Vicarage Lane’s 2011 vintage Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has been awarded a Pure Silver medal at the prestigious Air New Zealand Wine Awards, the countries premier wine awards.

The Pure Silver medal recognises not only the quality of the wine, but also that the wine is sustainably produced during all stages of it’s creation.

The date for the 2012 Marlborough Wine Festival has now been confirmed as 11 February.

The Marlborough Wine Festival is New Zealand’s longest running and most successful wine festival, with a unique selection of Marlborough wines along with some delicious local produce and gourmet cuisine. The festival has something for everyone, including wine tutorials with the regions leading winemakers and viticulturists, the Fashion in the Vines competition, the food and wine matching competition and fantastic entertainment from some of New Zealand’s leading performers.

Be sure to get your festival ticket when tickets go on sale on 8 October 2011..

For more info click here

Today John, Alan and I visited the vineyards, looked at growth on the vines and discussed the coming season.

Our Winemaker, Alan McCorkindale (centre)

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7.10.2010 The coolish spring weather has continued, with October starting out very cool.

When combined with Septembers low average temperature, this will almost certainly mean a later than usual flowering.

With long term predictions being for the average to below average temperatures to continue through summer, we may be in for a long season!.

5.11.2009 Vicarage Lane’s 2008 Canterbury Riesling was awarded a bronze medal at the recent Royal New Zealand Show International Aromatic Wine competition.Consignments of this appealing wine, from the Waipara region of North Canterbury, have recently been shipped to Finland, where they will be available in the restaurants on Viking Lines cruise ships and to the UK where they will be available through or latest importer, Northamptonshire based Green Door Wine Company..

16.10.2009 The vineyards have over the last few weeks seen buds start to open very quickly due to a warm spell, then stop almost as quickly, as temperatures have plummeted.Having experienced the warmest August for more than 80 years then a cold start and warmer end to September, and a cold start to October buds have not really known what to do and growth to date can be best described as patchy..

There were also 9 ground frosts in September (compared to none in 2008), one of which caused very small amounts of damage to a few young, tender Chardonnay shoots. This was not a problem in the Sauvignon Blanc which starts it’s development 2-3 weeks later.

The long term effect of this variable weather will not be known for a few weeks, as a warm end to October and start to November could still produce an early flowering and a few more cool weeks a very late one.

8.10.2009 Vicarage Lane Wines’ Marlborough vineyard has been recognised as a sustainable producing vineyard following it’s first Sustainable Wine New Zealand (SWNZ) audit.The SWNZ system is a pioneering set of industry standards that have been developed by the New Zealand wine industry with the aim of keeping the country’s clean, green image, by protecting the environmental integrity of their wine production

To this end SWNZ provides a framework for companies to continually work towards improving all aspects of their performance in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainability in both the vineyard and the winery.

Although most steps of Vicarage Lane’s wine production already employed sustainable processes, some small tweaks have been made and targets set to ensure an even greener future for following generations.

With Vicarage Lane’s contract winery already SWNZ accredited this system ensures the complete process from vineyard to wine encompasses true environmental integrity..

11.7.2009
– Total vintage 285,000 tonnes

– Very good quality expected after favourable March and April weather

– Strong growth in exports for 2008/09 (+28%)

– Marlborough harvest down 1% due to smaller Pinot Noir harvest and close management of Sauvignon Blanc volume

– Hawke’s Bay up 20%, a return to ‘normal’ levels after a low 2008 vintage

The 2009 New Zealand vintage is marginally above pre-harvest expectation for a crop of 275,000 tonnes, but is in-line with Winegrowers’ view that the harvest would not be bigger than 2008. Producing area in 2009 is estimated to have been 31,000 ha, up 2000 ha on 2008.

New Zealand Winegrowers’ CEO, Philip Gregan, said the industry had worked hard in the past year to keep volumes at last year’s levels to maintain quality.

He also said the elements had been kind in 2009, which would contribute to a quality vintage.

“We enjoyed a very good growing season this year. Some early humidity and weather pressure in February was replaced by a superb March and April. This meant our growers and wineries were able to pick the grapes at optimal ripeness.”

“The record 2008 vintage has driven export growth of 28% for the year to date meaning that we will achieve $1 billion of wine exports in 2009, a year earlier than forecast. Despite the strong growth in exports, there has been downward pressure on prices in the short-term given the global recession and market conditions. The prospect of some outstanding wines from the 2009 vintage will help underpin our price premium,” added Gregan..

31.5.2009 In a reversal from recent seasons, Vicarage Lane has completed the ‘winter’ pruning of it’s nearly 15,000 vines before the latest vintage is even complete.While in previous seasons the vines were pruned back to the four canes used in the VSP canopy system late in August, this year has seen a much earlier start.

With staff available for early season work and positive experiences from pruning in the late autumn last year on other blocks, the decision was taken to make the change.

“Latest research shows that either early or late pruning gives a slight delay in spring bud burst, and our own experience confirms this, so we took the decision to get stuck in at Vicarage Lane right away”, said vineyard owner John Kennard.

“We’ve seen no adverse reactions from the other vines, and in fact some positives with the delayed bud burst when we have late frosts, so it’s great to have it all done so soon”..

25.5.2009 Team Green rally driver Hayden Paddon and his co-driver, Vicarage Lane partner John Kennard, collected the spoils of their successful 2008 NZ Rally Championship campaign last Saturday evening at the annual MotorSport NZ Awards dinner in Wellington.In addition to the overall New Zealand Rally Champion driver and co-driver titles, and the NZ Junior Rally Champion title, Hayden also had the privilege of being awarded the Rally Founders Trophy for the second year in succession.

This trophy, which is seen as New Zealand’s top rallying award, recognises the rally driver who performs with distinction during the rally season, either nationally, internationally, or both, has a sportsmanlike attitude towards the sport and others, and displays the qualities of a true sporting ambassador.

A jubilant Paddon enthused “it’s a true honour to receive this award and especially to have our name on it alongside the late great Possum Bourne, someone that I have always looked up to.”

Paddon Direct Team Green website