Sunday, September 18, 2011

It's not bad news for everyone

Apparently our high UV is good for our wines! Unfortunately, I lost the link and can't be arsed looking for it.

"...Remember that scene in The Young Ones where Neil the hippy, fearful of nuclear bombs, paints himself white to deflect the blast? It's the same concept, with the whiteness of the oyster shells reflecting the sun's rays away from the soil and into the canopy to help ripen the fruit faster.

We may not reach the same high temperatures that other countries do, but one thing we do have plenty of is UV.

We're about 30 per cent higher in UV here than our corresponding latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, so it's a significant factor.

Rod agrees. "When I host people from overseas I tell them to think about New Zealand wines being ripened by light rather than heat and suddenly a light goes on. That freshness, vitality and brightness in our wines suddenly all makes sense. People get that..."



UPDATE:
Found it!

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