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A scrum of New Zealand wineries presented their wines to the Irish wine trade
and public recently. Martin cast a crtical eye and will discussing his findings
with Sean Moncrieff on the News Talk 106-108FM afternnon show on Friday 19/1/07.
The Kiwis are hot favourites
for the rugby world cup but that’s not the only thing that they are renowned
for and no I don’t mean sheep, as they showed in Dublin recently when they
hosted their annual wine tasting. The NZ wine scene is a very exciting one and
while since they first caught our attention with zippy, fresh sauvignon blancs
about twenty years ago, there has been a constant stream of experimentation and
innovation ever since.
In the white wine camp,
where Montana and Cloudy Bay led, a flood of wines has followed. The sauvignon
blancs are almost universally good, but the style has developed in the last
decade or so. There are far fewer of the pungent herbaceous green pepper
dominated wines of old. Citrus, gooseberry and passion fruit seem the order of
the day. The best of them have mineral flavours and good structure too. My
favourite is usually the expensive and hard to find Craggy Ranges, while it was
good to see that the 2006 vintage of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon blanc was back to the
kind of form that won it its mega reputation. In studio we’ll taste the
consistently good Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon
Blanc 2006, €16.99 which is widely available but can certainly be
found in branches of O’Brien’s or O’Donovan’s off-licenses. As with all
sauvignon blancs, drink the youngest vintage available to make the most of its
distinctive fresh character.
There are plenty of
good chardonnays made all over the country but does the world need more of the c
grape? I suspect not. Thankfully
there are other varieties these days and not surprisingly in a temperate climate
a grape like riesling does very well, but the hip happening white grape is pinot
gris, also known as pinot grigio, except that the kiwis tend to use its French
moniker. Pinot grigio sales seem to be storming ahead in most English speaking
markets and when you look at the average cheap dilute offerings it’s hard to
understand why. New Zealand’s efforts seem to have more in common with the
Alsace take on this grape which a rich orange scented fruit and occasionally too
much residual sugar. We’ll be trying a Villa Maria
East Coast Private Bin Bin Pinot Gris 2005, €14.99 from O'Briens
Off Licences, The Mill Wine Cellar, Maynooth, Kelly's
Off Licence, Chapelizod, O'Donovan's Off Licences, Cork, O'Dwyer's
Cellar, Tyrrelstown Town Centre and Shannon Knights, Shannon Town Centre.
I liked it and it would seem a shame to tell them to make it taste of less and
change the name to pinot grigio if they want to sell more, as the market wants,
bland tasting cheap wines with an Italian name. (Did somebody say Prosecco?).
Aromatic varieties perform
well in New Zealand and if you find a Gewürztramminer, it will be worth trying
and the occasional varietal Muller Thurgau should also be a good example of that
undistinguished grape (which is a bit of an oxymoron).
Just three years ago I was
under whelmed by the reds on offer in New Zealand, aside from cool climate
loving pinot noir, but smart growers in places like Hawkes Bay are changing my
views on that. There are a handful of terrific syrahs from the slightly warmer
Gimlett Gravels region with Craggy Ranges setting the standards. They also do
very well with merlot and Esk Valley estate also have a reputation for their
merlot and cabernet blends. Cabernet can be tricky and is harder to ripen than
merlot, but expect to see more good examples of the later in the next few years.
Pinot noir is the grape that
is making the noise at the moment and the whole country seems to be having a go.
Central Otago, a viticultural region pioneered by Irishman Alan Brady has
produced some stunners with Felton Road the most iconic and expensive. Sadly may
producers in the area are in danger of getting ahead of themselves with several
new ones jumping on the bandwagon and charging outrageous prices. Their role
model, France’s red Burgundy, charges a fortune for their silky pinot noir
based wines, but they have had a 1700 year start on building a reputation.
Elsewhere Ata Rangi in
Martinborough make consistently excellent pinot noir and they know it so prices
are high. Marlborough has
plenty of pinot noir to compliment all that sauvignon blanc and We’ll
be looking at a, thankfully, affordable version of this grape, the St
Clair Pinot Noir 2006, €13.99 and available at independent
off-licences such as The Vintry, McCabes, Redmonds, all in Dublin plus Harvest
in Galway.. Winemaker matt Thomson’s wife, Sheena, is Irish and they met while
he was visiting to sell his wines here.
For
an almost endless amount of info on the wine scene in the land of the long white
cloud go to www.wineoftheeweek.com
, Sue Courtney’s inspiring site.
www.winerepublic.com
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