SPRING October 2005 newsletter

the hard copy has gone out last week to those of you on our mailing list and has been posted on the web today 30th September

WINERY NEWS

Clearview is delighted to announce that we were awarded the Trophy for Champion White Table Wine for Noble Harvest Chardonnay 2004 at the Romeo Bragato Conference in Gisborne.

The Conference operates 3 days of technical workshops designed to drive forward the viticultural industry in NZ.  Included are wine awards, which recognise this excellence by judging wines entered by those who manage and own the vineyards. The Conference is historically a salute to the work of Italian Viticulturist Romeo Bragato who was extremely influential in the origination of the wine industry in New Zealand, first visiting in 1895 to identify areas suited to wine grape growing.  This was the 11^th annual conference, which began in Marlborough in 1995.

 Noble Harvest Chardonnay 2004 and Reserve Chardonnay 2004 were both awarded gold and best in their class, with the Noble Harvest awarded the trophy for the Champion White Table Wine.

Historically we have done very well at these wine awards.  The Noble is a rare wine only produced in exceptional years and we are pleased to receive the trophy for Champion White Wine. The 2000 Noble also took a gold medal at the 2002 Conference.

Clearview Reserve chardonnay has been consistently awarded, with the 2002 Reserve being Top of its Class in 2003, and the 2000 Reserve taking Champion White Wine in 2001.  It is wonderful to see the growers being recognised for all their hard work and expertise in the

vineyards, where all great wines begin!

Helma van den Berg receiving the trophy and awards at the Bragato dinner in Gisborne

Full results are available at  www.nzwine.com

RESTAURANT NEWS

A great winter sees us well prepared for spring with the superb chef team of John Cornforth, Melissa & Kimberly entering their second summer with new summer chefs Thorsten & John together creating our fabulous food.  Come along for the awesome summer menu featuring grilled fresh NZ scallops, paua cerviche, crispy duck with ginger & lime salad, venison rack, marinated salmon fillet, or merlot & chorizo bread. And to finish: some of Kimberly's imaginative citrus inspired desserts to match that awarded NOBLE wine and the new local Te Mata cheeses.

The big news for our long suffering chefs is a brand new cooking station of gas hobs; gas oven & char grill which allows them extra creativity for the new spring menu.

We will be open every Friday evening through nov/dec/jan/feb for casual dinners with a little live music and we have strong bookings ahead for weddings and private events.

The gardens have wintered well and the annual spring herbs are beginning to emerge. Our delicious organic avocados have stayed on the trees to use as we require and 2005 marinated Clearview olives also appear on the new menu.

NEW WINE RELEASES

Two Pinnacles MALBEC 2004

I have always had a passion for Malbec and love the old wines of Cahors, so we planted 3 acres in conjunction with the Ward Family here at Te Awanga.  This vineyard produces beautiful fruit, so my vision of a Malbec dominant wine is now a reality.  We are delighted to offer you the “Two Pinnacles” as a brand new wine in our range.  It is a blend of 78% Malbec with small amounts of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon all hand picked.  This unfiltered wine is warm and generous on the palate with lifted fragrant fruits of plums and red berries.  It has excellent ageing potential.

About the name: The name “Two Pinnacles” honours the discovery of Cape Kidnappers in October 1769 by Captain James Cook and the “2 white rocks” which formed part of the peninsula.  Today only 1 survives.

Reserve CABERNET FRANC 2004

I have only made a Reserve Cabernet Franc in exceptional years; 1994, 1998, 2000 and now 2004.There were only 4 barrels of this wine made so it is very limited.  This is a dense floral wine with plum, spice and a dark berry flavours, supported by strong oak and fine sweet tannins. This wine will cellar beautifully for more than 10 years. 

Te Awanga SAUVIGNON BLANC 2005

Black Reef BLUSH 2005

Every year we sell out of our Blush, we just can’t seem to make enough to satisfy demand. This year’s Blush is iridescent in colour! - almost 60 % Chambourcin, with a little Merlot, Malbec, Cab Sauv and a touch of chardonnay. These hugely popular wines were bottled on 12th August and are now available for purchase. 

PROGRESSIVE CLOSURES

You may have noticed on some of our wines that we have started using screw caps as an alternative closure to cork.  We are using the screw cap on all of our Estate range plus the Reserve Sauvignon Blanc as we believe that these wines will perform better with this type of closure. For our Reserve range we are continuing to use cork, but have sourced a different kind of cork.  We are using Diam composite corks which have been specially treated with super critical CO2 in order to remove all traces of TCA which causes cork taint. This is very new technology and we are very excited to be among the first in the world to adopt this new closure.  There are two reasons why we are continuing with corks on our Reserve wines: one is for all you traditionalists who enjoy the experience of popping the cork!  But more importantly, so that we have no variation in quality, and we can also stipulate the amount of air permeability we require for the extended ageing of our wines.

VINEYARD REPORT

We have really tidied up the property once pruning was completed, always improving things for the incresing numbers of visitors we receive with each summer season.  All our vines are pruned to the two cane vertical shoot positioning system to allow low cropping of high quality hand picked grapes.  A warm early spring sees even budburst throughout the chardonnay and into the reds as the temperatures remain ambient. This leaves us vulnerable to frost damage so we remain  vigilant.  Did you know how many varieties we grow?                          Historically, in order of planting we have:

CABERNET FRANC  CHARDONNAY         CABERNET SAUVIGNON    MERLOT

SAUVIGNON BLANC      CHAMBOURCIN        SEMILLON          MALBEC    GEWÜRZTRAMINER

TIM’S TRAVELS

The past few months have been hectic for me as I have been traveling promoting our wines and meeting our customers.  This is a new concept for us as we sell out of all our wines each year but it is expected these days for the winemaker/owner to travel and I love it!

For the second year now, I have traveled to the USA and Canada for a whirlwind tour, promoting our wines with our importer Empson & Co.  Clearview is in good company with this importer, and I felt very privileged to be traveling with Larry McKenna -Escarpment, Annette Voss -Voss Estate, John Belsham -Foxes Island, William Hoare -Fromm, Ed Donaldson -Pegasus Bay and Greg Hay -Peregrine.  Together we covered a lot of ground in the 3 weeks of our tour: LA, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Quebec City and Montreal.  We talked, educated, ate and drank our way around (7 states with 7 reprobates!) but it isn’t as easy as it sounds.  We arrived home exhausted, but having made good friends and contacts and received many orders for our wine.

On return we re-named ourselves the “Magnificent Seven” after the old Western and rode into Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin in August, offering the trade, restaurants and wine writers  the chance to try our wines.  It was a great opportunity to showcase our new wines: the Two     Pinnacles, Cabernet Franc and Blush.  There was a lot of interest in these wines and I’m pleased to be able to offer these to you first as our Mail Order customers before general release.

My travels have also included Fiji and Indonesia so maybe we can export some of our wines to some island destinations which would certainly suit me!

2004 was one of the best red and white vintages I have had, and 2005 looks to be very similar with perhaps more intense colours and flavours.  It’s the first time in 10 years we have had 2 outstanding vintages in a row.  I am very proud of our new wines and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.