Like many industries, the wine fraternity faces the constant challenge of adapting to appeal to upcoming generations of wine fans, the consumers of the future in an age where the drinks industry is a scarily crowded and competitive market, the likes of which consumers have never seen before.
However, wine has an advantage in that it has aeons of history attached to it. It’s also the only alcoholic beverage which contains any sort of nutritional value, plus it carries with it an image of being a little bit flash and something to be enjoyed in moderation with good food, good friends and great conversation. Hardly images you’d associate with necking a can of Cody’s or a stubbie of Purple Goanna. And yet we still struggle to attract younger visitors to cellar doors and wine tastings. Exceptions of course are in the phenomenal success of Australian-organised, independent events like Game of Rhones and Pinot Palooza – where edgy, pop culture iconography seduces sippers of all ages to engage with winemakers, their wines and their stories. Extended, seasonal events like Hawke’s Bay’s F.A.W.C bring in some quotient of millennial-oriented wine activities, and knees-ups like Toast Martinborough and the Bridge Pa Wine Festival alongside the annual winery tour gigs by major musicians all do their bit to inject bit of rock in roll into wine. All this is brilliant, but when it comes to our ability to market our wineries to the wine tourist of the future, our literary efforts are woeful. Take the new book just released by Douglas Renall called “100 Great New Zealand Wineries” (Bateman Publishing $59.99). Clearly Renall has done his research as the content about each winery is comprehensive. His aim, he says, was to “write a book that I would like to read”. Shouldn’t the aim to be to write a book that other people would like to buy, then read? My main beef with the book is the design. Enough of boring barrels and boring shots of vines that could be anywhere. Shots of windows (?) and empty restaurants, shots of tanks and tags on vineyard posts that say ‘Block 5’ or something. Enough of the yawn-inducing, old-fashioned, 80’s style, swirly-wirly fonts, and the shots of glasses with wine dripping down the inside. The photography is meh. Blurry, dark, shadowy and again, boring. Where are the shots of our great wine people? That’s what really sells our winery experiences, our great characters. Across 407 pages, I counted just 30 images of people and they’re not great (they’re not captioned either). This means that over 70% of the winery stories did not feature a picture of the winemaker or key staff. Sadly, while full of great information, in my opinion the book looks dated, fusty and has about as much shelf appeal as an arrowroot biscuit. Let’s please apply more modern creative design and thought to wine books in future.
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Esk Valley Hawke’s Bay Verdelho 2017 $19 (5 star)
Verdelho the famous white grape grown on the Portuguese island of Madeira where for aeons it’s been used in the production of sherry. In 1998 the team at Esk Valley planted some in the rock star region of the Gimblett Gravels and in 2002 Gordon Russell produced the very first kiwi version. This shiny new sip is like peaches personified, laced with lemon verbena and lusciousness like you wouldn’t believe. This is one of those wines that I just want to shout “Taste this now!!” at the top of my lungs. Fresh, tropical, complex and creamy – it’s an absolute star.
www.eskvalley.co.nz
Brookfields Sun Dried Hawke’s Bay Malbec 2016 $26.99 (4 stars)
Sun-dried wines have been made since the 5th century BC, and ‘Amarone’ wines from northern Italy are the most famous examples. But they should definitely be looking over their shoulders, because this Brookfields
malbec is a cracker. Handpicked fruit is sun-dried in trays a few meters outside of the winery. Then, when the grapes start to ‘raisin,’ they’re crushed and fermented in open-top tanks before resting in old oak barrels. Cinnamon, mocha, dark berries, and bodaciousness abound.
Spaghetti puttanesca? Yes!
www.brookfieldsvineyards.co.nz
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Three crazy-good sips to kick start your week….
Matahiwi Estate Wairarapa Pinot Noir 2016 $28 (4 stars)
I LOVE this wine. From the powerfully smoky, spiced cherry lift on the nose to the intensely fruity core and the long, succulent finish – it’s an absolute star. Buoyant raspberry, rhubarb, pomegranate and pepper characters: they’re all there, too! Grown near Masterton (the place where pinot noir was first planted 130 years ago), it’s a lovely example of what this sub-region can achieve.
Serve in glasses with good ‘swirlability’ next time you’re enjoying rosemary-studded roast lamb.
www.matahiwi.co.nz
Mount Edward ‘Ted’ Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 $34 (4.5 stars)
Nursed from the vineyard into the bottle by the talented twosome of Duncan Forsyth and Anna Riederer, this pinot noir is beautifully rich and bursting with hedgerow fruits, 5-spice, sandalwood and cocoa and tree bark. Complex and mouthfilling, it’s like a leather-laden overload of earthiness and wild cherries.
www.mountedward.co.nz
Giesen Vineyard Selection Marlborough Pinot Noir 2014 $17.99 (3.5 stars)
This is a super-approachable pinot noir that’s really starting to hit its straps with a couple of years aging on it. Bright, plush and cherry-driven, it’s bursting with cherries, berries and has a soft, gamey layer on the finish. Lovely, lengthy and darn drinkable. www.advintage.co.nz
