Valli Gibbston Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020 $75 Glossy and garnet-hued in the glass, it’s bursting with exotic florals, black guava, pepper and red apple notes, while on the palate, it’s energetic yet silky-textured, spice-saturated and and showing incredible grace and poise. It has a seamless structure, soothing, slippery, yet clinging to every cell … Read More
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Richmond Plains Organic Nelson Sauvignon Blanc 2021
Richmond Plains Organic Nelson Sauvignon Blanc 2021 $22 I’m loving that this sauvignon is subtle and softly herbaceous on the nose (tomato leaf and basil anyone?) and gently zesty on the palate rather than punching you in the face with those boring, blousy-sweet passionfruit and lemonade layers that many commercial examples flout. I’m now also … Read More
Wairiki Wines The Optimist Hawke’s Bay Pinot Noir 2020
Wairiki Wines The Optimist Hawke’s Bay Pinot Noir 2020 $25 I’d like to think I’m an optimist, but comparing my annual school photos, you can see me becoming an adult via the gradual draining of emotion in my expression. Thank heaven for the baked strawberry notes, earthy plushness, slightly foxy aromas, tweaks of tamarillo, and … Read More
St Huberts The Stag Victoria Tempranillo Shiraz 2020
St Huberts The Stag Victoria Tempranillo Shiraz 2020 $19.99 Inky-dark and glossy, this pepper-stacked sip is bursting with dark cocoa, liquorice, prunes, blackberry and cherry notes which roll across the tongue in tsunamis of taut tannins and fantastically fleshy textures. If you’re having lasagne, there’s also nothing better than a hearty, knee-wobblingly ribsticking red like … Read More
The Black Grape Society Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019
The Black Grape Society Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 $29 Paired with: Mushroom And Pumpkin Lasagne in NZ Herald Canvas Magazine August 13 2022 Six months in older oak barrels has given this pinot noir a gentle, smoky tone which wraps around a soft, savoury, mushroomy mid-palate and a backbone of bright berries, wild cherries … Read More
Valli Bannockburn Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020
Valli Bannockburn Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020 $75 You don’t earn Best in Show at the Decanter World Wine Awards and become one of the 50 greatest wines on the planet for being ‘good’. You also don’t earn Gold medals at the London International Wine Challenge, scores of 95/100 from Masters of Wine and … Read More
Wynns The Siding Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
Wynns The Siding Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 $22 Right in the heart of Coonawarra, the skinny, sausage-shaped piece of iron-rich, red soils from where some of Australia’s greatest cabernet sauvignon-based wines are grown, is Wynns Estate. Not far from the historic estate and winery (founded in 1891 is an old railway siding, which served as … Read More
Porters Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2017
Porters Estate Martinborough Pinot Noir 2017 $45 Winemaker and ferociously competitive lawyer John Porter, has managed to cram a shed tonne of spice-soaked fruit into his wine, and that puts me firmly in my happy place pinot-wise. He doesn’t accept average and neither do you I suspect. Deceptively pale in colour (pinot noir doesn’t need … Read More
Kererū by Porters Martinborough Pinot Noir 2018
Kererū by Porters Martinborough Pinot Noir 2018 $35 Proprietor John Porter is a hands-on winegrower and winemaker when he’s not at his legal firm in Wellington. He and his wife planted 6.4ha of vines in 1992 and designed their ‘Kererū’ label to accelerate awareness of their native bush restoration initiative. Kererū is the Māori name … Read More
Bald Hills Single Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017
Bald Hills Single Vineyard Central Otago Pinot Noir 2017 $45.99 Five years on from vintage, and this Central Otago star is finally confident enough to start putting its head above the fence to yell, ‘Yoo-hoo, boys!’ With seductive spices on the nose, wild rhubarb and tamarillo notes on the palate, and a warming, savoury, sandy … Read More