Mills Reef Elspeth Gimblett Gravels Merlot 2016 $49 Six quiet, sleepy years on from vintage, this gorgeous Gimblett Gravels-grown merlot is awake and ready to roar. With cocoa-dusted boysenberry, plum and blackcurrant characters on the nose and palate, buckets of rich spices and edged with soft, smoky, caramelised oak tones, it’s a joy to drink. … Read More
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Giesen Uncharted Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019
Giesen Uncharted Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019 $27 This is one of those wines I keep buying and re-tasting and over the last year it’s just getting more and more delicious. Ultra-friendly, juicy and chock full of cherry and hedgerow berries. Sweetly spiced and softly smoky, it’s edged with cocoa and clove and finishes ripe and … Read More
Main Divide North Canterbury Gewürztraminer 2020
Main Divide North Canterbury Gewürztraminer 2020 $20 Here ye gewürztraminals!! My What’s Your Wine Wednesday highlight is the glorious Main Divide North Canterbury Gewürztraminer 2020 ($20) from the frisky folk at Pegasus Bay Winery. It’s crammed with juicy lychee and punchy, peachy flavours, edged with ginger and spice and layered with luxurious textures from start … Read More
Domaine Denis Carre La Perriere Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune 2019
Domaine Denis Carre La Perriere Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune 2019 $45.99 With tamarillo, black tea, wild cherry and redcurrant characters, it’s a silky-smooth, spice-saturated style with heightened finesse and finely-tuned tannins to boot. Beautifully balanced acidity and cherry cola complexity add to its all-around excellence. What’s also excellent is the story. Denis Carré wasn’t … Read More
Domain Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019
Domain Road Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 $40 In 2002 Graeme Crosbie planted his Domain Road vineyard just minutes from an old miners’ hut on the banks of Duffer’s Creek that he used to camp in. Since then, each year, he’s created vibrant, spice-saturated pinots that I’ve loved. Yet 2019 was different. Pristine weather combined … Read More
McArthur Ridge Brass Knocker Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020
McArthur Ridge Brass Knocker Central Otago Pinot Noir 2020 $21.50 Highly aromatic, heaving with bright tamarillo, wild cherry and redcurrant characters, it’s ultra-floral, spice-driven and youthfully fresh. The tannins are lithe, powdery and terrifically textural and it’s showing extensive, impressive length of flavour. Packed with flavour and personality, it’s gotta take a gong as one … Read More
Penfolds Grange 2017
Penfolds Grange 2017 $850 This is the 70th anniversary of one of the most famous wines in the world, an Australian treasure and in the words of Peter Gago, its custodian, it’s an example of “sticks and stones filtration” rather than anything manufactured or synthesised. It’s also only the 7th Grange to be comprised of … Read More
Trinity Hill 125 Gimblett Chardonnay 2020
Trinity Hill 125 Gimblett Chardonnay 2020 $80 Crafted from fruit grown at their Tin Shed vineyard at 125 Gimblett Road, this chardonnay is supremely elegant. Boasting an aromatic hit of smoked almonds, caramelised oak, buttered cinnamon toast, grilled grapefruit and baked nectarine, it’s intoxicating from the first whiff. All those characters osmose onto the palate … Read More
Village Vineyards Havelock North Chardonnay 2020
Village Vineyards Havelock North Chardonnay 2020 $30 The Evans family recently took over what was Red Barrel wines (which, before that was Zeppelin Wines) and their first, own-made chardonnay is light, citrus-stacked and suitably toasty. Grown on their home vineyard on Te Mata Road, the handpicked fruit was whole bunch pressed then fermented in old … Read More
Scout Central Otago Pinot Gris 2021
Scout Central Otago Pinot Gris 2021 $27 Woah Nelly!! Here’s a richly-crafted, spice-driven pinot gris that takes no prisoners in the taste stakes. Dry, lengthy and boosted with baked apple and anise characters, it’s a bold, full-bodied gris with a tweak of guava on the finish. I love how generous and toasty in the mid-palate … Read More