple, and start in earnest on ripening, softening, getting sweeter over the next weeks and months, and developing the complexity, intensity, and depth of flavours that soon will be expressed in the wine.
 
Even if you weren’t keeping an eye on your vineyard, you’d know when veraison is around the corner thanks to two things: birds – who know that change in colour means the fruit is good to eat; and gunfire, as grapegrowers try to get rid of the birds. Some vineyards use gas bangers to scare the birds away. They tend to be the ones most favoured by birds. It makes you wonder whether the bangers just tell the birds there’s something good to eat and its lunchtime.
 
Harvest
Its getting close to harvest time. Probably late April. There’s a fair bit of judgement about when to pick – judging when the fruit is at its best, and balancing the benefits of leaving it a bit longer against the risks of bad weather messing up an otherwise great year.
 
You can measure things like sugar and acidity, but in the end it comes down to taste. So it is regular sampling – noticing how the flavours develop, and get more complex. And you wonder how a grape can taste like raspberries, plums and chocolate at the same time.