For a good few years there, back in the 80’s and early 90’s, it felt like finding great cabernet sauvignon here in New Zealand was a bit like trying to find a decent pair of pantyhose. You know. Ones that didn’t roll down and pinch around your hips and bunch below the crutch when you walked five steps. It was a chore. The good examples were either eyewateringly expensive and from overseas, or they were local but needed at least ten years for the ‘cling factor’ to fade and a bit of friendly elasticity to kick in.
So many local cabernets were thin, green and weedy. They sulked and slammed doors and made the whole appreciation experience as difficult as possible.
Now weedy is an apt word for when I think about grapevines. They’re vigourous, they’ll look for any skerrick of nutrition and moisture in any soil and within what seems like seconds a vine will be growing like, well, a weed. Give them any sort of goodness and they’ll grow like the Auckland housing market. They’ll produce loads of leaves in order to photosynthesize all that glorious sunlight and produce big, sweet berries to attract the birds that’ll eat and excrete the seeds somewhere else so that the species can continue toward its inexhaustible goal of global domination.
Today’s cabernet sauvignon clones are of much better quality, they’re tastier and are much more hardy. But to make ‘great’ cabernet you still need to starve that plant of any sort of pleasure. Don’t feed it, water it only in times of real need and rip it’s leaves off periodically during the ripening season so they don’t shade the precious bunches too much. Cabernet sauvignon requires loads more heat and light than say sauvignon blanc or pinot noir and it needs to be grown in free-draining soils so that the roots have to work extra hard for every drop of moisture. The bunches need to be exposed to the sun to ripen and the plant needs to direct all its energies into producing tiny berries that absolutely erupt with flavour.
Maison Noire Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 $22 ★★★★
Made by Frenchman Guillaume Thomas from his tiny vineyard on the Waimarama Road, this cabernet sauvignon has classic aromas of espresso residue (‘sprudge’ is the technical term – true fact) alongside exotic vanilla, pepper, mint and a lick of saddle leather. Fresh dark cherry and boysenberry provide the fruit concentration for this elegantly structured, inky-dark and glossy new kid in cabernet country while dusty, long tannins give it staying power in the palate. Good stuff indeed with beef and thyme pie. For stockists phone 06 874 7660 or 027 767 8993
Vasse Felix Filius Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2014 $28 ★★★★
Vasse Felix was actually the very first vineyard and winery to be established in the Margaret River wine region of Western Australia, having been founded in 1967 by Dr Thomas Cullity. It’s a gorgeous Bordeaux blend where eucalypt and bay leaf notes cloak the dark berry intensity, cocoa, tar and tobacco aromas. The oak is beautifully integrated and compliments hints of smoke, soy and graphite in the mid palate. It’s plump yet elegant enough to enjoy with classic beef tartare. www.glengarrywines.co.nz
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Terra Sancta Miro’s Block Central Otago Riesling 2014 $27 ★★★★½
If you only had just seven rows of ungrafted, old vine riesling struggling away on steep, hand-cut, schist terraces in the desert-like conditions of Bannockburn – it hardly seems worth the dollars and effort of trying to coax anything into a bottle. Yet winemaker Jodi Pagey and viticulturist Len Ibbotsen are diehard fans of the brisk, gum-numbing, honeysuckle and citrus freshness that this fruit produces. Clean and quartz-like on the finish, it’s delicate and to die for with green mango salad. www.terrasancta.co.nz
Omaka Springs Single Vineyard Falveys Marlborough Chardonnay 2015 $19 ★★★★
Aromas of grilled pineapple, marshmallow and incredibly ripe nectarine merge with toasted coconut characters along a rich, tropical finish. Nine months maturing in French oak barrels has given the wine a slight ‘bacony’ flavour which I really love, making this little bit of magic from Marlborough deliciously complex and downright yummy (that’s a technical term ok) Former British Airways pilot Geoff Jensen is doing great things here at Omaka Springs and this chardonnay rocks with grouper fillets wrapped in bacon. www.omaka.co.nz
Septima Mendoza Malbec 2014 $22 ★★★½
If you were thinking the national animal of Argentina was the llama you’d be wrong. It’s Bolivia’s. Argentina’s is the rufous hornero, or, as they say in the islands, the ‘red ovenbird’. But in my opinion their national animal should be Malbec. It might be a wine, but it’s muscular and meaty, furry around the edges, and has layers of spice, cocoa and leathery, peppery layers. Perfect pet material I think, and a stunner with spicy Chilli Con Carne.
