Tag Archives: New Zealand
May 29, 2011 Black Estate. Fine wine and a mighty nice website
Not only is this vineyard close to my home town of Christchurch in New Zealand, their website is wonderfully typographic. <link>
Now all I need to do is get a taste of the wine. Raymond Chan thinks the Chardonnay is pretty good. Here’s his summary.
The Naish family have brought Black Estate to the fore of Waipara wine producers. The output is with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from 4 ha of vines of each variety from the home vineyard, and contracted Riesling fruit from nearby. The Chardonnay is from 15 y.o. Mendoza clone and is deemed to be something special. I concur..
And in full <link>
As a further aside, some mighty fine Canterbury rugby players also call Omihi home.
Tags: Black Estate, Canterbury, New Zealand, Omihi, pinot noir, Raymond Chan, typography, wine
March 27, 2010 Canadian review of NZ Pinot
“At all price ranges, New Zealand pinot noir over delivers…” <link>
Lots of good wines and recogniseable brands in here.
Tags: New Zealand, pinot noir, review
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March 14, 2010 10 top NZ sauvignon blancs
Bob Campbell put the 2009 Astrolabe at the top of his list of 10. It’s also the cheapest in the list. <link>
Tags: New Zealand, sauvignon blanc, top 10, wine
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February 17, 2010 New York Times on NZ Pinot
While we found very good wines — wines I’d be happy to drink with dinner — we did not find a great wine, one that could demonstrate the full potential of New Zealand pinot noir, rather than simply suggesting it.
Perhaps that’s understandable. Wine moves at the pace of agriculture, slowly and cyclically. Science and technology have made it possible for modern viticulture to shortcut the centuries it took the monks to select the best sites in Burgundy for pinot noir, but some things cannot be rushed.
The full story is here
Tags: New York Times, New Zealand, pinot noir, wine
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December 21, 2009 2009’s Top New Zealand Sauvignon
New Zealand’s top Sauvignon Blanc’s as selected by Cuisine magazine are just out <link>.
Congratulations to St Clair and Mudhouse who both get two wines in the list.
Update: Here’s the Wine Vault’s list <link>. A St Clair wine features in this compilation too.
Tags: Cuisine, Mudhouse, New Zealand, sauvignon blanc, St Clair, top 10, wine, Wine Vault
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December 13, 2009 New York Times on New Zealand wine
“…just as the global economy went into a tailspin, nature played a cruel joke on New Zealand vintners. While frosts had limited the country’s crop in previous years, last year brought a record harvest — 39 percent larger than that of the year before. The harvest this year was another bumper crop, equivalent in size to that of 2008.”
In one para this article captures the state of the New Zealand wine industry, particularly when it comes to Sauvignon Blanc.
On the plus side, as a drinker, lots of good value wines out there.
Full story here <link>
Tags: New York Times, New Zealand, state of, wine, wine industry
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November 23, 2009 Julicher Pinot named champion
For the first time a Martinborough pinot noir has taken out the top title at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards . It’s the Julicher Pinot Noir 2008, produced by Julicher Estate. The wine was named the champion wine.
Get the full list of awards here.
Tags: champion, Julicher Pinot Noir, New Zealand, wine
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July 4, 2009 New Zealand’s best pinot noir
It’s a viddler video but it refuses to size for my blog!
It’s from www.thewinevault.co.nz. Follow them on twitter here. And click here to watch the video properly.
www.viddler.com/explore/bryantj/videos/87/
FRUSTRATED
Tags: New Zealand, pinot noir, viddler, video, Wine Vault
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March 15, 2009 New Zealand wine region map
Vintage Direct have a comprehensive guide to New Zealand wine and the map above here.
Their discussion of pinot noir in New Zealand is an interesting read <link>
“New Zealand seems made for Pinot Noir, where the climate has proven more important than soils for wine quality. (Excellent Pinots have resulted from clay soils to free-draining fluvio-glacial gravels and silts). While experience has shown that only a few parts of New Zealand (notably Hawke’s Bay) are able to consistently ripen other red varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir will ripen with good flavours and colour in many regions. Though because it ripens very early, it’s been found to be most suited to the cool, low rainfall climates of the South Island and lower North Island regions where plantings are concentrated. If it ripens too fast, it fails to develop a desirable flavour profile and can even become jammy.”
“In a recent tasting, Neal Martin writing for the Wine Advocate asked whether or not “In qualitative terms alone, New Zealand’ s Pinot Noir equal Burgundy? No, not yet.” he admits.“Does New Zealand offer better QPR? [Quality Price Ratio] Undoubtedly.” U.K. wine writer, Jancis Robinson agrees, writing “The best are nowhere near as good as the best red Burgundy, but the worst are so, so much more delicious than the worst Burgundy.”
Tags: map, New Zealand, pinot noir, wine
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March 8, 2009 840% growth
“New Zealand pinot noir plantings rose 840% in 12 years.” Sunday Times, 8 March 2009.
They go on to report that sauvignon blanc is the most planted variety but pinot noir became the second most planted variety ahead of chardonnay in 2006.
Tags: New Zealand, pinot noir, plantings
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