2013 EASTER NEWSLETTER

Happy Easter everyone and welcome to the first newsletter for 2013. It has been a busy few months with lots of interesting things to report as we roll on in to Vintage 2013.

STOP PRESS -28 MARCH 2013 – THE FIRST CHURTON PINOT OF THE SEASON WAS PICKED THIS MORNING AS THE MOON SET AND THE SUN ROSE CHECK FACEBOOK FOR PHOTOS!!

WINERY UPDATE FROM SAM

Earlier this month we bottled the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc and it is now gracefully relaxing in bottle before the annual Winter Solstice release date of June 21 where it will be released along with the Pinot Noir 2011 (which has been safely tucked away ageing in bottle since September last year) . The new barrels are ordered and about to be delivered. The 2012 Pinot has had its first racking. It’s looking very lovely, soft and silky with beautiful tannins and fruit. The 2012 Abyss is showing impressive depth and integration. The 2012 pinots now wait peacefully through the winter months in older barrels before bottling early spring.

HAPPENING IN THE VINEYARD

The nets are on, ‘Hamilton” the scarecrow is up, bird scaring is in full swing and the grapes are ripening nicely. As in all years, we are aiming to pick as much as possible on Fruit and Flower Days in the biodynamic calendar.

For a full vineyard report from Ben – see his latest blog.

IN THE PRESS

• Sam’s letter published in World of Fine Wine Magazine March Edition

• Churton mentioned in Curtis Marsh’s “Wandering Palate” blog

• Churton ‘The Abyss’ Pinot Noir in Tim Atkins top 50 New Zealand Pinot Noirs and being showcased at Prowein.

• Churton Pinot Noir 2010 and Sauvignon Blanc 2011 featured in Metro Magazine – Top 100 Wines for Summer with both wines in the Top Ten!

• Bill Zacharkiw – The Montreal Gazette – Churton Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2011

IN THE MARKET

Sam visited Tokyo and Osaka where he participated in the New Zealand annual shows. He also worked with our agent Berry Brothers & Rudd in the local trade.

He finished his visit at a traditional Onsen – Japanese Hot Baths – no photos available….

In Hong Kong Sam presented a Biodynamic Seminar as well as working in the trade. Churton is now the first New World wine to be poured by the glass at Petrus at the Shangri La in Hong Kong.

PINOT NOIR 2013

From January 28-31 Churton participated in the third, tri annual Pinot Noir 2013 conference in Wellington.

110 Pinot Noir producers (showing 300 wines from 8 regions around New Zealand) gathered with hundreds of delegates from New Zealand and overseas alongside the Wellington Waterfront for an action packed and informative three days.

Delegates included media, trade, sommeliers, international influencers /gatekeepers, all eager to immerse themselves in all things Pinot Noir.

The weather during the week at Pinot 2013 at the Wellington Waterfront was absolutely beautiful, so much so that several brave winemakers and journalists threw themselves off the diving platform into Wellington Harbour for the “International Dive Bomb Competition”.

Some wonderful food and quite a bit of very fine Pinot Noir were consumed by all. We met lots of very nice people from all around the World and New Zealand. A great chance to network and build the whisper about how good the Churton Pinot Noirs are. One of the great things that this Pinot Noir conference showed was how good in general the Marlborough wines are. Consistent in quality and the really good ones have great tannin balance and length.

THE INAUGURAL PINOT NOIR SAFARI

On Saturday 2 February 30 hardy souls (including 4MW’s and a Master Sommelier) took part in the Pinot Noir Safari.

This is an off-road, four wheel drive tour through the high country Pinot Noir vineyards in Marlborough, with two river crossings and plenty of tastings along the way… Starting in the Awatere Valley, the intrepid team made their way along the hillsides of the Awatere fording rivers and streams and ending up at Churton in the hills above the Waihopai Valley. The objective was to demonstrate those hillside vineyards and terroirs that are turning out great wines and which are not normally accessible to visitors. This will be the first of many such events.

TASTINGS HOME AND AWAY

Mandy showed Churton at the New Zealand Annual Trade Tasting in London at Lords Cricket Ground just as the English Cricket Team kicked off in New Zealand. Oh – the cricket!

Sam shared his insights into farming the Churton property biodynamically and showed Churton alongside some very fine old world examples at a Biodynamic Seminar at Regional Wines & Spirits in Wellington

He led a similar seminar at the Grand Hyatt’s Grissini restaurant in Hong Kong. This was a great opportunity to present both Churton wines and biodynamics to both journalists and key sommeliers. There was keen interest and underlines the authenticity and real terroir differences of our wines.

STAFF CHANGES

Sea Change – Andrea Kerwin has moved on after 6 years in the Administration Manager role at Churton. Andrea and her husband and three children have moved to Nelson and are now operating a Sea Kayaking adventure company in the Abel Tasman National Park. Julie Taylor joined us earlier on this year as Marketing and Communications Manager. Julie is responsible for the website, this newsletter, sales support and point of sale, Facebook and twitter among other things. Julie has over fifteen years’ experience in the wine industry in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. Julie lives in Renwick with her husband Bruce. For all your sales support material or stockist information feel free to send Julie a message to zn.oc.seniw-notruhcnull@eiluJ

 With Best Wishes to you all as we leap into Vintage 2013 Sam, Mandy, Ben, Julie and the Churton team

Bob Campbell compost photo: “Not a lot of people look as happy as this when they sniff a handful of compost that’s predominantly cow shit. Sam loves it. His vineyard is farmed using biodynamic principles, an extreme form of organic viticulture based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner.

Sam has a herd of cows to supply him with the necessary volume of dung as well as the odd steak. He’s not a hippy-dippy alternative lifestyler but a down to earth, intelligent man with a degree in microbiology and a desire to make the best wine possible from his well-sited Marlborough vineyard.

Sam is an alchemist. He turns cow shit into brilliant Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Viognier and (not yet released) New Zealand’s first Petit Manseng.”

For Bob Campbell’s full article click here

A wine makers lot

As a wine maker the one thing I’ve learnt is not too take anything for granted.

Over the past 5 season’s I was lulled into believing that I had a good grasp of our vineyard; how to manage the vines and the winemaking. I was confident that, though our vineyard is at a high altitude (200m above sea level) the very favourable North East aspect meant that we would always ripen fruit early. I was wrong!

2012 vintage really taught me a lesson or two. Firstly that North East aspect is very important to capture early morning sun. Early morning sun allows the vines to warm up early and kick their metabolism into gear. That’s all well and good, but when you have a season like 2012 when the majority of mornings were overcast between December and early March. The sun doesn’t work so well. And the high altitude is important.

The result: a very late, very stressful vintage. In fact we picked both Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc about four weeks later than normal The Petit Manseng was 3weeks later than last year.

It’s a fascinating vintage for an academic study. But it challenged us in the vineyard and winery. In the end we have some fabulous wines with very interesting structures. Pinot Noir has great fruit length and intensity, wonderful, soft, supple tannins and low alcohol. Sauvignon Blanc is similar with good fruit and aromatics excellent acid structure and low alcohol. Viognier hmmm, well we’ll see! Petit Manseng wonderful sweet aromatic and intense! Maybe we picked it 4 weeks too early…so far we’ve no idea what normal is with Petit Manseng

And More Again the season came to an abrupt end with a cold frosty May then on June 7th a blizzard and serious snow in the vineyard (real snow unlike the previous years skittering) Another myth exploded…we can get snow in Marlborough.

A taste of Churton Terroir

Over the past 6 weeks we’ve been doing our new vintage launch. The highlight was our Taste of Churton Terroir lunch held on the winter solstice with guests: Bob Campbell, Yvonne Lorkin, Belinda Jackson and John Saker. After an extensive tour of the vineyard and compost pits (see Bob’s photo of Sam plus comments below) we settled down for a tasting of the new release wines alongside some mature vintages. The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc as always was looking wonderful round, mature and with a great silky texture and good length, great on its own. In comparison the newly released 2011 Sauvignon Blanc with its fine mineral focus, linearity and concentration was a great partner to fresh Tio Point oysters in their half shell.

The rest of the menu featured ingredients from the Churton terroir: a wonderful medley of local mushrooms including the last of the seasons cepes des pins ( boletus) from our pine tree plantation, paired with the 2011 Viognier( much more restrained and drier than the 2010, more like a Churton wine!) . A slow cooked Daube de beouf made from the shin of our home reared grass fed home slaughtered beef cattle. This dish had wonderful nutty and intense savoury character that leant itself well to the robust and savoury 2010 Churton Pinot Noir. The final course was a Cheese platter accompanied with Churton honey and Churton quince relish. The wine match was the 2010 Churton, The Abyss Pinot Noir. This is the first release since the inaugural 2008 vintage. Intense, ripe and supple this wine is so well integrated already and such a baby!

Yvonne Lorkin Hawkes Bay Today July 2012

Other Reviews since we launched the new vintages see Michael Cooper review of 2010 Churton Pinot Noir: 5 stars: Michael describes the 2011 Viognier as “One of the best Marlborough Viogniers yet.”

We are delighted that Ben Weaver has graduated from Victoria University in May with a BA in media studies and a BSc in Chemistry. He now works for us full-time. He leads the vineyard team and has been instrumental in bringing Churton into 21st century by joining us to facebook. (link). Ben will be available on zn.oc.seniw-notruhcnull@neb

On the market front we are delighted to welcome 3 new export customers: Le Sommelier has taken up our batten for distribution in Toronto and Ontario; David Bowler Wines in New York, USA: and Hennings Wines in West Sussex, England. We look forward to a long a fruitful relationship with all three.

Classy Wines

“Consistently Classy Highly Drinkable wines”, Michael Cooper
Working in agriculture has its own pace. The seasons never stop advancing. The rhythm is always the same but different. Here we are again: Spring. Was it that long since we had harvest? This is not a cycle we can either stop or get off, we just keep pedalling.

Organic Biogro

We are now certified organic (BioGro) in 9.5 ha of the vineyard, the balance (13 ha) is in its second year of conversion. Though it’s creating a lot of work we are thrilled to see the amount of life entering the soil in the more recently converted area. It’s as though this part of the vineyard is sighing with relief. Meanwhile compost has been made and spread. Everything is becoming verdant.

Latest Vintages

On the wine front we released our latest vintages at the winter solstice. An auspicious time for us as one growing season moves into the next. The wines were really well received, The Churton 2010 Sauvignon Blanc continues along the path of a bone dry, tightly wound style with texture and length and not merely aromatics. The Churton 2009 Pinot Noir is in, Sam’s view, our best yet: very structured and savoury but with great fruit complexity, layers and length. Then there is the first release Churton Voignier, 2010 it was barrel fermented in large 600L Demi Muids. It’s produced a weighty, textured wine with wonderful intensity of dried apricots and white flowers.

Michael Cooper’s Review

Michael Cooper the top NZ wine journalist recently wrote in The Listener: “Sam Weaver’s Churton…produces consistently classy highly drinkable wines” See the full interview and review here And Bob Campbell and Huon Hooke gave the 2010 Churton Sauvignon Blanc 5 stars and 94 points “concentrated weighty Sauvignon Blanc…long and linear”

Our latest family members Constance and Florence (Red Devon heifers) calved under the gentle supervision of Kevin from the vineyard.

Their offspring Bonnie and Horace are growing like weeds and frolicking around the home block with their attentive mum’s. Their elder siblings, last years steers have been grazing happily in the rows in the vineyard. They are doing so well on our interrow herbage that they are verging on the obese.

Sam at Taruna College

Sam has been studying the Taruna College course in Organic and Biodynamic agricultural, in between numerous market visits. Apart from learning to sing in harmony (he now goes round the vineyard humming to the vines) it’s led to a few interesting experiments and trials. There is the experimental compost heap or loaf of bread (Hovis, for those brought up in England) that was put together with a variety of wild and woolly ingredients. (Grape marc, sea weed, leaf litter, Chook manure, cow dung, hay and various bits of garden waste). Then the vines that appear with tags on them that are being closely monitored with observations recorded on a regular basis.

It wasn’t that long ago that we were all complaining about the coldest winter we’ve ever had. Snow in the vineyard for the first time. It’s unheard of to have snow lying in Marlborough, certainly not for 40 years or more.

The snow’s now a distant memory; we are well into spring and all our spring routines, soil applications cultivating and drilling in readiness for the new season. The cycle keeps on turning.

Merry Christmas everyone and welcome to the last newsletter for 2010. It has been a busy few months with lots of interesting things to report just before we roll on in to Christmas.

On the wine side of things:

Recent Reviews: – We continue to receive great press from around the globe. Lisa Perrotti-Brown, who is Robert Parker’s person on the ground in this part of the world, visited the vineyard recently. She reviewed a couple of vintages of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir as well as the Abyss Pinot Noir. Click here for Lisa Perrotti-Brown’s Churton Sauvignon Blanc review
Churton Pinot Noir review
The Abyss Pinot Noir review

Michael Cooper’s Buyers Guide 2011 is also out with reviews of The Abyss, the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2008 Pinot Noir. For the full write-ups please see the adjacent column. Click here for Michael Cooper’s Churton Sauvignon Blanc review
Churton Pinot Noir review
The Abyss Pinot Noir review

Vineyard
Cow Pat Pits: – These are a new addition to the Biodynamic regime at Churton for 2010. Along with Preparations 500 & 501, composting, companion planting and making use of natural growth rhythms the cow pat pits take us further in the journey of growing grapes “purely and simply”. It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to work out the main ingredient here, which alongside a mix of powdered egg shell and basalt dust amongst other things, is stored in the ground for 6 months. The end result is a compost full of microbial goodness with wide ranging uses around the vineyard from foliar feed to soil inocculant. Here we are making our first ever pits:

Auckland University collaboration:-:
We are excited to be part of a research project run by Auckland University. Dr Mat Goddard, a microbial ecologist is looking at indigenous yeast populations in the Churton vineyard and subsequently in the grape juice from the vineyard. His hypothesis is that individual sites have a widely varying natural yeast flora and this variation between site and indeed country can be a significant factor that influences wine quality. In other words terroir; the French concept of site expression in wine, (and other foodstuffs) can partly be explained by these different yeast populations. Fascinating stuff if you are a microbiologist (like Sam!). We’ll be sampling two of our Sauvignon Blanc blocks: Saddle and Loin.

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Viognier:-
The 2010 vintage saw the first fruit being taken off the Viognier vines that were planted in 2007. We have kept this little surprise reasonably under wraps as Sam has been unsure exactly what was going to happen with the resulting wine. Would it be sold off? Would there be some sort of ‘proprietary white blend’ created to encompass the Petit Manseng that will have its first vintage in 2011? Or would there be a third varietal to join the current Churton pairing; Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir? The answer pretty much rested on the quality of the fruit which as it happened came in beautifully ripe; showing excellent apricot and floral characters that are indicators of good ripeness in Viognier. 100% fermented in barrel it is a weighty wine with the Churton hallmarks of texture, length and minerality. The 2010 Churton Viognier will be released in June 2011. 

Bragato:-
At the end of August Sam presented his views on organics and biodynamics on a panel at the Romeo Bragato conference. The essence of his presentation was that running Churton using a biodynamic approach is to obtain more individual and character full wines of higher quality. Sam said, “In Marlborough we are blessed with a growing environment that is easy; the season tends to be dry and windy, disease pressure is limited as are vine pests. So why wouldn’t you run the vineyard organically?” At Churton wine quality is everything. The continual slow evolution of our biodynamic practices has led to more stable wines that are easier to ferment with much better balance and structure. If you want to know more about the technical issues that Sam believe result from an organic approach please contact Sam directly …
zn.oc.seniw-notruhcnull@mas

In the market:-
We have a new UK customer Berry Brothers and Rudd (BBR). Sam has had a long standing association with BBR; his first ever full time wine trade job was in their cellars in Basingstoke more than 30 years ago (yes 30!). In those dim, distant days the working day was as follows: 8am, start work; 10.30 am, tea break; 12.00 noon, Beer Break; 12.30 lunch; 3.00pm tea break, 4pm Beer Break; 5pm home! A fine start to Sam’s wine trade career. It is with much pleasure that Churton has obtained its first order from the venerable, old company and from early next year they will be stocking the 2009 Churton Sauvignon Blanc, and 2008 Churton Pinot Noir.

Thank you all for your wonderful support for Churton during the year. We all know how tough the year has been so it’s with great appreciation that we wish you a very Happy Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year.

With Best wishes, Sam, Mandy, James, Andrea and the Churton team.

Vintage 2011 has come and gone. What a fantastic vintage too.

We had another cracker of an autumn with a long Indian summer. It allowed us to harvest great fruit just when we wanted. With clean fruit at optimum conditions winemaking was really easy. The Pinot Noirs did what pinots should do. The Sauvignon Blanc did what Sauvignons should too!

Seriously the wines seem to be getting easier to make as we have moved further into biodynamics. The natural balance is far better. This means our winemaking is more guiding than intervention. The resulting wines just seem to be comfortable the way they are!

New Zealand’s first commercial crop of Petit Manseng. On 28th April we picked our first crop of Petit Manseng. Though tiny in quantity we are thrilled to have the first commercial crop of this slightly obscure Southern French variety. Originating from Jurançon in the Pyrénées Atlantique it produces some interesting dry wines and great sweet white wines. We’ll be making a sweet style Andrea having picked some very ripe bunches…Click here for the full Marlborough Express Article

News and Reviews Over the past 6 months we’ve had some great coverage check out the rave review given to The Abyss by Curtis Marsh, “ Weaver has certainly hit on grand cru territory here and the wine is most certainly in the league of the upper echelons of Vosne Romanee”.
Click here to read the full article

Rosemary George MW who has known our wines for a long time gave the 2009 Churton Sauvignon Blanc 5 stars and 18.5 points in Decanter. She has really understood what we are doing with our concentration on vineyard and fruit expression …”Wonderfully textured Sauvignon Blanc with layers of flavour. Quite fresh and rich with a very satisfying finish. Drink 2011-2014.”

Meanwhile locally Sophie Preece wrote a very good article for the Marlborough Express, “Answer really lies in the soil” . It describes Churton’s approach to the environment, working with the landscape and soil to bring out the best expression of our terroir in our wines. “It’s all about terroir”

Jack Weaver has now done his second vintage for Churton working with his father. It’s pretty cool having a second generation working on the vineyard and with our wines. He brought a bit of attitude to the winemaking and a great deal of care. See Jack unloading Pinot Noir at the Winery.

Churton dinner and new release:
“We like the idea of showing and releasing our wines at the winter solstice.” says Sam. “It seems a natural pause in the rhythm of the year; one growing season passes to the next. The land has drawn a deep breath; it’s pausing before exhaling into the new season. Our wines have rested in bottle for six months and more; they too exhale, relax and express themselves.”

Churton dinner at Toto’s Restaurant in Auckland will feature the first release of Viognier alongside the new release 2010 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2009 Pinot Noir. There will also be a chance to try Churton, The Abyss 2008 with Chef Sergio Maglione’s great food 23rd June.

Lastly we’re pleased to welcome Victor Hoi of Macau Bazaar Co Ltd as our latest agent. Victor will be supplying to the Macau market and into mainland China. We look forward to working with Victor and developing a new and exciting market.