Grapes by Dan

 Grapes.  Grapes. The word crosses my ears (so far twice on your screen) and what I really want to hear is wine. I know I am not the only one as well. New Zealand’s wine tourism is a booming industry, with vineyards extending 700 miles all across both islands. As a tourist, you don't cross oceans and the southern alps to try grapes, you come for a refreshing and fruity Malborough Sauvignon blanc or cherry red Pinot Noirs in the Otago region. Yet wine doesn’t magically materialize in your glass on ladies night, it's cultivated from grapes by talented winemakers.

            We learned the efforts required to cultivate grapes on our final farm visit. Rossendale vineyards are owned and operated by a lovely couple, Brent and Shirley Rawstron. We strolled through two of the seemingly endless rows of small green bulbs, barely resembling the Pinot Noir grapes they would ripen to be. These little green marbles would have to wait another two months before Brent would drive his mechanized harvester over these rows. Then the plump red grapes would be shaken off the vines via rods like robotic fingers.

            The grapes we were looking at while Brent spoke, were eight years in the making. Some of these vines are older than instructors, Susan, and Dr. Griffiths at 30 years old. The whole process is a carefully manicured one, requiring an amount of skill as well as luck. Each vine is carefully pruned over every season.  Four of the best canes are selected and the rest are snipped off. These canes will produce the fruit set for each vine. The flowers will blossom and self-pollinate. Brent will then pray for good weather, as the weather and sunlight exposure during flowering determines the quality and size of the fruit. Trimming off leaves to ensure sun exposure and fungicides continue as the fruit develops. However, this is not undertaken by Brent, but by an unlikely group of employees.

            Brent hires a mob of sheep for the trimming of leaves around the fruiting grapes. These fluffy workers peruse around the rows of grapes eating their pay to ensure the sun can ripen the grapes in a process called veraison. After this, nets are placed over the vines to keep out birds that love eating grapes or just sucking out the juices. When the grapes reach a certain sugar content measured in Brix, then, they are wine material.

            New Zealand produces 17% of the world's Sauvignon Blancs. On top of that, 96% of the vineyards are certified with the Sustainable Winegrowing NZ certification, Rossendale vineyards being no exception. We personally got to taste what these practices can do for the wine. Not only were we treated to a visit at Rossendale, but we participated in a wine tasting as well. I don’t mean to sound like a snob, but you could taste passionfruit and crisp granny smiths in every sip of their Sauvignon blanc. The bright acidity watered all of our mouths as a good Sauvy B does.  If you’re looking for a fine bottle from this country, you can forget the opener entirely, all wines in New Zealand are screw caps. While this does pertain to sustainability, it is more important to prevent cork tainting of wines that have to endure long transits. New Zealand seems to always be one step ahead concerning the quality of food they export globally.

            I hope you’ve found one of the final blog posts of our New Zealand journey enriching. May it fill your cup, as I filled mine before undertaking this writing endeavor. If you do wish to try Rossendale vineyard wines they can be bought at just about any Total Wines under the name of Cottesbrook, you will not be sorry that you did.