Salut/Hi Milord St H of B,

le/on Tue, 21 Oct 2003 14:06:44 +1300, tu disais/you said:-

>Because we are not bound by any legal or other informal conventions, much
>experimentation (in respect to clonal choice, site (soil, sunlight,
>rainfall) etc.) continues in the search for the "holy grail" - i.e. NZ pinot
>with burgundian complexities of savouriness, finesse and earthiness married
>with the new world cherry/mushroom flavours.

Many growers in France envy you for this freedom (many others feel safe
knowing that if they "keep to the rules" they'll not have a disaster). But
my main reason for replying here was to say that many good Burgundies have a
cherry flavour (Morey St Denis "Les Griottes" is named for that, "Griotte"
is a morello chirry) and indeed often contain mushroomy tones too.

>
>An interesting comment from one of NZ better chardonnay makers surfaced the
>other day.

_Isn't_ that interesting!

>The downside of such experimentation is that old buggers like you and I will
>never see the true results in 20 years or so.

Yeah... well I'm used to such thoughts, for example I'll never discover
whether Szepsy's 2000 will live as long as the experts predict for it!
>
>(Kathryn sends her best wishes to you and Jacquie)

Give her a bear hug from me and a demure kiss from "'er indoors".

>The Tour route should be published within days - so we will be giving very
>serious thoughts to our proposed trip.

Yippee.

And when we know, we'll _seriously_ re-propose the idea of an afw central
France get-together.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare

Sometimes oi just sits and thinks
Sometimes oi just sits.