Man O’ War Crew celebrate end of financial!

Rustle me up a Shetland Pony will you?

Man O’ War recently arrived in the Shetlands from Norway on leg two of this summer’s quest to navigate the North West Passage with a couple of requests to bring a Shetland Pony or two back to NZ.

Despite being pretty sure that we didn’t really want to abscond anywhere with a miniature Pony, we thought what the hell and went off in search of a couple of stray ones to bring home. Having snuck up on a pretty suitable looking candidate for potential relocation to fairer climes we were unfortunately foiled at the last minute by the arrival of the Shetland Islands Search and Rescue chopper and had to beat a hasty retreat back to the boat. Leaving afore mentioned miniature pony behind, dammit!

Luckily our escape was covered by a fog bank rolling in from the North Sea and as such we figured we had covered our tracks and made our escape pretty well. And that we thought was pretty much that, and would be the last we would hear of this unfortunate incident.

So the next day in glorious sunshine and in good spirit and clear conscience we left the Shetlands enroute to the Faroe Islands our next port of call.

But no further than a couple of miles off shore we heard the ominous beats of a chopper in hot pursuit. Sure enough the Search and Rescuse chopper had tracked us down and in no time were swinging an officer on board in an epically well executed maneuver.

After a quick look around and satisfied that there were no illicit Ponies on board the office bade us a friendly farewell, happily accompanied with a couple of bottles of Man O’ War’s finest drop for his troubles. All’s well that ends well!

The Eden Park Ambush

I have so much wanted to write something sooner but alas my third job of amateur sports journalist falls far behind that of my first and second, Dad and Vineyard manager. Slightly off topic for our wine blog but we love everything kiwi and none more so than our world famous All Blacks.

But what a test match last Saturday night; who would have expected the All Blacks to come out and drill the Springbok’s in such devastating fashion. This wasn’t Champagne rugby; this was single malt from a brown paper bag stuff, take a swig and get back to the front line with your mates and smash ‘em again.

For the last few days I’ve been running parts of the match back through in my head with so many highlights. Like Mill’s Muliaina roaring up the middle of the pitch like he had been shot out of a canon. Richie McCaw at his devastating best, scavenging the pill at every opportunity and leading from the front like so many great All Black captains have in the past. Owen Franks at tight head was a mirror of the great Ollo Brown, his perfect technique ensuring his pack behind him was only ever going to go forward. And surely this was Tom Donnelly’s finest 80 minutes to date. The list could go on for all 15.......

And what about Jimmy Cowan, finally he has learned to control himself and has now gone from the nigglee to the niggler. His little shirt pull on Bakkies Botha lowering the man to a cowardly head-butt and in doing so got himself a flight home in time to watch the football world cup final in his home town.

The mighty Springbok’s had no answer to the pace, passion and aggression of the All Black ambush. The predictable aerial attack didn’t work, their fail safe lineout followed by energy sapping rolling mauls didn’t either, and there was no plan B. There was an arrogance about the Springbok’s that they only had to lace up their boots to win; not on our patch fella’s, not at Eden Park.

I was watching the match from the comfort of my lounge; a couple of times I found myself standing on the sofa doing Tiger like fist pumps to the bewilderment of my 7 year old daughter who was allowed to stay up and watch the whole match for the first time. I hope the sight of her father acting like he had just scored the four tries on the hollowed turf hasn’t embarrassed her so much she won’t want to stay up with me again.

I had a phone call shortly after the match from a very good friend of mine who had taken his boys to their very first test match (A truly memorable moment for all the fathers and sons that have done this for over 100 years). Highlighting the atmosphere at the ground he reported that midway through the second half his 6 year old was slapping the backs of grown men in the seats in front in a fashion traditionally reserved for seasoned veterans. Priceless.

A sobering word of warning however; we need to lock that game up now and get feet very much back on terra firma. The Bok’s will be hurting; they will only need to replay their own faces walking off Eden Park last week to draw motivation. Their battered bodies will be healing and their think tank planning.

Wellington is going to be epic.
Matt.

The quest for the North West Passage begins

Man O’ War has begun our mission to conquer the NW Passage this Northern Summer. We have a hold full of Man O’ War wine, our wooly hats and various armaments to fend off Polar Bears or whatever else might take a fancy to us. Unfortunately due to a logistical error (note to self…probably should of put it on the boat rather than put an outboard on it) our trusty Hi-Lux couldn’t make it so we can’t retrace the tyre tracks of those intrepid Arctic explorers Clarkson and May and drive to the North Pole…next time perhaps. Currently we are in Norway on the first leg of this adventure which will take us to the Shetland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, around the top of Canada (as close to the North Pole as global warming will allow) to Alaska, down the coast of British Columbia to Seattle, where all going well we will catch up with Dunc and Bronny who will be presenting Man O’ War to the Washington State market with Andy from Young’s Columbia.

Kicking off in Norway we took the chance to go ashore and visit the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo on a great Scandinavian summer’s day. Our great friend Glen guided us through the Museum to see three of world’s best preserved wooden Viking Longships. The most fearsome “Man O’ Wars” of their time. One of the ships, the Oseberg, was built in the early part of the 9th Century and was used as a sailing vessel for many years before it was used a burial ship for a woman of high rank who died in 834 AD. As was traditional she was placed in the burial chamber in the aft section of the ship along with her most valuable possessions and the body of another women for a bit of company in the afterlife, who was in all likelihood a servant who had been sacrificed to join her boss in the afterlife. How do you sign up for that in your employment contract?!?!?



Glen explained that the Oseberg ship was excavated next to the town of Tonsberg in 1905, and as a proud resident of Tonsberg (an awesome little town at the opening of the Oslo Fiord) he felt it should have been put in a museum there. So that night while having a bit of a debrief and after a couple of glasses of Man O’ War Valhalla Chardonnay with Glen (one of the greatest white wines in the world according to him) and his lovely wife Marit, we formulated all sorts of cunning plans to return the Oseberg ship to Tonsberg at a yet to be determined future date……watch this space for futher details!

The Man O' War Forward Pack

Just back from a mornings fishing on a stunning Waiheke day and starting to get fired up for the All Blacks VS Springboks rugby test match tonight at Eden Park.

With dinner sorted (fresh snapper with mussel fritters) very soon I will be pondering over which wine to have with it......unfortunately I won't have to ponder long as my little wee tiny cellar is looking a bit like mother Hubbard's cupboard, but I'm sure I'll find something that will suffice.

Whilst thinking about the wine and rugby I had a stab at putting together what would be my Man O' War forward pack. I'm sure there are plenty of arm chair selectors out there that are going to disagree.....great, let me hear it and have a crack yourself.

At,
1. Loose Head Prop - Man O' War Syrah - Youthful and full of energy yet with unexpected power when the heat comes on.

2. Hooker - Man O' War Chardonnay - Proven and reliable. Not a risk taker but solid.

3. Tight Head Prop - Ironclad - Grunty, Grizzly and The Rock. Masses of power worn proudly on the sleeve.

4. Lock (loose head side) - Man O' War Bordeaux Blend - Ballsy, Up front and with a schoolboy like charm, in your face. A worker but with flare.

5. Lock (tight head side) - Valhalla - Dependable, solidifies the whole scrum, tireless workhorse and your "go to" man.

6. Blind Side Flanker - Pinot Gris - A bit "out there", no time for self preservation. What you see is what you get and always delivers.

7. Open Side Flanker - Man O' War Sauvignon Blanc - Zippy, racy, always first to the breakdown and BBQ. Usually a bit sweaty.

8. Number 8 - Dreadnought - Power off the back of the scrum, but this isn't just a place for mussel. Intelligence required.

So there it is, the Man O' War Vineyards Forward Pack of 2010, my version anyway, whats yours?

Enjoy the game tonight and the rest of the tri-nations.
Matt.

Double GOLD for Man O’ War Dreadnought 2008 from Decanter Wine Awards & International Wine Challenge 2010

Dreadnought Syrah, one of Man O’ War’s flagship wines, has received GOLD in two of the world’s most prestigious wine competitions, ‘Decanter Wine Awards’ and the ‘International Wine Challenge’. To add further kudos to this achievement, only 5 New Zealand wineries received Gold in both awards and Man O’ War Dreadnought was the only Waiheke wine to receive Gold in both.

Increasingly competitive, both competitions hit record numbers this year. The International Wine Challenge received submissions from 46 wine producing countries whilst Decanter hit 10,983 entries, sealing its position as the world’s biggest international wine competition, with only 2.8% of wines winning a coveted Gold or Regional Trophy!

Man O’ War’s vineyard manager Matt Allen says, “The whole team is on a real high following the results and its great reward for everyone involved, knowing firsthand the hard yards required for such recognition.

2008 was a truly amazing vintage to be a part of and the awards are further endorsement that wines produced from little old Waiheke can stand proud on a world stage.”

The Best Yet

Given it's been nearly a month since anyone updated our blog ( a sure sign that it's been a busy time for us) I thought I would. I guess out of all of us I have no excuse not to, now that harvest is a distant memory and Bronwyn and Sara are doing their thing on each side of the Atlantic. Duncan can be excused as he's pressing off the last of the 2010 harvest today so we'll have a hard job getting a) the smile off his face b) his bum on his office chair and c) later the Heiny out of his hand.

If the truth be known, as stunningly gorgeous as Bronwyn is, I was kind of getting over the photo of her from her previous blog so wanted to push it down the page a bit and replace it with....I don't know....maybe some awesome grapes!That's better.

Since harvest I have managed to reintroduce myself back to my family, even took them on a wee holiday around the North Island last week. Gracie now holds the new Allen family record of ice cream consumption in a given week and Brooklyn should have won an Oscar for the way that she covered up for putting the hole in the hotel wall in Rotorua. I have also managed to stop talking to people in grunts and haven't spat wine out on the kitchen floor forgetting I'm not at the winery for at least two weeks now.

I suppose my role here is to comment on the 2010 harvest...not much to report really other than the fact that it was BLOODY AWESOME. Big B will accuse me of turning into a wanky winemaker here who tend to get a bit excited and speak only in adjectives but words like, ripe, concentrated, clean, tannic, rich, balanced and delicious role off the tongue with relative ease. It truly was a spectacular vintage, the best I have ever been involved with.

But shit it was dry! Not that I would ever dream of whinging about dry weather over harvest but 6 months, yes 6 months, without any significant precipitation had all the cockies in the area looking skyward and scratching the tops of their heads through their oilskin hats the way that only farmers can. Check this photo of Ponui Island out and you'll see what I mean.

Not that it's never been dry here before, in fact more often than not it is over summer but this one will go down in the history books. If you think that the northern hemisphere has problems at the moment with ash clouds, give some thought to the pilots flying into Auckland International who were redirected out of our dust clouds made from trucks heading to the winery for two months. Twice I also had to kick rabbits off the bonnet of my ute as they were licking dew off my windsceen.

Harvest itself went really well and without any major incidents....didn't even have anyone throw any toys out of the cot at any stage which was a first. Everyone really pulled it together and worked brilliantly as a team alongside our contractors who worked equally as well.

In Man O' War tradition the harvest party took place this year at Casita Miro and in keeping with the theme of the venue the dress this year was Spanish.....there was some Zorro action a few flamenco dancers, a Spanish soccer striker, Seve Bellesteros and Freddy Mercury amongst others (what the hell Freddy's got to do with Spain I don't know but he got my vote for best dressed). A great night had.

So now that the parties over, and as I look out the window so is the drought, must be sure sign it's time to get the secateurs out for the pruning season. We need to get started soon as the 2011 vintage is due to hit the shed in 38 weeks.

Salud,

Matt.