Kiwi blossom to 4 seasons in UK & Europe

After a successful trip around NZ with Eurowine team, I boarded a big Air NZ plane to London England for 6 week tour of duty around UK, Mainland Europe & Asia.

1^st Stop London, where we met and confirmed our entire ranging with Shore Solutions who service luxury yatchs here. Next day we had the Stokes Fine Wine Trade day, with huge response from the trade and media there. Had lovely tasting with Steven Spurrier from Decanter (watch this space….!!!!) and Rosemary George MW who is coming to visit on her trip to NZ at the end of the month for Marlborough Wine Weekend. Ironclad 08 & MOW Pinot Gris 08 favourites on the day. Also dropped off some Valhalla 08 flown in by yours truly for Roka restaurant, as UK out of stock until end November. Roka such a great restaurant, MOW Syrah 08 available by the glass there in November.

Quick visit to Apsley Estate, The Old Garage, and home of Stokes Fine Wines to discuss our exciting program for 2010!!! Watch out UK… here we come.

Next stop chilly Stockholm to see Simon & Calle from Concealed Wines. We had a fantastic day in the trade visiting some of the best spots to eat & drink, especially Restaurant Hälsingborg, Olle looked after us, brilliant concept, choice of Forrest, Ocean and/or Farm set menu, with MOW Chardonnay matched with Farm entrée. Will definitely be back next time!

Then snowy Munich, where Florian & Thomas from Wine In Motion, looked after me very well, introducing me to the delights of a Bavarian breakfast. We finalised our distribution with them. First order on its way to Munich as we speak. Great opportunity here, and an amazing portfolio to be apart of!

Finally some sun, in Madrid, where we caught up with Cesar from Winetipodes, and discovered the culinary delights of Spain while looking for opportunities for MOW here. Wine is in Spain, but await our customs friends to clear it through, going into some of the great restaurants here and we already have some friends at the American Women’s Club eagerly awaiting delivery. Was lovely to see the sun!

Headed around the coast to Cannes, France for the Tax Free & Duty Free Show, where we snuck onto the Bardinet stand, courtesy of Jeremy Belcher our dear friend from Bordeaux. We showed MOW wines and were 1 of 3 NZ brands there. Most people very intrigued about us and New Zealand. Had a wonderful time with Gun & Sophie from Finland, who are helping us to get our wines in ferry’s, on planes and into stores there.

From Cannes, I flew across country to Nantes to meet with Jerome & Catherine at Les Celliers d’Asie, who is an amazing distributor in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos with head office in France. We tasted the MOW Range, Ironclad, Dreadnought & MOW Chardonnay hits of the tasting. Will be launching with them early next year. Exciting stuff!

Returned to London, exhausted but buzzing with excitement of seeing MOW in some wonderful places in Europe and planning for an exciting next year. Last week in London, we caught up with Pierre from Wine Society, met the delightful Mel from The Providores, Dreadnought available now on the wine list, Noel Young at Noel Young Wines, Charlotte & Sarah from NZ Winegrowers, in store tasting at Harvey Nicholls with Jeremy & the team. MOW Ironclad & MOW Syrah on shelf and flying out now. Finally this morning, breakfast with the charming Alessandro from Zuma & Roka. Valhalla back on the list in December, MOW Syrah going on next week.

Next stop Singapore Wine Show, looking forward to seeing Kate & the team there.

Salute, Prost, Salud, Skål, Santé, Cheers!

Sara

September round up…

What a busy time we have had during September at Man O’ War!

We have been travelling the globe and New Zealand, spreading the good Man O’ War word, making so many new friends along the way and catching up with old ones.

This is what we have been up to in September:

Duncan & Berridge launched in the UK with our amazing distributors Stokes Fine Wines, with an open tasting & master class held at Smiths of Smithfield, the response we have had was amazing from media and customers. Duncan completed a week tour of London tasting, meeting and training new customers for Man O’ War.

Matt & Sara travelled New Zealand on the Eurowine road show, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown. Over 400 trade attended and the same with consumers. We launched Man O’ War Rose 09, the raspberry k-bar was a hit around the country. The best drink for summer.

Bron, Tina, Jen & Glenn have been very busy organising our summer activities at Man O’ War Bay… more to come on this very soon.

We have joined in a partnership with Stolen Girlfriends Club to be their official wine partner, and presented our wines at both New Zealand Fashion week and London Fashion week with them. A huge turnout in Auckland, over 500 people sipped their way through Man O’ War wines.

Duncan had a quick trip to Oz to attend the DWS trade day in Sydney. Again a wonderful response to our wines and so great to catch up with many loyal customers.

Back on the continent, Man O’ War wines was poured at an exclusive function at the Monaco Yatch Show, to many influential captains & stewards of luxury super yatchs. Look out on board next summer!

We have also been planning & organising our next world trips, Bron back to the US and Sara to UK, Mainland Europe and then off to the Singapore & Hong Kong Wine shows. Follow us on our next journey.

Thanks for all your support & interest to date.

MOW HQ

Man O’ War to launch in Britain

Man O’ War will launch in the United Kingdom in September, teaming up with boutique wine distributor Stokes Fine Wines.

Stokes only represents winemakers who are passionate about making handcrafted wines, searching out those of the highest quality with bags of character; wines that speak of the place they are from and the people who make it. Man O’ War is family owned and all estate grown, found at the eastern end of Waiheke Island, New Zealand. The vineyards are a stunning spread of coastal hillsides — 150 acres of vines spread over 90 individual parcels selected specifically for their terroir and microclimate. It’s this attention to detail that produces such individual wines.

This obsession with quality and individuality means its wines find their way onto some of the best British wine shelves — including Harvey Nichols. Naturally, Man O’ War is thrilled to be able to provide knowledgeable British palates with the best Waiheke Island has to offer.

Stokes’ Sales and Marketing Manager, Justin Liddle, says: “I am delighted to be working with Man O’ War Vineyards in the UK, a really outstanding producer that shares our philosophy for having fun while achieving well-planned and executed success. Man O’ War is at the start of a very exciting adventure which I am so pleased to be part of and look forward to developing a long-standing partnership.”

Man O’ War’s winemaker Duncan McTavish will be attending the launch, at ‘Smiths’ of Smithfield on Tuesday 8th September 2009, with the owners of Man O’ War.

Sneak Peak in UK

100 lucky people had a sneak preview of our Man O’ War wines, Pinot Gris 2008, Syrah 2008, Merlot Cabernet 2008 last week with Toby Hope (above) from Wig and Mitre in Lincoln, UK. Toby has been a huge supporter of our wines since he first met us at the London International Wine Fair in May and even introduced us to our new importer, Stokes Fine Wines. We look forward to catching up with everyone in September when Duncan & Sara head to the UK to launch. More details to come soon!

Man O’ War recently arrived in Southampton

Man O’ War recently arrived in Southampton and headed up to Stokes Fine Wines (www.stokesfinewines.com) near Andover in Hampshire to present our wines. We met with Tim, Justin and Nick in their office which is a converted barn in the corner of Apsley Estate. Really cool office and even cooler guys. Had a great visit and the wines showed well; so we are hopefully looking forward to Stokes and Man O’ War forging a great and successful partnership in the UK.

Unfortunately I left my pen (a pretty rare Bic!!!) at their offices and Justin emailed me and offered to mail it back to me. Fearing that without appropriate writing instruments all would be lost, we made alternative arrangements…..so today as Man O’ War was flying from Southampton to Dartmouth (where our Grandfather attended the Britannia Royal Naval College in WWI to train for the Royal Navy) via Oxford we dropped in at Lears Farm in Somerset to pick up the aforementioned wayward pen.

Lear Farm Air Traffic Control Director Jack.

Lears Farm is owned by Melody and John, who cut a landing strip in their field for us and had Jack direct us in as Air Traffic Control with great aplomb. The Somerset scenery was magnificent as was the hospitality at Lears Farm. We had a great cuppa and greatly enjoyed shooting the breeze with Justin, Margo, John, Melody and all the kids. Great pit stop… thank you. We are looking forward to heading back to Somerset soon to hang out and share some great wine and food with everyone we met. Cheers, B

Dartmouth with Britannia Royal Naval College in foreground.

Man O' War on its way to Southampton

Man O’ War has left the “Rock of Gibraltar” and is heading for Southampton (where we are going to catch up with Stokes Fine Wines in Hampshire) en route to the Baltic. We are running along in a sturdy 40 knots and the rolling Atlantic swell off the coast of Spain. In this patch of ocean, a few miles offshore between the port of Cadiz and the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar, the supremacy of the Royal Navy was stamped indelibly on the history of the 19th century. When during a single terrible afternoon in October 1805, twenty-seven Man O’ War sailing ships commanded by Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson annihilated a combined French and Spanish fleet of thirty-three ships-of-the-line under the French Admiral Pierre Villeneuve. The nearest map reference, a remote coastal bay called Trafalgar, was to give the battle its name. Much like Man O’ War Bay gives it name to our vineyards and wine. In honour of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar we have decided to name the latest addition to our black label range, a spectacular 2009 Viognier, “Victory” after Nelson’s flagship the H.M.S Victory. B