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farming
Friday May 4, 2012
The Sun
PROVINE LTD Vineyard Services
Patrick Materman, chief winemaker for Brancott Estate.
Vintage 2012 to deliver exceptional quality Ken Prouting Phone/Fax: (03) 578 4150 Mobile: 027 270 4274 17 Corry Crescent Witherlea, Blenheim Email: provine@xtra.co.nz
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As winemaking is now underway with fruit from Marlborough vintage 2012, early wine ferments indicate vintage 2012 is set to deliver exceptional quality wines for Brancott Estate, the original Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. While the cool wet conditions during flowering and fruitset led to a lighter vintage, the mild April weather, with low rain levels and blue skies, gave the fruit the best possible ripening conditions. Patrick Materman, chief wine-
maker for Brancott Estate says the 2012 vintage is without a doubt one of the finest Marlborough has ever experienced. “A late, cool flowering period delivered significantly reduced crop levels, and this in turn has led to wines of great concentration and varietal expression. Although the growing season has been the coolest experienced since the early 1990’s, very few rain events, clear blue skies and lighter crops have meant
optimum ripeness and flavour development has been achieved across all varieties. As my team and I, with more than 100 years of vintage experience, taste the ferments from wines from all corners of Marlborough - the Awatere to Wairau Valley, we’re excited about how exceptional the 2012 wines are going to be and how far we have come since launching the original Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in 1979,” he says.
Women walk the distance By Robbie Parkes A number of women around New Zealand, including Marlborough, made the effort to walk the distance of the country on Sunday. The Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), an international body, including the Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ), set a worldwide challenge for women around the globe to walk for a good cause, all on the same day. “Right throughout the world, really one big push,” said Pelorous Sounds Branch member Glenda Robb. RWNZ gave themsleves the challenge of walking the length of New Zealand (about 1600km) at 10am on Sunday. The group had planned for each of the country’s seven regions to walk about 228km and for each person walking, the distance they made would add to the total walked. If 228 people walked one kilometre each in the Marlborough region, then the group would have met their goal. “It was a lovely day, we had a good turnout of both members and visitors,” said Glenda. “It felt really good taking off to walk when you know so many other
Above: Pauline McMahon, Melva Robb, Jean Silverthorn, Colleen Robbins, and Selena Robbins going the distance for the ACWW global walk.
people round the world were.” The group, which included families and children, walked a 8.3km circuit at the Lions Reserve by Hawkesbury Rd. They walked a total of 125km. Walkers could have sponsorship for the event and there was a $1 entry fee. All the money raised went to the ACWW’s ‘Coins for Friendship’
fund. “That is money for ACWW, and the international body decides where the money’s going to and it helps the wellbeing of all the poor families in the poor countries.” “They do a lot of good.” Walkers across New Zealand clocked up a total of 2856km on the day, far more than their 1600km goal.