Great pinot noir is moody and mysterious and versatile and magical and alluring and will give you the power to not click on all those soul-sapping yoga-app ads on Facebook. Coal Pit Central Otago Rosé 2017 $26.95 (4 stars) With its enticing aromas of candyfloss, creaming soda and Eton Mess pudding, this shiny new pinot … Read More
Author: Yvonne
Bird Wines Big Barrel Marlborough Pinot Noir 2015 $29.95 (4 stars)
Steve Bird employs the ‘Vernou Roll’ method to make this wine. A process where he uses big old 900L barrels for fermentation and maturation. Gently rolling the barrels regularly to allow greater integration of the oak flavours and the grippy, textural components. Red rose, black cherry, smoke and a deeply succulent texture makes this one … Read More
Mazuran’s Vintage Port 1974 $P.O.A
Mazuran’s on Lincoln Road, West Auckland have been crafting port wines since the early 1940’s, and magnificently, have vintage ports still available to buy dating back to 1942. They are the only New Zealand winery to distil its own grape brandy for fortifying its wines, many of which are made using 79-year-old vines. 79! I … Read More
Stonecroft Gimblett Gravels Rosé 2017 $22 (3.5 stars)
Certified organic syrah grapes have been used to craft this dry and mineral-driven rosé that’s light and lean and best served super-chilled. Not overly full or spicy, it’s a tangy, fruity, refreshing quaffer. www.stonecroft.co.nz
Pulpoloco Campo De Borja Rosado 2015 $9.99 (3 stars)
Created from 100% Grenache grapes grown in Spain’s Campo de Borja D.O, this is a super-fruity, raspberry and cherry-saturated rosé that smells and tastes like peppercorns soaking in a glass of creaming soda. Spicy-sweet, yet nicely balanced acidity – tangy and a good little quaffer for sure. www.advintage.co.nz
Castaño Yecla Monastrell Rosado 2015 $10.99 (3 stars)
Made at high altitude in Spain’s Yecla D.O district, this has the most gorgeous colour, almost like a negroni cocktail colour and has aromas of quince, yellow fruits, ultra-clean, tangy pomegranate and redcurrant. Complex tannins – beautifully complex, full, delicious, lovely. www.thegoodwine.co.nz
Lone Goat Canterbury Ehrenfelser 2012 $18 (4 stars)
As soon as you smell this wine you’ll have a throwback to some of those crazy, hybrid varieties of the 1980’s – toasty, creamy, hints of peach and lemon – pronounced ‘air-en-fel-zer’ is a German variety from the 1920’s and Lone Goat have got the only 1.2ha of the stuff in the ground here. Honey, … Read More
Jip Jip Rocks Padthaway Shiraz 2015 $18.99 (4.5 stars)
It’s an absolute blackcurrant fest on the nose, blackcurrants marinating in a bowl made from eucalyptus leaves. Bright cherry and raspberry and boysenberry and practically every berry you can think of is in this wine. Pepper, refreshing acidity, furry tannins and fabulously warm, fuzzy length of flavour. It’s an elegant as opposed to sweet and … Read More
Yvonne Lorkin wine column for week beginning Saturday 11 Nov 2017
Great pinot noir is what I turn to when I need salvation from social media. When my Instagram feed becomes clogged with pictures of tanned, lycra-clad young things showing sneaky side-boob whilst doing yoga poses on clifftops and rocky outcrops with waves a-breaking or windswept beaches somewhere exotic and unaffordable. They have skinny arms, glossy … Read More
Quinta Da Romaneira Late Bottled Vintage LBV 2012 Unfiltered $54.90
This Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) is made from Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesca and Tina Cão grapes harvested in 2012. Then it spent around five years in oak cask before being bottled without filtration (to preserve the fruit intensity). I love the crazy walnut and blackcurrant aromas that wash into a rich, seriously spicy, … Read More