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When is the 'right' time to drink wine?

It's rare to remember a conversation held 12 years ago with as much clarity as this one but such is the power of great wine and ideas when they collide. The conversation in question was held over a bottle of aged Barolo shared with a wine marketing man Ed Donaldson, who said "This wine reminds me of a plan that our family has put in place because we're really aware that people drink our wines as soon as they're released, which is basically too young to taste what we're aiming for. Because we lov...

"In victory I deserve it, in defeat I need it"

Winston Churchill famously consumed a bottle of Champagne Pol-Roger every day throughout World War II, which is sometimes hard to believe, given the scarcity of availability of champagne during the war, but it's a good story. And it's one I was reminded of this week for more reasons than one but the key reason was the late, great man's famous words "In victory I deserve it and in defeat I need it" - or something alone those lines. A visiting friend delivered a champagne to my doorstep to taste a...

Best of the West - Vasse Felix Cabernet Sauvignon

Driving south through the burnished red landscape and relative lushness of Perth city to its nearest and dearest wine region - Margaret River - is a feast for the eyes and the tastebuds. I returned less than a week ago from a first-ever visit to this great wine region, in which I found myself for a very old friend's wedding rather than an in-depth wine tour but both were on my agenda.This was my pick of the wines I was able to try while there. More to come as there will be many other visits...

Vintage comes early to NZ 2026

Harvest is underway and about to begin across New Zealand’s wine regions as the industry prepares for the 2026 vintage, which is shaping up to be the earliest one yet, says New Zealand Winegrowers.Northland kicked off on 23 January, followed by Hawke’s Bay and, in more recent weeks, Marlborough and North Canterbury have begun to harvest grapes. Central Otago is looking slightly later this year. “January to March are critical months for growing and ripening grapes. We are looking forwa...

Will the real low alc' wine please stand up

"You have to be a mountain goat to work on these slopes," said Dr Ernst Loosen when speaking to a packed room of wine devotees in Wellington last month. Dr Loosen (as the winemaker and his eponymous wines are known - pronounced 'low-zen') is one of the wine world's most articulate ambassadors. And the slopes in question are impossibly steep, blanketed in vines as they flank the banks of the Mosel River in Germany's most famous wine region; the Mosel.There are places that leave a positive im...

Looking Back at Kiwi Pinot Noir

This article was first published on TimAtkin.com on 18 February 2026Read this and other stories on Tim's website here.New Zealand winemakers have blazed a trail across the global white wine landscape with Sauvignon Blanc. Now the country’s most planted red grape, Pinot Noir, is demonstrating equally compelling potential, despite its comparatively short history.In terms of scale, Pinot Noir is still overshadowed by New Zealand’s dominant white grape, of course. Sauvignon Blanc commands 28,702...

Que Syrah Syrah - new plantings destined in Martinborough

Nga Waka Winery has purchased the Lismore Vineyard on the Martinborough Terraces, stony ground in the heart of one of New Zealand's smallest wine regions - the Wairarapa. Nga Waka winery announced this week that it has purchased Lismore Vineyard, an established site on prime real estate in Martinborough - the small town at the heart of the Wairarapa Wine Region."It’s a rare opportunity for such a prime site to become available on the Martinborough Terraces, and so, in a positive step in t...

Whitehaven Marlborough Wine - new releases

Whitehaven Marlborough Wines is a large winery with a firm focus on Sauvignon Blanc. It was founded by Sue and (the late) Greg White in the 1990s. This week the winery released three new wines this week, including an outstanding sparkling wine made using the same traditional methods as for champagne production. This large Marlborough winery is a member of Méthode Marlborough and Appellation Marlborough Wine, two organisations that uphold both authenticity of place and of production processes in...

Wine of the week - 2025 Mason Rosé

Wine of the week2025 Mason Rosé RRP $36This Martinborough rosé elevates the category of pink wine to another level with its rare dry taste. It's made entirely from Pinot Noir, which often sports powerful fruity aromas, which are held in check here, thanks to the thoughtful viticulture and winemaking by Paul Mason who ensures that the low 1.5 grams of residual sugar actually tastes as dry as it sounds. Aligned with dried berry aromas and crisp lingering layers of lemon juice, yuzu zest and a me...

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. ...