Esk Valley Artisanal Collection Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2019 $25 Glossy and gorgeous in the glass, it’s heaving with violets, soft black pepper, dark cherry, damson plum and redcurrant characters that assail the nostrils and flood the tastebuds. With fresh, ultra-vibrant acidity adding vavoom to the mid-palate and fine-grained tannins elongating the flavours, it’s a total … Read More
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Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019
Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019 $35 Crafted from fruit grown in the Awatere and Southern Valley’s sub-regions, this little banger of a pinot noir is destined for big things. Bursting with bright tamarillo, berry tea, cherry and all manner of earthy goodness, it’s ultra-fresh, frisky and fanging with flavour. Smooth, velvety textures and solid, spicy … Read More
Esk Valley Artisanal Collection Hawke’s Bay Gamay Noir 2020
Esk Valley Artisanal Collection Hawke’s Bay Gamay Noir 2020 $25 With less than 5 ha of gamay (full name Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc) planted in all New Zealand, it’s one of the rarest styles seen in our market. It’s mainly recognised as the red grape grown in Beaujolais to make their famously fresh, juicy, lightly-styled signature … Read More
Paritua Bridge Pa Syrah 2018
Paritua Bridge Pa Syrah 2018 $49 Boasting so much violet perfume on the nose you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s potted colour in a bottle. Those iron-rich, Bridge Pa soils inject powerful graphite and damson plum notes, hints of tar, smoke, blueberry and pepper then kick into gear. The tannins are supple and snuggle the … Read More
Valli Waitaki Vineyard North Otago Pinot Noir 2019
Valli Waitaki Vineyard North Otago Pinot Noir 2019 $79 The Waitaki wine region sits right on the border of North Otago and South Canterbury. Hard country. Richie McCaw country. Its extreme climate produces pinot noir with huge florality (yes it’s a word), a soft, saline layer compliments cheek-puckeringly prickly astringency and has cherry, raspberry, pomegranate … Read More
Yakutin Family Wines Matakana
From Kazakhstan with Love… Oleg Yakutin, owner of Yakutin Family Wines (a 1 hectare vineyard, marked by an ancient brick chimney on Matakana Road, Warkworth), is the first Kazakhstani winemaker in New Zealand. A corporate marketing career in a past life fed his love for fine food and wine, so when the time came for … Read More
Brancott Estate Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020
Brancott Estate Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020 $19 If you’re looking for a perfectly decent, cherry and plum-packed Pinot Noir that won’t give your wallet any grief, this is your parking spot. It’s also the pumped up kicks where aromatics are concerned. Redcurrant and buckets of raspberry wash across a spicy baseline in the mouth. … Read More
Te Mata Coleraine 2018
Te Mata Coleraine 2018 $115 (5 stars) Sweet fruits, raspberry and cocoa, quite a bit of cabernet franc in the blend and it shows beautifully, lithe and lovely and lifted there’s a great impression, tobacco, saddle leather, pomegranate, richness and the tannins are finely tuned yet tight and fabulously furry – yet the fruit is … Read More
Chard Farm Finla Mor Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019
Chard Farm Finla Mor Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 $42 Clearly the gods were happy with the Chard Farmers because they’ve given them a blessed vintage in 2019. Sourcing fruit for the Finla Mor from fruit grown in the deep schist soils of Lowburn and Parkburn subregions of Cromwell, the vineyards are hand harvested in … Read More
Music Bay Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2018
Music Bay Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2018 $15.99 If you’re looking for a fruity, smooth, super-easy, quaffy mcquaff face red to soothe the throat, clear the nose and wow the crowds, then you’ve come to the right cul de sac here my friend. Ripe, rumpty, Hawke’s Bay merlot has been blended with cabernet sauvignon to … Read More