A proud moment for Dayvinleigh Vineyard, exclusive suppliers of the fruit for the Bird Wines Big Barrel Pinot Noir 2012.
News Release by Bird Wines 2 July 2014
For our loyal followers who are intimately familiar with New Zealand winters you will understand the old saying “under the weather”. For the rest, allow me to enlighten you. “Under the weather” refers to a state of depression brought on by grey and wet conditions exacerbated by short cold days where we go to and from work in the dark, it reaches its deepest, darkest, depths in this the week of the year that contains the shortest day.
Now, before you all run off to call your therapist, we’ve found a cure – and when I say “we”, I mean the very talented and discerning folk that run the San Francisco International Wine Competition.
Yep, forget about rain, sleet, and snow – it’s raining gold at Bird Wines. In fact, there has been a veritable flash flood of bright, shiny, gold medals.
Of the four wines entered in the 2014 San Francisco International Wine Competition one received a Bronze, two received Gold and one received a coveted Double Gold.
The Results:
2012 Steve Bird Big barrel Pinot Noir Double Gold (96 points)
2013 Steve Bird Sauvignon Blanc Gold (90points)
2013 Manu Sauvignon Blanc Gold (89 points)
2012 Steve Bird Pinot Gris Bronze
To be fair, we had very high expectations for the Sauvignon Blancs given they are both from Marlborough (the undisputed heavy weight champ of Sauv Blanc) and from the 2013 vintage which has received glowing press as one of the best vintages in living memory.
The thing that has us flapping our wings in a state of absolute euphoria is the performance of the Big Barrel Pinot Noir. 96 points is out of this world, the highest ever rating we have had in 35 years of winemaking.
To understand the magnitude of our joy and delight some perspective is required. Pinot Noir costs more than twice as much to produce as Sauv Blanc. It takes twice as long to get it to bottle and into the market. As a grape, it has the reputation of being the most difficult to grow, and as a wine it is the most fragile and temperamental in the winery.
We have invested an immense amount of time and effort into developing a unique winemaking process for our Pinot Noir, the Bird Big Barrel method. It is incredibly gratifying to see these wonderful wines consistently reaping awards at the highest level of international competition.
And now for the really good news, I think the 2013 Bird Big Barrel Pinot Noir is going to be every bit as good.
Steve Bird
