Yvonne Lorkin: Roll out the barrel and carve it up

The Paper Rain Project turns barrels into boards and crushes wine bottles for grip.

What do you do with old oak barrels that have outlived their use in making wine? Well, you could cut it in half, fill it with potting mix and let some parsley go nuts. You could even turn the ends into enormous wooden platters for cheese, or you could fashion up some funky outdoor furniture.

However, if you're artily inclined, like Indigo Greenlaw and Wills Rowe from Marlborough, you carve them into coolness on wheels. The couple, whose business is called The Paper Rain Project, create long-deck skateboards from the oak staves, put laser-etched graphics on the smooth base and use crushed glass for grip on the top. The ethos of the business, which began as a T-shirt design and custom board-making enterprise, is recycling and upcycling natural products through art and design.

What resonates for me is that in each board you can see the story of the barrel, wine that's soaked into the grain etc ...

Rather than each board boasting a moth motif, a pair of scissors or a paintbrush and chisel, Wills and Indigo regularly create custom boards, most of which are exported. www.thepaperrainproject.co.nz

Decks made out of old barrels are actually nothing new; Overlord Skateboards in France is an old hand at custom-shaping boards from old cabernet franc barrels and there are hipsters in the US who've been attaching wheels to bits of old bourbon barrels for years now.

I looked at one on the internet called the Hepcat Bourbon Barrel Board. Unlike Wills and Indigo's flat deck, the bourbon barrel skateboard is curved in the centre due to the barrel shape and keeps the actual bunghole from the barrel (I know, I laughed, too), providing a handy little hole to carry and hang on to the board.

Light and easy

Thirteen Marlborough wine companies have invested in the "Lifestyle Wines" partnership with the Ministry of Primary Industries and NZ Winegrowers, a seven-year programme to create high-quality but low-alcohol and low-calorie wines in a natural way. It's the largest Research and Development project ever conducted by New Zealand's viticultural sector.

Lovers of sauvignon blanc have another safer, and more importantly tasty, option, knowing the low-alcohol (9.5 per cent) 2013 Forrest The Doctors' Sauvignon Blanc scooped a gold medal in the Sydney Top 100 wine competition in November.

"For us, that's probably the greatest achievement of the year, competing against open class, full-alcohol sauvignons is huge for us," says John Forrest.

Spy Valley has just released Easy Tiger, a low-alcohol 9.5 per cent sauvignon blanc with around 30 per cent less calories than their standard sauvignon and I think it's one of the best examples of its type on the market today.

Low-alcohol wine has typically been produced by extracting alcohol from finished wine via "reverse osmosis" - leading to less than fabulous results. What Lifestyle Wines is trying to achieve is better ways to create high-quality, low-alcohol wines naturally, via sustainable viticultural techniques, canopy management, native yeasts and fermentation trials.

"We want to see what we can learn in regards to viticulture and winemaking development, to be at the leading edge of innovation," says Blair Gibbs, Spy Valley's general manager. "Taking on board global trends of alcohol use and social responsibility, keeping quality at the forefront, it was a natural progression to get involved in the Lifestyle programme."

SIPS OF THE WEEK

Spy Valley Easy Tiger Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2014, $22

Perfumed with lemon blossom, passionfruit, soft herbs and lime. All these good things soak through on to the palate, leaving a zingy, almost spritzy texture on the finish. At 9.5 per cent, this is one of the best lighter-alcohol sauvignons I've tried. www.spyvalleywine.co.nz

Nautilus Estate Marlborough Pinot Noir 2012, $39

Spices, black tea, and exotic woodland fruit aromas lead the way to a smooth, succulently fruity mouthfeel. This is a wine that will definitely reward in another year or three in the bottle - it has elegance and a plush, velvety finish. www.nautilusestate.com

Riccadonna Extra Dry Prosecco D.O.C, $17

Produced from glera grapes and ultra-pale, this new fizz boasts a fine, foamy mousse, lifted, clean citrus pith and nutty notes and a long, super-dry, finish. At just 11 per cent, this is a cracker for those who like their sparkles chalky and dry.