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Aussie winemakers head to Winetopia

A South Australian contingent of winemakers heads to Winetopia for the first time next weekend in Auckland. For the past seven years, Winetopia has focused solely on showcasing New Zealand wine and food producers but this year Auckland attendees will also be able to enjoy a taste of South Australia thanks to Thorn Clarke Wines, Rymill, Unico Zelo, Metala, Dandelion Vineyards, Sisters Run, Yalumba, Geoff Hardy, Portia Valley,Organic Hill...

Newly disgorged MiruMiru wine of the week

It's been a long time between drinks, if you'll excuse the cliché. Tastings have usurped writing time this month so now it's catch up time and the first wine to make it here is the biggest seller for Hunter's Wines in Marlborough - MiruMiru. The word MiruMiru is Maori for bubbles and this one is made from 66% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir and 4% Pinot Meunier. It'a non vintage wine - or would it better be described as multi vintage since because it is a blend of grapes from many yea...

Dry River's new owner announced

The US based Robertson family behind acclaimed New Zealand properties Kauri Cliffs, The Farm at Cape Kidnappers & Matakauri Lodge have agreed to sell their New Zealand winery investment, Dry River Wines, to Wellington-based businessman Charlie Zheng, owner of Luna Estate as well as the luxury retreat Parehua Resort.Since the Robertson family purchased Dry River Wines in late 2002, they have substantially built on the legacy of the winery founders Dr. Neil and Dawn McCallum, who founded ...

Best yet? You be the judge of 2020 Le Sol Syrah - wine of the week

How much would you pay to taste New Zealand's best Syrah?  Questions of best and worst are fraught propositions at the best of times, if you'll excuse the pun and this month's release of the 2020 Gimblett Gravels Annual Vintage Selection reds definitely raises the bar on locally grown Syrah and blended reds based on Bordeaux varieties. This is the 13th Gimblett Gravels Annual Vintage Selection and it follows in the footsteps of the previous 12, which includes a dozen wines chosen each year ...

New Huntress Pinot Noir best yet - wine of the week

What's the most important decision in winemaking? It's a bit of cliché these days but it is true to say the most important winemaking decision is when to the pick the grapes. And the when is becoming earlier each year, says Wairarapa winemaker Jannine Rickards, who has just released the third vintage of Pinot Noir made under her brand, Huntress. Jannine says harvest is now typically the first week in March rather than the third week, which is a big change in the small Wairarapa region...

Week in the life of Bannockburn

The creation of a new organic vineyard in Otago, by a prominent French wine producer, is set to boost New Zealand’s exports and international profile. Bordeaux based Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines has been granted consent to acquire a 52 hectares estate with 34.5ha of vines in Central Otago’s Bannockburn, along with the Akarua Estate vineyard, which was founded in 1996 by former Dunedin mayor Sir Clifford Skeggs. Edmond de Rothschild Heritage is a unique, family-owned lifestyle brand, c...

Dry grown new wine of the week

New Chardonnay from old dry grown vines 18.5/20 2021 Tony Bish Skeetfield Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay RRP $67.99 A stunning new wine with bold flavours, a big body and a nuance of creamy appeal made from dry grown Mendoza Chardonnay grapes from the Skeetfield Vineyard. This was 100% barrel fermented and matured for 12 months in Taransaud French oak, which provides a subtle spicy note and structure without intruding on the powerful citrus zing and rounded white peach flavours. The finish is lon...

Friday drinks with Jules Taylor and her love of home

Jules Taylor says she immediately returned home to Marlborough to beg for her first job after she finished her winemaking studies at Lincoln University in Canterbury.  "I always imagined working in viticulture but after doing a vintage, I kind of got majorly sidetracked into winemaking. It was 1994 and the industry here was still small and we all know each other," she says. After working many vintages in Marlborough, Italy and Australia, Marlborough once again became home and in 2001, her f...

It's all about skin contact...

The day is looking distinctly pink or should that be pale pink through to deep salmon? There's a line up of pink wines in front of the computer and the colours seem to span every hue of the pink rainbow, if there was such a thing. It's a far more varied range of colour than it would be, if this was a line up of red or white wines.  Where does colour in pink wine come from? Why does it vary so widely and what does it suggest about the taste of the wine?  Firstly, it's a myth to bel...

Friday drinks with Church Road and Syrah

A century and a quarter is a long time for New Zealand’s young wine industry and that’s what the winemakers, media and many others in the wine industry, including yours truly, are celebrating tonight at Church Road winery in Hawke’s Bay. The winery makes one of this country’s most popular Chardonnays and smaller volumes of big bold fuller bodied wines, such as the iconic Tom. This range began with a Merlot dominant, Bordeaux inspired blend and now also includes a Syrah and a Chardon...

Behind every great rosé

Behind every great pink wine, there's a big market ready to lap it up and in the case of Poppies Rosé, this truth holds, despite a relatively high price tag - proving that there's no stopping the rise of rosé. This wine is made by Poppy Hammond for Poppies of Martinborough, a great lunch venue that is co owned and run by Poppy and Shane Hammond. Both the venue and the wines have proven to be so popular that it is essential to book to secure a table. Demand for the rosé has soared so productio...

Bull Paddock wine of the week, 31 August 2022

It was originally home to bulls and now Bull Paddock Vineyard is full of Sauvignon Blanc grapes at Dillons Point in the lower Wairau Valley, Marlborough. Here's my top pick of a bunch of great whites tasted over the past seven days. Wine of the week19/20 2022 Rapaura Springs Bull Paddock Sauvignon Blanc RRP $27.90 Bull Paddock Vineyard is at Dillons Point in the lower Wairau Valley in Marlborough and is home to what many winemakers believe are the highest quality Sauvignon grapes in the reg...

Where does the best Kiwi Pinot come from?

Which region makes the best Pinot Noir in New Zealand?  A winemaker with two decades of experience in Pinot Noir production suggests that no region is superior to any other and, to prove his point, Ben Dugdale has produced a triptych of Pinot Noirs from three extremely diverse climates. His new wines are called Pinot Brothers Circle B Pinot Noirs and they come from Bendigo in Central Otago, Waitaki Valley in North Otago and Martinborough in the Wairarapa."Each region produces supe...

Friday drinks with an unreliable, moody, thin skinned (but strangely likeable) red grape...

Haunting, subtle, thrilling and brilliant. Pinot Noir production is on the rise globally with a 24 per cent increase since 2021 according to Wine-Searcher. Pinot Noir has always been a problem child. Unstable, thin skinned and constantly changing so that it is unreliable at the best of times. It has a tendency to mutate a little too easily in the vineyard where it may have begun life as a red grape but may mutate into one with a white skin on one side and morph into Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, or P...

A new Dawn sparkling wine

Saint Clair Dawn NV RRP $37.99 Wines such as this one can tear at the heartstrings, given its history - it's a tribute to its eponymous namesake, Dawn Ibbotson, who lived to be 105 and inspired her family to make this wine in her name. Saint Clair Family Estates continues to make Dawn bubbly and this is the first multi vintage blend of the wine; 63% Chardonnay and 37% Pinot Noir with 30 months on tirage (less ageing). Beautiful flavours of fresh crisp green apples and a bold citrusy ar...

Friday drinks with Ben Dugdale, Martinborough winemaker

Ben Dugdale has made wine in Martinborough for the past two decades and believes that no region in New Zealand is better than any other when it comes to Pinot Noir - the flagship wine style of this small wine area. "Each region produces superlative Pinot Noir in a global context," says the Carterton resident. He has made wine at Dry River and for many others, including a long standing collaboration with Porters Pinot in Martinborough, which he describes as a true garagiste-style vineyard an...

Friday drinks with... Puneet Dhall

Puneet Dhall founded and owns the wine import and distribution company, Dhall & Nash, with Brandon Nash. The pair are based in different cities and have grown their company from a two person band to one with staff in three cities and a diverse range of brands from the big buttery Bogle Chardonnays to Billecart Salmon Champagne alongside New Zealand brands, Easthope and De La Terre from Hawke's Bay, among others.  Dhall changed his life's plan from a corporate career into wine relativel...

Trio of new Sauvignons - Eradus and Jules Taylor

Three crisp new 2022 Sauvignon Blancs 2022 Eradus Awatere Sauvignon Blanc RRP $19.99 Narrow terraces of vines flank the banks of the Awatere River where relatively high winds and cool sea breezes add to the struggle that grapevines endure in this rugged microclimate. Dry stony soils mean that vines need to dig deep to find water and the result is a beautifully fleshy Sauvignon Blanc in this wine, which expresses powerful green herb aromas, which are nicely intermingled with hints of tr...

Wine of the week - Isle of Man meets Central Otago

It's a long way from the Isle of Man to Bendigo and much as the Kerruish family is looking forward to the trip, they are not holding their breaths. Theirs is yet another story of how covid has irrevocably changed lives in unforeseen ways. A trip to Europe with their children before covid saw them locked down on Tim Kerruish's home on the Isle of Man during the early days of the pandemic and they remain on the isle today. Fast forward two years and they have secured work there, so coming back to ...

Friday drinks with Brent Marris of Marisco

Brent Marris established The Ned in 2006 in the Waihopai Valley in Marlborough on a site that he purchased and planted in 2004. His impressive career in wine continues the trajectory established by his father, who was one of the first to purchase vineyard land in Marlborough in 1973 for Montana Wines. Marris trained in winemaking at Roseworthy Agricultural College in Adelaide, gaining a Bachelor Of Applied Science in Oenology (winemaking) and becoming Marlborough’s first born and raised q...

Fifth Organic Wine Week 19 to 25 September

This year marks the fifth vintage of Organic Wine Week in New Zealand and it's looming faster than you can pour yourself a glass of wine, certified organic or not. The aim of the event is to raise the profile of certified organic wine and the impetus for wine drinkers to encourage the industry to produce it. Organic Wine Week runs from Monday 19 September to Monday 25 September this year and will be held as a series of regional tastings around the country, dates and details of which ca...

Friday drinks with Bertrand Soalhat

If Bertrand Soalhat was to have his choice of reincarnation, he would come back to his wife and son, to the business he has recently begun and to a life of wine. He is the founder, owner and one man band behind Bare Wines, a new importing company with a long history in drinks behind it. He spoke to www.joellethomson.com about what has helped him to start a new business, about leaving France at the tender age of 19 and the types of wines that make it worth getting through to Friday drinks ea...

Wine of the week - beautiful by name and by nature

19.5/202020 Pegasus Bay Bel Canto Dry Riesling RRP $42Beautiful by name and by nature, Bel Canto is the greatest Riesling in the South Island with its incredible concentration of ripe orange and mandarin flavours coming from hand picked grapes with a high portion of shrivelled botrytis bunches making up 30 per cent of the juice. It was fermented with natural yeasts in old, large barrels which gives the wine extremely concentrated complexity and richness. There's a lot going on in every zing...

Wines of the week - Chianti Classico to Martinborough Pinot Noir

There has been no shortage of wines come across my path this week, both as an independent wine writer and in my role as wine programme director at Regional Wines & Spirits in Wellington. Of all the goodies - the new Greystone Vineyard Ferment, the latest Moy Hall Pinot Noir and the latest from Pegasus Bay, among many more, this wine below is the stand out, for me. Its full body and ripe dark flavours give it a significant point of difference and every sip delivers surprising new l...

Friday drinks - Best is yet to come for Martinborough winemaker Tim Bourne

Tim Bourne is the winemaker at Escarpment Vineyard in the majestic Te Muna Valley, Martinborough. A place where Pinot Noir finds its greatest expression in good vintages of Kupe; one of four single vineyard wines released this month in New Zealand. Bourne has worked with Larry McKenna, founder and former owner of Escarpment Vineyard, and now retired. Bourne has stepped into big shoes and he is filling them with some outstanding wines. This is his story. What do you consider your greatest ac...