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Marlborough's bubbly makers celebrate harvest 2023

Friday drinks with bubbles took on a new meaning this Friday (yesterday, that is) because it marked the end of harvest for a group of Marlborough winemakers who pick their grapes earlier than most. It was the official Méthode Marlborough Day and what better way to celebrate than with a glass of bubbly? I always enjoy getting up close and personal with good quality sparkling wines so it was a treat to try two that I am not so familiar with... Louis Vavasour Méthode Traditionelle NV and Johannes...

Winetopia 2023 tickets now on sale

Tickets havegone on sale for one of the biggest annual wine events in New Zealand, Winetopia, which takes place in Wellington at the TSB Arena from Friday 16 June to Saturday 17 June and in Auckland at the Viaduct Events Centre from Friday 21 July to Saturday 22 July.This year's event will see new presenters at the Wellington event, including Australian writer and wine critic Mike Bennie and filmmaker-wine educator David Nash. Long term presenters at Winetopia who remain this year include yours...

Playing favourites with Otago Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is king and queen for a vast number of red wine drinkers in New Zealand but not everybody loves the fruity styles made in many of this country's Pinot Noir regions, including Central Otago, which is far from one 'region' when it comes to wine. This was highlighted at a stunningly situated, if slightly chilly, wine festival held on the shores of Lake Wanaka this month called Ripe. It's a great name for a festival, alluding to wines that ideally taste their best when made from grapes th...

Tuesday drinks with... winemaker Lloyd Howes

Baths, bubbly and barbecues are among Lloyd Howes' favourite things, along with camping with his wife and making wine. This is his story of how his career took a vinous turn in his late teen years.  What took you down the wine rabbit hole and when did it happen?It began when I was about 19 years old and working in hospitality in Wellington. After long days and nights, I discovered there was some really good stuff out there. I was immersed in the wine and drinks world and came to really enj...

Tasting Spain in New Zealand

From Gisborne to North Canterbury and nearly every wine region in between, Albarino has found a footing that's more favourable than the long list of other newcomers to New Zealand's vineyard scene. Think of Sangiovese, Gruner-Veltliner, Marsanne, Roussanne, Arneis, Nebbiolo and, rumour has it, even a little Vermentino. There is no shortage of willing takers who have tried to create their own little slice of Spain, Austria or Tuscany in ... (fill in the region of choice) by planting interesting I...

Wine of the week - age brings beauty

It seems like only yesterday that winemakers in this country were asking if Kiwi Pinot Noirs could age positively but it was probably about 20 years back that there was any doubt. It's incredible what age can do, to both wines and their makers because this five year old Pinot Noir makes a good case for a glass half full attitude to how time can gently sway a slightly edgy youthfulness towards a seductively interesting wine from a great vineyard site.This wine is made from the oldest hillside vin...

Two Rivers winemaker Dave Clouston

Two Rivers is a winery named after the two most significant rivers in Marlborough; the Wairau and the Awatere. The company was begun in 2004 by winemaker David Clouston. This is his story.When were you bitten by the wine bug?As a young boy growing up in Marlborough, I was always fascinated with the wine industry. But It was my first vintage at Stoneleigh, Circa 1996, when I was 19, that I knew the wine bug had bitten.When did you form Two Rivers and where were you before then?Two Rivers was esta...

International Women's Day in wine

A French writer once said that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It's not the cheeriest outlook but fortunately some things do change, even if it is at a glacial pace. The gender pay gap may still exist but fortunately women working in paid employment is no longer a rarity, including careers that have traditionally been viewed as the bastion of men. Wine is a good example. Today women are found everywhere in wine from the vineyard to the board room and not only as helpers but ...

Friday drinks with Mike Bann of Rapaura Springs

Mike Bann has been the winemaker for Rapaura Springs in Marlborough since 2012 and has also made wine in Australia and Bordeaux.When were you bitten by the wine bug?I grew up in the retail liquor industry and my parents owned successful retail stores in New South Wales, Australia. Wine was a big focus for them. I became interested through listening and tasting wines with my parents over dinner, with sales reps and meeting some influential Australian winemakers.  I wanted to be a vet bu...

Martinborough in March - upcoming tastings

Dive into Pinot Noir with Joelle Thomson - 2 spaces leftMonday 6 March 6pm to 7.30pm, Cambridge Road tasting roomA global introduction to Pinot Noir with key wines and regions from three different countries: France, Germany and New Zealand. Wines range between $43 and $65 to compare like with like in quality levels.Bookings by email $50 per personEmail: mailme@joellethomson.com Recession Busters - top wines under $25 with Joelle ThomsonTuesday 28 March 6pm to 7.30pm, Cambridge Roa...

Wine of the week... NZ's love affair with Pinot Noir

It's no secret that New Zealanders are in love with Pinot Noir, which is probably why 73% of the vineyard area dedicated to red grapes is planted with Pinot Noir. It's not a lot though, if you break it down because this country's total vineyard area is 41,603 hectares of grapes and red varieties make up just 7,851 hectares of that, leaving over 33,000 hectares dedicated to whites, mainly Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up 85+% of the country's exports. The total amount of Pinot Noir growing in New ...

Wine of a very rainy week - Hawke's Bay Albarino

Saturday 25 February 2023Rain continues, heartbreakingly, to fall in Hawke's Bay where water levels start to rise again...As we contemplate the last weekend of summer in New Zealand, many could be forgiven for wondering if the first weekend of summer ever really arrived. It has been a wet summer by any standards, even in a maritime climate such as this country's but the rainfall, storms and cyclones this year are unprecedented and, as I write, the rain, heartbreakingly, continues to fall. It's n...

Friday drinks with Miles Dinneen from Hawke's Bay

He wishes he could sing, adores Bordeaux red wines and his literary wife and Miles Dinneen says he's at his happiest outdoors - any old hill or mountain will do. The Hawke's Bay winemaker commutes to Masterton to work at Matahiwi where he has worked his day job since late 2017. As he approaches his sixth vintage at the Wairarapa winery, Dinneen shares his thoughts about wine, life and how the cyclone has effected him.How has Cyclone Gabrielle impacted your role in the Northern Wairarapa?The...

Hawke's Bay Winegrowers launch relief fundraiser

Relief is on its way to Hawke's Bay today with the launch of a Cyclone Gabrielle fundraiser by Hawke's Bay Winegrowers Charitable Trust, which will match donations of $30,000, but is encouraging all donations, no matter how small.The cyclone has devastated many vineyards and fruit orchards, submerging vines and trees, which is likely to render many unusable in future, especially with further heavy rain forecasts. It is still too early to put a figure on the exact amount of devastation caused, ho...

Wine of a horrendous week in Hawke's Bay

Reports from friends and winemakers in Hawke's Bay say the devastation is worse than it looks online and on television news. Silt and sludge have washed away lives and livelihoods in New Zealand's second largest wine region, an area known as one of the fruit bowls of the country. Winemaker Jenny Dobson reports that she and her partner, Charles, are lucky because their house and property have survived while many are completely submerged."It's a real reset of life," says Dobson, who released ...

The notion of fine wine in a messed up world

The annual release of the Penfolds Collection wines sees the launch of the most collectible wine in the Southern Hemisphere (Penfolds Grange) and often sees its followers fall into two camps. In one camp are those clambering to get their hands on a bottle or a case of Grange while the other camp wonders about the notion of a 'fine wine' and whether cellaring for the future is worth it in such a messed up world. Fine wine has always been tricky terminology for some of us to get our heads around b...

Friday drinks with Mike Kush, the new GM of Shaky Bridge

Shaky Bridge Wines in Alexandra appointed a new winemaker and general manager this week with Mike Kush, who was born and bred in Chicago in the United States and has over 30 years of experience in wineries around the world, 15 of which were in New Zealand. Kush is the owner of the evocative wine brand, Chasing Harvest, named after his penchant for working dual harvests around the world, in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres. He is also studying for the Master of Wine qualification.Here ...

Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon - Wine of the week

A great white, modelled on the best dry wines from Bordeaux, France, but made in North Canterbury, New Zealand.Wine of the week, 8 February 202319/20 2020 Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon RRP $35.99Hot nights call for cool whites and this fleshy, full bodied, bone dry white blend casts a new light on New Zealand's most commercially successful white wine, Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up 70% of this wine and fermented in stainless steel to retain freshness and fruit purity. The 30% Semillon was ferm...

Growth in Bannockburn wineries

When was the last time you visited Bannockburn? If the name resonates more with mountain bikers more than wine lovers, it might be time to pay this majestic corner of the country a visit. Both biking and wine were on my radar late last year when a visit to Felton Road Winery's 25th anniversary lured me to the deep south. More on Felton Road later this week because the wines are definitely worth writing home about, so to speak. The trip also included an opportunity to cycle down the road, li...

Winemaker of the week... Dave Sutton of Te Kano

This week's interviewee is Dave Sutton, winemaker at Te Kano in Central Otago, who gives his responses to questions based on the famous Proust Questionnaire, originally propelled to fame in the late 1800s.  Dave Sutton deplores double standards, would love to live in Mexico and thinks physical beauty is the most over rated virtue. The softly spoken winemaker works at Te Kano in Bannockburn, Central Otago or should that be, Bannockburn and Waitaki Valley since the latter is the new home...

Wine of the week... 23 January 2023 - Clayvin Pinot Noir

When is the best time to drink Pinot Noir - when it's young or when it's old?Like people, wines age in very different ways and there's no reliable barometer, but a five year old Pinot Noir from Marlborough makes a great case for waiting half a decade, especially seeing as this wine comes from one of New Zealand's top vineyards, created by a visionary and now owned by a family of similarly minded winemakers.This is the first wine of the week for 2023... Many more to come.Wine of the week19/2...

The Hard Pressed Podcast and Chard Farm The Viper

As if the year hasn't been busy enough, a friend and wine lover suggested we launch a podcast. Great idea! I'm in, I said, about eight months ago. Last week, we finally did it, in the middle of work, family and other life busyness. The result is The Hard Pressed Podcast, which features this week's top wine, among other top shelf new Pinot Noirs from Chard Farm in Central Otago. It was a choice to make because the past month has been a liquid feast of great Pinot Noirs from Central Otago, firstly...

Five of the best... places to drink outdoors

This story was first published in Good magazine, December-January 22/23Where is your favourite place to drink wine? Warmer days and longer nights make the great outdoors seem like the ideal spot and with the classic New Zealand Xmas Day barbecue looming fast, it seemed like the ideal time to repost a story published in the latest issue of Good magazine, which I write for, about my top five outdoor wine experiences. If you’re anything like me, favourite drinking spots probably don’t invo...

Tasting note... 2022 Jules Taylor Chardonnay RRP $22.99

18.5/20 2022 Jules Taylor Marlborough Chardonnay RRP $22.99 This is the jewel in the crown of the new releases from Jules Taylor in Marlborough. Rich, creamy, smooth, full bodied, totally dry in taste with citrus flavours but complex oatmeal and toasted almond notes coming through in every long, succulent sip. Another Chardonnay that shows a hint of how great New Zealand Chardonnays can be. This wine is exceptionally well balanced, expressing ripe Chardonnay characters without the reliance on h...

Tasting note... 2022 Jules Taylor Pinot Gris RRP $22.99

17.5/20 2022 Jules Taylor Marlborough Pinot Gris RRP $22.99 Big, fleshy and flavoursome with ripe guava leading the taste in this accessibly soft and lightly spicy Pinot Gris. It has lovely weight and texture thanks to wild yeast ferments, lees stirring while ageing in barrel and also the sheer ripeness of the grapes in the wine. This is a sensationally flavoursome Pinot Gris with body to burn. Bring on the sunshine to enjoy this wine in....