Matt's Update June 2010
After the 'relaxing harvest', we can't hang around too long - we have 2011 to think about!
If you would like to read our Winemaker's Blog, click here.
New Zealand's biggest wine growing region, Marlborough, is also our most important wine growing area. Its importance and global prominence is due to Marlborough's remarkable ability to consistently grow wine brilliance. Kim Crawford Wines winemaker Matt Large is a proof in point, a fine example of homegrown Marlborough wine quality.
Born and bred in Blenheim, Matt joined the Kim Crawford Wines team in 2004 and now has hands on responsibility for all aspects of winemaking at the winery in Riverlands, Blenheim.
He has intimate involvement from vine to winery in every aspect of winemaking, including being the first to try out every new winery toy (expensive winemaking machinery) and the right to drive the forklift when and where he wishes. He has picked grapes at dawn, dusk and midnight. He has over-seen, ferments, blends and barrel racking. Matt is an avid and enthusiastic taster of his, and others' handiwork.
Having developed a taste for wine at home, Matt obtained a Bachelor of Science at Victoria University in Wellington and went on to travel and experiment with wines around the world - Europe, USA, South Africa and Australia.
His greatest loves in life are his wife Adele and two small children, and for time out he enjoys nothing more than fishing and diving in the Marlborough Sounds. His favourite wine is the one in his glass, closely followed by the one about to be opened.
Read Matt's blog, where he brings you insights into the winemaking process from the grape to the bottle. Get the inside scoop straight off the vineyard, find out how the wines are tasting, and discover how he goes about achieving the award-winning taste that fills each bottle of Kim Crawford Wines.
After the 'relaxing harvest', we can't hang around too long - we have 2011 to think about!
Well, here in Marlborough the hum of sprayers, trimmers and leaf pluckers has died down and they've been replaced by bird scarers and net winders. This only means one thing - harvest is here!
January/February is a busy time in the vineyard - especially for Sauvignon Blanc. The workers are busy lifting wires, mowing, trimming, spraying and irrigating row upon row of vines.
In Hawkes Bay flowering is well underway, the cold snap that came through the first week of this month has slowed things down a bit.