Website comment
Hi there. We came across your address the other day and looked up your site to get tips on pruning. Thanks very much. It was most informative. Also looked thru' everything and saw your yummy pizzas. Do you have your dough recipe anywhere on your pages? Looks better than what we make. Thanks. Clive Thompson.
[ Will call when we are over your way sometime. We are at Dairy Flat ]
Visitors comments
Hello Jason & Wendy
Thank you for having us to to your winery last Saturday afternoon. The wines were enjoyable and we all came away learning something new about wines from your presentation. It was a great day and we would certainly look at coming up to Kumeu for another wine tasting trip.
Regards
Diana
Piako Wine and Food Society Morrinsville, Tasting July 3rd 2010
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Sue Courtney's blog of vinous ramblings
wine, food & other vinous topics from New Zealand
Feb 12th 2010
Pinotage Party
I received an invitation to join in the Pinotage Party this Friday and as I'm in New Zealand with a time zone that is 13 hours ahead of GMT, I'll be partying on my own for a few hours until the other time zones catch up. I'm one of at least a dozen Pinotage partygoers aiming to prove that 'misunderstood' Pinotage is indeed worth buying and trying, and in my case cellaring.
I decided to open the Kerr Farm Kumeu Pinotage 2004, a wine I actually picked up when Peter May of the Pinotage Club, and author of PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine was visiting New Zealand. I took him to Kerr Farm vineyard, just 25 minutes north of New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, on a very good traffic day, and here we found the oldest Pinotage grapevines that still exist in this country for the production of Pinotage wines. These vines were planted in 1969 and some of the fruit from these old vines are part of the blend, the remainder being the 'newer' plantings in the Kerr Farm vineyard, c. 1999.
KerrP04.jpg (38239 bytes)The colour is dark ruby with splashes of garnet. It is fine in appearance with a deep translucency that is almost opaque in the centre of the glass. It smells earthy and savoury with boot nugget and a hint of game meat. A deep sense of berry fruit also emanates from the glass, perhaps tomato stalk too. Surprisingly fresh to the taste, the underlying acidity that hums through the wine is holding it in a youthful phase. The fruit is bright and juicy and ranges from wild strawberry to red and black cherry to redcurrant to plum. It has a spicy kick, a Syrah-like pepperiness, there's a creaminess to the oak and the tannins are firm.The earthy savouriness so upfront on the bouquet plays a supporting background role to start, held in check by the abundant fruit, but pushes its way forward with a crescendo-like flourish on the finish. There are mushrooms and woody herbs and I also detect the slightest suggestion of mint. A fascinating wine, it's changing in the glass as we sip it - and it reconfirms why I like this intriguing, funky and always interesting variety called Pinotage.
This wine was matured in a combination of French and American oak, the label says 13.6% alcohol and the bottle is closed with a screwcap. No longer available, the current vintage is 2006 and it costs NZ$20 a bottle. Click here for a review of this wine in February 2007 - I visited the vineyard when the Pinotage vines were undergoing veraison.
http://www.wineoftheweek.com/blog/blog201002.htm#20100212
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Sue Courtney's blog of vinous ramblings
wine, food & other vinous topics from New Zealand
Feb 2nd 2009
Doing what you love
Combining my two favourite pastimes - the MG automobile marque and good wine - was realised on Sunday with the MG Car Club's Annual Vineyard Picnic Run. I was the catalyst for this run and called it "Wine Trails Old and New", plotting a route to our destination via vinous related sites. We drove past places where vineyards once were, like the site of the old Penfolds winery in Lincoln Road, Henderson, now a petrol station; through streets with grape, winemaker or wine names and past grapevines with their bountiful crops revelling in this fabulous Auckland summer. The nets are going on already.
The destination, Kerr Farm Vineyard in Kumeu, provided a stunning setting for the 31 MG cars to park on the lawn to a backdrop of vines and once everyone had arrived, vigneron Jaison Kerr (standing at right of picture, in white) gave a most informative and educational wine tasting. He presented five wines, all made from grapes grown on the vineyard that was first planted in 1969 - some of the original Chardonnay and Pinotage vines are still there - other vines are younger. Jaison and Wendy Kerr bought the property in 1989 - they had celebrated their 20th year of ownership just the day before - and released the first Kerr Farm in 1995.
Kerr Farm Kumeu Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2008 ($20) is a crisp fresh wine with good lemon acidity, a peachy mid palate and a touch of pineapple on the finish. It had an underlying herbaceousness and bite and served chilled, it really hit the spot. It was the wine we chose to accompany our picnic. With 14.5% alcohol by volume, it's a rich, weighty wine with a lingering finish - an excellent and rare example of northern NZ savvie.
Kerr Farm Thelma Grace Unoaked Chardonnay 2008 ($20) is fresh and fruity with some honeyed lees influence that adds a savoury aspect. It's quite dry with a spicy richness to the full-bodied finish. 14% alc.
Kerr Farm Limited Release Kumeu Chardonnay 2006 ($25) has noticeable yellow gold colour. It's quite savoury with a spicy, mealy yeast lees and toasty oak influence. Ripe grilled peach fills the mid palate and the long finish is dry with creamy vanillin oak. 14.5% alc.
Kerr Farm 'P06' Kumeu Pinotage 2006 ($20) is just gorgeous. It has a hint of blue to the velvety crimson colour and tastes so smooth, soft and warm with fruitcake cherry over a spicy backbone with an earthy, game-meat finish. It's medium to full-bodied with a lovely combination of softness, fruitiness and savouriness with a spiciness emerging as the flavours linger and creamy oak on the aftertaste. Just 12.5% alcohol, yet not thin. A personal favourite but also chosen by others as their favourite too. Many bottles of P06 were packed into MG boots to take home to enjoy another day.
Kerr Farm Kumeu Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 ($22) is showing its age in its fading orange garnet colour. Integrated and mellow with earthy savoury flavours, cigar box and leather, the fruit is now secondary as the wine nears its peak, but still has a year or two to go. 13% alc.
The car club run had been postponed from January 11th when the heavens opened to give the vines a good drink. The fruit is definitely benefiting from that watering right now.
http://www.wineoftheweek.com/blog/blog200902.htm#20090202
