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Five (very) good Pinot Noirs under $25

Is it possible to buy great Pinot Noir for less than $20? The short answer is: no. But, inspired by a couple who attended Winetopia in Wellington in the weekend, I thought the time was nigh to share my five best buy recommendations under $25, which is the threshold (if you know where to shop) for very good quality Pinot on a budget. It may be more than you’d ideally like to spend on a weeknight red but how big is the dent that take out coffees make in your wallet each week? Perhaps it means...

Best new release, 21 May 2021, 2017 Doctors Flat Pinot Noir

Many people have a dream retirement job while others retire so that they can dream. Steve Davies was in the first camp when he longed for a small vineyard of his own to plant in grapes, make top notch wine and fund his later years and create a job he loves. In 2002, he began to do just that, buying about four hectares of land on a windy, elevated site on Hall Road in Bannockburn, Central Otago. He built a modest house, planted three hectares of Pinot Noir right next to it and has since set ab...

Best new release, 19 May 2021, 2019 Zen Chardonnay

Tony Bish is, for many, the Hawke’s Bay king of Chardonnay. Not that he is alone in producing superlative dry whites in New Zealand’s second biggest wine region. He has earnt the mantle as King of Chardonnay because he has dedicated his Urban Winery (a bar, restaurant and working winery) entirely to Chardonnay; the world’s most popular wine grape. The wine at the top of his Chardonnay tree is called Zen and it’s not cheap. A single bottle goes for $139.99, give or take, depending on w...

First International Viognier Day launches

It’s big, it’s bold, it’s voluptuous and it nearly died out last century, but now Viognier has its own international day. The first International Viognier Day was launched this year by Yalumba Wines. This South Australian winery has done much to revive this grape’s flagging fortunes by working on Viognier clonal selection and setting up the first ever Viognier Symposium in 2002 as well as encouraging other wineries to produce this full bodied, flavoursome white wine, which has distinc...

Homage to Cabernet Franc

It’s not exactly the green turtle or the reptilian hawksbill turtle (both now in sanctuary in the Philippines, a rare success story) but Cabernet Franc is one of the rarer great red grape varieties in the world and it has now declined by nearly 50% over the past 10 years in New Zealand. Is it because it has never been ranked as highly as Cabernet Sauvignon, which has also dropped to 219 hectares from 519; a more understandable decline since it is so tough to ripen Cab’ Sauv’. French win...

Sauvignon Blanc Day 7 May

Tomorrow is International Sauvignon Blanc Day and it’s especially important to New Zealand, the world HQ of Sauvignon Blanc. The most planted grape in New Zealand and responsible for over 85% of this country’s wine exports, Sauvignon Blanc is made in an increasingly wide range of styles from upfront, fruity and off dry to creamy, complex, new wave fumé styles to dry, flinty wines that bear more than mere passing resemblance to good Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé. Enter the new 2020 Hunter’...

Small can be good too – vintage 2021

A very cool, very dry summer with very low rainfall means two things for New Zealand’s biggest wine region this year; low volumes of wine but extremely high quality, if the earliest tastings and reports are anything to go by. Yesterday I was lucky enough to taste wines from one of this country’s best wine producers, Clos Henri in Marlborough. And I use the word best sparingly because it has become so over used. The winery is owned by the French Bourgeois family, who have been making wine ...

From family garage to fully fledged winery…

This year, 2021, marks Pegasus Bay’s 30th vintage since the winery’s humble beginnings in the family garage in Christchurch back in 1991. Ivan and Chris Donaldson planted some of the first vines in Canterbury in 1971 when he was a consultant neurologist who started making wine as a hobby in the garage at home and, surprised by the depth of his family’s interest in wine, he and Chris then purchased land in the Waipara Valley in North Canterbury in 1986. The couple’s four sons are ...

New bubbles day launches in Marlborough

A group of 12 Marlborough winemakers are embracing the late Lily Bollinger’s mantra to drink top notch bubbles any time, to celebrate with it when happy and commiserate with it when sad. The ‘it’ in question is  New Zealand sparkling wine made by members of Méthode Marlborough, a group of likeminded winemakers who use 100% locally grown grapes and the traditional French method for producing their sparkling wine. The group launched their first annual Méthode Marlborough Day at the...

Wines of the earth from Urlar

Urlar means of the earth in Gaelic and is a fitting name for wines made from grapes that are certified organic and grown biodynamically. The winery was started by Angus and Davinia Thomson, who have now sold the business, but who laid the foundations for a winery that lives up to the integrity of its certified organic, biodynamic claims. This week I tasted three of this relatively small winery’s new wines, which I have reviewed here. 18.5/20 2019 Urlar Gladstone Pinot Gris $25 Dry, rounded,...

Spritzy best wine of the month

If you’ve ever stumbled onto this website before, it will come as no surprise to find a mini rave about Riesling, one of my top five wine grapes and wines in the world. I know it’s very fashionable to talk dry and drink sweet, but I’ve always craved dryness in Riesling. It’s the succulence of the acidity that balances great Rieslings that really excites my mind and my mouth when drinking wines such as this outstanding North Canterbury dry white. North Canterbury has a long track recor...

A column for the under dog

Numbers aren’t everything but when it comes to commercial enterprises, they’re usually the most accurate measure of success, which brings me to a trio of bottles that I’ve been eyeing up on my tasting shelves all year. The trio in question is Chenin Blanc, one of the least successful grape varieties in New Zealand today, occupying about 20 hectares of the country’s grand total of 39,935 hectares of grapes growing nationwide.  There’s more than a hint of irony in that because Ch...

Small volume high quality vintage

Speed was of the essence this year when harvesting grapes in New Zealand’s biggest wine region this year, says Jane Hunter, managing director of Hunter’s Wines in Marlborough. Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are her top picks for vintage 2021. Volumes are down but quality remained relatively high, she said, when asked for her thoughts on vintage 2021. “Vintage 2021 was similar to vintage 2020 in terms of quality but vintage 2020 yielded slightly higher volumes of grapes. The biggest chal...

A church with a new lease of life

I tend to give organised religion a wide swerve these days after dabbling in it as a teenager, but this week I rediscovered a church worth visiting. It is the home of Clos Henri Wines in Marlborough and while not actually used as a church any more, the quaint little colonial building that houses this winery’s cellar door is the sort of place that encourages a reverential approach. It’s home to some of this country’s rare few single vineyard Sauvignon Blancs, all made entirely from estat...

Ups and downs of vintage 2021

Julian Grounds is the Pinot Noir loving winemaker at the helm of Craggy Range in Hawke’s Bay, a winery well known for its blockbuster Bay reds and sophisticated Chardonnay, despite the fact that 65% of this iconic winery’s production now comes from Martinborough. I asked him this week what the biggest challenges and greatest joys of vintage 2021 were. Here is our conversation, a fascinating insight into the inner workings of one of this country’s best known wineries. What has been the b...

Things we least expect

Joelle Thomson’s weekly blog about life, wine and other unexpected things It happens when you least expect it. When I finally realised my sister might not recover, or at least get a brief reprieve from her cancer, it quickly became clear that getting to see her in a remote part of Western Australia was a hard ask, at best. At worst, it was impossible to get there in time to say goodbye to her in person. The worst happened. Sue passed away this month and I never got to say goodbye in person,...

Autumn thoughts and wines

Joelle Thomson’s wines of the week are published every Friday, with occasional postings early – such as this week’s one… Vintage is in full swing here in Martinborough as I sit at my desk on a sunny, windy, sometimes cloudy, other times blue sky autumnal day. And Mother Nature really can be a bitch sometimes. The weather is living down to its reputation of being so dry that crops are naturally reduced by Mother Nature when she is at her harshest. The harvest this year is signific...

Courage and curiosity formed Chard Farm

Rob Hay first set eyes on the land that he planted in grapes at Chard Farm in August 1986. The arid slopes on the south side of Gibbston Valley were a merino sheep farm and locals regarded a vineyard there as an enormous waste of great farming country, but how times change. Yesterday’s lucrative farmland has become one of today’s most evocatively beautiful vineyards in the world. Chard Farm, for all its beauty, is not the only place vineyard that Rob owns or sources grapes from. When he p...

NZ Pinot Noir quality rising

Central Otago Pinot Noirs come in all shapes and sizes from light, fresh and fruity to deep, dense and full bodied because the diversity of this southernmost wine region in the world is enormous. Far from being a one trick pony, Central has at least four distinctive sub regions for grape growing, which is reflected in the wildly different styles of wine that come out of this vast area. In reality, there are more than four nuances and the areas include the Gibbston Valley (home to the earliest...

The story and wines of Mondillo in Central Otago

American born Domenic and Ally Mondillo developed 65 hectares of vineyard land in Bendigo in 2001 when they stuck vines on three terraces of arid land in this warm corner of Central Otago. It’s a long way from the United States to the world’s southernmost wine region but the couple pioneered their vast vineyard here because Domenic believed the warmer climate in Bendigo provided ideal ripening for grapes. The mix of grapes they grow reflects the region’s strong dominance in Pinot Noir; ...

New head for top Kiwi company

Wellingtonian Andrew Parkinson will take over as managing director of one of New Zealand’s biggest wine import and distribution companies this year, Negociants NZ. He will officially step into the shoes of managing director on 28 May 2021 when Clive Weston steps down after thirty years with the company, which includes Nautilus Wines of Marlborough in its portfolio. The news has a domino effect with Dean McHenry taking over from Parkinson as general manager of Negociants New Zealand (domesti...

Heartwood highlight from first Chardonnay Collection

Hawke’s Bay may usurp Gisborne’s spot as Chardonnay Capital of New Zealand yet. The second biggest wine region in the country (Hawke’s Bay) has just released its first official regional Chardonnay Collection with 12 wines, which I am tasting as I write. The region’s winemakers were invited to submit Chardonnays from the 2019 vintage to Cameron Douglas, a wine consultant and reviewer who also holds the Master Sommelier qualification. He was employed by Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers to cond...

Two new wine qualifications launch this year

Wine generates a cool $2 billion for New Zealand so two new courses are launching this year to transform our knowledge of this highly successful (and still relatively youthful) industry. Celia Hay is launching the new courses this year at the New Zealand School of Food and Wine, which she founded in 1995 in Christchurch, then relocated to Auckland in 2011 after the quakes. “The focus of the two new courses is building knowledge of New Zealand and international wine regions through tasting a...

New lease of life for an old Kiwi winery

One of Hawke’s Bay’s best known wineries has new owners and is once again entirely a New Zealand owned company. Mitch Plaw, director and one of the new Trinity Hill owners says he sees significant opportunities to grow Trinity Hill and looks forward to being part of its growth and development in the future.” The Hawke’s Bay based winery was founded in 1993 and was one of the best known early pioneers of wines made made from grapes grown on the now well known Gimblett Gravels sub-regio...

If you can’t beat it, join the rage for rosé

Southern French rosé may be the apex of dry, pale pink, light bodied wines to drink chilled in summer, but everybody is getting in on the act these days. The best of them live up to their refreshing promises but there have traditionally been few really high notes. This is changing, as a tasting this week of a $50 dry Spanish rosé (deep in colour but bone dry) showed me. There’s precious little of that wine so in lieu of suggesting it’s worth trying to track down something that’s impos...