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2004 VINTAGE REPORT

The 2004 vintage has been one of the biggest and best here at Clearview. After a long Indian summer, we had a rainy spell in March which had us worried! But the weather picked up and the Hawke's Bay sunshine did not disappoint. We had a long extended ripening season and picked quite late this year, hand picking and processing a record 93 tonnes of fruit. The quality was fabulous, so we're in for some exceptional 2004 wines.

WINERY

This year, Tim and his team were flat out organising extensions to the winery buildings in anticipation of the increased crop. We hired a French winemaker, Alex to help Tim and Bernie in the winery, plus a couple of EIT students-Raewyn and Fred. Many late nights were spent by the winery team pressing, plunging and fermenting the grapes. All the wine has now been fermented and the reds have been transferred to barriques. We have bottled our 2004 Te Awanga Sauvignon, Blush and Gewurztraminer in early September, so these hugely popular wines are now available for purchase.

ALEXANDRE ABEL

For the 2004 Vintage, we hired a French winemaker to help Tim through the busy harvest. Alex joined us in March and stayed with us for 4 months. Alex is from Franche-Comte in France near the border of Switzerland and has been traveling round the world for the last 4 years doing vintages in different countries. We have thoroughly enjoyed having him here with us and will miss him when he returns home to France for another vintage.

VINEYARD

The Harvest for 2004 is now over-we picked the last of our grapes for our Noble Harvest Chardonnay on the 3rd June. As soon as that was safely in the winery, Grant our vineyard manager took a well deserved holiday. Now he's back and working with his team Janet, Jeremy and Michael, pruning the vineyard to make sure our vines are ready for next year.

NEW STAFF

We welcome Claire Cameron to Clearview in the position of Sales and Marketing Manager. Claire has joined us from the UK where she spent 3 years working for Majestic Wine Warehouses. Claire replaces Suzie Thorpe who has moved up to Auckland to pursue her career and join her partner Brett.

AWARDS

Exciting news for our 2002 Old Olive Block. In the UK International Wine and Spirit Challenge, Old Olive Block took Silver in the 'Best blended red wine' category for a New Zealand north island red wine. This was an Olympic style competition with one Gold, Silver and Bronze per category. Both the 2002 Enigma and 2002 Old Olive Block were awarded Silver medals at the recent Romeo Bragato Conference which was held in Blenheim, August, 2004.

2004 HAWKE'S BAY WINEMAKERS CHARITY WINE AUCTION

Queens' Birthday weekend in June saw the 13th annual Hawke's Bay Winemaker's charity wine auction in aid of the wonderful Cranford hospice in Hastings. This year the auction was held at Sileni Estate and it was a fabulous afternoon with a delicious lunch and some extremely generous bids. Clearview donated 6 magnums of our newly-released ultra-premium Chardonnay 'Endeavour' which raised the highest bid for a white wine. The 6 magnums were presented in the 'ultimate lunch box' which was made and donated by sheet metal/stainless artiste Phil Cowan. $115,000 was raised for the hospice.

RESTAURANT SPRING OFFER

Celebrate the days getting longer and warmer with the release of our new spring menu. Make a lunch booking for a party of 4 or more before 31 October 2004 and we will put a free bottle of Estate wine on your table samples from the spring menu. Our chef is Kent Baddeley.  To view his gorgeous menu, click here then navigate to restaurant.

CELLAR DOOR

Kim Goulding, our cellar door Manager, is always thinking up great ideas for our customers who visit us in person. This month she has a new tasting opportunity for those of you coming out to the winery. $10 Clearview logo glass Taste a selection of our wines We will top your glass up with your preferred wine for you to enjoy in our picnic area The glass is yours to take away as a souvenir

TIM TAKES CLEARVIEW TO NORTH AMERICA

Tim took 2 weeks off from the winery to embark on a sales tour round America in June. He was touring with our USA distributor Empson, taking Clearview to the world! He had a very hectic schedule visiting Boston, New York, Chicago, LA and San Francisco in just 12 days, attending trade shows and doing numerous tastings. There was a great deal of positive energy towards New Zealand and our wines. Currently our Reserve Chardonnay is distributed in America, but due to customer demand, Old Olive Block and Enigma will soon be available. Tim had a fabulous time, but needed a holiday to recuperate once he returned home!

GEORGINA AND CAROLINE EVERS-SWINDELL

We are very proud of Hawke's Bay athletes Georgina and Carolyn Evers-Swindell winning gold in the double sculls. We teamed up with Brebner Print of Napier who have designed a wonderful label to produce a limited edition Enigma. We have 10 bottles of our gold award winning Enigma Limited Edition with this special label featuring the Olympic Champions. The value of Enigma on its own is $40, but we reckon that this one off edition should be worth at least $100. We want you to own one, so we are willing to sell them to the first 10 people who make an order, for $80.