From Cromwell To Bannockburn

Been reading about the early days of wine production here in Otago. I say early days but it is a very young region indeed, the first vinyards like those of Rippon, Gibbston Valley, Taramea and Black Ridge going in around the 1970s. At first the thought of growing vines here was met with general bemusement and gentle condescension by the majority. The region was thought too extreme, with too few hours of sunlight, low temperatures and unpredictable and unseasonal frosts in Spring and early Autumn. You do actually get plenty of sun here, very low rainfall and big extremes of temperature between night and day. These are key ingredients of cool climate vine growing, giving the grapes long maturation affording good complexity of flavour. Early growers had more to contend with that just the whether: the feral rabbits would strip the bark from the young vines, killing them, and eat the buds. Vines were protected by plastic cleeves, rabbit-proof fences, ropes soaked in bitumen and angry farmers armed with big guns and even Burmese cats. The Black Ridge vineyard was protected by several generations. Lord knows why the region is full of lurchers: my two would have a field day here to the point where they would probably burst a lung. I reckon with a pack of lurchers and maybe Jack Russels/Burmese cats you could earn a packet here. You would clear a vineyard easy, just will have to put up with them peeing on the vines and pooing in places. Not pretty killing the rabbits but given the fact New Zealand was a country of birds before we arrived and wrought particular devastation to a delicate eco-system with the rat, possum, rabbit and deer there is no other way to protect the countryside but a regular cull. Hence the pretty much endless boom of gunshot across the hills of Otago. In Alexandra there is the Big Easter Bunny Hunt. And no they’re not after chocolate ones; they even offer 10% off ammunition.