Pegasus Bay Prima Donna Waipara Pinot Noir 2016 $100 Mat Donaldson only makes a Prima Donna when the fruit is absolutely exceptional, which is good from a ‘guarantee of quality’ perspective, but it really gets up the goats of those wine aficionados with OCD who want nice, consistent vintage dates in their cellar collections. The … Read More
Archives
Ward Valley Mt Victoria Block Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018
Ward Valley Mt Victoria Block Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018 $29 I loved the 2016 version of the Mt Victoria Block pinot noir, but this 2018 is a softer, sexier, more sweetly-fruited beast altogether. Grown in the tiny, south-Marlborough sub-region of Ward, famous for its deep clay soils. It’s the clay that injects floral intensity to … Read More
Zephyr Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018
Zephyr Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018 $29.99 Hands up if fresh strawberries, fresh, squinty rhubarb and fresh cherries are something you’d like all up in your cakehole? Well fret not, the pinot noir equivalent of special agent John Wick unleashing a hail of flavoursome weaponry upon thee. Ben Glover is the winemaker at the helm of … Read More
Bob short for kate Organic Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019
Bob short for Kate Organic Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019 $tbc So your plan’s not cunning enough to pin a tail on and call it a weasel? Fret not. It’ll never measure up to Kate’s scheme of disguising herself as a boy and calling herself ‘Bob’ to become Lord Blackadder’s manservant and keep a roof over … Read More
Mr Glover Central Otago Pinot Noir 2018
Mr Glover Central Otago Pinot Noir 2018 $42 I’ve said it before, but in case you missed the memo, for professional pinot people, Ben Glover is about as top-of-the-tree as it gets in this country. With ‘chief winemaker’ titles from Wither Hills, Mud House and Zephyr, and a past Chair of Pinot Noir New Zealand, … Read More
Norman Hardie Unfiltered VQA Prince Edward County Pinot Noir 2016
Norman Hardie Unfiltered VQA Prince Edward County Pinot Noir 2016 ($60) Canadian pinot noir isn’t something we see in New Zealand very often (much like appropriate footwear and eye protection when mowing the lawns, the correct use of hair straighteners or affordable house painters). So I get a tad excited whenever one lands on my … Read More
Stonecroft Undressed Gimblett Gravels Merlot 2019
Stonecroft Undressed Gimblett Gravels Merlot 2019 $31 I love how exotically perfumed this organically-grown Gimblett Gravels merlot is, and the fact that it’s made with no added sulphites (hence the ‘undressed’) – so I’m loving what it has, and what it hasn’t. Perky plum, pepper and pomegranate layers set the pace for boatloads of berries … Read More
Goshawk Estate Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
Goshawk Estate Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Sauvignon 2018$poa Well well well. If I haven’t just managed to snaffle a bottle of the top-secret solo project from Mills Reef’s long-time, legendary winemaker, Paul Dawick. The name is taken from his mum’s maiden name (Drummond) and there happened to be a Goshawk bird attached to the coat of … Read More
Cypress Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2018
Cypress Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2018 $26 The 2018 vintage of what’s become a huge favourite of mine, is absolutely saturated with ripe plum, blackberry, blueberry and that all-important, syrah-staple, buckets of cracked pepper. There’s a lovely layer of charred oak, black olive and a sniff of soy, meaning its everything I’m looking for in great … Read More
Doctors Flat Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016
Doctors Flat Central Otago Pinot Noir 2016 $49.50 The tiny, 3ha, organically-farmed Doctor’s Flat site in Bannockburn is composed of deep gravels laid down by receding glaciers 480,000 years ago. Shepherded into the bottle by winemaker/owner Steve Davies since the mid-2000s, in 2016, 27% of the hand-harvested fruit was popped into the tank as intact … Read More