Cloudy Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022 $37 Arriving in a new bottle embossed with ‘1985’ Cloudy’s foundation year and bearing a unique, glass-relief depiction of the iconic view of the Richmond Range overlooking the vineyards, the 2022 vintage is scented with classic green pea, capsicum and tropical, passionfruity, peachy characters. On the palate, the layers … Read More
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Cloudy Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir 2016
Cloudy Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir 2016 $49 Three years of quiet time in bottle has allowed the subtle spices in this pinot noir to knit together nicely. Perfumed with baked berries, soft cherry characters, savoury tones and sandalwood, while the palate is slippery and slick. Ribbon-like as each sip slides down. A blockbuster is not … Read More
Cloudy Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 $36 ★★★★½
This new vintage of what’s become an Antipodean icon, has all the hallmarks of becoming another stunner. I say ‘becoming’ because despite this wine already boasting punchy basil, sweet pea, passionfruit and crunchy-fresh citrus and floral characters – I personally really love drinking this wine in the height of summer, a few months on from … Read More
Cloudy Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015
Cloudy Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 $35 ★★★★ If you close your eyes and someone pours this into a glass there’s no way you could mistake the “Marlboroughness” of it. Soft grassy goodness, sweet basil, red capsicum, sugar-snap pea and lemongrass saturate the nose and osmose through onto the palate. This 2015 vintage is softer … Read More
Cloudy Bay 30 Years 2015
Published NZME Regional Newspapers Sat 10 Oct 2015 In 1985 about this time, I was sitting in a movie theatre watching Michael J Fox as Marty McFly travel via his silver DeLorean thirty years into the future, to 2015. 1985 was when our family moved from Takapau to the big smoke of Hastings and … Read More
Pinot Trail Tales…
Cloudy Bay’s winemaker Nick Lane is racing around the country hosting the Cloudy Bay Pinot and Duck Trail, a series of events designed to showcase how pinot noir and duck dishes are a match made in heaven. Today he’s at Auckland’s Sapphire Room where three of the best chefs in town are preparing duck-centric dishes … Read More
Cloudy Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir 2013
Cloudy Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir 2013 $47 ★★★★ The clay-based, alluvial gravels of Marlborough’s southern valleys provide the fuel for the vines charged with producing this powerhouse pinot. It bursts with black cherry, plum, black tea and smoky spices on the nose, followed by a saucy, fruit-soaked palate and a long, lingering finish. It’s youthful, … Read More
Decades of Dogs…
Last week I wrote about everything being better in two’s and how fun it is to taste two different vintages of the same wine side by side to pick out the differences. Well if the team at Dog Point in Marlborough didn’t just decide to dial that idea up by 500% and open up ten … Read More
New Sauvignon Sensations
Last August was the 40th anniversary of the very first grape vines to be planted in Marlborough’s Brancott Valley. More than 1100ha were planted (by hand and by the sight of a rifle to ensure straight rows) in a smorgasbord of varieties, including riesling sylvaner, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and one nobody had really heard … Read More
Pinot at Cloudy Bay and Pinot to Ponder…
After more than ten years of trying without success to get a seat at the annual Pinot at Cloudy Bay event I was beginning to think it was just my destiny to forever fail. The first year I was about to pop my cheque in the post when the phone rang. “Congratulations, you’re pregnant,” announced … Read More
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