Vineyard 36 Hillview Road Alexandra Central Otago

Our vineyard of 4 hectares is planted with 12,000 Pinot Noir vines with the oldest vines planted in 1998.

Pinot Noir Clones

Our Pinot Noir Clones include Pommard 5 & 6, 10/5, 13, and Dijon 667, 777, 113, 114, 115. Pinot Noir has some 200 naturally occuring clones. For a description of the properties of each clone you can down load the following pdf files from ENTAV. ENTAV PDF on clones of Pinot Noir

The vineyard is small with 4 hectares or 12 acres in vines. The first planting was by John Patrick Joseph Jacobson my dad in late 1998. Each year we have extended the planting.

The vineyard is on a westerly face slope down in the sheltered Alexandra basin in Central Otago New Zealand. We have the extremes of winter frosts -12C and summer heat 35C with cool continental climate nights.

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Our growing season starts in early October with bud burst in the first or second week and picking in early to mid April depending on the season.

The rows of vines are angled to the north west to balance the sun light on both sides of the vines from veraison to picking. The vines are at 1.4m to 1.2m spacing with 2.5m row widths to accommodate the Massey Ferguson 35 red tractor. Vines are bud rubbed, shoot thinned, tucked up, grape thinned and shoulder trimmed and picked, all by hand. A labour of love!

This is what winemakers call hang time, leave grapes on vines to develop favours past 24 brix. Nervous time for us vintners!

 

 

The Year In The Vineyard:

Month	Activity in vineyard
October	Bud burst Shoot thinning –removal of shoots to 2 per spur preferably one either side. Ensure there is an adequate gap between each spur for shoots to develop uncrowded. Ensure that area below the crown is not too crowded. Remove shoots at bottom of trunk Bud rub shoots up trunk Planting or replanting
November	Continue shoot removal Check for blocked drippers Lifting of tuck wires Remove shoots at bottom of trunk
December	Continue shoot removal Remove laterals Lifting of tuck wires Straightening and untangling of vines
January:	Lifting of tuck wires Straightening and untangling of vines Putting in clips Leaf plucking remove laterals so that fruit has light and air around Take down irrigators Trim vines
February	Put on nets- tie down and secure Check and repair nets Put up irrigators Lifting of tuck wires Putting in clips Fruit thinning and removal of shoulders Checking drippers
March	Remove second set & green/unripe fruit
April	Harvest and party - now winemakers work begins
May	Take down irrigators Take off nets Label and put away nets Vineyard clean up Remove sleeves and stakes no longer required Put up irrigators
June	Pruning- removal of cane down to 2 buds per spur. Spurs spaced length of secateurs apart Remove any spurs pointing down, or off to the side. Leave one spur down trunk below crown. Training- check cordon wrap is firm and rewrap or wrap new cane if required Younger vines 2 bud at base, choke tie or wrap . Cut off any shoots down trunk. Clean out sleeves of younger vines
July and August	Pruning& training
September	Remove sleeves and stakes no longer required Pruning completed Tidy up vineyard Drop tuck wires

This sheltered westerly slope maximises the late afternoon sun which is essential to ripen the grapes before autumn frosts.

View from above vineyard at veraison- looking west across Dunstan Flats and out to Old Man Range and Old Woman Range

An ordinary sky in a special place.