New Zealand's best wines and wineries(3)
Marlborough
2006 Matua Valley Sauvignon Blanc (4/5)
From one of the oldest names in New Zealand wine, this is full of intense fresh, gooseberry and blackcurrant flavours and a touch of lemon and even — surprisingly — an agreeable, slightly salty character.
£7.99 – selected Spar and Makro shops, and through everywine.co.uk .
2007 Montana Festival Block Sauvignon Blanc (5/5)
From the heart of Marlborough, close to the site of the annual festival (hence the name), this is one of Montana’s new range of single-vineyard wines. These all have more character and complexity than the basic Montana Sauvignon. I really like the lime character I found in this wine, which definitely adds complexity to the gooseberry.
£9.99 – Vintage House, Hailsham Cellars.
2006 Montana Terraces Pinot Noir (5/5)
Wild raspberries and freshly ground white pepper are both to the fore in this Montana flagship from Marlborough. Nothing like Burgundy, but none the worse for that.
£13.99 – Threshers.
2007 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (4/5)
Still commanding a cult following in Britain, two decades after it burst on to the scene, this subsidiary of Veuve Clicquot has always produced a wine that stands slightly aside from the mass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs in its creaminess and in its peachy flavours, which come from the presence in the blend of a little Semillon. Whether it is worth going on to a waiting list for, or paying £25 a bottle for, is another question.
From about £24.95 – widely available.
Central Otago
2006 Two Paddocks Pinot Noir (5/5)
Of the growing list of vineyard-owning celebrities, Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) stands apart in the personal commitment he has put into his Pinot Noir vines. This wine is a blend of three vineyards, and shows off intense flavours of plums and just-ripe red and black cherries, with some toasty oak. Very mouthwatering.
£15.60; £168.50 per case of 12 – Haynes Hanson & Clark (www.hhandc.co.uk).
2007 Prophet’s Rock, Pinot Gris (4/5)
Pinot Gris — or Pinot Grigio as it is also known — is often a disappointing grape: watery in Italy and clumsily over-alcoholic in New Zealand. This one gets it absolutely right, though, with some fine mineral character behind the flavours of ripe pear and peach.
£16.99 – available at Berkmann direct (www.berkmann.co.uk).
2005 Olssens Jackson Barry Pinot Noir (5/5)
Olssens, one of New Zealand’s top Pinot Noir producers, makes three individual examples of this grape: the memorably named Nipple Hill, the Jackson Barry and the flagship Slapjack Creek, which is only released in top vintages. This Jackson Barry has gorgeous cherry-raspberry fruit, toasty oak with some ethereal violet perfume that has absolutely nothing to do with red Burgundy.
£20.50 – stockist details: contact New Zealand Wine Direct (0870 240 7460 , www.nzwinedirect.com; email orders@nzwd.com).
2006 Tarras Vineyard Pinot Noir (4/5)
This is from a young winery, with vineyards planted close to woods that featured in the first episode of The Lord of the Rings (where the Dark Riders chased Frodo). The flavours are of bright cherry and wild herbs, with just a little licorice.
£20.50 – stockist details: contact New Zealand Wine Direct.
2006 Wooing Tree Pinot Noir (4/5)
A very serious wine that brings together raspberry and cherry with the slightly truffle-like flavours of really fine Burgundy. Delicious now, this really needs keeping for another year or so, and deserves to be enjoyed with good, rare beef.
£20.95 – stockist details: contact New Zealand Wine Direct.
2006 Prophet’s Rock Pinot Noir (4/5)
Cherries are a hallmark of Central Otago, but few wines exhibit this particular fruit characteristic better than Prophet’s Rock, which offsets them with some very noticeable coffee-ish oak flavours and some bright violet perfume. Very reminiscent of home-made dark cherry jam on toasted home-baked bread.
£22.99 – available at Berkmann direct (www.berkmann.co.uk), The Wine Society (www.thewinesociety.com) and Handford Wines (www.handford.net).
2006 Pisa Range Pinot Noir (5/5)
Not (yet) among the best known of New Zealand’s wave of top Pinot Noir producers, Pisa Range is a rising star. The bright cherry flavours of Central Otago are matched by some fascinating notes of wild herbs that meld well with the toasty oak.
£23.99 – Hellion Wines (www.hellionwines.com).
2006 Aurora Syrah (5/5)
Most of New Zealand’s best Syrahs come from Hawke’s Bay rather than the cooler, Pinot Noir-focused area of Central Otago. But this wine comes from an unusually warm corner of that region, and has a character that seems to combine qualities of Hermitage in the Rhone and subtler examples of Shiraz from Australia. It’s very (white) peppery and juicily berryish, with attractive vanilla oak.
£16.99 – Hellion Wines (www.hellionwines.com).
- Robert Joseph’s Wine Travel Guide to the World is published by Footprint at £19.99
