Meet Kirsten Creasy

Many of you will know Kirsten from her time at Hill Laboratories, as well as the Harvests she has done in NZ, and time spent in the industry.

Kirsten is the oenologist who crafts wines with a New World twist. Kirsten has 30 years international experience as a winemaker, including in New Zealand, Australia and France. www.terredes2sources.com

One of my favourite French quotes is ; est compliqué (it’s complicated)- I hear this at least 5 times a day when discussing everything from the growing season, to why there is no fresh milk in the supermarket. Usually accompanied with a Gallic shrug. And this growing season has been very complicated. In late June / early July there were thunderstorms every afternoon with at least 15 mls of rain. Humidity was in the 90% region and disease pressure was relentless. Many wineries in the Languedoc are now organic, driven by a fixation from the buying public as well as the demands of retailers and this rapidly reduces one’s arsenal in the fight against mildew. Those with multiple sprayers and well laid out vineyards meant that the vines could be treated within a day thus sparing huge losses from disease. Bordeaux has been particularly badly hit this year, with Merlot and Grenache being very susceptible. We have just finished harvesting the whites.

“Standout varieties for us are Grenache blanc, Rolle and Viognier - beautiful expressive aromas with great acidity and balance.”

After the problems of disease, there have been a couple of other problems that have dominated this season - a heat wave which has left leaves and bunches burnt and cooked with little ripening happening and, secondly, our annual war on the wild pigs - sanglier (think Asterix and Obelix). Normally all the vineyards are surrounded by electric fences to repel the hairy beasts, but this year, they have barged straight through desperate for food and it has been catastrophic. I was on the harvester last week picking our Roussanne and there was a sanglier at the end of the row, in broad daylight, casually munching on our fruit and only ambling away when we got very close.

So, for many of us, this year will be a great year for whites and roses, and only ok for reds! Bring on harvest 2024!

Cheers, K