Top 100 & Blue Gold

Very exciting to hear that Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc 2011 has just won Top 100 and Blue-Gold in the Sydney International Wine Competition 2013.

Sourced from our Greywacke riverbed on the sloping flats the 2011 vintage was the second year that we used no irrigation in the vineyard. This stressed the vines to just the right level in order to improve the structure and enable the roots to go deeper in the soil, thereby getting the purest expression of our terroir and showing more minerality from the stony soil.

The 2011 shows aromas of flower blossom,a mixture of tropical and citrus fruits and flinty notes.In the mouth the wine is complex minerality shining through on the back palate, has smooth elegant structure with good balance and length. The aging potential is 5-6years.

The 

MANA update from Clos Henri Vineyard

Follow the link below to hop on to the MANA Natural Winegrowers website and read an update on our most recent addition of a specialised composting method. 

Our vineyard manager Fabiano Frangi explains how they help our vines.

You can also have a browse and see who else is a member, what natural winemaking means to us as a group and other stories from MANA wineries of Marlborough.

Link to follow:  http://naturalwine.org.nz/uncategorized/cow-pat-pits-at-clos-henri/

Harvest 2012

Harvest has begun here at Clos Henri Vineyard with a few of our Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot blocks being hand picked the last 2 days. Jean-Christophe and Lionel Bourgeois have arrived from the Henri Bourgeois Estate in Sancerre to lend a hand and the team is busy and excited to be picking!

Mana Group and Michael Cooper at Waterfall Bay

Hanging out at Seresins stunning Waterfall Bay with Michael Cooper and the Mana group.

Alliance Française French Film Festival 2012

A few snaps from this years French Film Festival,

featuring Clos Henri wines on the opening nights throughout NZ.

Check out http://frenchfilmfestival.co.nz/ for info on movie screenings close to you!

The opening nights so far have been a huge success and very popular in the local communities with big numbers turning up to enjoy a special evening of French culture.

Photography by-Justin Aitken & Clos Henri

Prowein 2012

Arnaud Bourgeois getting his ‘Maori on’ with performers at Prowein, Germany

Bel Echo gets Gold

Exciting news to hear that our Bel Echo Pinot Noir 2010 received a Gold Medal at the Royal Easter Show Wine Awards 2012!

Bel Echo Pinot is sourced from our Greywacke - River Stone terroir here at Clos Henri Vineyard, the 2010 shows notes of strawberries and wild cherry with a soft feel and a nice clean freshness.

Australian sommeliers stop in at Clos Henri Vineyard while exploring New Zealand wine regions

Follow the link to read about their experience:

gourmettraveller.com.au/sommeliers-guide-to-new-zealand.htm

Our Nuits Romantiques evening

On Friday the 10th of Feburary we hosted around 60 people for the celebration of Valentines Day here at Clos Henri.

Due to the weather being a bit drizzly and cold for people to sit outside we relocated inside to our chapel 'Saint Solange' for the evening. With candles lit and rose petals sprinkled, our guests started with a glass of Clos Henri wine and canapes including Fresh Salmon, Oysters, and Crottin de Chavignol melted on toast with Manuka honey.

After an hour or so, we set the church with chairs for the movie viewing and placed a hamper of French and local treats on each chair for our guests to discover when they came inside for the movie 'Changement d'adresse'.

The movie being quite quirky had people chuckling, and we hope everyone who attended had a wonderful time celebrating Valentines Day with a touch of French culture.

Thank you for joining us this year for Nuits Romantiques!

Nuits Romantiques 2012

On the 10th of February we will be having our Nuits Romantiques, the celebration of Valentine’s Day here at Clos Henri. The night starts at 8.30pm at our cellar door chapel for a glass of Clos Henri wine and French inspired canapés, followed by the outdoor movie at 9.30pm 'Changement D'Adresse' which you will enjoy with a picnic basket of movie treats.

See the poster for more information and email us to purchase tickets cellardoor@closhenri.com or order online http://www.ticketdirect.co.nz

Hope to see you here!

Christmas in the Sounds

On Friday 9th of December, we celebrated Christmas with all our staff including Lionel Bourgeois, our French Owner and Viticulturist who came to New Zealand just for 1 week.

We took a cruise around the Sounds, with Pelorus Tours for the afternoon and discovered the magic landscape at the top of the South Island, a mussel farm and the beautiful bays.

It was a great day, beautiful weather and we all enjoyed the trip. Lionel especially loved seeing another rich and tranquil part of the country.

Everyone here at Clos Henri wishes you a Merry Christmas and a bright New Year!

L’Alliance Française de Christchurch

When Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume, Menetou-Salon, Cheverny, Saumur-Champigny and Champagne winemakers heard about the devastating Christchurch earthquake, they immediately offered bottles of wine to be auctioned at Clos Henri in order to bring support in their own way to the victims. Earlier this year, at our 10th Anniversary, we auctioned off the wines, which raised over $6000. Damien took a drive to Christchurch last week to attend L'Alliance Francaise de Christchurch and officially hand over the cheque to the Mayor of Christchurch, Mr Bob Parker.

Philippe Sella Visits the Cellar Door

This was the first week of the new season here at Clos Henri. The cellar door was opened just in time for the influx of French rugby fans to touch down in Marlborough for the Rugby World Cup. Among our many blue cladded visitors was none other than French rugby legend and former French union player Mr Philippe Sella. We are all hoping for a blue/black final... Croisons les doigts!

Celebrating our 10th Anniversary

In July we enjoyed a fabulous weekend celebrating Clos Henri's 10th Anniversary. Jean-Marie and Arnaud Bourgeois came over from France to join the Clos Henri team, together with the French Ambassador his Excellency Mr Francis Etienne and some of our closest friends. The day began in the Winery with a counter vertical tasting through Sancerre and Marlborough wines. We then feasted on a French style grapevine shoots barbeque lunch, followed by a charity wine auction for Christchurch earthquake relief. Thank you to all the French winegrowers who so kindly donated their wines. Also, to the keen bidders who made this day such a wonderful success.

Clos Henri awarded best Sauvignon Blanc in the world

Our new release Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc 2010 has won the Special Trophy Award at the Mondial du Sauvignon Competition which took place in Bordeaux earlier this year. Winemaker Damien Yvon said "10 years on from the birth of Clos Henri, it's a great accomplishment and we're all delighted with this award in such a prestigious wine competition".

Nuits Romantiques 2011

End of pruning and spring jobs

From early June to end of August the 30th, our team has been pruning our vines on the estate. 3 months and 40 Ha later, our whole vineyard is pruned in guyot double apart from few experimental pruning types.

The team is now starting spring jobs:

Men replace posts - in the case below, on the stony blocks we can see signs of the old river bed as it has created a difference of level of the ground. Posts need to be replaced to avoid having the fruit wire too high in the lowest levels of the ground. If the fruit wire is too high, the canopy isn't tall enough and this unbalances the vine to bring out more of the green flavours we want to avoid. Lowering the fruit wire will avoid this to happen.











Women train the new vines or young vines that needed to be replaced.












Young vines need some help to grow straight up, so we add a stake close to the vine that we tie to the wire, and so do we with the vine itself.

The vines are protected by a carton box at the bottom to avoid rabbits to eat the fragile roots and shoots.