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Newsletter

15th November 2011
A new season has started with mild and warm weather – we have passed the early spring frosts without any damage, and the vines look very healthy and energetic. The alex.gold pinot gris 2011 was bottled in July and last week received a Pure Gold Medal in the 2011 Air New Zealand Wine Awards. We have been very pleased with its early maturity.
Today the alex.gold pinot gris 2011 received a Silver Medal in the Australian Small Winemakers Competition. It received the Top mark out of the 37 Pinot Gris entered making it the top of its class.
The Davishon Pinot Noir 2010 received a Gold medal in the same competition. This was the only Pinot Noir (out of 66 entered) to receive a Gold medal and again was top of its class. We just missed the Champion Red Wine Trophy by half a point – a good achievement with 1800 wines entered from throughout Australia and New Zealand.
The Davishon Pinot Noir 2010 has also been awarded a Blue-Gold Award in the Sydney International Wine Awards 2012. It has also been placed in the Top 100, which puts it in the Top 5% of the 2000 wines entered from throughout the world. The trophy awards dinner is in Sydney on February 25th 2012, so we will look forward to that. The Davishon Pinot Noir 2010 earlier in the year picked up a Gold Medal in the Spiegelau International Wine Competition 2010
In October 2010, well respected wine writer Cameron Douglas was hosted around the Alexandra Basin wine region as part of the new vintage release event. On visiting the Davishon Vineyard, he “felt the wines had a delicious core of fruit, great acidity and balance with a lovely long finish.” He was intrigued by the way we trained our vines on the trellising system – the Geneva Double Curtain. He wondered “what connection if any there might be to the Geneva Double Curtain vine training or if it was the combination of hands on vine management, good clonal selection, great site or very good winemaking.” His article “Geneva Double Curtain” appears in the Wine Technology Magazine July 2011, and makes an interesting read.

Shona Garry, Alexandra Wine Company

Vintage News

14th May 2011:
The 2011 vintage has been harvested and the vineyard is in relaxed mode. Each year is different with the grapes ripening earlier than any vintage since 1997. The quality of the grapes was good but the wet weather during the last few weeks made more work essential.

Our Pinot Noir continues to go from strength to strength. Following on from the successful 2007 and 2008, the alex.gold pinot noir 2009 was yesterday awarded five stars and a Top Tip by Tizwines.com. The wine was described as "Dark and intense the overriding characteristic here is black cherries. They are prevalent on the nose and in the palate where they are joined savoury and spicy elements as well as silky tannins. The result is a rich, vibrant wine that goes on and on".

The 2009 alexgold pinot noir has already picked up gold medals at the 2011 Sydney International Wine Awards and the 2010 New Zealand International Wine Awards.

The Davishon 2010 Pinot Noir we have just released (early as it was just bottled in March 2011) In the Tizwine.com tasting it was given four stars and won the Consumers Choice Tasting. The wine was described as "Dark and dense in colour and fresh on the nose, this wine has plenty of spicy fruit with hints of tamarillo and herbs. The tannins are silky smooth whilst the acidity is bold, undoubtedly young but stacked full of potential, went down a treat in the consumers tasting too!"

We look forward to the wine improving futher as the year progresses.

This year we harvested a larger volume at our Pinot Gris planted in 2007. We look forward to a change of style this year with our new wine maker Pete Bartle suggesting a slightly sweeter wine compared to the dryer style of our smalll 2009 and 2010 vintages - watch this space - bottling in July 2011.

Cheers
Shona Garry

Contact: Shona Garry, Alexandra Wine Company, Phone 0273116670

Hat Trick for Alexandra Wine Company

4 October 2008:

Pinot Noir Liquorland Top 100 Trophy -Andrew Bartley, Liquorland & Shona Garry Alexandra Wine Company

The Alexandra Wine Company has been awarded the Trophy for the Top Pinot Noir at the 15th Annual Top 100 International Wine Competition at The Hilton Hotel in Auckland with the alex.gold pinot noir 2007. The Liquorland Top 100 International Wine Competition is one of the most respected events in the New Zealand Wine Industry. 21 highly experienced, professional wine judges from New Zealand, Australia and the UK evaluated 1476 wine entries.

The alex.gold Pinot Noir 2007 has also been rated within the nine best value wines in the Liquorland Top 100.

This has continued an amazing couple of months with the other two wines produced by the Alexandra Wine Company: the Davishon Pinot Noir 2007 and Feraud’s Chardonnay 2006, both receiving Gold Medals at the Romeo Bragato Wine Awards on the 24th August.

All of the three wines we produce, have been awarded gold medals, putting them at the top of their field and that is what we are striving for.

All the grapes are produced at the Davishon Vineyard on the Dunstan Flats, between Alexandra and Clyde. The Dunstan Flats is where Jean Desire Feraud planted the first grapes in Central Otago in the 1860s.

Davishon, owned by David and Shona Garry, is a small-dedicated vineyard committed to producing quality wines, which reflect the climate, soils and energy of one of the worlds most exciting new wine regions.

The success with Pinot Noir continues Central Otago’s national dominance of the variety and the success with a Central Otago Chardonnay adds weight to the overall success. All the wines are made by winemaker Carol Bunn at the Vinpro Winery in Cromwell.

Contact: Shona Garry, Alexandra Wine Company, Phone 0273116670