Experience
The Magic of Harvest at Terra Sancta
Holy Terra
Harvest Experience
At our favourite time of year we extend a special invitation to our Holy Terra Wine Club members to join us at Terra Sancta Estate in Bannockburn, Central Otago. Our wine club members spend a fabulous day amongst the vines, enjoying Bannockburn whilst picking the bounties of harvest. Once the bins are overflowing with the fruits of their labours, the Holy Terras return to the cellar door to enjoy a well deserved long lunch including lashings of Terra Sancta wine.
Time amongst the vines - the harvest begins
Ready to seize the day and pick some grapes, our Holy Terras gather at the Cellar Door to receive a harvest briefing from the Terra Sancta team. Once the intricacies of grape bunch extraction are explained by our highly trained professionals on hand (it's really not that difficult!), the secateurs are distributed and the team heads out into the vines. After a Central Otago style smoko aka morning tea of sticky buns and cheese rolls, the team heads back out into the vines to finish what they have started. The Holy Terras seem to enjoy life amongst the vines so much that it is often with reluctance that we have to drag them away - next stop, the winery...
Winery visit
No harvest experience is complete
without joining Terra Sâ ancta's winemaker Austin in the winery to watch him begin the process of revealing the grapes' potential. The Holy Terra harvest experience is held at Terra Sancta Estate on Felton Road which is home to not only our vines, but our cellar door and our winery which enables us to bring together a complete harvest experience including tasting the wine in its various stages straight out of barrel.
Whilst the Holy Terras are out and about engaging in the various aspects of harvest in the vineyard and winery, Sarah prepares the harvest table for the return of our Holy Terras for their long lunch. All this work (and watching the winery team work), works up quite a thirst. Luckily the Terra Sancta team is here to help quench that thirst with the Terra Sancta Aperitivo Botanical spritz ready to greet the returning Holy Terras. Of course the wine flows freely as plates are filled with delicious local fare. This year we focused on multiple vintages of Slapjack Block Pinot Noir to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the planting of Slapjack Block. The perfect way to celebrate harvest!
An unruly feathered fiend
Originally joining Terra Sancta to assist with soil health, some of our hens, known as "the Ladies", have developed a taste for living the high life at our Cellar Door. One such "Lady' visits daily always looking for the next best place to lay her egg. Drawn to the crowd at the harvest experience, this ambitious Lady not only put on an acrobatic display walking across wine bottles but then decided the wine displays looked like a good place to roost. Luckily for us, one of our Holy Terras is a gifted bird whisperer and was able to catch and relocate this feathered fiend before she created a mess of broken bottles and spilled wine. It's all part of the fun of the harvest experience.
And as the Holy Terras settle in
Wine is poured, friends are made
we celebrate harvest in this special place - join us next year for the Holy Terra Sancta experience.