Joelle Thomson

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Good time to head south for Kiwi wine lovers

Challenging is a mild word for the emotions evoked in winemakers in the lead up to vintage 2020 in New Zealand but fortunately wine was deemed essential and vintage went ahead, despite the challenges of social distancing during lockdown. But what now for wineries reliant on export markets as well as incoming tourists for sales? The owner of Central Otago wine brand, Misha’s Vineyard, says the vintage was challenging and she hopes for a trans Tasman bubble to increase visitor numbers to the ...

Rockburn appoints new general manager

Central Otago winery Rockburn has appointed Tim Severne as its new general manager. He has over 20 years of experience in the wine industry working for Glengarry Wines, Hancocks Wine, Spirit and Beer Merchants and Marisco Vineyards. His most recent role was global sales manager at Antipodes Water Company. Rockburn is named after the rugged rocky Central Otago landscape. The winery owns two vineyards; on the Gibbston Back Road in Gibbston Valley and at Parkburn in the Cromwell Basin where its ...

Wines of the week… What does ‘natural’ mean? Churton’s new Natural State wines

Second generation winemakers Ben and Jack Weaver made this week’s trio of new Natural State vintages, a brand which was established to acknowledge the trend towards less-is-more winemaking. They are not calling these wines ‘natural’ for the sake of it. They are making wines in the most natural way possible, while adhering to classic and modern winemaking principles to create the freshest, purest flavours in an accessibly priced range of interesting wines. Which is pretty much the philos...

Calling all Pinot Noir lovers to a virtual tasting 4.30pm Friday 11 June

Join me on Friday 11 June at 4.30pm for a free virtual tasting of Pinot Noir from Whitehaven Wines, based in Marlborough, New Zealand. Taste two Whitehaven Pinot Noirs; the flagship 2016 Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir and the 2017 Whitehaven Greg Single Vineyard Southern Valleys Pinot Noir. This virtual tasting is a free event online to discover these two great wines together and ask all your questions about Pinot Noir, Marlborough and wine. Buy the wines online here: https://bit.ly/PinotL...

NZ Wine Podcast’s top interview, a little promotion…

I’ve been reading a lot about validation this year and how important it is to have people validate us, so it seemed uncanny when a girlfriend was telling me the exact same thing on Sunday night and a beautifully validating email popped into my  inbox from Boris Lamont, founder of the NZ Wine Podcast. If you love wine and haven’t listened to these fascinating podcasts, check them out here: www.podcasts.nz/nz-wine-podcast/ He tells me that his interview with me in April 2019 now tops ...

NZ Wine Podcast’s top interview, a little promotion…

I’ve been reading a lot about validation this year and how important it is to have people validate us, so it seemed uncanny when a girlfriend was telling me the exact same thing on Sunday night and a beautifully validating email popped into my  inbox from Boris Lamont, founder of the NZ Wine Podcast. If you love wine and haven’t listened to these fascinating podcasts, check them out here: www.podcasts.nz/nz-wine-podcast/ He tells me that his interview with me in April 2019 now tops ...

Homage – the best yet from Trinity Hill

The release of Homage is a big deal in New Zealand each year, this time round even more so. It’s the first time Homage has been sealed with a screwcap and I personally feel the wine tastes significantly fresher for it, even at this early stage in its life. For those who don’t know, Homage is Trinity Hill’s top red and is 100% Syrah, made from grapes grown on the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke’s Bay. It was inspired when its founder, winemaker John Hancock, visited Gerard Jaboulet in Tain l...

Homage – the best yet from Trinity Hill

The release of Homage is a big deal in New Zealand each year, this time round even more so. It’s the first time Homage has been sealed with a screwcap and I personally feel the wine tastes significantly fresher for it, even at this early stage in its life. For those who don’t know, Homage is Trinity Hill’s top red and is 100% Syrah, made from grapes grown on the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke’s Bay. It was inspired when its founder, winemaker John Hancock, visited Gerard Jaboulet in Tain l...

Dates announced for NZ’s top red celebration

New dates were announced today for Pinot Noir NZ, which will now take place from 15 to 17 February 2022 in Christchurch....

Wines of the week, Julicher in Martinborough

Moving to Martinborough hasn’t been all plain sailing, even if a house here has been on the wish-list for nearly two decades. The commute leaves a lot to be desired so it’s fortunate that I don’t have to do it every single day and winemakers in this region rarely need to commute over the top of the Remutaka Hill Road, which is frequently shrouded in fog in the evenings. Wim Julicher will no longer be worrying about such matters as he has moved on from the eponymous winery he set up in 1...

Second generation takes over at Astrolabe Wines

Change is in the air for many of us thanks to the global pandemic that took us all by surprise this year, not least the family who own and run Astrolabe Wines in Marlborough, which appointed a new general manager. Libby Waghorn Levett takes over from Jane Forrest-Waghorn, co-owner of Astrolabe Wines with winemaker Simo Waghorn. “In this recent time of economic uncertainty, I feel it is important to have clear, strong and energetic leadership. I have decided to step aside and asked Libby Wag...

Wine reviews, Trinity Hill’s new Lost Garden and White Label

Someone famous once said we never get a second chance to make a first impression. If first impressions count for you as much as they do for me, then the new Lost Garden wines are likely to make a strong impact but will it be a positive one? For me, it is an instantly positive one, thanks to the visual appeal of the bottles but what’s inside is always more important so this week I put these wines to the taste test and they came up smelling if not exactly like roses, then definitely like clea...

Wines of the day, Tuesday 19 May… A tale of two Pinots

I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would write about wine as an essential service in a time of global lockdown but life throws all sorts of weird and sometimes even wonderful things at us....

New wine reviews – Tiki Wines, May 2020

A richly flavoursome Chardonnay; dry, full bodied and succulent, thanks to extended time on yeast lees in barrel following 100% barrel fermentation. It is made from 100% Chardonnay clone 5 from a vineyard 34 kilometres inland at 175 metres above sea level in Hawke’s Bay. Winemaker Evan Ward fermented 55% of this wine in new French oak barriques, following the ferment with full malolactic to add complexity and softness to the palate. Ten months on lees with fortnightly battonage (lees stirr...

Wine in semi lockdown, New Zealand @ level 2, 15 May 2020

This morning’s walk and take out coffee gave me a chance to reflect on Covid-19 and how it’s changed our lives, some of us more than others. New Zealand started off well but as we inch closer to the lives we refer to as normal, the worst side of us starts to peer out from under lockdown. Normal people doing normal things, like standing too close to each other when signs clearly state a 1 to 2 metre safe distance. The man in the queue behind me at my local café this morning inched closer ...

Wines of the week, 15 May 2020 – loving local and beyond

We are all about loving local at Regional Wines & Spirits in Wellington where I work as wine adviser, organising tastings and writing copious product information. And yet, much as we do love local wines, some of our biggest sellers this month have been international wines, thanks to a great vintage in the southern Rhone in France and successful experimentation in the Clare Valley in Australia. Both regions feature as highlights in my top three wines of this week for good reason. Click through...

Wine reviews, 13 May 2020, Folding Hill Pinot Noirs

We live in strange times. Tim and Nikki Kerruish had hoped to get back to New Zealand to give their winemaker a hand during vintage 2020 in Central Otago but the best laid plans don’t always eventuate, especially when a global pandemic looms large on the horizon. Prior to the pandemic, they had a tough choice to make – move to their rammed earth Central Otago home on their vineyard in Bendigo or do a stint back in the United Kingdom where they were both born and bred. “It was now or nev...

The Huntress releases her second vintage

The end of lockdown may be looming fast but with the weather taking a chilly turn, the irony is that many of us will be hunkering down rather than venturing out. And what better wine to do it with than the country’s most popular and most important red, Pinot Noir. There are 5,625 hectares of Pinot Noir grown in New Zealand, making it the second most planted grape variety overall and the most planted red. It suits New Zealand’s relatively cool climate well because it is an early ripening red ...

New wine export advisory service

A new wine export advisory business has been formed by Ian Clark, former export and PR manager for New Zealand’s largest family owned winery, Villa Maria, for over 30 years, covering all aspects of exporting the company’s wines, initially to the United Kingdom in mid 1988. He worked closely alongside Villa Maria Winery founder, Sir George Fistonich, and is keen to bring that experience to the table for new and existing wine brands needing help to secure export markets and promotion in the...

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...