Dear Friends,

I write to you, somewhat strangely, from sunset on the northern California coast. A griddle of orange and crimson light sparks and fires on the horizon, burning between ponderous grey sky and heaving sea. I've been given a weekend at home with my parents, between visits to friends and colleagues here who defend and distribute our work.

I love this house, this high raft of glass and weathered wood, seemingly stranded by - and still yearning towards - the crumbling waves. There are hawks and herons, seals and whales, and sudden volleys of pelicans, gliding by at eye level, stately and comic.

Despite the watery expanse from here to New Zealand, my kiwi home feels close and real. I hold a photograph from Claudia, sent today, of the team pruning. Looking at it I'm transported, or better yet sustained, straddling the Equator, a part of me in each place.

In her photo, I can feel the cold rising from the damp earth, hear the soft clicks of secateurs, like insects in the lifted silence, I can smell the slight, acrid reek of wood-fires down the valley. The lambent winter light seeps and shimmers and saturates the air. And I'm grateful, yet again, for the dear and disparate homes I'm allowed to come and to return to, and especially for those who nourish and protect and give meaning to these havens.

We have another happy release of new wines: our 2008 home Pinot Noirs, and 2008 Riverbrook Riesling; also, the 2007 Howell Cabernet Franc in magnum (only 90 produced), a new format for us.

Our 2008 home Pinot Noirs, from a serene and understated season, may well become my favourites: they seem closer to effortlessness, closer to seeming a spontaneous eruption, unimpeded, from place to glass. Please read our tasting notes on the Wines page, as these are natural wines, and may present a different appearance than you are accustomed to. I particularly like Tyson Stelzer's thoughts on the Earth Smoke, which will be found on the Press page.

The 2008 Riverbrook Riesling is both rich and fine, higher in alcohol and with lower residual sugar than the 2007, with somewhat wild and complex aromatics. The 2007 Howell Cabernet Franc should prove nearly immortal in magnum: I have little doubt that even the 750ml bottling will age effortlessly for 15-20 years.

A charcoal shade drawn low over the clouds now, and the rocking ocean rises to quiet the muttering flame of day-fall. It will be time for afternoon tea on the farm: soft laughter and fatigue, and garments shed in the thin heat of noon, re-donned for the last cooling hours.

Homes are where the heart is.

Yours,

Mike Weersing