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A wine Odyssey with Rebecca Salmond

Rebecca Salmond's wine journey is encapsulated in her brand name, Odyssey Wines, which she created 32 years with small volumes of New Zealand wines made from grapes grown in Marlborough and Gisborne.Today, after weaving impressive vintage experience across the world in places as illustrious as Burgundy, Bordeaux and Cote Rotie in France; Alto Adige and Sicily in Italy; Marlborough and Hawkes Bay in New Zealand, she produces a raft of sub-brands under the Odyssey banner. These reviews a...

Best of the new summer Sauvignon Blancs

If you're familiar with Sauvignon Blanc, it's easy to conjure up the powerful tropical fruit aromas and pungent green herb taste of Marlborough in the glass but tasting through the newest releases this year has been an exercise in finding wow-factor wines. The following are my best of the bunch of new Sauvignon Blancs - to date. The reasons why are these wines stand out from the crowd are many; winemaker experience is a big one, along with vine age, judicious use of lees-ageing to add ...

Best of - Wine of the week from Sicily

It's been a weekend of record high summer temperatures in parts of New Zealand, which makes the evocatively named Fumu an appropriate wine of the week, due to its volcanic origins on Mt Etna, Sicily.2021 Fumu Etna Rosso RRP $46.99Fumu means 'smoke' in Sicily and this compelling red wine comes from a place renowned for its smoky background - Mt Etna. The two grapes in this wine are considered indigenous to Etna - Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, both of which combine in this delicate look...

Tasty January and fresh new reviews - Brave Roots, Mason and Vino

One of the funny things about starting the New Year with a slightly dusty feeling is the flood of advice to abstain from all forms of alcohol for the month ahead. Dry January sounds miserable - why not enjoy fresh, lightly chilled dry wines on hot summer days? I'm happy to report that I've found an alternative. It's not dry.It's that funny old thing call moderation and like most wine lovers, I've sometimes struggled with it, due to loving the taste of wine but I discovered several years ago now ...

Reflections from a life in progress - and what's in my wine glass

Anyone who has read Birdsong might be interested in the latest offering from Sebastian Faulks, whose reluctancy to write an autobiography might just be the reason that his is such a good read. Fires Which Burned Brightly was published last year and is a compelling blend of poignant post-World War II anecdotes, interwoven with spicy takes on his life as a writer from Fleetstreet journalist in the 1970s to being an author now. An excellent section is devoted to wine, which he adores and ...

Blank Canvas: Innovating new varieties and places

When Sophie Parker-Thomson and Matt Thomson launched their Blank Canvas wine brand in 2013, they shared a vision to create wines that would become an emblem of site and place. Ten years on, their latest Pinot Noirs definitively show their commitment to that vision with both Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc showing two sides to their respective vinous coins, in terms of winemaking influence (lees work in Sauvignon Blanc, for instance) and choice of place (particularly for Pinot Noir).Blank Canvas i...

Best of Gimblett Gravels 2023 reds

The 2023 Gimblett Gravels® Annual Vintage Selection is more than a snapshot of a single season; it is a testament to perseverance, adaptability and the quiet heroism of those who work with the land. These six wines do not shy away from the story of their year - they embrace it, reflecting its challenges and joys.In doing so, they remind us that great wines are not only shaped by their growing conditions, but by the courage to keep going when perfection is out of reach.It takes courage to make w...

Next of Kin - new wines from Central Otago

If new experiences and places are on your wish list this summer, a visit to Kinross in Central Otago will go a long way to sating both your thirst and a desire for a new experience. The owner and general manager of Kinross, Thomas Moschetta, got in touch with me prior to Xmas to show his latest range of wines from the deep south; specifically from Central Otago's cool climate historically important winemaking valley - Gibbston, where Kinross is situated.Gibbston Valley is the cool corridor that ...

Forager forges a new path

As the year draws rapidly to a close and many of us are planning to give our wrists a rest from the keyboard, future plans are taking shape at Greystone Wines in North Canterbury, from which Dom Maxwell has resigned to after 21 years. He is leaving to carve out a new Cantabrian future for himself and his family, building up his own brand - Forager. While Maxwell's shoes will be large to fill, the role has a talented new winemaker in Georgia Mehlhopt and Paul Donaghy will take over from Dom ...

Best of - five fab festive fizzy wines

Fizz is tracking up right now and with good reason as the festive season is here with growing demand for sparkling wine, even though wine sales have taken a global nose dive.If there one category of wine that's under rated and absolutely over performs in Aotearoa New Zealand, it's sparkling wine. From the warm, humid climate of Gisborne to the deep southern region of Central Otago (in all its diversity from Wanaka to Alexandra), sparkling wine shines in this country - and here are five top drops...

A taste of Tohu

With invitations coming at us from all directions this month, here's another one - to try and enjoy three new wines from Tohu, a South Island based wine producer with wines made from a wide variation of regions - Marlborough and Nelson. These two regions may be pretty close by, as the crow flies, but they are worlds apart in terms of their climates and soils; two incredibly important factors in determining the style of a wine and how it tastes. Here are three wines from Tohu, including...

Champagne-inspired Remy launches for festive season

Where were you 12 years ago? It's a question guaranteed to elicit a wide range of responses from good to not so good to indifferent but whichever memories spring to mind, we all know that a lot can happen in 12 years. There are many rabbit holes to dive down if we were looking in depth at the past 12 but this column is about depths of another kind - the sparkling wine kind, thanks to a bubbly that has taken that time to be made. That wine is Cuvée Remy and it was launched this week. It's a...

A new Prosecco Superiore lands in Aotearoa - is it any good and why?

Prosecco may be the darling of sparkling wine drinkers everywhere, but let’s be clear: there’s Prosecco, and then there’s Prosecco Superiore. The latter could be called Prosecco for grown-ups. It's a noticeably better wine, made from grapes grown in the heart of Prosecco-land - the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene hills (a sub-zone of 107 hectares and a UNESCO heritage listed site) where machine harvesting is impossible, hand work in in the vineyard is imperative and the resulting wines are t...

Greywacke - an overnight success that's 43 years in the making

It's often said that behind every overnight success, there's 20 years in the making but it's been a longer game for Kevin and Kimberley Judd, who were were given the Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award for 2025 this week. Not bad for a couple who only planned to remain in Aotearoa New Zealand for three years when they first arrived in 1983.  “Kevin’s influence on Marlborough’s global reputation has been profound, through the extraordinary wines of Cloudy Bay and Greywacke...

Three decades in the glass - Ata Rangi Pinot Noir

Ata Rangi also has this column to its website - read and find out more here.  Martinborough has forged a reputation for Pinot Noir but few wineries have as long a track record of making it as Ata Rangi and none have the continuous family ownership that this winery has, which made it a meaningful experience to taste wines stretching back 34 years in a single sitting this month.The Ata Rangi retrospective tasting was hosted by wine collector and professional John Penney, who had cellared...

Winning wine for summer

If you love wine and drink it regularly, how would you describe Riesling?This wine of the week can be accurately described as a winner thanks to taking home the Antipodes Trophy for Champion Riesling at the National Wine Awards of Aotearoa New Zealand 2025; a competition that began in 2022 and has grown to become one of the most significant wine competitions on the annual calendar in this country. This wine has a great story behind its name and even more enticing flavours in the glass. ...

Is the gap closing in wine styles?

If asked to name the best Sauvignon Blanc in Aotearoa New Zealand, which wine - or region - springs to mind first? It might be Marlborough but a new release from Hawke's Bay gave me pause for thought this week - a day after I was taken to task for immediately naming a long list of Marlborough wines. Not that I am saying the new release in this column is New Zealand's top Sauvignon Blanc but it is a convincingly outstanding wine that makes me wonder if the gap is closing between regions and ...

More from Mora

Pinot Noir is king of Central Otago's vineyard area while Pinot Gris is queen, in terms of numbers. Together, these two incredibly popular grape varieties - and the wines they make - define the southernmost wine region in the world, Central Otago. But while Pinot Noir is well known as the hero grape variety, Pinot Gris is still carving a niche for itself. This latest Gris from the deep south is an excellent expression of a warmer area within a cool climate region; Bannockburn. This majestic...

Spring preview tasting Big Sky Pinot Noirs

This column was first published in the Martinborough Star, November 2025Robin Williams once said that spring is nature’s way of saying ‘let’s party’, which is a nice idea until a spring like this year’s one comes along and closes bridges, roads, cuts power and wreaks the kind of havoc that doesn’t feel like a party. Fortunately, spring is also the season for new wine releases to hit shop shelves and wine lover’s glasses. And that’s a party. The first wines of the year a...

Great Greek white and what's in my glass this week

Clare Valley has become the first place in Australia to successful grow and make a great white wine from the Greek Assyrtiko grape and Jim Barry Wines has become the first producer to do so. This year, Sam Barry (third generation winemaker) was in New Zealand to launch the ninth vintage of Jim Barry Assyrtiko (featured below as a wine of the week) and this wine brings new complexity to the Australian wine scene.The story began in 2006 when Peter Barry was on holiday with his wife, Sue, in Santor...

Wild wines from Central Otago

Wild Earth Wines puts Central Otago's dry white wine foot forward this week with two new releases, which are reviewed here. But first, what Central Otago does red and white wine production look like today? The region is diverse with vineyards spread far and wide from Alexandra, Bannockburn and Bendigo to Cromwell, Gibbston, Northern, Pisa and Wanaka, to name the best known parts of Central. Red wine rules the roost here with Pinot Noir accounting for 1,765 hectares of the region's total 2,1...

Soho's second sparkling (and other releases) for festive season

Soho Wine Co is based on the outrageously beautiful Waiheke Island - a tropical paradise in the Hauraki Gulf, about 40 minutes' boat ride from Auckland city where the temperature is warm, the beaches look pristine and the undulating landscape is home to vast tropical plants worthy of a place on any Californian film set. So it's understandable that Soho founder and owner, Rachael Carter, would choose to have a cellar door home base for her brand on Waiheke but her family also owns a vineyard ther...

Ten of the best bubbles

From featherlight fizz to vintage Champagne, sparkling wine is firmly on our radar at this time of year - "our" being you and I since I'm assuming you're a wine lover, if you're reading this column. What with the cost of everything heading in one direction right now - up - the good news is: sparkling wine comes in a wider range of styles and prices than ever before and most are widely available. The latest issue of Drinksbiz magazine is out this week with my annual sparkling wine report, so...

End of a ground breaking era for Millton Vineyard

It is the end of a pivotal era in modern winemaking in Aotearoa New Zealand - Millton Vineyard has announced the end of its brand and the pioneering work done to spearhead organic and biodynamic wine production in this country."After more than 41 vintages, we have chosen to retire the vineyard and now look forward to spending more time with our family," says co-founder and owner Annie Millton. The estate was founded in 1984 by Annie and James Millton and while this chapter of the Millton st...

Huntress' unbreakable bond with the land

Jannine Rickards has forged a close relationship with nature since childhood, growing up on a farm in the Coromandel where she felt the inextricable connection to the land that defines her philosophy in food and wine today. The creation of the brand Huntress Wines in 2017 furthers her resolve to express that connection in both the bottle and the bounty of her hunting - when precious time allows, but that's another story. This week, Jannine popped over one sunny afternoon to taste her t...