Settling In

I have had a chance to settle in, and am feeling a lot better now then when I arrived. We headed into town to do some sheet shopping and get banking and tax needs taken care of (I now have a NZ bank account, so no more US fees!), and also did some wine tasting at some of the cellar doors on Monday (the NZ term for tasting room). We popped into Fromm, Cloudy Bay, St. Claire, Yealands (of course) and Grove Mill. All the fruit was from Marlborough for all wines tasted with the exception of a little Otago fruit in a Pinot. Some of my favorite wines tasted were LaStrada Syrah (produced by Fromm), Chardonnay from Grove Mill, Viogner and Pinot Gris from Yealands, and Cloudy Bay had a very nice lineup, including some killer botrytis infected late harvest Reisling and Gewurtz. I also really liked their Chardonnay... Maybe on the next day off we will hit some more up, that is if we have the energy.

Its on

All the interns have arrived, and the harvest has officially started. The entire crew, including interns, permanent cellar, lab and winemaking staff, is 35! There is a total of 26 interns from all over the world, including Brazil, Chile, France, UK, Germany, Australia, Italy and the US. There are only about 8 of us in the intern house though, as the others are living in and around Blenheim.

From this point on, Yealands will be running on a 24/7 schedule through around mid May. Yesterday was our first day of work at the winery, but it was more of an orientation. We filled out some paperwork, did some safety training, learned about sustainability and green practices Yealands employs, took a tour of the winery and had a BBQ at the end. Its been rather cool and windy lately, even raining lightly at times, so we all ate indoors. The forecast calls for some clear and sunny weather beginning tomorrow, so we should be getting lots of fruit coming in around the clock shortly.

I will be working on the night shift beginning tonight. The shift will run from 7pm-7am 6-7 days a week, somewhere between 72-80hrs a week. I am not quite sure how the tasks will vary on a nightly basis, but it is safe to assume that there will be lots of cleaning, transfers, racking, working the crush pad, and cleaning (did I say that already?). In general the night shifts clean more than the day shift, but we will be doing much more than that with the scale of the winery. Malcolm, who is one of the permanent cellar staff, said that they typically process fruit through the middle of the night, until about 2am depending on the volume. With mechanical harvesting being employed by Yealands and the majority of NZ vineyards (New Zealand has been very innovative and efficient with their winemaking approach since the 1970's), it makes it easier for them to bring fruit in at all times.

I was actually happy to see that I was on the night shift because there are more things open during the day, including using the internet at the info center down the road. At this point some of the blokes (hehe) from England and I are looking for a new place in Blenhiem. We will "hitch" into town this morning/afternoon to check out some of the available housing postings at the train station. Yes, I said hitch as in hitch hike, which is considered very safe and normal in New Zealand. If we can find a spot in town for a good price we will be moving within the next few days.

My Walk to Yealands

I decided to take the 6km walk out to the winery when I arrived in Seddon, as there was not much to do and I was getting a bit stir crazy just sitting around in the house. It was a long walk, but very beautiful. About 4km in the ocean became visible in the distance, with the never ending vineyards in the foreground. Yealands is Massive! 1000 hectares of vineyards around the winery.. Thats roughly 25,000 acres! Massive. The winery looks massive from the oustide too. Very state of the art, effecient, green and industrial looking in an artistic way if you will. I tasted through the menu of Sauv Blanc, Pinot Gris, Reisling, Viogner, Gewurtz and Pinot Noir, and grabbed a couple bottles for the house. The wines from this area carry some very bright acidity, minerality and lower alcohol than you get from California wines.



On a side note, it was nice to sit on a stool in the tasting room after the long walk; a luxory that we do not have in CA, as you are not allowed to have bar stools in tasting rooms.

The Town of Nelson

Nelson was my final destination via Air New Zealand.

It is about 2.5 hrs (west and slightly north) away from Seddon, which is where Yealands Estates is. Arriving in Nelson reminded me a lot of California.... the small town of Capitola in particular, but smaller and surrounded by hills more closely. Nelson is right on the bay, the skies were blue, and it was sunny and warm. I threw some shorts on as soon as I arrived at the Green Monkey, which was the hostel where I spent the night; A very nice and clean location with friendly folks.

I arrived on Friday, which happened to be Good Friday. The kiwis take this holiday very seriously; lots of stores closed, and NO BOOZE sales. Fortunately I had caught wind of this prior to arriving and had grabbed a couple of bottles in the duty free store.





I took the opportunity to take some walks and do a nice hike during my short stay in town. There is a hike that takes you to the "Center of NZ", and along a very nice ridge with excellent views of the small, quaint town. I also headed into town, by the beautifull cathedral they have, and out to their harbor. It was a very short stay, and I headed off by bus at 9:30am to my final destination: Seddon.

Settling in at the "Intern House", but there is NO INTERNET

Like the title says, there is no internet right now at the intern house. I will make sure to get up a post about Nelson and my travels as soon as I get a chance to get my laptop connected so that I may upload pics along with the posts that I have saved to the hard drive.

So far so good, just ready to get working in the winery... It is a bit weird settling in to be honest, but I think that another night or two will help. It certainly doesnt help that we dont have sheets on our bed, something that I didnt think to inquire about ahead of time, but guess I shouldnt have assumed. We have the necesseties, like dishes, utensils, kitchen, showers, bathrooms etc, but the dorm/hostel style rooming downright sucks... I am not a fan of the bunk beds, and the sheet situation blows. Im sure that I will get over it as soon as a get a chance to get some bedding, which was def unforseen. Anywhoo, the interns are nice; a couple of Americans, an Italian, couple French are who I have met so far... more will be arriving shortly.

I did have a chance to check out the winery yesterday which I will elaborate more on later, and also take some nice pictures, which I will get up ASAP.

Just Landed

Just landed in Auckland, New Zealand around 5:30am kiwi-time.... they are 21 hours ahead of PDT. So, right now it is Friday April 2nd down here. The flight wasn't bad at all; good food, friendly service, entertainment (tv with multitude of shows/movies), and free wine! The wine really helped to get a good nights sleep, and I pretty much slept the whole trip.

In a few hours I will board the last plane ride to Nelson on the south island, and from there I will take a bus to a small town called Seddon, which is where Yealands Estates and the intern house is. Apparently it is a brand new house, and I am very excited to get there! As soon as I get settled, I will be able to start getting some pics and vids up, but as of now I have been using kiosks for internet.

I have already made my first wine purchases at the duty free store. Since it is Easter holiday down here, I feared stores with booze may be closed, so I grabbed a couple bottles just in case. 1 bottle of Villa Maria Merlot/Cab blend from Hawkes Bay Region (18NZ), and a bottle of Moncellar Pinot Noir from Central Otago (32NZ). Always skeptical on the pricing at airport stores, but I needed my Vino! I am sure they will go down quite quick and smooth as soon as I can get settled.

Gotta run, feeling like it's beer thirty.

Getting Ready to Embark on Adventure

For the past few months I have been living in an amazing little place called Carmel. This has been an absolute treat! I moved back down when I got a tasting room job at a local boutique winery (www.galantevineyards.com) who's vineyards are located in the Carmel Valley AVA and tasting room is in Carmel by the Sea. I have also been working for Clos LaChance, roughly 1 day per week, and also some outside events. Both gigs have kept me busy and been great, but now I will be moving on to something new... a harvest internship in New Zealand.

I will be flying out on March 31st to the Marlborough region, at a winery located just outside the town of Blenheim called Yealands Estates. This is a very exciting time in my life, and I am still kind of soaking it all in.... Still hasn't quite hit me yet; suppose it will when I'm at the airport.

The harvest will start on April 6th at 8am. It's been a late season, as the grapes would normally have started coming in a week ago. The work will last for 6-8 weeks, include room and board, and will offer an opportunity to see how the Kiwis do things. Also, it will offer me a chance to meet people from different areas of the world, with different culture. New Zealand is an island, so they have to "import" their labor for this type of work. There should be folks from all over on board... there are roughly 13 interns. The winery primarily produces Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Sauvingon Blanc.

Still working on getting things all wrapped up at home... little more housekeeping, cleaning, packing and TAXES!!! :( All the big tasks are taken care of: I have my passport, work visa, plane ticket and have moved my garage zinfandel to a winery in San Carlos, so it can hang out in a slightly humid 55 degree environment, and I can rest easy.