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Thanks to all those who attended the Club’s AGM. It was a short and succinct meeting, with all the important matters passed or discussed promptly. For those that couldn’t attend:
Financial Report, a copy of which has been corrected for the $3K compensation and will be uploaded to the Club website if you wish to review it.
Election of Officers, including a new Secretary, welcome Gordon.
Subscriptions are to remain at $25 for the 24/25 financial year.
General Business:
Gary Milicich asked whether the Club had any relationships with wholesalers regarding the purchase of wine. The answer is that we do not currently.
Wayne advised that he is responsible for renewing the Club’s liquor license.
Wayne raised the topic of mid- and end-of-year dinners and noted that attendance numbers have dropped slightly over the last year. Members were asked to please let any of the committee members know if they had any suggestions.
A bus trip to the Wairarapa for club members was raised, and it was explained that our last one had been for the 40th anniversary of the Club and was a lot of work, especially when trying to co-ordinate with trains, etc
The supper put on by committee members was enjoyed, and so was the socialising.
Brockenchack With Representative and Global Business Development Manager, Darren Naylor
Wednesday 12th June, 8 pm Start
Door Price: Members $14 / Guests $18
Brockenchack Wines | One family, connecting wine-enthusiasts across the globe through a shared love of storytelling and fine wine. All it takes is one memorable bottle of Brockenchack wine for the family reunion to begin.
Our presenter Darren has his own wine named after him (D.E.N Reserve Cabernet), is married to owner Trev’s daughter Sue (aka our Tru-Su Rose) and is father to Mack (aka Mackenzie William 1896 Riesling) and Bronte (aka Miss Bronte Cabernet), two of the grandchildren that Brockenchack is named after.
The heart of Brockenchack is our family, each member contributing their unique rhythm. If I steer the ship, Marilyn is our Bridge Watchkeeper as she continues her recovery with great-grandson Archie keeping her on her toes, and keeping us both young (at heart, if nothing else). The next generation; Mack, Jack and Charli step into the limelight, propelling the Brockenchack brand forward with fresh ideas and lots of energy. Darren’s relentless efforts span across Australia, NZ, Asia, and the USA, seasoned with a generous dose of dad jokes. Susan continues the hard-working genes, propelling her own business forward.
Bronte continues to immerse herself in the world of dance, seamlessly balancing that with her commitment to university studies and prac placements. Whilst Trudi seizes every chance to revel in precious moments with her grandson Archie, whenever she’s not at the helm of the bottling plant.
Brockenchack’s name is made from an amalgamation of the grandchildren’s names: this is a family endeavour, and is named after their four grandchildren; BROnte, MaCKENzie, CHArli and JaCK; Brockenchack is a cool climate, single vineyard wine producer in the Barossa’s picturesque Eden Valley nestled between world-renowned Henschke and Yalumba vineyards. They soared to new heights in 2023, taking their wines international. From South Korea to New Zealand, Malaysia to the UK, France to Switzerland, and across the USA, their wines made a global statement. Wine trips and tastings resonated with enthusiasts on every continent.
Changes could be ahead for food and wine festival Toast Martinborough, after the event was purchased by Foley Wines.
As a run of hard luck threatened to drag Wairarapa’s famous wine and food festival down, one of the most influential industry players stepped in to save the day.
The Covid-19 pandemic, poor weather and increased compliance costs had caught up with the trust – that runs Toast Martinborough, but Foley Wines has offered to take ownership of the event that has been running for more than 30 years.
In a difficult financial situation, Toast Martinborough’s board attempted to raise capital from its shareholders but could not pull together the necessary funds to meet its obligations.
Foley Wines offered to buy out shareholders and pay outstanding debts with suppliers. The board unanimously accepted its offer.
Foley chief executive Mark Turnbull said they were excited by the opportunity to take over custodianship of the event and they were keen to revitalise its format for the future.
This could mean changing the time of year and possibly shifting it from a Sunday to a Saturday. “You know what the weather’s like in November — four seasons in one day.”
“While the strategy is still evolving, our team intends to work collaboratively with the community to ensure Toast Martinborough remains an iconic event for years to come,” Turnbull said.
The international company has deep ties to South Wairarapa. It owns Te Kairanga and Martinborough Vineyard wineries, the Lighthouse Gin distillery, and the recently opened $10 million development The Runholder.
American billionaire Bill Foley is a majority shareholder, and he also has other assets in the region including Wharekauhau Country Estate, and Wellington’s Pravda, Shed 5, and Crab Shack.
Turnbull said Foley was intensely interested in Wairarapa and was on board with the decision to buy out the event. “His family love Toast. We’ve just got off a call with some of his senior people in the US with some ideas from Sonoma and Napa festivals.
“He’s definitely keen and he’d much prefer coming in February when it’s a bit warmer.” Turnbull wouldn’t say the level of investment they were making in the event, but it was important that they looked after the region and cleared the trust’s debts. “I believe it brought in about $15 million to the region from Toast and that’s really important for everyone, so that was our motivation.
“And it was also about making sure that the people that were owed money were paid.” Foley Wines also covered Toast’s $5000 pledge to the Martinborough Youth Trust, which will be matched by Wharekauhau Country Estate and Foley Hospitality, bringing the donation total to $10,000.
Former Toast Martinborough board chair Pete Monk said the festival had faced hurdles in recent years and was thankful that Foley Wines could step in. “The past few years have posed significant challenges,” he said.
“This outcome hands over custodianship to one of our founding shareholders, meaning the festival is in excellent hands for its next chapter.”
Borough Wines are all about giving back to the Community. Founded in 2020, when you buy Borough Wines all proceeds go to the Graeme Dingle Foundation to support child and youth development. All the grapes, winemaking, packaging and bottling have been donated by generous folks in the wine industry, so your dollars go further.
Today’s fast-paced technological change impacts on many levels within society; from education to employment, from communication to recreation. Our young people need to learn skills and strategies to develop into resilient people who can cope and thrive amongst this ongoing evolution and disruption. They need to learn how to work together, understand other perspectives, collaborate for mutual success, and how to bounce back from setbacks. The Graeme Dingle Foundation programmes support the development of these skills an values, so our youth are able to overcome the challenges they will inevitably face in life.
Borough’s 2023 Vintage Growers:
Rob Hammond, Longfield Marlborough
John Flanagan, Ben Glover, Mufaletta
The Palmers, Palmer Vineyard
The Weltons, Welton Vineyard Blenheim
Mark Taggart, Roses Vineyard
Ben McLauchlan, Rothay
James Jones, Starborough
Click into their website to see their supporters, among them Lion NZ, Wineworks Marlborough, Indevin NZ, Wither Hills, etc.
Happening again, 7-8 June at TSB Arena in Wellington: NZ’s Largest Wine Celebration | Winetopia Events 2024. Go into their website to purchase your tickets if you want to attend.
New Routine
It was great to have everyone help with the tables and chairs at the start of last months’ meeting and taking the same down after the meeting. Also taking the tables contents: spittoons/water jugs/cracker plates back to the kitchen. Could we please continue this new routine.
Reminder
We can’t arrive to do the setting up activities any earlier than 7:30pm as we interrupt the cleaner(s) schedule, the cleaners are in the hall until 7:30pm.
What a brilliant evening! Organised by Wayne and hosted by Michelle Fraser from Clearview, a wine judge in her own right, plus with an extensive knowledge of viticulture and wine making.
Due to illness and holidays, we had only 27 attend the evening, but book your diaries for next year, as this may be repeated with next year’s Gold Medal Winners!
Michelle filled the evening with knowledgeable tips about the different growing regimes, different classes of grapes, the different way grapes are treated/processed, i.e. in stainless steel or oak barrels, skins in or out; plus her sayings that kept us laughing:
ABC – Anything But Chardonnay
Pinot Gris – Puma wine, younger girls juice
Chardonnay – Cougar wine, older women’s juice
Gewurztraminer – how to says this: Girls Get Meaner
She gave us updates on what some of the bigger personalities in the Hawkes Bay area are now doing, with Gordon Russell now in retirement, until he decides what his next project will be. However, his daughters are now up and running through their new brand Three Fates.
This was an evening that was full of surprises, and to those of you who couldn’t make it, the below wines that we tasted are available from New World, The Good Wine Company, and other NZ locations.
Lindauer Special Reserve Rose NV -Gold Trophy from a female wine maker, Jan DeWitt.
2022 Leefield Station Gewurztraminer -Double Gold Trophy for Champion Gertz this is owned by the same family who own NED wines.
2022 Brancott Estate Letter Series O Chardonnay – Double Gold Trophy for Champion Chardonnay + Champion Wine of the Show again a female wine maker, Laura Kate Morgan
2021 Daisy Rock Reserve Pinot Noir – Gold Medal
2021 Esk Valley Artisanal Hawkes Bay Malbec Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon – Gold Medal sadly Esk Valley is now more, so snap up this one if you like Bordeaux style wines.
Ever wondered what happens to old vineyard posts when they are discarded?
Repost, a company based in Marlborough, has been repurposing vineyard fence posts for the past four years.
What started as a need to find a cost-effective way to source posts for 30km of stock fencing on Greg and Dansy Coppell’s 500-hectare sheep and beef breeding farm in Nelson Lakes has now turned into a thriving business.
The Coppells said their first thought was to find a quantity of discarded vineyard posts. Greg’s father Allan had been using them for decades on his farm.
They found a stockpile of posts at a Marlborough vineyard and after sorting over the pile, they returned, repurposing the broken posts into usable 1.8m and 1.6m half and quarter round posts. They transformed their farm into usable paddocks, maximising pasture and accommodating their various stock.
With the seed sown, Greg and Dansy were keen to make this work on a larger scale and thus began Repost.
While they drive the business development and partnership opportunities, their team now consists of Stu Dudley who has been in the viticulture industry for over 15 years and Liam Garlick who streamlines freight and logistics and day-to-day site operations; the glue that binds this operation together.
With thousands of tonnes of useful durable wood being put into landfills every year from the viticulture industry, and with the viticulture industry priding itself on being sustainable and always looking at ways to lower its environmental impact, repurposing their old posts was the way to go, they said.
Since its conception, Repost has stepped up to the next level and with a tick from WorkSafe and resource consent processes in place, they are now able to process on-site.
This has made their operation smarter and more productive, they said.
They have processed more than 600,000 posts in total since they started in business, with a gradual increase each year.
They are looking to process up to 400,000 alone in this coming year and in the long term, they are hoping to include added value products such as 5×2 battens that could be used for various uses, including by DoC for its walkways.
How Repost is supporting Cyclone Gabrielle relief efforts
Repost has a crew of four who are working in Hawke’s Bay, supporting the Cyclone Gabrielle relief efforts, along with the Hawke’s Bay Silt Recovery Taskforce.
Instead of the damaged vineyard posts being sent to Whangarei to be chipped, they are turning the posts into intermediate and strainer posts, which have been donated by the taskforce to rural communities up and down the East Coast including Otane, Pōrangahau, Pākōwhai, Esk Valley, Tutira and Wairoa.
They are working their way through some of the larger vineyards and orchards and expect to be in Hawke’s Bay for another 12 to 18 months.
### The good news
Repost says it is changing one of the viticulture industry’s largest waste issues while also introducing recycled low-cost posts for farmers. Repost has partnered with Mitre10 as a supplier of their posts.
“On reflection, I’m all about reflecting on the things people haven’t done before or say can’t be done.”
At the upcoming AGM in May, we are still looking for nominations to welcome someone to be the Secretary of the Committee. Please think on this. We are using templates for the Minutes now, and rosters are done at the beginning of the year only once, so the job is not arduous.
Hall setup
We also continue to be delighted and thankful of everyone’s help with set-up of the hall for our gatherings, and then the pack down at the end of the evening.
We had Pegasus Bay wines presented to us by Ed Donaldson, Marketing Manager, who was informative and entertaining throughout the evening. Our club ordered 109 bottles from Pegasus.
Some of the information he imparted to us was:
Their venture started as a curiosity by Ed’s father, a surgeon 40 years ago.
That they have 40ha now planted in vines.
Their vines are not grafted from root stock.
They used to get grapes for their Main Divide range strictly from other growers/friends, this has now changed as they planted vines in 2008 to cover half this load.
There is seven family members involved in the day to day running of the business.
They export half of the wine they make to approx. 20 countries, including the UK, Belgium, Holland and Australia.
They will be 40 years old next year.
As a reminder of the wines we tasted during the evening:
Main Divide Rosé 2023 – Welcome wine a mixture of Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon
Pegasus Bay 2021 Sauvignon Blanc had less than 15% Semillon added
Pegasus Bay 2020 Chardonnay the grapes for this were foot stomped!
Pegasus Bay 2023 Bel Canto ‘Dry Riesling’ this is a really important grape variety for the area, these grapes are picked really late in the season – Bel Canto translates as beautiful music/singing
Main Divide 2021 Te Hau Pinot Noir
Pegasus Bay 2020 Merlot Cabernet
Pegasus Bay 2021 Finale ‘Noble Semillon Sauvignon Blanc
Hosted by Michelle Fraser, Clearview Sales Manager and occasional Wine Judge
Wednesday 10th April, 8 pm Start Door Price: Members $14 / Guests $18
Please remember your tasting glasses
Immediately after the Gold Medal Winners from the New Zealand International Wine Show were announced last October, your club set out to acquire 3 bottles of 7 gold medal wines for us to taste this month. April was chosen to do this as that is a time of the year when the wine industry is busy with harvest and thus many wineries are unavailable to present to us.
The beauty of doing this immediately that the announcements were made were two-fold. It meant that the wines were still available and more importantly it also gave us an opportunity to secure 5 that were trophy wines, one of which was also the overall Champion Wine of the Show.
And to help us present these wonderful wines to you all, we have invited Clearview Sales Manager, Michelle Fraser back to help us. You may recall that last year she mentioned that she has been a wine judge but she also comes with an extensive knowledge of viticulture and wine making, so is well placed to provide background and her take on each of our wines that we will be tasting.
The wines we will be tasting are:
Lindauer Special Reserve Rose NV – Gold & Trophy for Champion NZ Sparkling Wine
2022 Leefield Station Gewurztraminer -Double Gold & Trophy for Champion Gewurztraminer
2022 Brancott Estate Letter Series O Chardonnay – Double Gold, Trophy for Champion Chardonnay plus Champion Wine of the Show
2021 Daisy Rock Reserve Pinot Noir – Gold Medal
2021 Esk Valley Artisanal Hawkes Bay Malbec Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon – Gold Medal
2021 Trinity Hill Hawkes Bay Syrah – Double Gold, Trophy for Champion Syrah, Trophy for Champion Syrah & Predominant Blends & Trophy for Champion Commercial Red Wine
Kidney Kids is a non-profit organisation established in 1990 to support children with kidney disease and/or urinary tract disorders and their whānau nationwide. As Starship Children’s Health is the main hospital for children with chronic kidney disease, this can mean lengthy periods away from home for the child and their parent/caregiver. During this time away, Kidney Kids aims to help alleviate the stress by offering emotional and practical support to families while their child receives specialised medical treatment.
Last December, Wayne collected another trailer load of screwcaps from Anne, to which he added 3 bags of crushed Aluminium cans provided by a friend of his. These were then taken to Wellington Scrap Metals in Ngauranga Gorge and redeemed for $141 which was then donated to Kidney Kids.
So thank you everyone for bringing along your screwcaps and a special thank you to Anne for continuing to coordinate this activity.
Anne is collecting them to give to the Lions organised Kan Tabs for Kids. No food lids or beer tops, please. Save and bring them to the next monthly meeting.
Your committee continues to review the way in which it operates, particularly in respect of trying to work out which tasks need to remain with the committee, and which can be delegated.
We need to ensure that we have a good match of skills to match with the roles being vacated and in relation to this your committee is looking for someone to take on the role of Secretary.
This role is not arduous but includes attending the monthly committee meetings and taking minutes. The process of minute-taking has largely been templated to lighten the load on the person in this role.
Hall setup
We also continue to be delighted and thankful of everyone’s help with set-up of the hall for our gatherings, and then the pack down at the end of the evening.
Please remember: We can’t arrive to do the setting up activities any earlier than 7:30 pm as we may interrupt the cleaner(s) schedule, who have the hall until that time.
Upcoming events
April – Gold Medal Wines from the New Zealand International Wine Show, hosted by Michelle Fraser (Clearview Wines and Wine Judge). This tasting includes a number of trophy wines and so is a best of the best tasting, not to be missed.
