Maison Noire Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2019 $25 Just 90 dozen bottles were produced of this wine. To give you an idea of scale, that’s less than two pallets. For the whole country. And overseas markets. So you snooze, you lose, I’m afraid. It’s a lush, complex, dried herb and spice-saturated style edged with baked berries, … Read More
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The Hunting Lodge Home Block Waimauku Sauvignon Blanc 2019
The Hunting Lodge Home Block Waimauku Sauvignon Blanc 2019 $30 If you’re beady of eye and brainy of brain, you’ll notice that the Sauvignon Blanc grapes for this wine come from a site that began being planted back in 1979. So there could very well be wine from some of the oldest Sauvignon Blanc vines … Read More
Ash Ridge Estate Bridge Pa Merlot 2019
Ash Ridge Estate Bridge Pa Merlot 2019 $21.99 From those russet-red, iron rich soils of the Bridge Pa Triangle comes this dark, inky-scarlet sensation from Lauren Swift and the team at Ash Ridge. Showing earthy, dried herb, tar, black olive and mushroomy notes drifting across the blueberry and blackberry mid-palate, it’s a soft yet generously … Read More
OTU Otuwhero Estate Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020
OTU Otuwhero Estate Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020 $22.99 Crafted from fruit grown in the Awatere Valley, this bright shiny new pinot has buckets of raspberry and rhubarb and cherry charm on the nose and palate. Not too spicy or complex, just juicy and easy and refreshing – which is exactly what you should hope to … Read More
Junction Corner Post Central Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2019
Junction Corner Post Central Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2019 $29 Absolutely erupting with mango, scorched peach, grilled grapefruit and roasted almond notes, this smasher of a chardonnay comes from the Takapau Plains and trucks across the palate like a tropical train. It’s nicely balanced, with fresh acidity, mouth filling weight and solid stone fruit saturation on … Read More
Doctors Flat Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017
Doctors Flat Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 $49.50 I checked and it was almost exactly to the day that I published my review of Steve Davies, 2016 Doctors Flat Pinot Noir on this site. He fired through a bottle of the shiny new 2017 as soon as it was ready and far out am I … Read More
Junction Central Hawke’s Bay Persistence Sparkling 2020
Junction Central Hawke’s Bay Persistence Sparkling 2020 $22 Golden in the glass and showing ultra-fine, delicate necklacing of bubbles this sparkling wine from Central Hawke’s Bay’s Takapau Plains, is a secret and curious blend of white grapes designed to raise the eyebrows and pique the curiosity. It’s definitely not your bog standard nutty, yeasty glass … Read More
Bargylus Grand Vin de Syrie 2013
Bargylus Grand Vin de Syrie 2013 $(tbc) The World’s Most Dangerous Wine… Syrian wine is finally available in New Zealand, but our little country only gets 168 bottles and it has a heck of a job getting here. The Domaine de Bargylus winery is unluckily situated in Syria’s civil war zone. Bargylus (located in Latakia, … Read More
The Hunting Lodge Home Block Waimauku Chardonnay 2019
The Hunting Lodge Home Block Waimauku Chardonnay 2019 $64 Grown on the Waimauku Clays, half an hour or so’s drive out west of the Auckland CBD on the Northwestern motorway, Chief Winemaker Pete Turner has been carefully watching over their 80acre estate to finally decide if and when it’d produce chardonnay worthy of their flagship … Read More
Ruby Bay Nelson Syrah 2019
Ruby Bay Nelson Syrah 2019 $39.99 Huge pepper on the nose and some good floral notes but the acidity is very high and a touch thin, however that may smooth out over time. It definitely opens up and softens slightly in the glass after a few good swirls. Very pretty garnet colour and fine-grained tannins. … Read More