Given the choice and budget, most of her friends prefer to buy one of the hard seltzers such as White Rhino instead of wine. However whilst tidying up some magazines and press releases she read out a tasting note for a newly released wine and was incredulous that a paragraph of flowery prose seemed to be the only information offered to entice a consumer to purchase.
Trinity Hill Estate Collection
It seems only reasonable that New Zealand’s top wines should command decent prices – this after all is the way of the world. Perhaps we have just become used to our wines being too modestly priced and we should rejoice in the upwards trend. That the three wines have now sold out shows price was no barrier to their fans – indeed, perhaps it was even an enticement?
2019 Eva Sauvignon Blanc
Eve Pemper was born in Croatia but has just gained her New Zealand citizenship making her a proud Criwi. She has worked in Marlborough for a number of years but wanted to launch her own label and in 2019 was able to do so. Eva released a 2019 Sauvignon Blanc and she hopes that in…
2017 Grasshopper Rock Pinot Noir
Central Otago’s Grasshopper Rock is located in Alexandra, a sub-region chosen (according to the GR website) for being the most world’s most southerly, the driest in NZ, and the one that experiences the biggest diurnal temperature shift (Alexandra has also recorded New Zealand’s hottest and coldest temperatures). Extreme to say the least. So it always…
Masters of Wine Trip 2019
” There have been more lavish trips. There have been more luxurious trips. There have been shorter trips and longer trips. There have been trips with less farting and bus drivers with slightly more interesting delivery. But I don’t think there has ever been a better trip. “
Chard Farm 2017 Pinot Noirs
Chard Farm may be located in one of the world’s more spectacular settings for a winery but the wines themselves are resolutely unshowy. Indeed, when tasting Chard Farm’s stable of pinot noirs, it’s hard not to think about John Wallace, winemaker for the past two decades
Te Whare Ra : new releases
The Flowerdays are strong advocates for organic and biodynamic farming and have worked to convert their vineyards to full organic certification. The subtle ‘SV5182’ on their estate wines references the vineyard designation number awarded by BioGro NZ.
Judging in Blois
We saw and learnt a fair bit in such a short time (not only does Touraine have around 5000 hectares of vines and is home to 650 wine producers but Mick Jagger has a home there).
Thoughts on Chardonnay
The recent arrival of a couple of high profile 2018 Hawke’s Bay chardonnays piqued my interest and I thought it might be interesting to add a couple of other 2018s from different regions. It turned out to be a mini masterclass in the stylistic debate that has been raging around chardonnay the past few years.
Jules Taylor : new releases
The latest releases from Jules Taylor shows that, as we’ve come to expect, she excels at creating ebullient, fruit laden wines that have just the right degree of complexity and structure.
Fenavin – Spain’s Wine Fair
Spain has 975,000 hectares of vineyards, making it 24 times bigger than New Zealand’s plantings and over 200 indigenous grape varieties (not counting all the international ones. It is a complex, fascinating country.
Dog Point : new releases
For a team as experienced as the Dog Pointers (surely some of the most consistently capable of hands) it would take a catastrophic upset for the wines to be anything other than excellent. So when the year’s new releases arrived from the winery there was an initial fleeting thought; “do we actually need to review these or shall we just drink them?”