Published NZ Herald Sat 6 Feb 2016 If you’re finding you’re struggling to cope with the TPPA, the threat of ISIS, the shambolic weather this week and those ubiquitous, eye-stabbingly annoying ‘Be Like Bill’ posts on your Facebook timeline – help is at hand. You can thank me later. Gemtree Bloodstone Shiraz 2013 … Read More
Current Columns
Tastes of summer
Published NZME Regional Newspapers Tue 2 Feb 2016 Hands up if you’re one of the 340-odd thousand people who viewed the clip on YouTube of Australian woman Cheryl Marshall, making her own sparkling wine from a 5ltr cask (or ‘goon bag’ as they say in OZ) of Berri ‘Fresh Dry White’ in her soda … Read More
Don’t slip into a rut
Published NZ Herald Sat 30 Jan 2016 Well that’s it then. January’s over, the kids head back to school next week and routine will reign again. But this is no time to get all normal when it comes to your wine however. Push the boat out with these babies… Champagne Lanson Black Label … Read More
Tropical tang for sipping
Published NZME Regional Papers Tue 26 Jan 2016 It’s a rare thing, (seeing as the modern New Zealand wine industry is still so very young in the bigger scheme of things) that anyone gets to sit down, taste wine and chat with a person whose been making wine at the same company for over … Read More
A white flight
Published NZ Herald Sat 23 Jan 2016 During these summer days it’s okay to be a bit of a white wine snob — but be warned, overchill and you’ll kill the aromas, dull the flavours and ruin everything. Mahurangi River Estate Albarino 2015 $28 I’m really excited about Albarino and the potential it … Read More
Punch of a boxer in a ballgown
Published NZME Regional Newspapers Tue 19 Jan 2016 Love me tender? Hardly… They say trying to buy houses is one of the most stressful things for any relationship. I would go further and say that trying to buy a house via ‘tender’ is actually THE most stressful thing. The sheer, bewildering, ambiguity of being … Read More
Three ways to ease the speed of summer
Published NZ Herald Sat 16 Jan 2016 What? How did it suddenly become the middle of January already? To ease the shock I suggest reaching for some tastebud-distracting deliciousness that’ll send you back to September in seconds flat. Mansfield & Marsh Methode Traditionnelle Sparkling Wine NV $14.95 This is my new favourite bargain bubbly. … Read More
Spicy reds are drops to savour
Published NZME Regional Newspapers Tue 12 Jan 2016 By now so many of you will be back at work, watching the clock and making little sculptures out of blu-tac at your desk. You’ll be shuffling paper, sticking PostIt notes to things and walking purposefully from your desk to the staff loos every 30 minutes … Read More
Three decadent dessert wines
Published NZ Herald Sat 9 Jan 2016 Just when you’re thinking about hauling your carcass into some active wear and going for a jog, wait, shuffle around the block; you see a wine column singing the praises of those luxuriously decadent dessert wines you love so much. Curses… Johanneshof Noble Late Harvest Marlborough … Read More
New style, plenty of substance
Published NZME Regional Newspapers Tue 5 Jan 2016 Bubbles causes a real raquet… For the next fortnight, fans of backhands, forehands, faults and aces, loves, deuces, advantages, serves, volley’s, outs and on-court tantrums will be going bats and balls over the ASB Classic in Auckland. Usuallly tennis is the domain of pimms and cucumber … Read More