Meet German Pinot Noir from Claus Bischoff
The photograph on this post is Spatburgunder in the Mosel. Image taken by Joelle Thomson.Two new German wines arrived in New Zealand this year from Weingut Claus Bischoff. Both are sealed with screw caps, which is good news for their travel-ability and reliability in terms of freshness because the variables of cork, such as taint and random oxidation, are gone. Germany is best known for white wines but move over Riesling, Sylvaner and even Grauerburgunder (Pinot Gris) because here come...
November 3, 2024Preview tasting of the long awaited Oraterra
Wilco Lam is fresh back in Martinborough from hosting a tasting to unveil the much awaited name, wines and brand that he has been working on for the past two years. “We wanted a name that we could own rather than the previous name (On Giant’s Shoulders) and one of the things that kept popping up was to focus on wines that were textural and related to Martinborough as a place rather than looking at its specific geographic features," says Lam, who brought a team of wine professionals with...
November 3, 2024Happy 30th birthday Wither Hills
Two new wines have been added to Wither Hills already extensive stable of wines this year to mark the winery's 30th birthday. "Three decades of experience means we know the Marlborough area like an old friend, with its quirks and interesting habits. We believe the best wines capture that character - a reflection of where they’ve come from," says Matt Large, head winemaker at Wither Hills. Two new Wither Hills wines17.5/202018 Wither Hills Méthode Traditionelle RRP $54.99This ye...
October 31, 2024Escarpment launches first Sauvignon Blanc
Martinborough's first winery to make four single vineyard Pinot Noirs has added a new string to its white winemaking bow this year and released its first ever Sauvignon Blanc from the 2024 vintage."Martinborough Sauvignon Blancs don't seem to have the aromatic intensity as those from Marlborough, due to the level of thiols in their wines," says winemaker Tim Bourne, who has created a varietally pure expression of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with viticulturist Rowan Hoskins.Fermentation has built...
October 30, 2024Maude Wines looks back at 30 vintages
Maude Wines turns 30 this year - happy birthday team Maude - and congrats on coming a long way in a short time.Talk about being a far cry today today from its quiet beginnings as a retirement project in the early 1990s, for potter Dawn and rural GP Terry Wilson.Sarah-Kate Dineen is the daughter of the founders and she says her parents did everything but the winemaking. They searched for and found a suitable site (a steep north facing slope on glacial moraine), bought it, planted grapes and emplo...
October 25, 2024Lifetime awards to Marlborough icons
Five people from three different areas of the wine industry have been recognised with Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2024.They are: Ben and Frances Wickham, of Ormond Nurseries; Rob Agnew, climate scientist and Daniel and Adele Le Brun of No 1 Family Estate. “It’s no secret that Marlborough is home to many winemakers and winegrowers who have been working hard at their craft for some decades now. Alongside them, we have experts in many areas, including the likes of our ...
October 21, 2024Marlborough Wine Show winners 2024
Marlborough’s flagship wine takes top award at 2024 Marlborough Wine ShowThe variety that put Marlborough on the map as one of the world’s top wine regions has been crowned the wine of the 2024 Marlborough Wine Show, sponsored by QuayConnect.The 2024 Yealands Estate Single Block L5 Sauvignon Blanc won the top award at this year's show with Chief Judge Stu Marfell describing Sauvignon Blanc as a standout in the show, both for the new 2024 vintage wines, but also the legacy category. ...
October 21, 2024Maude Wines turns 30
Determination, blind optimism and a steep north facing slope were three of the key ingredients in the formation of Maude Wines, which turns 30 this year. The wines have paid "unimaginable dividends both in terms of wine excellence and family unity," says second generation winemaker Sarah-Kate Dineen, who is the daughter of the founders and makes the wines today with her husband, Dan Dineen. It is an incredible privilege to share their journey, both in the glass and the story that Sarah...
October 20, 2024Wine news from the coal face in Gibbston Valley
Coal Pit Winery owners have announced they are planing a new wine hosting facility on site at the winery, which is situated up the winding, steep Coal Pit Road in the Gibbston Valley in Central Otago. The evocatively named winery's new tasting facility is scheduled to open in 2025 and will see the wine brand bring all of its wines home to its vineyard and winery rather than offering tastings at a shared facility called Kinross, also in the Gibbston Valley. I love the views across the valley...
October 20, 2024Wine of the month 2023 Pegasus Bay Bel Canto
Tasting of the month (October) in Wellington, New ZealandThe tasting of this month in Wellington was dedicated to a grape variety that won the mantle of Best in the World at the Judgement of London in May 2024, taking everybody by surprise to see a dry wine from a relatively small region in the South Island of New Zealand win. Yes, we are talking about Riesling, specifically Pegasus Bay Bel Canto Dry Riesling. A wine with typically about five grams of residual sugar, sometimes a little less, alw...
October 17, 2024New releases from Yealands
White wines rule the vinous roost in Marlborough with 81% of its vineyard area planted in Sauvignon Blanc, 9% in Pinot Noir, 4% each in Chardonnay and Pinot Gris and 1% in Riesling. This leaves lesser known grape varieties, such as Albarino and Gewurztraminer, to make up a mere smidgeon of vineyard plantings in Marlborough today. It’s an important smidgeon, however, given that having all of one’s eggs in one basket is often been seen as a tad risqué. Marlborough’s success with Sauvi...
October 15, 2024Humbling hospice auction highlights
One year and three days after my sister, my daughter, my beautiful Mum's partner and our wider family and I said our last goodbye to Mum, I was lucky enough to attend the 2024 Hawke's Bay Charity Wine Auction. This year the auction raised $325,697 for the Cranford Hospice. Mum would have loved this event - for the bubbly, the festive spirit of celebration in giving (she was one of life's givers) and for the incredibly humbling spirit of generosity because 100% of the funds raised go directly to ...
October 14, 2024Wines of the week out of left field... Chenin Blanc in New Zealand
Precious and little are two words that describe Chenin Blanc in New Zealand today. There is barely any of it to speak of, with about 22 hectares and dropping, at last count, but what is produced here is staggeringly good, as this week's duo of Chenin Blancs show. The first comes from the Dicey brothers, James and Matt, in Central Otago. The second is from two generations of winemakers at Forrest Estate in Marlborough.18.5/202024 Dicey Chenin Blanc RRP $40Here’s another side of Central Otago an...
October 7, 2024Spring has sprung and so has a 2024 red
Spring is here in all its variety of sunshine, birdlife, frost and wind and so is a tasty young red from a vineyard in Central Otago, which is made from grapes grown this year, 2024.This is a wine that was made to drink slightly chilled to celebrate its light-ish tannins and fragrant aromatic appeal. This means about 20 minutes in the fridge. It was made from a single site and a single clone of Pinot Noir grown on Mora's vineyards in Central Otago. Without further ado, here is my wine of the wee...
September 21, 2024Hawke's Bay Charity Wine Auction raises $335,697 for Cranford Hospice
Highlight of the weekend; being at the Hawke's Bay Charity Wine Auction in a room full of people who were happy to give to the Cranford Hospice, including the purchase of one lot of wine (Te Mata Coleraine), only to gift it back for re-auctioning. This meant that the particular lot of wine was effectively auctioned twice, raising $34,500 of the grand total of $335,697 that will go to the Cranford Hospice this year. This amount is the total that the hospice will receive. All operating costs of th...
September 15, 2024Wine of the week; 2023 Tony Bish Golden Egg Chardonnay
Chardonnay is king and queen of the global wine scene, no rhymes intended, because it is the most popular wine in the world and is widely tipped to be the most planted grape variety on Earth. It is also the top drop at Tony Bish's Urban Winery in Napier, an historic building he has refashioned into the commanding nerve centre of his Chardonnay devoted winery. He is the sole winemaker in Aotearoa New Zealand and in Australasia to devote his entire production entirely to this great white gra...
September 13, 2024New releases from Folding Hill, September 2024
Folding Hill is a small wine brand situated in Bendigo, one of the driest of all wine sub regions in Central Otago. Evocative by name and by location, it is owned by Tim and Nikki Kerruish, who own an off the grid home on their vineyard and pour their time, resources and love of wine into building up this brand. All wines are now sealed with screwcaps after earlier years with a mixture of screwcaps and cork closures for the top tier wines. This is a brand to watch. 17.5/202022 Fol...
September 10, 2024Rapaura Springs reviews September 2024
Rapaura Springs has released these three single vineyard, site expressive wines this month and each wine highlights the diversity of Marlborough as a wine region. It may be heavily dependent on Sauvignon Blanc but the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir here are clear examples of two other strong instruments in its vinous orchestra. 19/20 2024 Rapaura Springs Bull Paddock Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Bull Paddock began its productive life as a farm, as the name implies, but today it is on...
September 10, 2024What I'm drinking this Friday 5 September 2024
Waitaki Valley is the smallest wine region in Aotearoa New Zealand with three wineries and 52 hectares of vines producing grapes each year, making it a modest size by anyone's count. It is also under the radar in profile and best explained as North Otago due to the fact that there is no shortage of wine regions in this country beginning with the Māori prefix 'wai', which means water. To put it in context, Waitaki Valley is far away from Central Otago and has a distinctly different climate ...
September 6, 2024New reds from Mission Estate, August 2024
Mission Estate is the oldest continuous working winery in New Zealand and its Huchet wines are named in honour of the first winemaker, Brother Cyprian Huchet, the son of a French winemaker from the Loire Valley, who became the first winemaker in New Zealand at Mission Estate in 1871. These wines span the gamut of price from excellent wines at RRP $29 to top reds named in honour of Brother Huchet. Here are my reviews. 19/202019 Mission Huchet Gimblett Gravels Syrah RRP $170This ex...
September 3, 2024Wine of the week 2021 Trinity Hill The Gimblett
August is the coldest month in Aotearoa New Zealand and with one more night to go until spring has sprung, here is a fitting tribute to one of the world's great wine regions and great wine producers; Hawke's Bay and Trinity Hill. This wine is also a fitting one to pour on a chilly night. Wine of the week 19/202021 Trinity Hill Hawke’s Bay The Gimblett RRP $39.99Classic Bordeaux styled blend made by one of the best wineries in Hawke’s Bay today. This blend of Merlot and Cabernet highligh...
August 30, 2024And the restaurant of the year is... Craggy Range
Craggy Range Restaurant Named Winery Restaurant of the Year and Awarded Two Hats at the 2024 Cuisine Good Food AwardsCraggy Range Restaurant has been named Winery Restaurant of the Year for the sixth consecutive year at the 2024 Cuisine Good Food Awards.The restaurant was also named Best Restaurant and awarded the Supreme Award at the 2024 Hospitality New Zealand Awards."It's always an honour to be recognised by Cuisine Magazine, one of New Zealand’s longest-serving foodie institutions that ch...
August 30, 2024Weekly wine news... young winemaking awards, Rockburn resignation and more
Wine news is pouring in thick and fast in Aotearoa New Zealand and this month's sees the retirement of Rockburn Wines founding director, Dick Bunton ONZM, who has sold his stake in the company to the remaining founding directors, Chris James and Paul Halford.Rockburn's founder (one of them) retiresBunton's journey into viticulture began in 1991 with the establishment of a small hobby vineyard at Lake Hayes near Arrowtown. The first vintage released under the Hayes Lake brand in 1998 grew th...
August 30, 2024What's in my glass this Friday (& Saturday)... three whites for spring
Spring has yet to be sprung but if the warm breeze, blue skies and gentle sunshine are any indication today, it's coming soon. As are the late winter frosts. They always seem to hit at exactly the same time as the tenderest of spring buds begin to appear on the vine, on fruit trees and in the fields where lambs begin to gambol after long, hard, cold nights. This week has marked the start of tasting for an Aromatic Wine Report that is published annually in Drinksbiz magazine, which I am the ...
August 24, 2024Book your delicious Discover Te Muna weekend - October
Bookings are open now for the second weekend of Discover Te Muna Valley, an outstanding two day discovery of the spectacular valley that lies nine kilometres east of Martinborough wine village.This is the second Discover Te Muna weekend. Our first event was in August this year and I am delighted to be the presenter of the first day, hosting tastings and sessions in which we dip our toes into the wines of Te Muna Valley, metaphorically speaking, that is. The weekend is all about discovery; of the...
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