Joelle Thomson

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Hawke's Bay's impressive 2020s and 2021s

Posted on 4 October 2023Hawke’s Bay has had an impressive number of devastating natural disasters, of which Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year is the tip of the iceberg. The 1931 earthquake flattened much of Napier city, ensuring the rebuild created one of the world’s leading art deco cities, and there is regular rainfall and, surprisingly, even frost conditions in this diverse wine region. The 2023 vintage is far from ready for bottling yet but while we wait, there are wines from the outst...

Merlot that kicks ass

Of all the hackneyed expressions and well worn cliches, the term 'kicks ass' is hardly inventive  but here is a wine that really does put light bodied reds in perspective. I am suitably surprised by the power of this red, which features in a long line up being tasted and written about today.Merlot. It was the gateway soft, light and easy to enjoy smooth red wine back when Cabernet could not seem to fully ripen in New Zealand. And while Cabernet may still struggle on occasion to ripen, it do...

Wines of the week - new bubblies

Daniel and Adele Le Brun weren't messing around when they named their wine brand No 1 Family Estate. If it sounds like a lofty ambition to aim for the top, it only needs to be taken in context, which is that Daniel Le Brun comes from a family with 12 generations of winemaking in the Champagne region in France. He brings a lot of wine wisdom to this relatively youthful wine country, not to mention centuries of experience that he learnt while growing up. Not that every single wine produced at No 1...

The greatest global wine book's fifth edition

Great books are a subjective matter but there's no doubt that this one earns its place on the top shelf of all wine lovers. It is the long awaited fifth edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine.The 944 page tome was edited by a trio of respected wine writers, Julia Harding MW, Jancis Robinson OBE MW and Tara Thomas, as opposed to the first edition, which was released in 1994 and edited entirely by Jancis Robinson MW. It was no mean feat when the first edition was released, which was described va...

TK breaks new ground in Martinborough

One of New Zealand's most remote wine villages is having a new lease of life. Martinborough is a 90 minute drive from the windy capital city and its hospitality offerings have evolved in both subtle and ground breaking ways over the past four years, in tandem with growing visitor numbers. The new Runholder eatery, wine cellar and gin distillery is the newest on the restaurant horizon in this small village. Situated on the edge of the compact village, it breaks new ground in design with maje...

Wine of the week - best of Central's Pinot bunch

If Central Otago Pinot Noirs seem incredibly prolific, that's because Central is the southernmost wine region on Earth and its winemakers are devoted almost entirely to the cool-climate-loving Pinot grape variety. Pinot Noir occupies over 80 per cent of the region's disparate and highly varied terrain. Vineyards stretch from the western most, windy enclave of Lake Wanaka down to the arid moonscape like rocky soils of Alexandra, with the famous Bendigo, Bannockburn, Cromwell and Gibbston Valley w...

An expression of place... Rapaura Rohe reviews

Three new Sauvignon Blancs show how the influence of climate, proximity to the sea and free draining soils can create vastly different tastes in wines that are made from the same grape variety and the same broader region, in this case, Marlborough.This trio of Sauvignon Blancs are the Rohe collection from Rapaura Springs Wines in Marlborough. Rohe is the Maori word for territory and is a name used to pay homage both to Maori culture and land in New Zealand and also to the wine concept of place, ...

Defiant in name and in life, a toast to John McGrath

This week, the Wellington hospitality scene and the world lost a great friend, brother, son, lover of life and author, John McGrath. He loved wine and he especially loved aromatic white wines, so here is a toast to the man that many of us called Five Star McGrath. He will be missed by many and his life will be celebrated on Saturday 2 September. Here's to you, John.WIne of the week2021 Domain Road The Water Race RieslingRRP $27www.domainroad.co.nzCool sorbet, hot day and promising flavours of li...

How high can you go on a bottle of wine? $175, anyone?

What is the most expensive thing you have eaten consumed? And did you see the value in it?The most expensive wines are often such labours of love that they do not even make it to the commercial bottling line, but remain either in barrel or in a small bottle run for family and friends of the producer. It is always a privilege to try wines such as those, which happens infrequently but regularly enough to be a reminder that the best winemakers love creating something special, even if it doesn't alw...

Two different takes on Central Otago Pinot Noir

To be awarded best in the world is a tall order in any industry, let alone the world of Pinot Noir, which reveres Burgundy but generally holds that all other regions of the wine world can't quite hold a torch to it, but there are a growing number of wine regions that are home to extremely good Pinot Noir today. Central Otago is one of them. One of its wines took out the title of best in the world when the 2006 vintage of Wild Earth Pinot Noir was awarded the Trophy for Best Red Wine and Champion...

Trail blazer Dr Neil McCallum honoured this year

"I loved wine and, if I love something, I have to pursue it," says Dr Neil McCallum, founder of Dry River Wines in Martinborough.This year, he was recognised at a dinner in Martinborough with fellow early Pinot Noir pioneers, Derek Milne (soil scientist and co-founder of Martinborough Vineyards) and winemakers Larry McKenna (Martinborough Vineyard and then The Escarpment Vineyard) and Clive and Phyll Paton (Ata Rangi). It was not a linear journey into wine for McCallum, but the first wine t...

Four of the best for International Pinot Day

This year's International Pinot Noir Day was Friday 18 August and since this is typically the coldest time of year in New Zealand, here are four great Pinot Noirs that will see you through the entire month of August.19/202019 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir RRP $55.99This is one of my Pinot Noir highlights this year and tastes incredibly smooth with velvety mouthfeel supporting its plum and ripe dark cherry flavours. Succulent acidity stretches every complex sip to a lingering finish. The wine...

Tempted to buy a vineyard? Wine of the week, 17 August

"Are you tempted to buy a vineyard in Bendigo?" The question came out of the blue in the middle of a casual wine tasting. Was it a trick question? I wondered. How many wine writers buy vineyards? To be fair, there is a vineyard for sale in Bendigo, Central Otago, and it is Quartz Reef, whose founder-winemaker Rudi Bauer is firmly focussed on Pinot Noir. Like most Central Otago winemakers. The only difference is that approximately 40% of his Pinot Noir goes into producing a wine that is...

Que Syrah Syrah

Marlborough winery Saint Clair is best known for its many faceted takes on Sauvignon Blanc, which have not always been easy to navigate, even if they have been all deliciously different, sometimes by a mere fraction. It has been an interesting and tasty journey for wine drinkers and also for the winemakers at this large family owned winery. The sheer number of different wines, similar looking labels and all from the same vintage all managed to confound those of us to whom single vineyard wa...

First organic wines from Palliser Estate

They say good things take time and after 36 years, the time has finally arrived for Guy McMaster to release his first organic wines at Palliser Estate in Martinborough.The organics in question is certified organics with BioGro NZ. Not, as a fellow wine colleague once suggested, "organic wine - a totally meaningless idea."There is meaning in organic certification and there is also plenty of confusion, if the viewpoints I hear from wine drinkers at tastings is anything to go by. So the release of ...

Wine of the week... What makes a wine taste fresh?

Like drinking a lime sorbet with a touch of alcohol cleverly intermingled in, except this is wine, made from grapes and most definitely containing alcohol, despite its deceptively drinkable flavours. This is Riesling. And I like it not because it has a hint of sweetness but because of its other polarising attribute - acidity. This is what makes wine taste fresh; red or white or rose and sparkling wine, for that matter. The greatest structural asset of freshness in wine is acidity. This...

Alcohol free wine sales rise by 66%

Some may say that subtle aromas are exactly what's to be expected in a wine that has had its alcohol removed, but the quality of two such wines is so convincing that they have won awards at one of the world's biggest wine competitions. The judges at the 2023 International Wine and Spirit Competition’s (IWSC) awarded the Giesen 0% Alcohol Pinot Gris the Best Low-Alcohol Trophy (<1.2% alcohol/volume), praising its "subtle buttered stone fruit" aromas. “The palate is full with bold...

Gamay on a roll... First ever Gamay makes wine of the week

How much would you pay to try something that is touted as the next big thing but has also been described as lolly water, tart and inferior?That something is Gamay, also known as Beaujolais, which is the name of the French region that has been its home since Gamay was thrown out of Burgundy in 1395 by Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy at the time. He may have been onto something because there is no question that Pinot Noir has had a superior reputation ever since, but Gamay is having a bit of...

A lot to celebrate in Martinborough Pinot Noir

Martinborough is a small village that has made a big impact in the world of Pinot Noir, which is the queen of the region with 527 of the 1090 hectares of grapes planted in the area, which is known as the Wairarapa (not to be confused with Waipara Valley in North Canterbury - another great Pinot Noir region). This week, Martinborough winemakers and the Wairarapa Wine Region are putting their money where their mouths are by celebrating the region's earliest Pinot pioneers and its future leaders at...

Clare Valley reds

Taylors tasting July 2023The 2023 vintage was very tough in Australia and “It was one hell of a ride, the 2023 vintage and was a lot colder with a lot more rainfall so some of our growers found the yield was too high. Then again McLaren Vale is amazing fruit quality but yields that are way down and it was very tough in Coonawarra where it was almost too cold for us. Friends in the Yarra Valley it was almost too cold.  The wines we are looking at today generally come from amazing...

Highs and lows of harvest 2023 in Marlborough

Vintage 2023 is a year to remember for many reasons, not least for New Zealand winemakers. Cyclones in the north and a lack of sun in the south were followed by rain, rain and more rain, which made the year a tricky one, but it is far from being an unmitigated disaster, as the latest news from New Zealand Winegrowers shows. New Zealand wine exports grew to $2.4 billion, an increase of 25% for the year to May 2023. And while this is positive news for the industry as a whole, one of Marl...

Grasshopper Rock then and now

Extreme weather events have been so frequent and, well, extreme, this year that it's easy to forget how many people deal with them in the usual course of their working day - or year.One of the world's most southern vineyards  is a great example of how challenging it can be when working in an extremely cool climate.Grasshopper Rock is in Earnscleugh, just outside of Alexandra. This is the most eastern, the driest and the most frost prone of all wine growing areas in Central Otago. And Grassh...

Top drop of the week, Golden Egg

Where is New Zealand's leading region for Chardonnay? Auckland is home to Kumeu River Wines, which has achieved such remarkable accolades that an entire film was inspired by them in A Seat at Table. But does one great winery mean that an entire region can qualify as the leading area for a great grape variety?Gisborne is another contender. Its winemakers once claimed their region was the Chardonnay Capital of New Zealand but the region's overall production has shrunk dramatically over the pa...

The story of Big Sky

Producer profile - Big Sky, Te Muna Valley, MartinboroughPublished on Sunday 18 June 2023Welcome to Te Muna Valley. This dramatic, windswept landscape rises above the Huangarua River just nine kilometres east of Martinborough village but it felt like a world away when Jeremy Corban and Katherine Jacobs moved here in 2005 and purchased six hectares of established vineyard land, which they now call home. Jeremy Corban is a fourth generation New Zealand winemaker who has a degree in publi...

Putting your palate to the ultimate test...

Can you tell Chardonnay from Pinot Gris or Cabernet Franc from Cabernet Sauvignon? Or Gamay from Pinot Noir? It's not always as easy as it seems and to prove the point, Celia Hay has revived the national wine options competition under the guise of the National Wine Competition. This is the third year of the revamped competition and it kicks off in Martinborough on Tuesday 13 June with the Wairarapa Competition and dinner at the Martinborough Town Hall from 6pm. The host ...