Terra Sancta Blog

I have enjoyed the wonderful opportunity to start 2013 with some great afternoons in our newly opened Cellar Door.    Tasting our wines with customers is one of the great joys of my career.    I have particularly enjoyed sharing our Slapjack Block Pinot Noir with our recent visitors.   It is always a big moment for the Winemaking team when a new Slapjack Block is released and the recent release of the 2010 was no exception.  Following on the back of the successful 2009 vintage, the 2010 Pinot Noirs have a tremendous presence and this Slapjack is no exception.   A powerful wine with exquisite structure that will make it age-worthy but also a vibrant cherry/plum fruit quality that makes it charming in its youth.

Speaking of great vintages, the 2012 Pinots are showing all the hallmarks of quite a special one.   Wonderful purity and persistance with silky tannins and great balance.   We are working on the 2012 Estate Pinot blend which will showcase the diversity of our Estate vineyards.   Jody and team will soon be blending the barrels in our new winery - another exciting milestone for Terra Sancta.

The 2012 Riverblock Chardonnay - the first of its kind -  is wonderfully complexing.   The Terra vineyard is a great sight for the 3 tremendous Chardonnay clones we have planted.   Each lends its own asset to a special Bannockburn chardonnay:  earthiness, vibrance, citrus and tropical fruit notes framed by a sexy cool climate texture.      A good thing to come for those who are waiting - I hope it will be a memorable release later this year.

Cheers, JP

Hi team. Thought it was about time for an update from the vineyard...

The run of warm, sunny weather has continued in the deep south since my last post with August temperatures so far slightly above average. Very content to be outside working with the land in a winter such as this and I'm sure the rest of the pruning team agree with me, though probably not those searching for bucket loads of fresh white powder in the hill country...

I had half of the winemaking team (thanks Jody) and a 5 ton loader on site this morning to help construct this years compost much to the annoyance of a few field mice who had made a home in the piles of raw materials. Organic compost is a fairly simple recipe, shown in the above photos taken on Sancta vineyard yesterday. Basically we take all the skins, seeds and stems leftover from the winemaking process and layer together with some nitrogen rich cow poo and a bit of straw forming long wind-rows in the process. High temperatures within the piles as a result of the decomposition process will be enough to neutralise any fungal pathogens that may be lurking on the raw organic materials. Eventually the cured compost will be returned to the vineyard as a source of nutrients and organic matter thus completing the recycling process from vineyard to winery to vineyard.

Cheers, Len

I took advantage of the warmer temperatures (and the need for a vitamin D boost) this past week to walk our Terra, Sancta, and the Diggings vineyards with our soil health consultant. We shared the vineyards with a few hundred Merino sheep who have volunteered to tidy up the grass sward between the vines and who will by nature return a good proportion of what they eat to our soil in the process.

Dodging the sheep, we took over 200 soil samples to build a detailed picture of current soil fertility and health. While the results from intensive analysis at a dedicated soil lab in the United States are a few weeks away, the soil balance looks great. Getting very detailed within each block with the soil will help us get the individual t decisions regarding the application of the right mix of nutrients for each block on the vineyards.

Cheers,

Len Ibbotson, Head of Viticulture

I was marveling the other day about how lucky I am to get to taste Pinot Noir after breakfast, but I don't suppose anyone would believe me when I say its all work!

Tasting through the barrels of Terra Sancta's 2012 Pinot Noir this month has been a great pleasure. Honestly, its a real challenge (even for a Winemaker) to taste Pinot Noir in its infancy but the 2012's great character is already showing through.

The perfume of Jackson, the earthiness of Slapjack and the exotic spice of Shingle Beach sing out like a symphony in the barrel hall. We are also busy preparing the 2012 Terra Sancta Pinot Noir Rose for bottling in August and when we open the tank for a sample, the cellar comes alive with scents of strawberries, cherries and cassis.

Believe it or not, Terra Sancta Rose is my drink of choice after a sunny day of spring skiing in Wanaka. The zesty finish keeps the spirits high even when I'm down from the mountain. I can't wait!

Cheers,

Jen Parr, Head Winemaker