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People in the vineyard

Twelfth Night Wines / People in the vineyard

Spotlight on Twelfth Night Vineyard Manager Julien Alexandre

This month we spotlight Twelfth Night’s intrepid Vineyard Manager, Julien Alexandre.  Julien is French and is from the Loire Valley, a region renowned for its cool-climate wines and medieval chateaux.  His hometown is Loir-et-Cher which is about two hours southwest of Paris.  Julien came to New Zealand in 2012 on a working holiday visa and has never gone back!  Prior to settling in Central Otago, he worked in vineyards in the Barossa Valley of Australia and also in the Marlborough region of New Zealand.  Julien says that he decided to settle in New Zealand because it is a beautiful place to live and work.  He especially enjoys all of the outdoor activities that he can partake in such as fishing and hiking.                               Julien started with Twelfth Night Wines as an irrigation specialist and was promoted to Vineyard Manager overseeing all aspects of the vineyard.  He cites the beautiful Pinot Noir wines of the region as a key reasons as to why he loves working in Central Otago.  Julien is a very hands-on vineyard manager.  You will often see him driving the tractor through the rows spraying or applying the bird nets.                                                He acknowledges that there are both challenges and rewards to managing a vineyard.  He says that the weather in Central Otago as one of the biggest challenges; he has to deal with frost in the spring, heat in the summer and wind pretty much all year long.  There is no way to control Mother Nature so you have to adapt to whatever she throws at you!  Julien says that the reward for all of this hard work is a successful harvest with beautifully ripe grapes and the excellent yields.  Julien was especially pleased with the 2019 harvest and was happy to have the best harvest crew ever which made his job all the more enjoyable.         For Julien, working at Twelfth Night vineyard is also a family affair.  His wife, Miran Park, who is originally from South Korea, is the Seasonal Staff Supervisor.  Twelfth Night is lucky to have both of them managing our vineyard....

Spotlight on Twelfth Night Vineyard crew member Eric Bihl

  Twelfth Night Wines has welcomed vineyard workers from all over the world but this is the first time, however, that we have had a crew member who arrived in New Zealand by sea!  Eric Bihl joined the Twelfth Night team in November 2018 and plans to stay until after the harvest.  Read all about Eric below. Where are you from?  Tell us a bit about your background, your childhood and your studies. “Where are you from?” is a more complicated question than it should be, but I’ve recently taken to telling people I’m from Washington, D.C., as it is the last place I lived in the United States and is in the running for longest continuous habitation. The lengthier answer is I was born in Belgium and moved around quite a bit as a child with a significant stretch in England. My family moved to Connecticut for middle and high school. I then spent my senior year of high school in Rennes, France, with a program called SYA before enrolling at Wake Forest University. What brought you to New Zealand and how did you connect with the folks at Twelfth Night Wines?  I literally took the slow boat to New Zealand. I sailed here with my friend Kennon in our 1971 Tartan 34c “Temujin” that we spent the last three years outfitting for a circumnavigation. We left Washington D.C. on January 15th 2018 and arrived in New Zealand on Thanksgiving Day via a route westwards around Cuba and through the Panama Canal and the South Pacific.              After deciding to spend the Pacific cyclone season, which is roughly November to May, in New Zealand, we figured it would be prudent to seek gainful employment. Serendipitously, I left a career in the wine industry back in D.C., and the only people I knew with any connection whatsoever to New Zealand, the Dahans, happened to own a vineyard here. I have known the Dahan family for over twenty years, as Arié and my father worked together in London in the late 90’s. I have distinct memories of watching the 1998 World Cup at their house as a ten year old. (France won!) What did you do in the wine industry prior to coming to New Zealand? Prior to leaving the U.S. I worked in sales and distribution for the E&J Gallo Winery in the D.C. and Baltimore metro areas. What are the biggest challenges and rewards about working in a vineyard? The biggest challenge has definitely been how physical the work is. I’m no stranger to manual labor, but after a full day bud rubbing or stretching out nets you come home exhausted. On the other side of the coin, you hit the pillow with a deep sense of peace and accomplishment. This is going to come off as hackneyed, but you truly develop a connection to the vines, the grapes, and the wine while working in the vineyard. You spend every day ensuring the well-being of these living things, and it’s hard not to feel a sense of obligation and pride that comes with stewardship. It has been a real joy to expand my knowledge of the production side of things, and working at Twelfth Night has given me a much greater appreciation for the amount of work that goes into a bottle of wine, irrespective of origin. Those who are not as theoretically inclined might find reward being part of an outstanding team creating a quality product. At the very least, Central Otago is absolutely, stunningly, beautiful. Have you travelled to other places in New Zealand and what are your favorite memories? I’ve travelled a good bit in the South Island from Arthur’s Pass down to the Fiordlands, and spent some time in the Bay of Islands on the North Island when I first arrived. It’s hard to pick favorites, as there are so many amazing things to see and so much geographic diversity packed into one small country, but the high point of my time here has been getting engaged to my lovely now fiancée, Lauren. What are your plans after you finish your time at Twelfth Night? Get married! Eventually. I still have a good bit of ocean to cover before I get home, but thankfully I have a partner who is incredibly supportive, and patient. I will leave New Zealand in May, continuing to sail West with the goal of being in South Africa by early November. As I will be there a few months it is my intention to work in the wine industry in some capacity there as well. ...

Spotlight on Twelfth Night Winemaker Antony Worch

In the first of a series of profiles of the people who work with Twelfth Night Wines, we focus on Antony Worch, Chief Operating Officer and Winemaker for Twelfth Night Wines.  Antony has been with Twelfth Night since the beginning of operations back in 2012 and is an invaluable member of our team.  Let’s get to know Antony!Where are you from? Tell us a bit about your home region. I am from the Alsace region in northeastern France just a few miles from the German border. Alsace is a well-known wine region famous for its aromatic white wines such as Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer. A little-known fact is that you can also find excellent Pinot Noirs primarily in the hilly parts of the region. The region is similar to Central Otago in that it has a continental climate with cold winters and warm, dry summers.  The landscape consists of rolling hills nestled between the Vosges Mountains to the west and the Rhine River to the east. Where did you do your university studies?  Tell us about the program that you followed and the diploma that you received. I alternated between three regions in France for my studies; Alsace (Strasbourg), Brittany (Rennes) and Languedoc (Montpellier).  In Montpelier, I completed a Masters Degree with Honors in Viticulture and Winemaking. The curriculum was strongly rooted in science and applying that scientific knowledge to agriculture and more specifically viticulture.  In conjunction with this, I completed a Diplôme National d’Oenologue, the most prestigious graduate course in winemaking in France. What other wine regions or countries have you worked in? In France, I worked extensively in the Alsace and in the Languedoc in the southern part of the country.  I also worked in the Hemel and Aarde Valleys of South Africa before coming to New Zealand. When did you first come to New Zealand and what did you do? I first came to New Zealand in 2005 with my partner who was also involved in the wine industry to work the harvest for a three-month period.  It was our first long overseas trip and we enjoyed the work, the place and the people so much that we decided to come back for several consecutive years afterward to work for short periods of time. Why did you decide to permanently settle in New Zealand and what attracted you to the Central Otago region? As I mentioned, we were very attracted by the feel of the country, the light and the landscapes but also the people who made us feel at home very quickly. Through my work in the vineyards, I quickly realized that there was great potential to create unique and outstanding wines - especially Pinot Noir which has found in Central Otago a place to express its unique character and personality.  All of these things solidified our decision to settle here. What is different about growing grapes and making wine in New Zealand from France? Quite frankly, there is not much difference in the sense that each region in the world has its unique combination of climate, history and objectives. It is all about understanding what style and quality of wine you can achieve and how to develop this potential. What are the biggest challenges and rewards in the vineyard? For me, the biggest challenge is to achieve the best potential of each vineyard block.The landscape in the Twelfth Night vineyard is a mosaic of small parcels or blocks of vines that all have unique characteristics. Understanding how each action and decision in the vineyard affects the parameters and characteristics of the wine is very rewarding.   Tell us a bit about the winery.  Do you only make wine for Twelfth Night or for other vineyards as well? I have been involved in the wine industry in Central Otago since 2005 and as a result, I have been able to meet and share experiences with many growers and vineyard owners. I am lucky enough to make wine not only for Twelfth Night but also for other, very different and unique vineyards across the region. This has helped me to understand the characteristics of Central Otago Pinot Noir and its great potential. You are involved “from grape to glass” in making the wines for Twelfth Night.  How does this affect your job as a winemaker to also be involved in all aspects of the vineyard? Each decision that I make in the vineyard influences the style of wine that can be achieved. Having control over all these operations for Twelfth Night allows me to nurture and shape the wines right from the start in the vineyard and to pass on the unique qualities and typicity of Twelfth Night’s beautiful vineyard. ...
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