New Zealand / Australia Trip Dec 2014 / Jan 2015
Auckland, Martinborough, Christchurch, Sydney, Hunter Valley
Tasted December 14, 2014 - January 8, 2015 by kingkanu with 580 views
Introduction
A Christmas and New Year trip, plenty of wines to try and a couple of wine trips squeezed in.
We wanted to taste plenty of the NZ 2013 vintage which we'd read was great across the country, however the people we spoke to in Martinborough were a little dismissive about this saying it was more for the Hawkes Bay producers using Bordeaux grapes that needed the warmer vintage to have a good crop and wines. In Martinborough they say that they get their Pinot and white aromatics ripe every year, but admit that grapes like Syrah do struggle in cooler years.
Flight 1 - Wines drunk at home or over dinner (10 notes)
Very youthful, some bright crisp red fruits on the nose, a little oak. On the palate it has very fine tannin giving a little bite, there's cranberry and red cherries with a nice savoury edge, but this is still very tight, it needs a bit of time, but it tastes like all the components are here for a lovely wine. Medium length.
The nose is lovely, there is some spice box, with cinnamon being more prominent, some earthy forest floor and lovely scented cherry fruit. The palate is almost but not quite as complex, it's sitting in the sweet spot showing plenty of fruit as well as the secondary flavours and has a satisfyingly long finish. Bell Hill vineyard was planted in 1997, if this is made from 9 year old vines then the potential for this site is enormous. This is a beautiful example of an elegant and stylish New Zealand Pinot Noir.
Flight 2 - The first day in Martinborough (14 notes)
A couple of tastings plus a few glasses in local wine bars and the wine centre.
Palliser was on the road into town, Cabbage Tree was next door and only open at the weekend, almost opposites in size and approach.
Martinborough wine centre: This tasting room and store is in the centre of the village and has a pretty wide selection of local wines and goods. They have a couple of enomatic machines for tasting for small fees and on occasion extra bottles on the counter that they will pour for you for no charge
There's not many options at night for dinner, the wine bars do plates and there's the hotel and another restaurant in the centre, you realise it's a very small town and probably geared up more for day visits from Wellington.
Flight 3 - Tasting day part 1 (8 notes)
We had appointments at Dry River, Escarpment and Kusuda, we hired bikes from town as everything was nearby or so we thought...
Dry River Vineyards: 11ha vines on the Martinborough terraces. We met with Wilco Lam, winemaker at Dry River, who was an excellent host happy to talk about the vines, geology, weather and wine making at length, he was very generous with his time. appointments are necessary. The home block vineyard are their prime Pinot vines (age ?) there were notably wide rows with grass growing between and tall plants, they leaf pluck to get the most UV to ripen the bunches rather than reflective heat and use around 30% stems. They really try and protect the wine from oxygen during production which helps give it the longevity that their pinots are known for.
We tried a delicious Gewurtztraminer from barrel which was fermented dry.
(Raeburn and J&B imports to the UK)
Ata Rangi: This was a well organised tasting set up open 7 days. It didn't look like they have their flagship Pinot out for tasting, they kept that under the counter put poured it for us without being asked. $5 service fee for tasting, picnic tables provided outside.
Medium light body but dark in colour
Bright slightly floral nose, very clean cherry fruit flavours, medium length. This wine was delicious and very easy to drink, but there is much more to be revealed given time, one to cellar for 5-10 years if you can
This wine has a much deeper and darker body, with a deeper and more intense nose than the 2012. There is much more obvious dark cherry fruit, even heading towards black currant, there's some fine tannins on the tongue. This wine is far more fruit forward and very giving, even so, I would prefer to put this away for a while for it to gain a bit more complexity.
This has quite a deliciously complex nose, medium / light body. There's a little earth here with deep cherry flavours and nice length.
Flight 4 - Escarpment vineyards / Kusuda (2 notes)
Escarpment
This winery is out of town along Te Muna Road. Tasting by appointment only. If you are cycling, leave a good 30 mins or more and be prepared for a couple of hills and don't take wrong turns like us
We tasted their wines from barrel, only 1 Pinot, the Kiwa, was through malo and racked. It's not worth doing notes due to the wines being in different stages and unfinished, however, each site showed different characteristics, the older vines of Kiwa showed some nice savoury depths, the Pahi had the longest to go through malo with much more acidity, the Te Rehua had the most fruit showing and finally the Kupe which had impressive depth considering these were from the youngest vines of around 15 years of age, however, according to the winemaker this vineyard was planted at very high density around 10,000 / ha (?) and this has forced their roots deeper earlier so giving it the impression of more age and complexity, these are also on their own rootstock which also gives more depth of flavour. This was a fascinating tasting.
Kusuda
There is no winery, this is the definition of boutique and is literally a 1 man operation, Hiro is a man on a mission to make great wines in exactly the style he wants to. He has 3 ha of vines under lease and does everything himself so getting to meet him was no mean feat and we were so fortunate that he made some time to invite us to us house to taste some of his wines, although that did take numerous emails to set up.
He makes a Pinot Noir, Riesling and a Syrah and has no plans to make any more, or get any bigger, as that would mean that he couldn't do everything himself.
In 2012 he made so little Syrah there was none to taste, but in that cool year not many people managed to get their Syrah ripe at all to make any wine, he managed this by being brutal with green harvesting and losing over 60% of the crop.
His pinots are quite light bodied, but don't lack any flavour, the fruit is so pure. In contrast to Dry River, Hiro allows the wines to have more contact with oxygen which he says helps the wines have more longevity. These are wines of elegance and finesse.
The Riesling 2013 was a decanter top 50 wine of 2014.
These are superb wines, but tiny production and not that cheap, but for me worth all the effort and every penny, if you see them, just buy them.
Only just bottled. Very elegant nose, some white flowers, lemon, white peach and mandarin. Very fine, lovely acidity and a long fresh finish. Just a little co2 left here at the moment giving it a slight spritz.
Just released a week ago. Just a slight lick of oak on the nose. Light crystalline body. A gorgeous cherry nose, intense mouthfilling cherry flavour. So fine and light, great acidity and a very long finish
Flight 5 - A day trip to the Hunter Valley (39 notes)
Hope Estate was an intro to the day, Brokenwood was the main event. Tamburlaine is an organic producer, Misty Glen is small and we called in randomly and were pleasantly surprised.
More weighty on the palate, still a slight sharpness
Quiet citrus, melon nose
Palate more citrus, nuts, some vanilla, not bad finish
Good nose of fruit and tobacco, easy drinking wine, some fairly fine tannin, ok finish
Fairly list style of Shiraz, nothing too defined, a bit of tannins bite on the finish with a touch of spice
Rich nose, big black currant fruit, liquorice, some tobacco & savoury development
Plenty of tannin to resolve, big flavours but the palate seems to lack a bit of concentration for the price
Citrus freshness, very light
Lots more concentration, still lots of citrus on the palate, mid length, still wants more time to unwind
The nose leaps from the glass, lots of fresh cashews, a bit of lees, really long, plenty of acidity, delicious
deeper and more concentrated, plenty of tannin and quite awkward, needs plenty of time
Lovely black currant fruits, fine tannins, really quite lovely
Palate is a bit more cherry but not very well defined, fairly short, some fine but drying tannin
Flight 6 - A few more wines at home in Australia (4 notes)
Dark cherries, quite soft and ready to drink but still with some decent acidity, a little leathery savouriness adds some interest.
Closing
Every visit to New Zealand sees the wines gain in stature, the vines are generally still quite young, so even a couple of years will make a difference. There is some very high quality Pinot being made in NZ, but also quite a lot of over sweet over handled wine. The top producers aren't cheap, but the quality is definitely there, I'm looking forward to more next trip.
We visited the Hunter valley for the first time, so that was all new, it was good to find out that not all Aussie shirazes are huge beasts ! The semillon needs more exploration too.