Instagram image here Blackenbrook Nelson Sauvignon Blanc 2020 $21 This sensational new sauvignon from Ursula and Daniel Schwarzenbach’s Home vineyard on Baldwin Road is concrete evidence that the 2020 harvest was all kinds of excellent in their part of the world. Extremely fresh and packed with tropical intensity, crunchy citrus and cressy-herbaceousness it’s an excellent … Read More
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Soljans Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet Malbec 2016
Soljans Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet Malbec 2016 $22 In 1927, Bartul Soljan and his wife Rakelina sailed to New Zealand with their children, found land out in Henderson, broke it in, planted vines, and in 1932 established Soljan’s Family Vineyard. Fast-forward 86 years and their winemaker out west has stitched together a classic Bordeaux-style blend … Read More
Churton Natural State Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019
Churton Natural State Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019 $27 Certified organic and biodynamically-grown, this pinot noir is a lightly-styled, floral-forward and fruit saturated pinot noir that’s heaving with bright raspberry and strawberry and lashings of dried herb notes. Only in oak for three months, it’s a fresh, lush, aromatic example with smooth, fabulously feral complexity on … Read More
Greystone Thomas Brothers’ Waipara Valley Pinot Noir 2018
Greystone Thomas Brothers’ Waipara Valley Pinot Noir 2018 $95 This signature pinot noir, crafted by the multi-award-winning winemaker Dom Maxwell, comes from the highest elevation site on their limestone layered property. Hand-picked, hand-sorted and with a proportion of whole bunches in the wild ferment, it’s a wild and woolly, deliciously herbal and smoke-edged wine. That … Read More
Tiki Estate Waipara Chardonnay 2019
Tiki Estate Waipara Chardonnay 2019 $19.99 Just bottled a couple of weeks ago, this snappy-fresh chardonnay is unfurling its true flavours of white nectarine, a flick of pineapple, white pepper, lemon, smashed almonds and a click of custard on the finish. There’s an attractive seam of creaminess and yet the acidity is ultra-fresh. Nice chardonnay … Read More
Zephyr MKI Marlborough Rosé 2020
Zephyr MKI Marlborough Rosé 2020 $33.99 Hop on the Google machine, type in ‘morganite’, and that, my friend is the colour-twin of this shiny-new, eye-poppingly pretty, certified organic rosé. Crafted by Ben Glover, from pinot noir fruit grown on their Dillons Point property in Marlborough, it’s a deliciously dry, mineral-powered spice-fest of a rosé that … Read More
Hunting Lodge Tennessee Red Hawke’s Bay Merlot Malbec 2019
Hunting Lodge Project X Tennessee Red Hawke’s Bay Merlot Malbec 2019 $36 Well yippee ki yay, if it isn’t the deepest, darkest, inkiest red to hit my stirrups in ages. The Project X is big, bold and muscular in all the right places, supersized into the realms of smoke and vanilla from being aged in … Read More
Zephyr MKIII Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2019
Zephyr MKIII Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2019 $33 If you’re expecting a simple splash of bog-standard, sweet passionfruit, peach and par-for-the-course capsicum, then you’ve cruised into the wrong cul-de-sac, my friend. This wine is yellow diamond-bright and scented with oodles of lemongrassy intensity, layers of lemon and lime, buckets of basil and mountains of minerally, quartzy … Read More
Black Estate North Canterbury Treble Rosé 2020
Black Estate North Canterbury Treble Rosé 2020 $32 It’s called the ‘Treble’ because to craft this wine, the team at Black Estate have blended five varieties of grapes (pinot noir, riesling, chenin blanc, cabernet franc and chardonnay) harvested from their three, certified organic vineyards together. Wild fermented with cultures kick-started in the vineyard itself, this … Read More
Kalleske Parallax Barossa Valley Grenache 2018
Kalleske Parallax Barossa Valley Grenache 2018 $39 approx I’m told that Kalleske (who are certified organic and biodynamic) pick the fruit for the Parallax around 2 to 3 weeks earlier than they normally would for fruit for their other wines. They then ferment the juice on its stalks and give it a brief maturation in … Read More