Misha’s Vineyard recently hosted visitors as part of the Down To Earth Central Otago wine experience providing an opportunity to earn lunch by doing a little vineyard work. After an overview tour of the vineyard to show the unique North West facing location on Lakefront Terraces and our terroir, our guests were provided expert instruction by our vineyard team on shoot thinning the new season’s growth on our vines. They then proceeded to practice their new-found skills for about 45 minutes under watchful eyes. It was a unique experience demonstrating just a little of the hard work and hand tending of vines that goes into producing premium wines.
After the working session we took them up to our Lucky 8 vines and Ah Foos House – the re-created gold-miner ruins that helps to tell the story of the Chinese gold miners who worked on the land extracting gold over 150 years ago. With a log fire burning in Ah Foo’s fireplace as the backdrop, Misha took the group through a tasting of several Misha’s Vineyard wines describing the influences of the vineyard on the wine styles and specific flavours and textures that come from our spectacular vineyard site.
After choosing a glass of their favourite wine, the guests and our vineyard team settled into a magnificent lunch platter prepared by Moreish Kitchen owner Kimberly Jillings. Sitting in Ah Foo’s House and surrounded by the vines was a relaxing setting after the working session – helped by Ah Foo’s ghostly presence no doubt!
No-one was in a hurry to leave and all expressed their delight at the experience of seeing how a premium vineyard works, then tasting the result!