PM to speak at pinot celebration

Prime Minster John Key will take centre stage as special guest at the 2009 Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration in Queenstown this month.

All 200 limited places at the popular pinot buffs' event have been snapped up at $1100 per person and organisers were delighted yesterday to have secured Mr Key as guest speaker at the event's grand dinner, being prepared by celebrated Wellington chef Martin Bosley, of Martin Bosley's Yacht Club Restaurant.

The dinner would be at Skyline Restaurant, as would a charity auction of bottles of the exclusive 2009 Central Otago Pinot Noir Cuvee, specially made for the event.

Co-ordinator Jacqui Murphy said media personality John Hawkesby had also been confirmed as a guest at the event.

The celebration had attracted some of pinot noir's elite from around the world, including British master of wine Jancis Robinson, Burgundian expert and master of wine Jasper Morris and influential United States wine writer Robert Parker's taster Neal Martin.

Other wine experts from the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will take part in the event, which will include exclusive tastings and panel discussions.

Wines from some of the world's most elite wine estates had already arrived in New Zealand for the event, which will be based at the Millennium Hotel in Queenstown.

The five 2001 Grand Cru Burgundies, including wines from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Domaine Comtes Georges de Vogue, would be the highlight of the celebration's "formal tasting".

The programme also included a working lunch hosted by Queenstown's top chefs, winery lunches and dinner at Queenstown's Botswana Butchery.

The celebration runs from January 29 to 31.