Posted on: Bill & Claudia Small's wall

And suddenly we realise Christmas is less than a week away. If anyone has the time, we'd love to hear what you have planned for your Christmas festivities - especially what's on your plate and in you glass.

For Claudia and me, we'll be keeping close to home, as our third kid is due to arrive some time around the first week of January. That doesn't mean we're not carefully considering our Christmas menu, as it will be our first Christmas here in Marlborough - normally we travel to spend time with our extended families.

Fresh asparagus is still in season here, along with new potatos and probably the world's best cherries, so I guess they will all be on the menu somewhere. I'll definitely be roasting a leg of ham over grape vine coals in our barbecue, and christmas in Marlborough wouldn't be complete without something from the sea. On the wine menu, well that's a little undecided too, but chances are it won't be Sauvignon and it won't be from Marlborough.

We'd like to thank you all for your support this year. And when we say support it's not our gratitude for you buying our wine. It's also a thank-you for posting your thoughts here, for sharing it with your friends, and your willingness to help us out by becoming angels. All of it makes it really rewarding for us.

Hoping you, and your families all have a wonderfully festive Christmas and great 2012.

Bill & Claudia 09:46 20/12/2011 Comment

Posted on: Bill & Claudia Small's wall

Just sat down and responded to some wall posts, having neglected them over a busy pre christmas weekend. Two hours and 65 responses later I'm all up to date.

It really is amazing for us to be able to hear so much from all the people who drink our wine. Not only is it rather rewarding, but it probably helps us to make better wine, and in the long run allows the people at Naked Wines to continually improve the quality and range of all the wines they're offering.

So thank-you for all your comments - they are much appreciated!

Bill & Claudia 11:15 19/12/2011 Comment

Posted on: Bill & Claudia Small's wall

The number of people following us seems to have doubled since our 2011 vintage wines went on sale a couple of months ago. And that probably means that there’s a whole bunch of people who’ve missed out on the first half of the story….

2011 wasn’t our first vintage – we actually got started with Small and Small early in 2010. It all began when a press release arrived in my inbox from an unknown UK wine distributor called Naked Wines. They were looking for winemakers wanting to start their own business and they were even willing to chip in financially. On the spur of the moment I flicked an email to Rowan, the founder. Claudia yawned and went back to feeding the baby, or planning house renovations or whatever else we were doing at the time.

And with a little bit of Angel funding we made two Sauvignons in 2010, which were gobbled up in about three months. In 2011 we did it all again but we also expanded our range to include some other grapes we think we do well in Marlborough. We now have a Riesling, which is for sale now. Still with us here in New Zealand are three others: a small volume Viognier, our Theodore Reserve Sauvignon (Theodore is our oldest child) and our Pinot Noir. We’ve been posting about making all our wines since harvest, back in April, but those thoughts are now buried under a mountain of tasting comments. There’s a few pics of us making the wine on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.167086450014424.37799.107357872653949&type=3

Most winemakers are used to hearing what their customers think of their wines via a complex chain of Chinese whispers, extending from sales and marketing people to distributors and people selling the stuff. For us it’s a real privilege to hear directly from the people who drink our wines – even though we’re on the other side of the globe. So please don’t be shy, we love hearing what you have to say!

Bill & Claudia 18:13 11/12/2011 Comment

Posted on: Bill & Claudia Small's wall

Help us please!

It's late Spring here in New Zealand. In our vegetable garden our winter crops are long gone and the summer ones are still a little way from harvest. About the only thing that's giving us any food, apart from the odd lettuce and silverbeet, is our broad bean plants.

And so for the next few weeks we'll be eating quite a few broad beans. We'd love to hear any good broad bean recipes, otherwise we'll grow tired of them quite quickly...

Bill & Claudia 09:43 22/11/2011 Comment

Posted on: Bill & Claudia Small's wall

Are you visiting NZ for this frenzy of Rugby? Or are any of your mates over here?

If you're passing through Marlborough, fancy a break and would like to taste all our wines on their home turf, please give us a yell - we'd love to show them to you.

Bill & Claudia 04:20 15/09/2011 Comment