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Southern wines with a new look – Three Miners tasting notes

Paul and Kirsten Wright have given their Three Miners wine brand a new lease of life with a makeover that depicts the pioneer men who mined the land for gold in the harsh conditions of the deep south of New Zealand. And this week I tasted their latest trio of new release wines, all made from grapes grown on their vineyard in Earnscleugh Valley, mid way between Alexandra and Clyde. This area is the most eastern, southern, driest and coldest of all Central Otago grape growing areas. Soils are s...

Southern wines with a new look – Three Miners tasting notes

Paul and Kirsten Wright have given their Three Miners wine brand a new lease of life with a makeover that depicts the pioneer men who mined the land for gold in the harsh conditions of the deep south of New Zealand. And this week I tasted their latest trio of new release wines, all made from grapes grown on their vineyard in Earnscleugh Valley, mid way between Alexandra and Clyde. This area is the most eastern, southern, driest and coldest of all Central Otago grape growing areas. Soils are s...

Happy International Sauvignon Blanc Day

Nutty dry whites, here I come. Words like palo cortado and amontillado, aged Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay are the usual ones to spring to mind when thinking of nutty dry whites but it’s International Sauvignon Blanc Day today and I’ve just tasted four fascinating older Sauvignons (with a portion of older oak fermentation) from one of New Zealand’s smallest wine regions. Martinborough’s eastern sub area of Te Muna (same soils and climate, only on interesting terraced vineyards)....

Join me at 5pm tonight for a virtual tasting… FREE and fun

Click THIS LINK at 5pm tonight for my virtual International Sauvignon Blanc Day tasting: https://www.facebook.com/events/379507429667993/...

NZ’s best winery restaurant enters a new era

Pegasus Bay Winery restaurant has won more awards than any of its peers over the past decade, deservedly so, as anyone who has eaten there will attest – and this week the family who owns it has announced a new lease of life as a private events venue – “It’s been a tough decision but we feel confident it’s the right one for now,” says Edward Donaldson, marketing manager (pictured below left)....

Two fresh wines from Whitehaven for International Sauvignon Day

Pictured above; Marlborough on a typically stunning day If you’re anything like me, you may feel the need to get out and celebrate something (anything) to have a break from being batoned down over the past few weeks, and this Friday 1 May offers an ideal reason to – it’s  International Sauvignon Blanc Day. This wine is the secret of the New Zealand wine industry’s runaway success on the international wine stage because Sauvignon makes up 85.6% of the country’s wine exports. It...

Join me for a virtual tasting this Friday with Whitehaven

Virtual wine tasting party… Friday 1 May at 5pm for 15 minutes of fun Join me for a virtual tasting this Friday at 5pm with one of Marlborough’s first wineries in this country’s modern winemaking industry; Whitehaven, which has a new winemaker called Peter Jackson (not that Peter Jackson) and fresh new 2020 wines fermenting, as I write....

Wines of the week in lockdown, Chardonnays high and low

Chardonnay is the world’s favourite white aand here are two wines which speak for themselves, a tasty humble little French Chardonnay from Macon in southern Burgundy and a big, creamy, complex, nuanced dry white from winemaker Rod McDonald in Hawke’s Bay. ...

Early reports of vintage 2020 in lockdown

Anxiety levels have been running high for many of us lately, but especially so for those who have been allowed to continue working alongside others at a safe distance during Covid-19, such as vintage workers for the wine industry....