Interview with Bronwyn Skuse

Sales & Events Manager Man O’ War Vineyards Waiheke Island in New Zealand

What is your favorite savoury food paired with your Dreadnought Syrah’08 wine? New Zealand Beef Stew

What is your favorite savoury food paired with your Man O’ War Sauvignon Blanc wine ? The local Waiheke Island oysters www.tematukubayoysters.co.nz which are the best Oysters ever.

What is your favorite dessert paired with your Ponui Island Pinot Gris 2009 wine? A classic New Zealand Pavlova or my mum’s apply pie with a glass of Man O’ War Valhalla Chardonnay.

Which are your favorite wine festivals in the world? And why? I haven’t been to many and after Vancouver I may change my mind but I love The Kapalua Food and Wine Festival (Maui, Hawaii) – winemakers come from all around the world, local restaurants get involved and there are fabulous seminars with Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers. Fred Dame hosts the festival held at the Ritz Carlton, it’s a magical location, a little like Vancouver!

How long have you been involved in the wine industry? I sort of fell into the wine industry by accident 4 years ago and I’m stuck! I have always been passionate about wine.

What do you most love about the wine industry? What’s not to love…Fabulous food, fabulous wine and fabulous people with incredible stories to tell. It’s the best industry in the world.

How would you describe the New Zealand wine industry? Watch this space…ever evolving, dynamic and exciting.

There are many exciting emerging wine regions, there are many great stories and the industry is heading down the clean and green and sustainable road. Try Sauvignon Blanc from other regions in New Zealand, try a Waiheke Island or Hawkes Bay Bordeaux Blend or Syrah. New Zealand Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris.. we are doing all of these varieties very well!

Where do like to go for wine travel? Why? I love France, I love the French people, the language, the food and of course the wine – French people have such passion. I love to discover new wine regions, last year I went to the Walla Walla wine festival in Washington and met the most fabulous people, and had many wonderful wines! Great restaurants in Walla Walla too!

What is your philosophy on food and wine? Good wine, good food and good people, one is not quite the same without the other.

Any comments you would like to add/make in relation to the state of the wine industry in New Zealand or globally? Yes, be adventurous – New Zealand makes fabulous Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noirs, Riesling and is making a huge splash at the moment with Bordeaux Blends and Syrah.

How did you get involved in the Wine Industry? Living in Sydney, Australia I had a fashion label, decided to study wine, did my sommelier certificate, WSET and was always a foodie eating out often. I ended up launching a boutique winery in Sydney, ended up doing a bit of work for a fine wine distributor in Sydney and things spiraled from there. I joined Man O’ War as the Sales/Export Manager and sold my fashion label last year.

I love working for an incredible emerging wine region like Waiheke Island, I love watching people taste our wines and the look of surprise on their face when they realize we make world class wines there!

By: Richard Wolak

http://tasteandsipmagazine.com/2010/04/24/interview-with-bronwyn-skuse/

Man O' War visits Vasa museum

Before leaving Stockholm Man O’ War visited the harbor-front Vasa museum which contains the world’s only surviving 17^th century warship. The Vasa was among a series of new warships ordered by King Gustavus Adolphus in 1625 to establish a strong navy for the burgeoning Swedish Empire.

The Vasa was built to be the jewel in the crown of the Swedish Navy and be the mightiest warship in the world, armed with 64 guns on two gundecks. On Sunday the 10^th of August 1628 the Vasa was ready for her maiden voyage. She set sail and fired a salute, but after only a few minutes of sailing she began to heel over and ship water. And then in a disaster of epic proportions the glorious and mighty Vasa suddenly sank having never enjoyed the heat of battle nor the taste of an enemy’s hot lead!

In 1956 after many years of effort shipwreck-specialist Anders Franzén finally found the Vasa and quickly found support to raise and salvage her. Five years later on the 24^th of April 1961, the royal warship Vasa broke the surface of Stockholm’s harbor after 333 years on the sea bottom. Initially housed in a temporary museum, the Vasa was moved to her purpose specially built museum in 1990 to preserve her properly. To this day she remains the largest single object in the world that has ever been preserved.

Man O’ War raises a glass of sublime 2008 Valhalla Chardonnay to the Vasa as we leave Stockholm on a beautiful summer’s day. Next stop Åland Islands. Skål, B

Man O' War arrives in Stokholm

Man O’ War recently arrived in Stockholm after a great sail across the North Sea from the UK. While in town we wanted to catch up with Simon and Calle of Concealed Wines (www.concealedwines.com ) who are bringing Man O’ War wine to Sweden.

With impeccable timing we arrived in Stockholm just in time for the biggest party of the year…Midsommers. By chance Simon invited us to stop by a Midsommers party on the island of Ljusterö in the Stockholm Archipelago. Never one to turn down a good invitation we decided to drop in while exploring the Archipelago. Luckily we had a couple of bottles of 2007 Ironclad and the recently bottled 2008 Valhalla rolling around in the boot; and so bearing appropriate gifts we touched down at the party in a field at the water’s edge. What an amazing location, we have some great islands in NZ but Sweden has so many.

We had a great afternoon stop with some spectacular herring, good coffee and great people. Given that we still had to “get behind the wheel” we had to avoid the schnapps…flying can be such a cruel and unforgiving mistress! It looked like it was turning into a great party, and we are really looking forward to coming back to Stockholm soon. Skål, B

The blue skies of Tokyo

Another airport, another bus, another hotel… but many amazing people! Welcome to the blue skies of Tokyo, after 10 days of haze arriving in Tokyo was a blessing. Kicking around with Christian & Eric (long time supporters of Man O’ War and brilliant brand ambassadors in Japan) we meet some of Japan’s hospitality elite. First up a cheeky little Italian dinner, complete with a bottle of vintage Man O' War Merlot stored lovingly at the Caraggio.

Thursday brought on the NZ Wine show. It was huge! 500 people came through for a trade tasting, many media and sommeliers. Thankfully the gods were looking after me and Yoshito Shichiji to help for the day. His palate was amazing and very quickly he understood what we were all about and helped to tell the Man O’ War story to everyone who came by.
With an hour break we had another 400 consumers come through hosted by Air NZ, they were thirsty for both knowledge & great NZ wine. Many expats (including a few lawyers) enjoyed a touch of home and some good old kiwi slang.

Ready for a beer, Mike from Prophets Rock, John from Vinoptima and I headed to Murase Wine & Cheese

www.wine-murase.com a Mecca for New Zealand wines. Kenichi Murase the owner has fallen in love with NZ and has an extraordinary wine list, many pictures and maps from NZ, including one of Man O’ War! So look out as soon as we have stock landed in Japan.

My remaining time in this amazing city was meeting and tasting with some of Christian & Eric’s friends and restaurant owner clients. Had an amazing tasting with the T.Y. Express group, almost Tokyo’s equivalent of the Nourish Group but much nicer. Shimpei Terada the President, Kazuaki Takanari the Wine Director, and David Chiddo Vice President slurped their way through our range and were particularly impressed with Ironclad, Valhalla & Dreadnought. So we are hoping to have a home on their amazing wine list soon.

We also attended the opening of Factory, a new bakery opened by Sei & Aki Matsuura

www.factory-kudan.com who also own some great restaurants in the heart of Tokyo. My last supper in Tokyo was surrounded by new friends at a brilliant Spanish tapas restaurant, Bikini (yes I did eat some traditional Japanese food) which is part of the Four Seeds group www.four-seeds.co.jp Talking through Man O’ War and planning the next trip (including a cup of tea with David). It is a beautiful city, with charming people and great hospitality!

One must go home, it’s been a great trip and we have met some wonderful people and made so many new friends for Man O’ War. I am looking forward to seeing the team back at HQ, my own bed, cheese on toast, and ‘vegging out’ in front of the TV, plus not having to lug around 7 pieces of luggage! But we will be back and we very much look forward to it.
Sara

LIWF 09

Kia Ora from London, England!

The 2009 London International Wine Fair

is over, we had amazing interest in

Man O’ War, the wines and what we

are all about.

Over the course of the 3 days, we scanned over 300 people (hopefully not

brainwashing them), making some amazing new friends and learnt a lot about the markets in UK, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Ireland, South Africa and even Canada. Many were from great retail outlets like Oddbins and Majestic, smaller independents like Thos Peatling Fine Wines and the Wig & Mitre group. We had a great catch up with Sam from Wine Thief, a brilliant online NZ wine store, who placed our first order with Ironclad. To be served at a function at New Zealand house at the end of May. Quite a few hotels came through and some buyers from British Airways, so a great way to meet the full spectrum of every type of establishment selling wine.

We were between Gary & Martin from Babich and Neil who was on the NZ Winegrowers stand showing great wines from Maven, Archangel and Judge Rock, and a great help at introducing Man O’ War to many punters at the show. Thank you Neil (on the left sans hat)!

The Man O’ War Sauvignon Blanc, Valhalla Chardonnay, Man O’ War Merlot Cabernet Franc, Dreadnought Syrah and Ironclad were huge hits! As was the new Man O’ War DVD, so many want to now visit Waiheke Island and New Zealand.

The team at NZ Winegrowers were brilliant, the stand looked amazing and many friends from other ‘large companies’ commented that the New Zealand stand was one of the busiest at the show.

There were some spectacular stands; favourites include McGuigan who had planted vines, who would have thought in the middle of London, England!

This week I am catching up with some potential distributors in UK and Spain, off to Madrid for a day on Wednesday, (so foreign for us Kiwis), and then heading to Hong Kong for the second leg of the trip. It’s been amazing to be in London, England. It astonishes me how far the New Zealand Wine industry has come, when you see 3 bays of New Zealand wine in Harrods. They really do love us over here. Yesterday an article came out that NZ bucks the trend in the UK market and is in growth and at a higher price point! (see blog below)

Until next time,
Sara

Man O' War review in Australian Gourmet Pages May 09

Australian Gourmet Pages Newsletter News & Views May 2009


Man O'War - Wine of New Zealand
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By Franz Scheurer
Captain Cook is responsible for naming the Man O'War station on Waiheke Island (off Auckland), as this is where he cut the tall Kauri trees to be used as masts on his Man O'War sailing ships. The Spencer family planted the first grapes on the Man O'War station some fifteen years ago on the sheltered, and incredibly steep, north facing slopes. Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf is a rugged and beautiful place and the Man O'War farm encompasses an olive grove, a sheep and cattle farm and of course a vineyard and their wines are astonishingly good.

I had the chance to try all of their current releases over the last few days and I'm happy to share my latest 'discovery' with you. One of the points of difference is the fact that they work with a soil type that is unique to Waiheke Island. It is called stony batter clay loam and it contributes largely to the otherwise coastal terroir. This is reflected in their wines and adds an interesting dimension to their texture.

There are two tiers of wines, black labels and white labels. In the black label series there's the Gravestone Sauvignon Blanc, Valhalla Chardonnay, Ironclad Bordeaux Red and the Dreadnought Syrah. In the white label series you find the Man O'War Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Merlot Cabernet and Syrah. Let me tell you right now that every single wine is worth drinking. All of them are above average in quality and well worth seeking out. There are a couple of standouts:

The first outstanding wine is the Man O'War Valhalla Chardonnay 2007 and I'd be happy to compare this with any New World Chardonnay on the market. It is simply fantastic. Hand harvested, whole bunch pressed, cold settled, fermented in old French oak barrels and matured for 10 months. This is a rich, bold Chardonnay, definitely New World, but not oak dominated. It is golden in colour, bottled at a whopping 14.5% a/v but remains an elegant wine. With a grapefruit and honeydew nose, it confirms the citrus aromas on the palate and caresses the entire inside of your mouth with a creamy texture that is immediately alluring. It finishes long and perfectly balanced. Although there is still quite a bit of acidity present it never interferes with the balance of this wine and I expect this to get better for almost a decade.Fantastic wine!

The second outstanding wine is the Man O'War Dreadnought Syrah 2007. The fruit for this wine is harvested from the steepest and hottest vineyard sites, destemmed, open fermented, plunged throughout fermentation and the skins are left even after the fermentation has finished. This is a wine for lovers of 'dark aromas and flavours'. Although red berry fruit is there, this is a savoury, spicy wine with lots of 'forest floor' aromas. It is an 'in your face' wine that is eminently drinkable now but shows all the signs that make a great, aged wine. If you have the patience, leave it for at least a decade and it will reward you with one of the best, integrated and balanced wines I can imagine.

Both the above wines are a must in any wine lovers cellar. They are distributed in Australia, so it is possible to find then. Otherwise contact the winery direct on: +64 9 303 9677 or by e-mailA special thanks for Bronwyn Skuse for introducing me to these wonderful wines. I can't thank you enough!
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