latest news

February 2012

The season marches on ….

The 2011/2012 growing season has been a little unusual so far, although I think that is a comment we make about most seasons for one reason or another. This season was marked by a reasonable spring so we had a pretty good fruit set, but a cool and moist early summer, which seems to have delayed fruit maturity somewhat - so far.

Plenty of heat from here on should enable things to catch up, and NIWA (No Idea What Awaits?) is telling us that the La Nina pattern we have been in is receding and we should be in for a “normal” late summer and autumn – whatever that means. If it means no tropical cyclones, plenty of heat and very little rain we are all for it. We think the dairy farmers have had a fair go with their weather requirements so now it is our turn.

We are in the midst of netting right now. And none too soon – there seem to be lots of birds this year, and a flock of starlings which looks to be about 200 strong has been menacing our reds – carmenère in particular, in the last few days. The big burst of heat we had late last week brought the onset of veraison (when the berries start to go red and soften) very rapidly so suddenly there was food for birds.

Winebar

We have been rather busy in the cellar door and winebar over the summer. Lots of visitors and diners relaxing on the terrace and contemplating the beautiful vista whilst sipping on a chilled Clos de Valerie or Vin Gris and polishing off one of our delicious winetasters platters. We have had some very nice encounters with visitors this summer – regulars and overseas tourists alike. And having our name out on the highway means we continue to discover relatives, mostly rather remote, or people who could possibly be relations if only we could find the missing link…..

China 

The Sunday Star-Times published a very informative article last week which described our Chinese venture. Briefly we are involved in the establishment of a very large vineyard and winery in the province of Shanxi in north-central China, for which we will provide winemaking expertise and our name. We presently export wine to Shanxi under the Ransom name and the idea is that the Chinese operation will also be called “Ransom” to capitalize on the good name our brand is already establishing there. So far 600,000 vines have been planted (makes our 12,000 or so look rather paltry!) but there is plenty more to plant, for an expected 1000 acres eventually. A couple of facts about China and wine: China is apparently already the world’s fifth largest producer of wine and they have just overtaken the UK as the world’s fifth largest consumer of it.

New Release

Dark Summit 2009 was released a couple of weeks ago. At this stage it is youthful but starting to open up nicely – iron fist in a velvet glove might be a good description of it at present. The 2009 version is a very similar blend to its recent predecessors – around half cabernet sauvignon, 30% or so of carmenère, and the remainder made up by malbec and cabernet franc.

Cheers

Marion, Robin and the team at Ransom Wines