Kia Ora!

16/11/11

Well it's a while since we have dusted off the keyboard and put 'pen to paper', so what has been happening down at Huia HQ?

For  a start Spring is here. It's been pretty wet here, but the sun is now out and the wind is blowing. The prevailing North Westerly is definitely making its presence felt. It's whipping through the winery slamming doors shut as it goes, just in case we forget it's there!

The sun, rain and the wind have been all encouraging the vines in their own ways. We have had bud burst and there is some serious growth on the vines, almost as you watch them.  Matt, our vineyard manager says that "no other plant grows faster at this point in its life cycle than a vine". The growth is spectacular and there are dazzling shades of green as you look out over the vineyard at the moment.  Fingers crossed the frost stays away.

Amongst other things that have been happening is that we are now the proud owners of a bee-hive.  There are so many vines now planted in the Marlborough region that we are in danger of killing off the honey bee population as there is very little for them to eat. So we are doing our bit to help them get back on track by having our own hive. Encouraging them to feed off all the wild flowers that are growing amongst the vines.  It is also pretty cool that we will have our own honey, if we are lucky. Huia Honey? Yum!

As we are approaching Christmas it seems appropriate that we have just finished hand-riddling our Huia Brut 2006 ready to be disgorged just before Christmas. It is looking beautiful at the moment and a worthy successor to our Huia Blanc de Blancs 2005 having had nearly 5 years on its lees to get really rich toasty and complex personality. 

That's it for now, but maybe we will squeeze in an update before Santa comes, but if not we hope he brings you what you want, but not necessarily what you need.

Team Huia

02/09/11

Hello!

Welcome to what we hope will be the first of many updates from us at Huia. Letting you know what is happening at the winery, in the vineyard and with us.

So it's September and the pruning is all done and the days are starting to get a little warmer.  It's been cold here, colder than it has for years! It snowed in Blenheim, which is unheard of - a good twenty years since the last flurry.  But mostly it has been sunny and cold. For that we can thank our hulking bodyguards: the Wither Hills and the Richmond Range. On either side of the Wairau Valley they push the bad weather off and upto the straits and into Wellington.

Check out the photos on our Facebook page or Flickr stream of the pruning and winter so far.   Brrr-illiant!

Now, the Rugby world cup is around the corner.  Can the All Blacks finally bring the Webb Ellis trophy home? It's a been a long time since it was last claimed by the men in black.

To quote Bill Shankly "Football isn't a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that." and many a Kiwi would agree.

So, with things kicking off in the vineyard as the weather warms and oval balls fly through the sky, September should be an interesting month. We are pretty excited!

We'll keep you posted on what goes on and don't hesitate to get in touch if you fancy it.  We are always glad to hear from you. 

And don't to check us out on Facebook and follow on Twitter. 

Til next time,

Team Huia