Wine, food, cooking and accessories

With the World Cup now out of the way everyone at the brewery is gearing up for the impending move to the new production brewery in Blackwall Lane.

The new state-of-the-art brewhouse will instantly quadruple Meantime’s production capability and enable them to continue satisfying the demand from our thirsty customers for their award-winning range of draught and bottled beers as they continue to outgrow the current Penhall Road site.

The photos below detail some of the progress being made on the site including the arrival of the brand new Lauter Tun (left) in June and the new brewhouse (right). By the end of the Summer Meantime Brewery hope to have the first beer brewed at Blackwall Lane packaged into keg and bottle and are busy building stock at the current brewery ahead of a four-week shutdown.

Tasting Notes:
An enticing wine that will awaken your senses from the very first encounter. Leather, boysenberry and sweet spices combine. The supple palate with its transparent flavours of red fruit and earthy textures leads to a finish that is both balanced and intriguing.

Vineyards:
Grapes for this wine were sourced from the southern side of the Wairau Valley including the Brancott, Fairhall and Ben Morven sub-regions and from the Barracks vineyard (located in the Omaka Valley) for the first time. The soils are aged alluvial gravels that are relatively free draining, with some clay content. This soil structure allows a relatively consistent availability of water to the vines throughout the summer months, minimising water stress to the pinot noir vines. All vines were pruned and trained to two-caned, vertically shoot positioned canopies. Average yields were approximately 6 tonnes/hectare. Much hand work for shoot thinning and bunch thinning was required during the season.

The Growing Season:
Idyllic flowering weather led to excellent set in all varieties and bloomed into a bountiful crop. A warm summer followed and the season finished close to the long-term average in terms of heat summation, sunshine hours and rainfall. The exceptionally dry ripening season was punctuated by two rain events during the second half of harvest, producing many a grey hair and speeding up the picking. All vineyards were picked in just over a month and the vintage was completed earlier than ever before.

Harvest:
Seven clones of pinot noir were hand harvested according to individual ripeness, with the first picked on March 20 and the last on April 11. Fruit was received at the winery in exceptional condition and composition averaged 24.5 Brix, pH 3.27 and acidity of 8.7g/l.

Vinification:
All fruit was de-stemmed into open top stainless steel tanks and, after a pre-fermentation cold soaking period of several days, the fermentations started with naturally occurring yeast. The caps were plunged during fermentation to aid colour and flavour extraction. Following an average period of three weeks on skins, the batches were drained and lightly pressed before being transferred into French oak barrels, approximately half of which were new. Malolactic fermentation was complete by early summer. After nearly a year ageing in oak, the individual components were blended in late February and the wine was then lightly fined with egg whites for clarity prior to bottling in June 2010. The final blend consists of 30% clone 777, 30% clone 667, 13% Abel clone, and the remainder a mix of Dijon clones. Final analysis shows the wine to have 14% v/v alcohol, pH of 3.60 and acidity of 5.5g/l..

Tasting notes:
The 2007 Te Koko is an intriguing and alternative style of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Aromas of lemon thyme, mandarin blossom and stonefruit combine harmoniously with ginger spice and nutty and savoury tones, underlined by exotic tropical notes. The many-layered palate is creamy and textured, balanced by a clean, mineral acidity. This wine has excellent persistence of flavour and intensity.

Vineyard:
The Sauvignon Blanc grapes for this wine were sourced from four blocks spread across the Brancott Valley, Rapaura and Renwick sub-regions. The soils are predominantly free draining gravels requiring irrigation during the growing season. The majority of fruit was grown on a vertically shoot positioned (VSP) trellis with the balance on the divided Scott-Henry trellis system. In 2007 Sauvignon Blanc yields averaged 9.5 Tonnes/hectare (3.8 Tonnes/acre).

The Growing Season:
Budburst in Marlborough was once again earlier than normal and the growing season in the Wairau Valley raced off to a frost-free start. However, early predictions of a bumper crop were quashed during the coldest December in 50 years, affecting the later flowering varieties, especially Sauvignon Blanc. Cooler than average weather conditions prevailed through most of the summer, bringing the season back from its early start and putting a worried look on many a winemaker’s face. But the beginning of autumn brought the arrival of a true ‘Indian Summer’ and the vineyards ripened rapidly under sunny, blue skies.

Harvest:
Batches of fruit from five vineyards were picked according to flavour profile between March 2 and March 17, averaging 22.7-23.4 Brix, pH of 3.23-3.33 and titratable acidity of 8.0-9.5 g/L.

Vinification:
The grapes were harvested in the cool of night to preserve fruit flavour and loaded into tank presses. After settling the juice for a period of two to three days, the juice was racked directly to French oak barrel (less than 10% of which were new) and allowed to undergo a slow wild or “natural” fermentation. The primary fermentation, which took until November to complete in some batches, was followed by a spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wine was left in barrel on yeast lees until September 15 2008, when it was racked and lightly fined for clarity. The wine was bottled in February 2009. Final analysis shows the wine to have a pH of 3.40, 5.6 g/L titratable acidity and 13.6% v/v alc.

The demonstration follows recipes from the books and recently the film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

Julie and Julia isn’t just a film for foodies, although I’ll warn you now not to go to this movie on an empty stomach. People have been driven crazy by the mouth-watering dishes on display in Julie and Julia film and this is the perfect way to learn how to recreate the dishes.

22nd July 2010 from 7.00pm to 9.00. £20.00 per person.

The summer holidays are nearly upon us and it is time for the kids to say farewell to their old school teacher before moving up a year to a new class.

If your teacher has been particularly good, has the patience of a saint and helped turn your brat into a model citizen our range of chocolate lollies are perfect end of term thank you gifts. They are available to buy instore or online.

Reward years of hard work at University with a bottle of wine or champagne complete with a personalised graduation label. A great keepsake or ideal for getting the party started. A first class gift! Sorry.

The 2010 ‘world championship of wine’, the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, has added further weight to evidence of a dramatic decline in cork-related wine faults. Of almost 7000 bottles opened at the prestigious event only one per cent were identified as being affected by 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA).

Staged in Palermo Sicily in April, the competition attracted wine samples from more than 50 countries and as in previous years event organisers conducted an analysis of wine faults. Of the thousands of wines tasted the panel of about 270 international judges rejected 120 samples. From this batch 68 were identified as being affected by TCA, commonly referred to as cork taint.

Read full story on www.corkfacts.com

The only thing better than chocolate is free chocolate! Our free to enter quiz will test your knowledge of all things chocolatey – all correct answers each month go into the hat for a chance to win a luxury box of 24 Coghlans hand-made chocolate truffles. UK residents only. Winners will be announced 30th July 2010.

All answers are based on popular chocolate products in the UK. If you are serious about chocolate this is the competition for you.

Fine Magazine have announced their Top 100 Champagnes for 2010. Scoring each Champagne out of 100 their aim is to provide advice on which Champagnes are the most palatable right now. The top 10 are :

1. Armand de Brignac, NV – 96 points
2. Dom Perignonn, 2000 – 95 points
3. Mumm Cuvee R.Lalou, 1998- 94 points
4. Roederer Cristal, 2002 – 94 points
5. Egerie de Pannier, 2000 – 94 points
6. Pol Roger Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill, 1998 – 94 points
7. Dom Perignon Rose, 1998 – 93 points
8. Jacquart Blanc de Blancs, 1999 – 93 points
9. Roederer Cristal Rose, 20002 – 93 points
10. Chartogne-Taillet Fiacre, NV – 93 points

Read the full list online

Bodegas Piqueras has been awarded Gold Medals at the prestigious ” Selections Mondiales de Vins Canada 2010″ for the following wines:

Valcanto 2008 100% Syrah : aged 4 months in American oak barrels
Valcanto 2008 100% Monastrell : aged 4 months in American oak barrels.