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Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts

14 August 2023

New Zealand: Syrah, Cabernets, Malbec and Merlot.

New Zealand Wine Inc. Craggy Range Syrah.

Syrah isn't the newcomer to New Zealand's vineyards that I imagined it might be, with 'a long history dating back to the mid-1800s.' Most of this seductive variety is planted in Hawke's Bay region, a vast cove on the east coast of North Island and one of NZ's sunniest spots; followed by the Auckland / Waiheke Island area in the north with its warm seaside climate. But, at 350 and 50 hectares of Syrah plantings respectively, the wines are of niche interest even if very promising.

16 June 2023

New Zealand Pinot Noir Part 1: Central Otago, North Canterbury, Nelson, Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay.


This stunning shot of Misha's Vineyard in Central Otago reminds us this wine region in the south-of-centre of New Zealand's South Island is distinctly 'cool climate', to coin that overused term. The Pinot Noir variety has adapted well to the climate and landscape here; and local winemakers can confidently claim to be producing some really delicious and fine Pinots, even if, inevitably perhaps, these wines now represent some of NZ's most expensive.

08 April 2023

New Zealand: 16 Chardonnays & Pinot Gris/Grigios.


New Zealand white wines kick off a new mini-series of postings on WineWriting.com, with further ramblings to follow on red wines - mostly about Pinot Noir and Syrah with some Cabernet Merlots thrown in - and a touch of bubbly. The source of all these tasty wines sampled and regurgitated here was a recent New Zealand Wine tasting in Dublin. Photo: New Zealand Winegrowers Inc, Elephant Hill (Chardonnay).

07 June 2017

New Zealand 'wines of the moment': Pinot Noir, Gewurz/Riesling and Chardy

Dom Maxwell The Bloom 2016 - An aromatic towards exotic yet zesty and quite dry blend of Riesling and Gewurztraminer from Waipara region (near the coast north of Christchurch on South Island). Went well with a mix of Indian dishes (especially tandoori fish) although not too spicy. £14.99 / £9.99 ? (currently out of stock) Naked Wines (you have to become an 'Angel' and invest £20 a month to get the special prices - check out their website for background on Naked's winemaker funding strategy).

Villa Maria Private Bin East Coast Chardonnay 2016 - Very reliable subtle Chardy with lightly buttery nutty side and underlying freshness. Widely available for about £10.

Coolwater Bay Pinot Noir 2014, Marlborough from Endeavour Vineyards - One of Sainsbury's 'Taste the Difference' labels, this is good value Pinot with nice perfumed fruit and silky texture. £10 (sometimes on offer at £8).

Lay of the Land Ben Morven Farm Pinot Noir 2015, Marlborough, made by Mike Paterson (pic. from www.nakedwines.com) - Tasty Pinot balancing elegance and easy-drinking style with a little depth and class: fragrant cherry fruit with fairly soft mouth-feel and fresh bite to finish. £18.99 / £12.99 (see comment above about Naked Wines' prices: these wines are probably available on their US site too).

26 December 2015

Pinot Noir: 'luv' wine

Lord Byron by Richard Westall
from englishhistory.net

That's the Valentinesque PR angle that came with the bottle of Byron Pinot tasted-noted below, with an obvious nod to a certain hedonistic early-19th century poet; but it's true there's something seductive about good Pinot Noir. "Oh Mr. Byron, don't be such a big girl's blouse." *

07 June 2015

New Zealand: Tindall Vineyard, Marlborough

Based in Blenheim in deepest Marlborough wine country, I'm told this family estate is named after Henry Tindall, "grandfather of brothers Clyde and Nigel Sowman," who are now in charge working with well-known winemaker John Forrest. They've created three pretty stylish classic varietals, even if on the dearer side, which are produced by "certified organic grape-growing." UK importer is Awin Barratt Siegel Wine Agencies: available from Smithfield Wine, Hannibal Brown, Rannoch Scott, Dorset Wine, Field & Fawcett, Darcy Wine, Slurp, Steep Hill Wines, Ministry of Drinks, Harrison's Vintners, Cork & Bottle, Christopher Piper, Wine Lines... (the average £ prices quoted). Apparently also available in Ireland, and in the Netherlands from Tamis Wijnen. tindallvineyard.co.nz

Sauvignon Blanc 2013 - lively and pure ripe gooseberry fruit on nose and palate, intense and crisp mouth-feel with nice long finish; classic NZ SB style. £11-£13
Chardonnay 2010 (barrel-fermented, 20% new oak) - enticing maturing fruit with oaty buttery aromas / flavours, elegant balanced style with tasty finish, drinking nicely now. £11-£13
Pinot Noir 2009 - lovely maturing sweet/savoury Pinot nose, soft and silky mouth-feel with subtle concentration and weight vs tasty complex and delicate finish. £17-£19

30 May 2014

Australia & New Zealand: "wines of the mo"

Tried and tested recently at an Aus and NZ themed tasting I held in Belfast, here are my favourite half-dozen worth highlighting that are all widely available as long as you look on these supermarkets' usually a little dustier top shelves... But all good value in their own different ways, especially as a couple of them were on "third-off" type offers too.

Jacob's Creek 2011 Reserve Riesling, Barossa, South Australia (11.5% abv) – you've probably spotted this huge brand's "Reserve" range before (from specific subregions, there's also e.g. a Chardy, Pinot and Shiraz), which generally really are worth a go like this delicate mature yet fairly intense Riesling. It has lots of those characteristic intriguing maturing oily aromas/flavours and some lingering ripe lime zest still. Drinking well now with seafood in a winey/creamy sauce? £9.99 Tesco
More Oz Riesling HERE and HERE.
Villa Maria 2013 Pinot Grigio, East Coast, New Zealand (13.5%) - from memory, this was labelled as Pinot Gris until recently, pointing to a more French Alsace style perhaps (but sensible marketing obviously got the better of them). It's definitely got more character and mouth-weight than your average Italian PG, with nice juicy honey and melon flavours and refreshing vs full finish. Good with not too spicy Indian, Chinese or Thai I reckon. £10 Asda
Yering Station 2011 'Wild Ferment' Chardonnay, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Aus (12%) - one of Sainsbury's superior "Taste the Difference" labels, this was a good result since I wanted to show a more elegant less oaky style of Chardy. Attractive nutty lightly creamy and oatmeal edges, a touch of zing still although again drinking well now, well-balanced with very subtle oak ageing. Value @ £9 considering the price of say Chablis nowadays. 
McWilliam's 2005 Mount Pleasant 'Elizabeth' Semillon, Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Aus (12%) - a great example of one of those weird and wonderful bottle-aged Semillon styles, and again value @ £8.99 at Tesco, this has almost toasted characters, despite it being kept away from barrels, with lingering complex savoury vs green/stone fruit mix.
Oz Semillon tasting HERE.
Matua 2012 Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand (13%) - Matua seems quite big now, but they still turn out a fairly classy Pinot with perfumed cherry/berry fruit, a more savoury side too and just a hint of oak thankfully. With duck? £10.98 Asda
More NZ Pinot HERE.
Xanadu 2011 'Next of Kin' Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, Western Aus (14%) - towards delicious Cab with plenty of ripe blackcurrant/cherry'damson, chunky mouth-feel yet with rounded texture, again subdued oak vs quite concentrated fruit, powerful yet balanced. Value @ £8.50 Sainsbury's.

23 January 2014

Wine Education Service NI tastings and courses UPDATE

Updated February 26

The wine-tastic WES NI courses and tastings being poured over the next few months, at the Ramada Encore in Belfast city centre and tutored by RMJ, are outlined below. All events run on Thursdays 7 pm to 9 pm, apart from the Saturday workshop (doh!).
Essential Wine Tasting five-week course - 3 April to 1 May £125 per person. More details here: wine-education-service.co.uk/introductory
Tour de France tutored wine tasting - 27 March £25.
Australia and New Zealand tutored tasting - 8 May £25.
Wines of Italy Saturday workshop - 31 May £90 including two-course lunch. More info here: wine-education-service.co.uk/workshop
More details about the two evening events above and online booking: wine-education-service.co.uk/wine-tasting-belfastYou can also pay for these tastings by PayPal using the button below. If you're a regular user of Local Wine Events.com, you can get in touch with me from this page: www.localwineevents.com.


Select tasting:


02 December 2013

New Zealand: TerraVin, Lay of the Land, Rod Easthope


TerraVin
TerraVin was acquired by a partnership of "Pinot enthusiasts," as their blurb puts it, in 2011 including "several British businessmen." They humbly describe themselves as a "boutique Marlborough winery with a dedicated focus on growing and making world-class hillside Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc." My notes would suggest they're on the right track, by the way...

16 May 2013

New Zealand: Pinot Noir

I've said the odd kind thing about Pinot Noir from New Zealand before (goes to archive page with links to previous post featuring Pinots from Seresin, Borthwick Estate, Wither Hills and Mount Edward); so I can't be bothered repeating myself with headline-grabbing clichés about "... great potential for Pinot now being revealed... cool climate elegance... blah blah..." and all that jazz (oops, I think I just did). The ten Pinot Noirs picked and noted below were mostly tasted in Dublin earlier this year (apart from the first one bought in Tesco 'UK'), hence € prices and importers mentioned are in the Irish Republic. I've split them up by region, which neatly highlights a pattern showing where much of the country's (best?) PN is planted: from Wairarapa, or Martinborough in the south of North Island, to Marlborough, the biggest wine region especially for white varieties, in the north of South Island; and heading south through the Waipara Valley in Canterbury and finally Central Otago, the most southerly area for vines and rated as producing some of the best NZ Pinot to date (and often the dearest too, alas).

Wooing Tree vineyard, home of Beetle Juice and a certain Puritan dictator...
Photo from nzwine.com
Central Otago
2009 'Tesco Finest' Sacred Hills Wines / Jenny Dobson (13.5%) - attractive maturing style showing smoky vs perfumed sweet berry fruit with savoury edges, fair weight and rounded palate vs touch of fresh acidity and bite still, quite long and fine. Bought and sampled last year sometime, on offer for less than £10 at the time so not the current vintage and price for sure.
2011 Felton Road, Bannockburn ("Must be the 1314, unmistakeable..." - enticing perfumed Pinot nose with toasty chocolate edges, nice 'sweet/savoury' fruit with a little weight, balanced and quite stylish with elegant fruit coming through on the finish. €28 WineKnows
2010 Wooing Tree Beetle Juice, Cromwell (14%) - richer cherry fruit, turning savoury with enticing volatile edges, has a touch of bite and Burgundian style, quite big though vs attractive maturing 'sweet/savoury' fruit. €30 Quintessential Wines; Harry's Road Fine Wines in Belfast.
2010 Rock Ferry - fairly vibrant fruit and oak on the nose, turning more elegant and Pinot styled, quite firm and fresh mouth-feel vs more fruit than oak in the end. €30+

Waipara Valley
2010 Bellbird Spring River Terrace - perfumed tasty 'sweet/savoury' fruit, fairly silky and soft with delicate fruit vs a bit of weight too. €29.50

Wairarapa
2011 Craggy Range Te Muna - hints of vanilla oak vs delicate red berry/cherry vs savoury notes, tasty and juicy in the mouth, quite elegant finish yet has nice palate weight too. Needs a little time to come together. €40 Febvre & Co.
2010 Gladstone Vineyard - elegant maturing Pinot notes, lacks a little concentration perhaps but has subtle attractive Pinot style and still lively too. €24.50

Marlborough
2011 Spy Valley - a little extracted and chunky at first, moves on to nicer 'sweet/savoury' fruit combo with subtle oak in the background, attractive silky tannins with lingering more savoury flavours. €20-€25 Cassidy Wines
2010 Auntsfield Single Vineyard, Southern Valleys - intriguing lightly volatile notes with 'sweet/savoury' touches, reasonably concentrated although a tad clunky perhaps. €22.50
2009 Villa Maria Cellar Selection - lovely perfumed fruit with maturing 'sweet/savoury' edges, elegant vs a bit of weight, mature vs still fresh on the finish. Nice style. €21 Barry & Fitzwilliam

27 April 2013

New Zealand: Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer

New Zealand winemakers are well known for their lively expressive Sauvignon Blanc wines and Chardonnays too made in different styles (fresh & fruity, rich and toasty, somewhere in between...). So it makes sense that other 'aromatic' white varieties are coming to the fore in cool climate New Zealand wine country including Riesling, Pinot Gris (Grigio) and Gewurztraminer. Let's not get too excited though: they're still small fry in the vineyard scheme of things, as these three grapes combined amount to about the same area of Chardonnay overall - a bit over 3000 hectares - and are dwarfed by 20,000 ha of ubiquitous Sauvignon blanc.

15 October 2011

Pinot Noir: Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand

Monthélie vineyards
vins-bourgogne.fr
This dual-hemisphere array of tasty Pinot was sampled and selected from a triad of recent tastings in London (Marks & Spencer, Wines of Chile, Armit), all going to show that Burgundy, home of Pinot if you like, really does have its work cut out nowadays. Although the Nuits St. Georges, Volnay or Corton-Bressandes scrutinized below were particularly good, French Pinot does sometimes lack a bit of obvious charm; whether because a certain wine just needs more time to open up or simply just isn't as good as it should be, given its high price and reputation of the producer, area or vineyard it comes from.

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Header image: Château de Flandry, Limoux, Languedoc. Background: Vineyard near Terrats in Les Aspres, Roussillon.