HARVEST!

Well... we finished the apple business, got into the sea kayaking and national park hiking business for a few days and then headed back to Blenheim for the grape HARVEST! Sea kayaking was amazing, one of many newly aquired tastes to take home (to Iowa?!). We saw a penguin swimming around, that was awesome! We had perfect weather and had so much fun in our kayak built for two.

We arrived back in Blenheim on Easter Sunday, in time to help cook a yummy feast with our friends. I made apple pie... this has been a running theme ever since! On Monday some friends we met in Motueka-- Dave, Marty and Thomas stopped in on their way back to Motueka from a whirlwind tour of the South Island. We did some wine tastings and made pizza and they camped here at the vineyard and hit the road on Tuesday.

Brian, Marj and I worked on ridding the West block Sauvignon Blanc of botritus... a rot that can be good but mostly is not good. We snipped and flicked rotten berries and bunches for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Marj took us to the neighbor's block to see a machine harvester driving down the rows, shaking the vines violently and collecting the grapes. It was crazy.

On Thursday morning Brian caught a bus to Christchurch to practice with his ultimate frisbee team for the the National tournament in Wellington a week later. At 10 that morning a crew arrived at the vineyard to start distributing bins down the rows. The Sauvignon Blanc Vintage 2008 had begun! Hooray!

In Brian's absence I was the official photographer. I got to use Brian's camera which is bigger and fancier than mine (even if I just used the Auto setting) and made me feel professional and important. I walked around taking pictures. When there was a truck load of grapes ready to go to the winery, Marj rode along to check the tonnage. I stayed watch at the yurt/containers and pretended to be official. Murray arrived just before the first truck load and estimated the 6 big bins would equal 3 tons. He was right! I rode along to the winery when the last truck load went. Mike, the manager of the pickers and the truck driver, took me up to the vats of Pinot Noir that were being kept cool until they were all ready to start the fermentation. There was a guy with a big flat metal disc on a pole (I think it was more mechanical, hooked up to wires and stuff, but anyway) squashing around the bottom of the vats to get some more of the color out of the skins. This is essentially stomping I suppose.

After Day One of the Carpe Vinum Sauvignon Blanc 2008 Vintage: 54 rows picked, 10.5 tons!

On Friday, March 28, 2008 (Day 2): Marj and I walked the rows picked the day before looking for bunches left behind. There were some, but not too many. It is hard to see the green grapes behind all the leaves. Today the pickers finished the West Block Sauvi as well as the Top Block and moved on to the top of the East Block.

After 2 Days of the Carpe Vinum Sauvignon Blanc 2008 Vinatge: 27 tons!

Saturday morning the pickers arrived but no bins were set out for them and the supervisors had not arrived. It was a cloudy morning and the weekend forecast was RAIN. By 10am the pickers had not picked anything because they were waiting for word from the winery. Rain at the winery and on the way to the vineyard meant the bins would get too watery which is no good for wine. So by 10:30 we were off to Picton for lunch at Le Cafe! It didn't rain at the vineyard until 2pm... perhaps plenty of time to finish!

It rained all day Sunday so Marj and Bob were afraid they would not come to pick for a few days since it was still so wet in the vineyard... however...

Monday morning the pickers were back and ready to go! They moved really quickly through the East Block and were done picking and leaving at 1pm. Hooray!

Carpe Vinum Sauvignon Blanc 2008 Vintage: 37 Tons! An excellent turnout. More than was expected!

There was more rain, I finished reading all my books, did some crosswords, baked some pies and even spent 15 minutes at the library collecting some more books one day. Marj and I also did some Pinot Noir botritus patrol a few days.

On Friday morning Marj dropped off the van to be checked and we picked up Aulikki (a friend we met in Christchurch who joined us in Motueka for a while and then came to Blenheim to pick grapes for a week) in the loaner car (which was pink) and drove to the beach in Rarangi where Marj and Bob rented a house a few years ago. We sat by the beach for a while, walked along the shore, went in a cave and saw 2 glow worms and then proceded to drive the long way to Picton where Aulikki and I were catching a ferry to Wellington. We had breakfast at Le Cafe, sititng at the best table with the best view of course. Then Marj headed back to Blenheim and Aulikki and I walked around Picton and visited some shops before going to the ferry terminal.

The wind picked up just before we were supposed to go and all the boats in Picton harbor were going in wild in the rolling waves... but the ferry was so big it didn't move much. It was the roughest ferry crossing I had experienced but was not really rough at all. It was lovely spending the time talking with Aulikki, reading my book and enjoying the scenery.

Brian was waiting for us at the ferry station in Wellingon. Aulikki had a shuttle to her hostel, and we took the city bus. Our hostel was just down the street from Aulikki's so we met later that evening and planned to meet again Saturday. Brian and I got Thai takeaways and ate outside at the hostel. Then we went to bed pretty early since Brian had to get up for a long day of ultimate. We got a ride from some frisbee girls staying up the road. The rain held off until we got in the car. I stayed at the fields long enough to watch one game, then gave up and went to a cafe for chai and then into the city for shopping. It was still raining throughout the day so I just went back to the hostel and slept for a few hours. When Brian got back he showered, we watched The Simpsons and then met some of Brian's teammates for dinner of kebabs and headed to the party.

Sunday brought clearer weather. I got up with Brian and went to the neighborhood convenience store for breakfast foods and then read at the hostel until it was time for me to check in at the hostel up the street (where Aulikki was staying) for the night. We didn't really like the first hostel and it was quite crowded. We also had to get up at 4:30 the next morning to catch a 6am flight back to Blenheim and didn't want to stay in a crowded room and disturb everyone. After I moved our things to our new room, I took the bus to the fields to watch some more frisbee! I got to see the end of one game and then the battle for 5th place game, which Christchurch won... hooray! Then we watched the women's final game (Christchurch women won it all!) and the men's final game... which a team from Aussie won... weird. After awards, Brian bid his new friends farewell and we got a ride back to the hostel for hot showers. As soon as I arrived at the field the lovely, mostly sunny day turned cloudy and windy. Boo. But hot showers took care off all the chill and then we got nice hot pizza for dinner (what a treat to stay at hostels and go out to eat every night!) We watched a movie in the lounge, talked to Aulikki and bid her our final farewell for NZ and then went to bed.

Monday we got up at 4:30, flew to Blenheim at 6, arrived in Blenheim at 6:20 and had a bit of breakfast at the vineyard and were out ready to work at 7:30. Brian, Marj, Tadeu and I hit the Pinot Noir botritus hard! It had rained in the weekend and had been several days since the last spray so the botritus we had taken out last week had been replaced and multiplied! It was pretty heartbreaking but it was very necessary! Bob sprayed after we picked and then all we could do was wait, and hope that they would come and pick the grapes before they were lost to rot and raisindom. And alas!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 was Pinot Noir Vintage 2008! The crews arrived at 7:15 and started picking! Brian was the official photographer of this vintage so I held down the fort and also made 2 batches of Thank You brownies for the crew and pickers. They were much appreciated. Brian, Tadeu and I joined Marj for the weighing of the final truckload. By 4:15 all was picked and weighed and.....

Carpe Vinum Pinot Noir Vintage 2008: 15.7 tons (which is basically "16 Tons" and Marj's favorite song!)

It took a few days for Marj to relax even after the grapes were gone and we didn't have to worry about botritus anymore. Murray has been to visit and has told us of the horrors some other vineyards are going through... thousands of tons being abandoned because they have too much botritus and aren't even ripe enough. It was certainly lucky to get the grapes off because there have been several days of rain since the harvest was over here.

Tadeu leaves to go home on Friday morning and we follow just a few days later. As of today we have one week to go! Brian and I are doing a few hours of work in the vineyard when its not raining or too wet and muddy. It is really nice to have some time outside roaming the vineyard before we have to leave it.

Yesterday I made blueberry pie. While I was mixing it up I looked out the window over the counter and was looking out into the vineyard and there was a lone cow standing in the horizon on top of the far hill. It was such a lovely picture to see out the kitchen window. I was a little sad to think I won't see that while making pie in the future... unless I make a lot of pie in the next week!

That is enough for now, check out the photo website, I have a few of my random pictures from the last few months up. I will put up harvest photos soon. They will also be available on Marj and Bob's photo site.

It is really strange to be making plans for NEXT WEEK! to see all the people I have been missing these past 10 months.

See you soon!

Cheers