VLOG 5: 2008 Marlborough Pinot Gris

Twitter Tasting Notes: 9 Jan 09 - 17 June 09 (most recent notes first)
Sorry about the typos - most of these were from my cell phone and I can't spell to save myself.

07 @SalvareEstate Chardy, Ngatarawa Triange HB - Clean and pure, chalky texture, restrained & elegant. Racy! http://twitpic.com/7izcs

08 Greenhough Chard, Nelson - bright acid and fruit, soft oak. Drinks well.

07 Les Volcans Syrah, Languedoc - made by Theo at Crater Rim, pure dark plum fruit ferric bloody tang, soft floral spice. Yay! No oak!

08 Crater Rim Canterbury Rielsing, Waipara - braeburns and peat smoke. Great lemony acid and a hint of sweetness - fucking crazy good.

Crater Rim Fraher Vineyard SB 07, Waipara - mello with wonderful sauvage charicter and a whisp of oak. Passion, funk and finty smoke. V Cool

08 Felton Road Vin Gris, Bannockburn - Dry but v rich w steely minerality. Pear and quince fruit with white pepper & vanilla! #TweetBunchNZ

07 Johner Res PN, Gladstone - punchy fruit and florals; good acid and tannins- quite stunning but lacks length.

05 Zepelin Syrah, Havelock Hills HB - Balsamic and spice on nose. Powerful fruit balanced by clean acid, earth spice and meat. A stunner!!!

07 Johner Cab, Martinborough - bright blackcurrant on the nose with wet earth and dusty dry oak....nice weight, underwhelming & great finish
...07 Johner Cab, Martinborough - sorry folks "underwhelming" in a good way!

08 Fiasco Black Pearl PN, Southern Valleys Marlb - Dark silky plums, florals and spice, Italian licorice. Beautifully young: lithe & supple!

2007 Johner PN , Gladsone - game meats and offal with bright red fruit, mushroom underrtones and a green floral lift. Elegant weight. VG

Johner 07 Noble Syrah - very medicinal and liniment with blackcurrant fruit and botritic richness... orange peel and pepper...

07 Black Estate Chardy, Omihi - flinty nose with bright apricot & lemon fruit and mineral undernotes - needs age E

2007 Craggy Range 'Glasnevin Gravels Vineyard' Riesling
Waipara, North Canterbury

Crunchy lemon and lime with crunchy texture and a hint of kerosene. Good acid and purity - hint of florals. Engaging and alive! VG

Food Match: Grilled Haloumi in Citrus Herb Dressing with Te Whare Ra 08 'Awatere' Sauvignon Blanc


I love haloumi - but I can't often get fresh stuff now we don't live in Wellington so I was thrilled to see that the cheesemakers at Whitestone Cheese down the road had whipped some up. This is such a simple recipe - thinly slice some baguette, grill some haloumi till golden brown in some olive oil on a medium-high heat and finish with a dressing of lemon juice, salt and pepper, dijon mustard and fresh herbs (I used mint and parsley but coriander works wonders). EAT!


To wash it down I drank the 08 Awatere SB by Te Whare Ra - personally a little to much cut and grass for me by itself but worked beautiful with the dish matching the acid of the lemon juice, herbaceous of the herbs and balancing out the salty cheese.

Yummo.

More tonight!

Finally, a film about what really goes on in the wine industry: Corked!

Out of action...

I have just about the worst ailment for a professional drinker - the flu. Just hope its not bacon flu but I can't see how I could have been exposed to it. Anyway because of being blocked up I haven't been able to taste as much as I'd like. As soon as my head is clear I will be posting more notes. Also have an 08 Marlborough Pinot Gris vid in the works.

Lets face facts - most Marlborough savvie is "evil, watery, grassy wine"

EVIL, WATERY, GRASSY...

No truer three words were ever spoken.

I read about this today on Paul Sharp's Wine Consultant blog which linked to the original article and to the coverage it has been getting here.

If we are going to be realistic most Marlborough savvie is thin, underripe, insipid shit. Barely drinkable. Luckily I don't taste a hell of a lot of Marlborough savvie but I taste enough to know this is true - particularly of the lower end labels but especially so of the 08s. I'm glad someone said it because hopefully it will convince the wineries to pull finger and manage their vineyards properly and encourage their growers (financially) to increase quality by lowering yields rather than penalise them for failing to meet maximum yield levels that they don't understand - a grape's a grape right?

As a kiwi who wants the best for our industry I salute Jane MacQuitty. Of course - not all Marlborough Savvie fit this description but the ones that do are made in super huge quantities by massive international conglomerates who dupe the customer into believing that theirs is a quality product when it is really just mass produced pissed. EVIL. WATERY. GRASSY.

"We're a very big winery" - YEAH RIGHT

2008 Man O' War Wines



I tasted these a couple of days ago with viticulturist Rachael Hughes when she was passing through town. The wines are very, very modern and quite commercially styled but extremely well executed. I think what I am trying to say is that while they are not my sort of wines they are very good indeed.

Other than the Pinot Gris which is grown on Pounui Island, just south of Waiheke all the wines are grown on the 150 acre Man O' War Estate on Waiheke.

2008 'Pounui Island' Pinot Gris
This is a really bright, fresh Gris with peach, apricot, pear and quice fruit - dry but with a nice ripe fruit sweetness. Quite rich but it has balance and finesse. Very creamy - with almond meal like texture and white pepper and cinnamon spice. The wine also has a small portion of Viognier in the blend which may account for the stone fruit component. VG

2008 Chardonnay
Very bright peach fruit with a nice yeasty/bready autolysis component and sweet Lemon and orange marmalade. VG

2008 'Valhalla' Chardonnay
Toasted coconut with grilled pineapple, banana and vanilla - this wine is HUGE!!! It has lemony acidity underneath all that fat and oak. Super tropical. I have to admit that on my second tasting of the wine it was so oaky it made me want to vom - I think it suffering from a bit of bottle shock and may balance out in the future. If you see it around the 07 is still big but more refined and balanced. G

2008 Syrah
Talk about Bacon Explosion! Ultra smokey bacon and meat with very bright red cherry fruit and nice powdery tannins and a hint of floral action. Very much in a style I don't like but extremely well executed. E

2008 Merlot Cabernet Franc
Very ripe plum and blackcurrant with a slight hint of green tobacco. Taut tannins and a long finish with a hit of chocolate and espresso. VG

I have previously reviewed their 08 Sauvignon Blanc here.

End of May tasting notes...

I don't blog often enough but sometimes I taste some wine like it but don't quite know the best way to blog it. So I just thought I'd write up my notes in a end of week report like this.

2008 Te Whare Ra Riesling D
Marlborough


D if you hadn't worked it out stands for dry - they also release a M (medium) and S (sweet). It is a linear, pure, typically Marlborough Riesling with stoney minerality and lime, pineapple and soft apricot fruit with a subtle floral finish. VG

Alluviale Blanc and Rouge

Alluviale Blanc 08
Dartmoor Valley, Hawkes Bay
This is an interesting white from producers committed to making wines in a very Bordeaux driven style. It is both very fruity and funky with bright tropical pineapple and passionfruit and a typically savvie sweaty funk. Great acid and can't wait to see the development of this wine over the next few vintages. G

Alluviale Rouge 07
Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay
This wine is just a baby (but still drinks remarkably well) with dark plum and boysenberry fruit and roasted red earth, a hint of florals and a slight bitter edge which detracted from the wine to begin with but integrated itself into the whole by day two. Very serious Merlot. E

Valli 07 Gibbston and Bannockburn Pinot Noirs



Was tasting these wines for a piece I wrote for The Second Glass on regional characteristics of NZ Pinot. Very interesting to see the differences between sub-regions with these wines but also the characteristics they share due to Grant Taylor's winemaking. I think these are their lightness, depth and the purity of fruit. They are not cheap ($55 approx) but do pick them up as they are some of the most interesting wines out of Central.

Valli Gibbston Pinot Noir 07
Gibbston, Central Otago
Bright black cherry fruit with intensely meaty undertone - has a note I often describe as flat but it seems to work very well in the wine. Light in weight and colour but doesn't lack anything - if anything the lightness seems to work in its favour as the wine comes across as incredibly sexy. Supple tannins and great acid. E

Valli Bannockburn Pinot Noir 07
Bannockburn, Central Otago
Black cherry with thyme and spice. Very Bannockburn but much lighter and more refined than most other producers in the area maybe even more so than Felton Road. Beautifully pure fruit with wonderful aromatic florals. Volnay-esque. Despite its lack of weight it has intensity and enthusiasm - very exciting. E