Joelle Thomson

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Gimblett Gravels 2021 Annual Vintage Selection

The irony about heatwaves is that they often lead into some of the best vintages of wines that seem to be the exact opposite of what you would want to drink during extremely hot days. But a new release of 12 top reds from 2021 is a reminder of the halcyon days before the rain that has blighted New Zealand's North Island wine regions over the past two years and it has been a great insight into the evolution of big reds from Hawke's Bay. It is the 14th release of the Gimblett Gravels Annual Vintag...

What I'm Drinking this Week - Pinot Noir from three regions

"When you don’t travel and don’t expose yourself to other situations, you begin to feel you’re the best. Travelling and seeing and listening, you feel that you’re not the best at all. You’re just learning."These are the words of Alberto Antonini, a Tuscan born consultant winemaker, voted in 2015 as one of the five best winemakers in the world by his peers. Alberto is quoted in an interview published on cluboenologique.com that he likes discovering new places to make wine beca...

What's in my glass this week, 5 January 2024

Gamay, where have you been all my life? Now the festive season is officially over, there is less fizz in most of our glasses but the wine in mine over the past week has been a surprising summer red and I haven't been drinking it chilled. Gamay. It's an old grape being given a new lease of life everywhere from Central Otago to California and the wines from New Zealand's deep south are impressive. The climate there clearly works well for the Gamay grape, which buds early and ripens early so it c...

What I'm Drinking on 1 January 2024

Happy New Year from my sunny deck in Martinborough where the bubbles are about to be opened with close friends as we reflect on the year that has been and, thankfully, gone. Last week was a microcosm of last year. It was a roller coaster of relaxation, reflection and rest followed by heartbreak, turbulence and 'not agains', but as we edged closer to 2024, the idea of a new year brought hope, both metaphorically and literally. Endings lead to beginnings. And the year that was 2023 was certainly o...

Visionary wine pioneer begins new brand at 82

Sir George Fistonich’s life in wine bears more than a passing resemblance to a rags to riches story. Its humble beginnings were on a one hectare, family owned vineyard in Mangere in 1961 and he has since founded Villa Maria Wines, started New Zealand’s first winery restaurant (at Vidals in Hawke’s Bay), developed long term relationships with winemakers and viticulturists, spear headed innumerable wine brands, won arguably more awards for the wines his company produced than any other winery...

Words to savour in world's best wine book

The fifth edition of Oxford Companion to Wine is 25 per cent longer and contains over one million, meticulously researched, wordsReview by Joelle Thomson, 22 December 2023When every wine blog at this time of year is full of recommendations to drink (and my Top 20 of 2023 remains in draft form), here is a recommendation of what to read this festive season and over the years to come. But where to begin? This review is of a book that is destined to win top publishing prizes and which I regard as th...

What I'm drinking - 5 of the best 2023 Sauvignon Blancs

Summer has arrived in New Zealand, along with a sea of Sauvignon Blancs for a report on this popular and commercially successful variety, which is being made in an increasingly diverse range of styles, if the latest tasting samples to cross my desk are anything to go by. It is only natural that Marlborough winemakers would want to branch out to flex both their creative talents as well as spreading the risk among consumers by making a wider range of styles. But there is another reason Sauvignon B...

What I'm drinking in early December

It's a bittersweet experience writing about wine this month when water is so scarce for so many people on the planet. I had my own close encounter with a lack of water this weekend, due to a leaky pipe, which sounded like a waterfall under the house. Thankfully, all is repaired thanks to the kindness of friends (including a friend who is a plumber). Handy, to say the least. I am more thankful than usual for water and for wine, the best of which have been reds over the past week, including a chil...

What I'm drinking this weekend

When it comes to surnames, it could have gone either way for the Dicey brothers but Matt and James have turned their name into a positive and given one of the wine world's most tired, dire and old fashioned bits of packaging (bag-in-box wine) a total makeover. This month they launched their second vintage of two litre Dice by Dicey Pinot Noir, hot on the heels of growing sales of the first vintage to about 50% of their online business. That's no mean feat in a slump of a year, such as 2023 has b...

Wine Marlborough honours four lifers for dedication

Four pioneers in the Marlborough wine industry have been honoured with Wine Marlborough's Lifetime Achievement Awards at a dinner in Blenheim.James Healy, Dave Pearce, Tessa Anderson and Murray Gibbons were recognised at The Marlborough Wine Celebration Evening, which also celebrated 50 years of the region's modern wine industry."The Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award aims to recognise nominees who have longevity of service to Marlborough wine, unselfishly given their time to the indus...

New Wild Earth Pinot Gris, 20 November 2023

The words 2023 and vintage are never going to go down well in the North Island of New Zealand where Cyclone Gabrielle did her best to destroy the livelihoods, vineyards and passions of many winemakers, but it's a different story in the South Island where Pinot Gris does particularly well. Here is my review of a fresh new wine off the bottling line from Wild Earth in Central Otago. 18.5/202023 Wild Earth Pinot Gris RRP $31Pinot Gris from cool climates rocks when it's good, as this flavo...

In my wine glass this week

Sparkling wine, champagne, prosecco or simply bubbles (the pet hate word of some wine lovers I know, sorry guys). It goes by many names but sparkling wine is definitely one of my favourite drinks and ever since I have spent part of my working week at a large independent wine retailer in a multi faceted role, I have literally been able to indulge my champagne tastes with my, hmmm, more humble budget. Until this year. Not only are there fewer interesting quirky champagnes arriving on New Zealand's...

Marlborough expands exports with new investment

Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (TWE) announced today that it has acquired a substantial Marlborough vineyard to expand its landholdings in the region from 505 hectares to 750 hectares. This will increase the growth of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, particularly for exports markets with a strong focus on the United States. “The acquisition of the new vineyard, which includes its own water reservoir, is an important step in expanding our premium wine portfolio," says Treasury Wine Es...

New Zealand's 2023 white wines on market

It was an unspeakably difficult vintage in many parts of New Zealand this year but, thankfully, not bad at all for the country's biggest wine region, Marlborough, which is beginning to see the release of 2023 white wines. Two new wines from Saint Clair this week from 2023 are from areas that sound tricky. One of the wines is named Swamp Block after its low lying wetland vineyard site. It won a gold medal at the 2023 New Zealand International Wine Show. The other newcomer is part o...

New Zealand's newest bubbly brand launches

Jascha Oldham-Selak and Sanne Witteveen met in 2017 during their wine studies at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke's Bay and have been together ever since, launching their first wine this month with Vilaura.The name comes from the words Villa and Aura, which the couple say translates to house of energy. It is a sparkling wine made in the traditional method, made entirely from Chardonnay grapes grown in Hawke's Bay and producing 4,500 bottles and 200 magnums. Witteveen studied a d...

Boxing on with new wave wine packaging

One year on and New Zealand's first bag in the box wine is not only going strong but has grown to 55% of online sales and to see the launch of a new bag in box wine, Dice by Dicey Rosé.The name Dicey makes for a convenient pun for the new take on an old type of packaging with the new bag in box wine designed to look like a dice. It is also a two litre bag in box rather than three litre package, which means it is consumed in a briefer timeframe, allowing the wine to retain freshness. From my own...

Sauvignon Blanc wins champion wine of show

To say that members of the Ibbotson family were thrilled this month at the Marlborough Wine Show is to make a major understatement. Not only did they win Champion Wine of the Show but it was for a Sauvignon Blanc, the region's most planted grape variety, this country's most exported wine and, frankly, a wine that is so well known that many New Zealanders do not take it seriously. Until a great example comes along. The 2021 Saint Clair Wairau Reserve has been rewarded as just such a win...

Wine and war... Wines of the week

War and wine have had a long and uncomfortable co-existence with France's most famous wine regions plundered during World War II and other regions, such as Alsace, having changed its borders from German to French at the end of World War I, along with Italy's Sudtirol (South Tyrol), which was part of Austria prior to World War 1, to name but a few of the many examples. The landscape is changing again, this time further east where things are looking  heartbreakingly unsettled. Despite which, ...

Gold in Folding Hill

Tim and Nikki Kerruish are relieved to be home. Their family holiday took an unexpected turn in 2020 when lockdown took place and they have spent the past three and a half years pining for their return to New Zealand and to their vineyard. This year they arrived back to the place they call home. It is Bendigo. One of the windiest, warmest and driest areas in Central Otago's far flung patchwork of vineyard regions. I have been to their off the grid home and it is an inspiring earth construction s...

People, places and opportunities in wine

Mora is the Latin word for linger and it's hard to imagine a better place to take time out than Central Otago with its jaw dropping mountainous beauty, let alone the wine. In this interview, Catherine Douglas shares her inspiration for Mora Wines and Artisan Kitchen, for which she works as the direct sales manager, driving targets, operating the cellar door and wine club.   What do you consider your greatest achievement?Most recently, it would be the part that my team and I played in l...

No 1 Family launches new sparkling wine

Marlborough is a long way from Champagne at the best of times but it must have felt like another world when Daniel le Brun first laid eyes on the dusty plains of New Zealand's biggest wine region in 1978. The weather appealed. The grape varieties not so much.Muller Thurgau was the leading grape variety grown in the region at the time, but Le Brun took the plunge anyway, making his first sparkling wine in Marlborough in 1980. This year, he and his partner in wine and life, Adele, and their a...

King of Chardonnay's new releases

Posted 30 October 2023To say that Chardonnay is on a global roll again is to make a wild understatement. It is the world’s most popular grape today, if plantings globally are any indication. And it has a long history of styles, which meet a confluence today of flinty, full bodied and creamy through to wines that take some of our palates back to Chardonnay’s heyday in the 1980s when bigger was better (from shoulder pads in clothing to flavours in wine). Back then, a Chardonnay wasn’t consid...

Wines of the week for three budgets

When there are so many people in the world without a drop of water to drink, it sometimes seems incredibly banal to be writing about a choice of wines to consume when the mood takes us, but life does not deal us all an equal hand, as we see with increasing alarm every time we switch on the news.With that very thought in mind, for those of us who are fortunate enough to live with a choice of what to drink, here are three wines that have impressed me over the past week in my life as a privileged i...

On the hunt for great Pinot

Winemakers are discovering the benefits of less invasive techniques to coax the best out of the grapes they use to make wine. In a growing trend that has been dubbed natural, low fi and non interventionist winemaking, many winemakers are no longer routinely adding sulphur to freshly picked grapes, during stages of winemaking and even, sometimes, at bottling. Commercial yeasts are now often eschewed, in favour of native yeasts in the environment and many wines are now bottled unfined and unfilter...

Change of guard as Craggy Range appoints new chief winemaker

Craggy Range Winery has announced a new chief winemaker today with the promotion of Ben Tombs, who will take over from Julian Richards as head of the winery team. "When we first hired Ben, we did so with the vision that he would one day take the reins from Julian. Ben understands what we are trying to achieve; he is uncompromising in his pursuit of quality and understands our two great estates in Martinborough and Hawke's Bay," says Terry Peabody, Craggy Range founder. Tombs' journey in wine has...