blog

Harvest 2012 underway – the weather gods are smiling!

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:05:19 +1200

The first of the new seasons grapes are in and we are delighted (at this early stage!) to advise wonderful, clean fruit and great concentration of flavours. There was plenty of nervousness earlier on in the season due to some grape fungal disease pressure caused by wet conditions prior to Christmas. However its all looking good now and fingers are crossed for a continuation of the Indian summer while we harvest.

Tour de Wakatipu 2012

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:51:08 +1200

Chard Farm has just hosted a hugely successful Tour de Wakatipu mountain bike race. Over 720 riders enjoyed the great track and amazing weather on the day. The mini wine and food festival at the winery topped it all off - spectators and riders basked in the cruisy music from Beach (local duo Jessie Coutts and Mathurin Molgat). The caliber of riders this year was very high – with multi sportler Dougal Alan (2^nd 2012 Coast to Coast) taking the mens open title and local speedster Kate Fluker winning the womens open. The TDW is becoming one of the favourites on the annual NZ mountain bike calendar. We are looking forward to next year’s event already which is going to incorporate some of the new Wakatipu Trails - bring it on……….

Dougal Alan - winner mens open title

Kate Fluker - winner womens open title

Vintage 2012 - harvest countdown!

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:09:17 +1200

Only a couple of days to go before we begin the 2012 vintage. The cellar crew are frantically cleaning all the machinery and scrubbing the decks of the TSS Chard Farm. We have a fun vintage crew this year – Guillaume Reverdy from France, Emily Terrell from Idaho USA and Christine Schneider from Germany.

Emily Terrel from Idaho USA cleaning the crusher

Meet our Vanuatuan friends

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:34:43 +1300

We are participants in a seasonal work program initiative with Vanuatu and have for the last few years employed Vanuatuans in the vineyard during the growing season - October to May. We now have our own team consisting of Phillip, Jean-Luc, Vuni and Karlo, who return to us each year. They are a great bunch of guys, funny, friendly and with a great work ethic – even running with the picking bins at harvest time. They are often heard signing and chanting in the vineyard, or chasing rabbits with sticks and even chase the blackbirds in the nets during their lunchtime.

2012 Tour de Wakatipu Bike Race - April 7th

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:18:23 +1300

We are all getting rather excited about the 2012 Tour de Wakatipu on the 7^th April. It starts at Millbrook and finishes at Chard Farm and is probably the most picturesque and varied bike race on the New Zealand mountain bike calendar. You start at a golf resort and visit - 2 lakes, 3 rivers, 2 historic bridges, 1 airport, 1 deer farm, 1 sewage pond (!), 1 winery and even the burbs’ (Frankton). All of this in gorgeous autumnal Central Otago colours. It’s a great day - with music, food and wine at the finish at Chard Farm. Find out more at www.tourdewakatipu.co.nz

Chard Farm cycle/walkway trail - update on progress

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:40:22 +1300

Those of you passing by the Farm recently will have noticed progress with the Arrowtown – Gibbston leg of the new cycle/walkway trail. It goes right past Chard Farm on the other side of the road and incorporates 4 gorgeous suspension bridges. The most impressive by far is the Edgar bridge, crossing the Arrow river just before it meets the Kawarau River opposite Chard Farm. It’s a monster 80m wide and 60m high. We can’t wait to have it up and running in September this year – bring it on….

the summiting of lola!

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:11:07 +1300

A strange thing happened the other day at the Farm. Some guys pulled up in the car park and pulled out some fancy climbing gear, crampons, belay ropes, helmets, ice axes etc. They wandered into the tasting room and requested a drink and information on the best route to scale Lola! Greg Thurlow and Colin Rolfe were super impressed with Lola when visiting recently. They decided to return and be the first to summit her. No oxygen was required for the successful attempt and I’m sure we saw Lola blushing a bit.

cellar door hedgehogs?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:34:05 +1300

We all know most wineries have a resident cellar door dog - recently there was even a book published on that very subject. How many wineries can lay claim though to having a cellar door hedgehog? We have a very friendly baby hedgehog here by the name of Harry, who is often seen greeting customers as they come up our path to the tasting room. He is only the size of a lemon, but doesn’t seem intimidated at all by people and even visits the scary Lola at least twice a day!

It takes a lot of beer to make good wine!

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:33:26 +1300

Chard Farm’s winemaker John Wallace cleaned up at the controversial local Lake Hayes A&P show beer brewing competition. John won gold and homebrew best of class for his CCCP Pilsner. The competition made national and even international headlines when local lass – Rachael Beer (yes true name, I kid you not!) was refused entry because she was of the wrong sex (again I kid you not!).

We've got a winner!

Baseball - Mt Ted vs Chard Farm

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:42:00 +1300

Although it wasn’t quite “live on Skysport” quality, the 2^nd annual Mt Edward Red Sox vs Chard Farm Tigers Baseball challenge has just been held. Hosted by Mt Edward in their own backyard arena, it was a hard fought game, with all rules thrown out the window - in fact some new rules were invented as we went along. Yoshi and a few others from Mt Edward had been secretly practicing but despite that, they were soon dispatched.

Chard Farm’s John Wallace, Mt Ed’s Duncan Forsyth (looking intimidating!), Austin Black and Matt (The Enforcer) Groves – both from the Chard Farm Tigers

Chard Farm does Millbrook

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:59:28 +1300

We had a great staff Christmas party the other day. We all descended on Millbrook Resort for a round of Ambrose golf, followed by a party at the 19^th hole! Some appalling golf was played, self included, although there were some rare flashes of brilliance. Brock Campbell and Gerdi Schumann partnered and managed to birdie the last 2 holes!

A highlight of the evening was the venison sausages supplied by Brock, who only days before managed to bag a deer in the hills above Chard Farm. Nice one Brock…..

[Brock and Gerdi, with Austin (crazy Irishman) putting]

Chard Farm Long Lunch

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:20:04 +1300

We just had the inaugural Long Lunch at Arrowtown, sponsored by Chard Farm. A table was set up running the whole length of the main street in Arrowtown, with eight local Restaurants supplying fantastic fare for 300 people and Chard Farm supplying the wine. It was a great event and even turned into a “very long lunch” for some who stayed well into the night!

Jean Hay - the Chard Farm Matriarch turns 80

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:11:40 +1300

We had a great dinner in the Chard Farm barrel cellar recently. The occasion was the 80^th birthday of our Matriarch - Jean Hay. Jean has been very involved in the development of Chard Farm, right from the very beginning in 1986, when she and her friend Merl Hyland planted the original vine nursery on the farm. Go Grannie Jean…..you are an inspiration to us all.

a close encounter with lola

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:15:00 +1300

We had some guys visiting recently who fell in love with our Lola. So much so that they decided to photograph themselves with Lola in the classic Lola pose, but sans clothes! They are the winners of the latest Magnum.

Here is their email…

"Dear Chard Farm.

The 5 of us visited in August and really enjoyed the wine tasting (and the quality yarn!). We've been a bit slow but here is our photo with Lola for the competition. She's a great bird. So much so that we thought she deserved a poem to go with the photo (see below).

Look forward to seeing you again, we'll definitely come back and buy some more delicious wine soon!

Thanks

Josh, John, Andy, Matt & Hunter

The legend went round
For hundreds of years,
Before finding its way
To our innocent ears

Of a wild wicker woman,
With her devilsh phantoms,
Who'd lure in young men
For the size of their "magnums".

So we rose to the challenge
"Onward to Chard Farm!"
Taking only our wits
And relying on charm

We approached with much fear
With not a squeak nor a shout,
When before we could stop it
All our magnums popped out!

Then she screeched "I am Lola!"
"And you'll do as I do!"
So we all struck her pose,
In the nude, two by two.

As we slowly shrugged off
The effects of her spell
We scurried off home
With this tale to tell

No matter how tough
Or how sly you might be
You are simply no match
For that wicker banshee

And if there's one thing to learn
From our treacherous time
It's the lengths young men'll go
For a magnum of wine. "

the passing of an era - Eric Chard 1929 - 2011

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:13:52 +1300

It is with sadness I report the death of Eric Chard recently. Eric was the sole remaining Chard, as grandson of Richard Chard who emigrated to New Zealand in 1885. Richard established Chard Farm as a market garden to supply the local goldminers initially and in later years the farm was converted to cropping and dairying. I have fond memories of Eric occasionally driving out to the farm in his old Morris Minor panel van, dressed up with a tie for the occasion and showing off the place to some cousins. Eric was a true gentleman and a devout Christian of the Salvation Army faith. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. A lovely man. Rest in peace Eric.

curling on the farm

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:01:52 +1200

Chard Farm vs Mt Edward annual curling competition

We had our annual curling competition at the Arrowtown curling club a few days ago. It’s a secret location and club like setup, invitation only. We understand there are also strange handshakes and initiation rituals (we did notice a goat tied up the back!). As for the results, we can only say that although Mt Edward make some great wine, they are hopeless curlers – final result CF 14 – Mt Ted 8. We also brought along our own in house produced brandys for a “brandy off” – that was closer and in the end a draw was given.

snow time, big time!

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:49:11 +1200

In line with previous reports, our unusual season continues - we have just had a record snowfall ! The whole country was hit by a very unusually strong Antarctic blast that persisted for 3 – 4 days in August. Airports and schools were closed and even Lola froze. We haven’t slowed up though, the Aussies are here for the skiing and have taken a liking to our wine. The cellar door has been flat out keeping up, especially when the inclement weather closes the skifields for the day. The wines are looking good and we have just bottled the first of the 2011’s – the Sauvignon Blanc. John managed to get a beer brew underway as well - an Indian Pale Ale. As the saying goes, “It takes a lot of beer to make good wine”.

Ariel Eberle, "they said I'd get all the good jobs!"

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:49:40 +1200

We had a kind of a weird vintage in 2011. A season of two halves! Super hot in the months leading up to Christmas and then generally cool and damp right through to harvest. A very mixed bag and not without problems. The hot and dry conditions pre Christmas proved ideal for powdery mildew and then the cool wettish conditions post Christmas resulted in some botrytis pressure in Central – previously almost unheard of! Our poor vineyard team were under serious pressure as the normally benign Central Otago summer threw these curved balls. The resultant wines look pretty good at this early stage, but the Jury is still out re the 2011 vintage quality. We had a great vintage crew though – Dave from Australia, Abby from NZ and Ariel from America, shown here cleaning out one of the pinot fermenters

Austin Black, "where did I put the wine?"

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:21:10 +1200

We are quietly getting the white wines from the 2011 vintage ready for bottling. Austin Black - the crazy Irishman aka “the cellar monk” has been flat out getting the wines off their “spent” lees (dead yeast) and clarifying and stabilizing the wines before bottling. We have just had another weird weather spell – this time we had an unseasonally warm start to winter with no snow until early July. Skifields had delayed openings of 6 to 8 weeks! We seem to be lurching from one strange weather event to the next this season, no doubt linked to the very strong El Nino weather pattern upon us.