Another cool week mixing up great wine and great sounds from down under to over in the big apple.
Wild Rock Wine proudly sponsored the CMJ NZ Music Showcase in New York on the 20th helping kiwi musicians launch themselves on the US stage.
This year featuring Die! Die! Die!, Surf City, Motocade, Kingston, Bang Bang Eche and Kidz In Space, also David Dallas and Smashproof.
Great bands - I especially rate Motorcade, Kids in Space and Smashproof.
The CMJ is a more underground cool event than the massive South by South West held in Austin Texas.
Unfortunately I wasn't in NY to catch this gig but the NZ on Air guys said it was fantastic with over a thousand people enjoying the night - check out their pic.
Back in NZ I enjoyed a great night at the Lloyd Cole concert held at the Cabana in Napier!
Lloyd Cole was an 80's icon and still sounds just as good - playing about 40 tracks to what seemed like a concert in your own lounge.
Meanwhile, the winemakers have been blending up the wines for the 2009 vintage and it is looking really - I mean REALLY GOOD!!!
Rod Easthope (senior Winemaker for Craggy Range/Wild Rock) said it is the best vintage ever!
Blending is the process where each batch of that vintage held in the winery (which are kept in separate parcels) are blind tasted.
Then the portions required to achieve each specific style wines are decided.
The batches are blind tasted by the winemaking team and an external taster is employed to avoid any potential cellar pallet.
Rod Easthope also commented that the GPR, which has achieved gold each year since 2002, should be no different for the 2009 year!
Cheers
Ash - The Wild Rock Guy
