Give yourself a slap in the chops with flavours that’ll have you dreaming of Spring…
Bald Hills Central Otago Pinot Gris 2015 $28 ★★★★★
How clean, light, tangy and terrific is this wine? I’ll tell you. It’s darn excellent ok. It’s so good it’ll turn even the most hard-boiled pinot gris Grinch. Bursting with ripe pear, peach, quince and yummy yuzu flavours, it’s delicious on every level. Central Otago has real talent for this variety.
Sip with: smoked chicken salad
Ripponvale ‘Lapins’ Central Otago Cherry Wine 2015 $24.95
Central Otago cherries are one of my favourite fruits and that they’re now being made into wine puts me in my happy place. It’s no tricked up, sugar-soaked, fortified, fruit wine either – rather it’s incredibly pure, clean and elegantly structured. The cherry flavours are natural, plus the soft spices, berry notes and fresh acidity make this a gorgeous and rather gluggable new fave.
Sip with: Chocolate mud cake
Cannonball California Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 ★★★½
As Californian as tans, teeth and tiny dogs, this is a bold, bouncy cabernet that dials the spice and plushness up to high gear. Named after what we kiwi’s call the ‘bomb’, one sip of this and you’ll definitely be in the deep end – with a cabernet crush that is. Made from fruit grown in Healdsburg, it’s got cocoa, plum and bucketloads of velvety vavoom on the palate.
Sip with: Rosemary dusted lamb chops.
