Pask Gimblet Gravels Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2018 $18 If this wine was a person it’d be Sergeant Pepper!! If it were fizzy it’d be Dr Pepper and if it were a British cartoon character, it’d be Pepper Pig – I think you dig. Classic, peppery pepperiness on the nose of this Gimblett Gravels goodie. Violet … Read More
Pask Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay 2018 $18 With its attractive aromas of peach jam on a buttered crumpet, this shiny new chardonnay from the team at Pask is bound to be a big hit. Not hugely toasty, just a sliver of sawdust amongst the buckets of citrus and stonefruit makes this nutty glass of niceness really … Read More
Te Awanga Estate The Loom Hawke’s Bay Reserve Chardonnay 2018 $34 Glossy, golden and going gangbusters on the pineapple and peach front, this Rod McDonald creation just powers across the palate leaving a comets tail of caramelised spices, buttered crumpet crumbs, grapefruit zest and tropical tastiness abound. It’s silky, succulent and seriously sexy to sip. … Read More
Petane Station Esk Valley Single Vineyard Edelzwicker 2019 $30 Edelzwicker wine is essentially made from white grapes which are harvested and fermented together. It’s all a bit loose and there are no set rules with what grapes can be used and those grapes can also be made into wine separately and then blended together. Historically, … Read More
Pegasus Bay Virtuoso Waipara Chardonnay 2016 $60 I don’t know what Mat Donaldson and the team at Pegasus Bay did in their past lives, but clearly they were lovely to puppies, helped lots of elderly people across the street, paid their taxes and put teaspoons of sugar water out for tired bumblebees to drink, because … Read More
Peter Lehmann H & V Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 $22 Trust the team at Peter Lehmann to consistently bust out richly structured cabernet sauvignon. I loved the 2015 and the 2016 is sexier still. It shows their smoke and vanilla signature on the nose due to the combo of French and American oak barrels it’s … Read More
Leveret Estate Library Edition Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2009 $28 It’s not every day that you get to taste newly-released library stock of a ten-year-old merlot cabernet blend, and I’ll tell you this for a dollar. It’s pretty much vanilla and prune-infused perfection in a glass. Softly-styled and oozing into the bricky-red colour spectrum, it’s … Read More
Big Sky Te Muna Road Martinborough Pinot Noir 2016 $40 I love the little depiction of the Southern Cross on the label of this Katherine Jacobs and Jeremy Corban-crafted wine, it fits with the clean, unfussy image of a couple focused on maintaining fruit purity and plushness of style. The ancient Te Muna Terraces are … Read More
Brightwater Vineyards Te Kāhu Nelson Pinot Noir 2016 $26.99 Three years on from harvest and the wine is taking on a lovely brick-red hue and aromas that lead you down the wild side of the hedge. Named after the native harrier hawk which patrols the vineyards of Gary and Valley Neale, it’s softly savoury and … Read More
Cicada Marlborough Gewürztraminer 2018 $19.99 I’ve been a huge fan of this wine since I first tasted it back in 2016. Each vintage since has been slightly different, but this 2018 version is all kinds of crispy-fresh in terms of mouthfeel, loaded with stonefruit, ginger-kissed and crammed with spice, it’s a plush, exotic style with … Read More