Dear Friends,
Pure autumn radiance from the ridge top this morning: slow, honeyed sun, whispering crystal air, light blue sea of sky. A late season gift of a full, golden day.
Complex harmonies ring the air: silver strings of crickets, pompous contests of cockcrow, and the loose trill of magpies, like drunken oboists mangling scales. The rain-refilled pond, thick and trembling like a chocolate jelly, is feathered with countless mallard and teal, chuckling and hilarious at the safe haven they’ve found in this, their dire season.
High on the top of our valley, I’m snug in warmth and light. Dense fog in the Amuri basin, deep and distant, shines like an inland sea. Just below me, house fires push skyward then, inverted by cold, topple and spread over lambent green paddocks. Tapuae-o-Uenuku, towering, intransigent, floats on a film of refracted light, hundreds of kilometers away.
(I feel ludicrous for having ever known anxiety or pique in so promised a place.)
We’ve put to winter bed this year’s harvest, and are thrilled by its fine rewards: beauty and bounty so rarely combine in a season. Better, we’ve been surrounded for weeks by people we love and cherish, come to help us work and play.
And it feels a sure way of celebrating, for us to write to you again.
We trust you’re well, and that life remains rich and urgent. We ourselves welcome the forward compulsion, and so we’re happy to bring to you a number of new releases. Foremost, perhaps, are our home Pinot Noirs from the 2009 vintage. The season, to me, has gifted wines that combine the ethereality of the 08’s with the ripeness of the 06’s.
Our 09 vintage of Kerner Pinot Blanc is also dressed and ready. Showing even greater complexity and richness than its 08 sibling, this is a wine that morphs and transforms fascinatingly over a few hours in a glass, or days in an opened bottle.
A new addition to our range brings us special pleasure: the 09 Cowley Family Pinot Noir from Marlborough. The extraordinary talent and generosity of our friends at Auntsfield allow us now to offer a Pinot Noir at a lower price point than previously possible, with no losses of interest or strength.
Tasting and production notes on all new releases will be found on our Wines page. We urge you to read any notes in italics: our movement toward unadulterated, natural wines continues apace, and additional information will foster full enjoyment of these wines.
A mention for those who might like to resupply: we’re down to our very last stocks of our 07 Lebecca Riesling, 08 Riverbrook Riesling, and 07 Howell Cabernet Franc. Our next release, in 2-3 months’ time, will include new vintages of Riesling and of Cab Franc (and our 09 home Chardonnays). Unfortunately, the 2007 vintage represents our last offering from the lovely Lebecca vineyard.
On a perhaps more commercial note, we’re pleased to bring into effect a 10% discount on all case purchases, including for mixed dozens. We now can also ship in 6-bottle cartons. Any orders of 18 or more bottles will be shipped free of charge.
The faraway fog begins to lift and thin; house fires regain the sky. Time now to descend from this shining hilltop, to rejoin the equally radiant Claudia.
We wish you full hearts and halcyon minds, and thank you again for your place in our lives.
Yours,
Mike & Claudia
