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2014 grape harvest

The weather this 2013/14 season has not been altogether normal. We had a great spring and flowering followed by temperatures well below average in January. February and March were more typical ripening weather although a little drier than normal with low rainfall and drying winds. April was  little weird with virtually no frosts, relatively warm nights and less hot days than a normal April. The grapes ripened nice and slowly and achieved maximum flavour at slightly ...

Raymond Chan, tasting 2006 to 2012 vintages

In late January 2014 Raymond Chan visited the vineyard and we were able to open every vintage of Grasshopper Rock Pinot Noir for a very special tasting. Raymond was one of three wine writers we hosted at the vineyard leading up to the Pinot Celebration. With seven vintages to review this was the most extensive vertical tasting we have been able to complete. What is now evident, and was not previously as evident, is the exciting vintage variation we are seeing. The variation is a fun...

How cool was January 2014?

We are not sure why but the weather patterns in January really did not perform as we expected. The anticylcones which usually bring warm weather either crossed NZ further north or were simply too weak to keep the cooler southerly fronts away. January 2014 was the coolest January we have ever experienced in the vineyard. The temperature data for the month looks horrible but it is not as bad as you might think. We had a tremendous start to the season in Oct, Nov and December. While January was coo...

Pre-event post on Pinot Celebration 2014 & Burgundy tasting

The 10th Central Otago Pinot Celebration commences in Queenstown on 30th January and forty of Central Otago's leading pinot noir growers eagerly await the grand tasting when they get to show their latest pinots. There are some outstanding 2012 pinots and plenty of earlier vintage wines. Grasshopper Rock will be showing four vintages during the Celebration: 2008 - at the Grand Tasting 2009 - at the Winemakers Party (Friday) 2011 - at the Downtown Lunch at Public (Saturday) ...

Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, tasting of 2008 to 2012 vintages

Sam Kim, wine writer and wine judge, visited Grasshopper Rock in September 2013 and has recently released his tasting notes below. Vertical tastings, like this, are the best and most interesting way to capture the quality of a vineyard. The wines below span five years from our third vintage to our latest release in 2014. All vines were planted in 2003 so we are seeing a significant change in vine age over the vintages. There is significant vintage variation due to the weather...

New to buying online

Purchasing Grasshopper Rock online is a simple process. The following steps will show you how the shop looks and the pages you will progress through to complete your order. Decide what to buy, add it to your cart or go straight to checkout, complete your delivery details, complete payment details and its done. We take care of the rest. We will email you immediate confirmation of your order and we will contact you again when the order is shipped. We process Visa and Mastercard. If you want to pay...

2014 vintage season (full report)

By September, last year's canes were pruned and a single cane tied down for the 2014 vintage. Apart from some early winter frosts and the odd snowfall, winter was relatively mild and pleasant for pruning. Soil temperatures were ahead of average leading into what looked like being a very early bud burst. A cooler period of weather in September and early October help delay bud burst long enough for early shoots to avoid a few frosts. Frosts in October and early November meant frost...

Awards and reviews - 2009 Grasshopper Rock

Awards GOLD - Bragato Wine Awards 2011 GOLD - Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Competition 2010 BLUE-GOLD and TOP100 - Sydney International Wine Competition 2011 SILVER - Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2011 SILVER - London International Wine and Spirits Competition 2010 SILVER - International Wine Challenge 2011 Reviews Raymond Chan - Mar 2011 18.5-/20.0, 5 STARS * * * * * Very dark, deep, black hued ruby-red colour with youthful purple hues, this has a very full, r...

Awards and reviews - 2010 Grasshopper Rock

Awards Champion Wine of the Show Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2012 Champion Pinot Noir Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2012 Cuisine magazine Top New Zealand Pinot Noir 2012 GOLD (Elite) – Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2012 GOLD - Bragato Wine Awards 2012 GOLD - NZ International Wine Show 2012 GOLD - Spiegelau Internationa Wine Competition 2012 Reviews Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2012 - GOLD Confident and dramatic showing power and grace. The bouquet is perfumed showing dark che...

Awards and reviews - 2012 Grasshopper Rock

Awards ELITE GOLD - Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2013BLUE-GOLD and TOP1OO - Sydney International Wine Competition 2014GOLD - Spiegelau International Wine Competition 2013ReviewsMichael Cooper - Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines - 5 STARS, February 2014Estate-grown in Alexandra, this is typically a wonderful buy. Retasted in February 2014, the 2012 vintage (5*) is unfolding superbly. Matured inFrench oak barriques (30 per cent new), it is highly scented, deeply colouredand full-...

Awards and reviews - 2011 Grasshopper Rock

2011 was a warm vintage and produced an elegant and refined expression of Grasshopper Rock. Awards GOLD – International Wine Challenge 2013 BLUE-GOLD and TOP100 wine - Sydney International Wine Competition 2013 SILVER - Decanter Asia Wine Awards 2013 SILVER - Spiegelau International Wine Competition 2013 Reviews Bob Campbell MW - Gourmet Traveller Wine, Oct 2013 - 95/100 & 5 STARS Deeply scented pinot noir with floral, mineral, raspberry, and savoury/fresh herb flavours...

2013 vintage

Our predictions that this was going to be a cool season were right but it did end up better than we expected and closer to an average season, at least in terms of overall heat. The extremely cool spring resulted in reduced flower development. However a perfect period of fine warm weather for flowering in late December meant nearly every flower became a berry. The late harvest we were expecting was not quite so late due to a couple of month of above average temperatures in February and Marc...

2012 vintage

A rollercoaster season. After an outstanding flowering and fruit set in spring, nature brought us back to the reality of growing Pinot Noir this far south. By the end of February total solar energy had been average for the season but in March temperatures drop dramatically putting us on a very slow ripening path. Large tight grape bunches and heavy rainfalls in summer increased the disease risk and raised fears of a difficult harvest. Fortunately the weather changed after 12 March and there has ...

2011 vintage

August, September and October were slightly warmer than average with significantly fewer frosts in September and October than would normally be expected. November and December continued to be significantly warmer and settled resulting in a near perfect flowering and fruit set. Fruit set was unusually consistent across all blocks. Berry size was large and comparable to or larger than 2006. Bunch sizes were large, requiring the removal of many bunches to reduce crop levels per vine. Fe...

Hill of Grace – one of the most unique single vineyard wines in the world

The Henschke’s Hill of Grace is remarkable for the age of the oldest vines (150 years) and for its place in history as one of Australia oldest single vineyard wines. Hill of Grace has carved out a reputation as one of the most important single vineyard wines in Australia....

Grasshopper Rock helping define new Riedel glassware

Here is a brief update on my original article written in June 2013. The original article, unchanged below, includes links to interesting video and articles from the development period. Two years on from the first comparative tasting, Central Otago Pinot Noir now has its own unique glassware and Grasshopper Rock is excited to have been involved in the development process. Grasshopper Rock Pinot Noir 2010 was one of the wines used in the second workshop to decide which of the final four possible...

The frost challenge – ripening grapes under ice

The 2013 vintage is not picked yet and we need another two weeks of ripening to get the right balance. This means protecting the vines against damage from some pretty severe autumn frosts. There have been two minus 3 degree frosts in the last week and we aim to always be ready for such events. It’s a tough place to grow grapes here and you need balls of steel – it is not for the faint hearted. A miserable 5 growing degree days for April to date is not much help but good solar energy is ...

Vintage 2013 preview – how great?

It is the end of March and already there is a lot of hype about the 2013 vintage in New Zealand with comments flowing like “best in 90 years” and “vintage of a life time”. Down in Alexandra at the southernmost vineyard sites we have not been quite so bullish. Up until now I have been sceptical about this vintage even being warm enough to fully ripen pinot noir grapes at Grasshopper Rock. While the rest of NZ has basked in a long period of fine and settled weather and the north island ...

Pinot Noir Celebration 2013

Wellington 28-31 January 2013 There is a lot of excitement and anticipation as we enter the last few days before the Pinot Celebration. There are great expectations building around the event which is held every three years. In 2010 Grasshopper Rock had its first year as a participating winery. 2013 will be our second event. The 2013 event, with over 100 of the top Pinot noir wineries, feels more important than ever. NZ Pinot noir has come a long way in a couple of decades, from nothing until M...

Ah Grasshopper – it is going to be a cool vintage

Grasshopper has been sitting on the rock long enough to feel a cool vintage coming. The 2013 vintage is expected to cooler than normal. Following the difficult vintage just concluded in the northern hemisphere, Grasshopper feels the Rock is on track to experience one of its coolest vintages for many years. Already some of the weather patterns are looking like previous cool years. This last winter we experienced the most extensive period of hoar frosts since the hoar frosts of winter 2006. Th...

E’Sensual Pinot Central 2012

Immersion in Central Otago Pinot Noir for four days delivered a huge eye-opener for international guests hosted by Central Otago Pinot Noir Ltd. Influential wine buyers and sommeliers from some of the top establishments joined us to explore the wines, the vineyards, the sub-regions and understand the people who make it all happen. It was not all work – curling, a Central Otago tradition, was a highlight. It is a great opportunity to build relationships with existing contacts like Julian...

Grasshopper Rock Wine-Stars Winner – the inside story

We are still on a high after Grasshopper Rock made the top 10 at the world’s first ever Wine-Stars. Billed as a Dragon’s Den style wine competition and held at the London International Wine Fair on 24th May 2012 this event has opened people’s eyes to how wineries from seemingly out of nowhere can engage with some of the world’s most powerful wine buyers. It may have revolutionised the way new wineries make it to the top. Plenty has been written about this event so I will summarise it b...

Grasshopper Rock – Wine Stars Top 20

There’s a big buzz around Grasshopper Rock – we are through to the TOP 20 at Wine Stars! Grasshopper Rock is one of only 20 wineries chosen from around the globe to compete for the hearts of the UK wine trade and their customers. Sounds a bit like X Factor or Dragons Den and it is. The difference is we will have to travel 12,000 miles to get into the final 10 who will pitch to key UK wine trade judges. It all happens next week on 24th May at the London International Wine Fair. With just o...

The ferment – 11 May 2012

Excellent and very are words not often used at this stage of the ferment and when a winemaker sounds this excited it says a lot about the 2012 Pinot. Normally interpreting winemaker’s comments is akin to interpreting the comments of the Reserve Bank Governor, but I think we are getting a clear signal here. Pete Bartle, our winemaker, gives us a hint on how things are looking as of today (11 May). Pete’s winemaking philosophy is that most of the work is done before the fruit arrives at the ...

Vintage 2012 – like no other

The final outcome of vintage 2012 is looking very good at this point. It was a great relief to have all our grapes safely in the winery on 26th April. With the unusually damp and cool weather we had mid-season we were pretty nervous about how the rest of the season would unfold. May be we should have had more confidence in the vineyard and Alexandra’s dry climate. Thanks to Mother Nature’s remarkable ability to achieve balance, all ended well with one of the most amazing periods of long, s...