Framingham winemaker, Dr Andrew Hedley, produces this country’s top sweet wines. His botrytised wines are, of course, vintage dependant and 2011 appears to have produced ideal conditions for the controlled development of that (sometimes) beneficial vineyard mould. In 2011 Hedley made a a string of fantastic dessert wines from Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and, the star, Riesling.

Hedley has borrowed French label nomenclature for his F-Series Vendange Tardive 2011 Pinot Gris  and F-Series Selection de Grains Nobles 2011 Gewürztraminer.  For his F-Series Rieslings he uses German labelling terms to identify the various sweetness (and quality) levels. They include a great Kabinett (93 points), brilliant Auslese (94 points)  and mind-blowing Beerenauslese that I awarded 95 points and would quite happily have gone higher except I had to leave space for the Trochenbeerenauslese which earned 97 points which is, for me, the highest I can go because I add a further two points to my scores when featuring the wines in Gourmet Traveller Wine to allow for their slightly different scale.

Why not give it a maximum of 98 points (and therefore 100 points in Gourmet Traveller Wine)?  To give a wine 100 points it has to be perfect. Only Buddha is perfect. It would be disrespectful to compare a wine to Buddha. Or would it?

Imagine a rugby game of rugby between New Zealand and Australia where best bottles replaced players. It would be logical to choose Syrah/Shiraz instead of muscled forwards and Pinot Noir for the agile backs.

NZ Winegrowers organised such a match to coincide with a group of visiting Australian sommeliers who acted as judges alongside local sommelier Cameron Douglas and winemakers Simon Nunns (Coopers Creek) and Corey Hall (Gem). Distinguished Australian wine author and critic James Halliday selected his top 15 wines from Australia while I picked my favourites from New Zealand.

THE RESULTS
New Zealand dominated in the backs (Pinot Noir) with five out of the seven top wines. The winners were:
Terravin 2009, Marlborough (NZ) 28 points
Martinborough Vineyards 2009, Martinborough (NZ) 23 points
Coal Pit 2008 Tiwha, Central Otago (NZ) 22 points
Felton 2010 Road Block 3, Central Otago (NZ) 21 points (my favourite)
Akarua 2009 Reserve, Central Otago (NZ) 21 points
Tollana Robinson Family 2009 Bin TR474, Mornington Peninsula (Aust) 21 points
Paringa Estate2009, Mornington Peninsula (Aust) 20 points

New Zealand and Australia each scored four of the eight top forwards (Syrah/Shiraz) although NZ won on points. Winners:
Craggy Range 2009 Le Sol, Hawke’s Bay (NZ) 37 points
Shaw & Smith 2009, Adelaide Hills (Aust) 37 points
Bilancia 2009 La Collina, Hawke’s Bay (NZ) 23 points (my favourite)
Mills Reef 2009 Elspeth, Hawke’s Bay (NZ) 21 points
Hentley Farm 2009 The Beauty, Barossa Valley (Aust) 20 points
Wynns 2008 Coonawarra Michael Shiraz, Coonawarra (Aust) 20 points
Beach Head 2009 Shiraz, Margaret River (Aust) 19 points
Villa Maria 2007 Reserve, Hawke’s Bay (NZ) 19 points

I hope this is an indication of the outcome if the Kiwis face off against the Aussies at the RWC.

Alsace - Paradis sur Terre

Lance Cameron lives with his wife, Pamela, and their two cats in a rural setting near Tauranga. He works as a salesman selling wine for Constellation but his secret passion is the wines of Alsace. While others head for the beach during their summer holidays Lance travels to Europe to work in the annual Alsace grape harvest.

“My love affair with Alsace started on my first visit to the region. I was working a vintage at Domaine Chibert at Fuisse in the Macon when a fellow worker suggested I stay with his parents in Alsace once the harvest was complete. I took his advice and instantly fell in love with the place.”

“I clearly remember having a sort of epiphany a couple of days after arriving in the region. I’d just posted a letter and hopped back into the car  when I suddenly felt a profound sense of peacefulness. It was an amazing experience – I suddenly felt as though I’d arrived at my spiritual home, it was like arriving at somewhere I’d lived in a past life.”

I’ve now worked eight vintages in Alsace and I love the place. Alsace is my mistress. I’m totally seduced by everything to do with the region – the food, the wine, the people – I love everything about the place.”

Lance imports about 70 cases of Alsace wine each year. That represents a significant chunk of New Zealand’s annual importation of Alsace wine which is a humble 2000 cases. Lance doesn’t sell his wines “that would take the fun out of it” but shares his precious bottles with a network of wine loving friends. Happily I am one of them.

I’ve just tasted 25 of Lance’s latest Alsace imports from producers Dirler, Bernhard & Reibel, Frederic Mochel and Aime Stentz. Is this the first time a single New Zealand tasting has featured eight different Alsace grape varieties? They included Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc, Muscat, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Riesling Gewurztraminer and Auxerrois Blanc. There were many gems in the tasting although my favourite single bottle was an exquisite Dirler 2008 Grand Cru Kessler Gewurztraminer. It was so good I almost had an epiphany!

All wines are reviewed on this website.

An open letter from Nick Belfrage MW, the world’s leading English-speaking expert on Italian wine. I thoroughly endorse his comments.

I understand that, on Wednesday Sept 7, 2011, a vote will be held in the Assemblea of Montalcino wine producers on whether to allow a small but significant percentage of other grapes, which everyone understands to mean Merlot and/or Cabernet and/or Syrah, into the blend of Rosso di Montalcino DOC, which is of course at present a 100% Sangiovese wine.

I would urge you in the strongest terms not to support this change. Rosso di Montalcino, like Brunello di Montalcino, has created for itself a strong personality on international wine markets based largely on the fact that it is a pure varietal wine. In these days when more and more countries are climbing on the wine production bandwagon it is more important than ever to have a distinctive identity, to make wine in a way which no one else on earth can emulate. It is my belief that the strongest factor in the identity of Rosso di Montalcino (and of course Brunello di Montalcino) is the fact that it is 100% Sangiovese.

I am not disputing the fact that Merlot, Cabernet and Syrah are excellent grape varieties, but it is their very excellence, their very strength of personality, which threatens to compromise the unique character of Rosso di Montalcino. Who could ever imagine the producers ofBordeauxvoting to allow 15% of Sangiovese into theBordeauxblend? The idea is absurd – or would be treated as such by theBordeauxproducers. There are many who think that a reverse situation, inTuscany’s finest vine-growing area, would be equally absurd. Yes, in many cases it may improve the wine – especially in weak vintages or where Sangiovese does not succeed every year. But it will fatally undermine the personality of the wine.

I am aware that a lot of Merlot  and  Cabernet are planted in the Montalcino growing zone, and that there may be a need in the short term to find a commercial use for these grapes. But there are the options of St. Antimo or IGT Toscana. Perhaps, instead of compromising the purity of one of Montalcino’s unique wines, there should be more effort in the direction of promoting these other wine-types.

You will be aware that many of us fear that a compromise in regard to Rosso di Montalcino would constitute an opening of the door to a compromise, farther down the line, of the purity of the great Brunello – one of the world’s great wines. Whether or not that might be the case, I am convinced that it is against the long-term interests of Montalcino to allow any other grape variety, including any Italian or Tuscan variety, into the Rosso, just as it would be fatal to great Burgundy, for example, to allow Syrah to be blended with Pinot Noir, as was once widely practised – with, one might add, some notable successes, but with the inevitable distortion of the style.

You, the Montalcino producers, hold the fate not only of your own future market in your hands. You are the representatives of all of us who will not have a vote on September 7^th.

We urge you, please, to vote NO.

Nicolas Belfrage MW

30 August 2011

Last Friday (26th Aug) I received a phone call giving me advance warning of a merger between Ager Sectus (brands = The Crossings, Crossroads Winery, 3 Stones, Braided River and Southbank Estate) and Yealands Estate (brands = Yealands Estate, Peter Yealands, Yealands Way, Full Circle, Pete’s Shed, Flaxbourne, Violet). The caller advised that the new company would represent the country’s sixth largest (measured by tonnes crushed) and would have a combined vineyard area of more than 1,500 hectares. I asked who was buying who and was told that Ager Sectus was purchasing a share of Yealands. The information was embargoed until Sunday when a media release would be provided.

The media release duly arrived, followed by an article in the Marlborough Express headed “Yealands buys wine co.” with the introductory sentence, “Marlborough wine company Yealands Estate has absorbed Hawke’s Bay-based Ager Sectus Wine Estates, to form the sixth biggest wine company in New Zealand.”

That didn’t equate with what I’d been told so I called Ager Sectus founder and chairman, Peter Cutfield, who explained that the Marlborough Express had taken a liberal interpretation of the facts. He would not confirm the exact size of his company’s investment but said that Ager Sectus had made a “significant purchase” of Yealands Estate shares and that the two companies would merge.

I then got on the blower to Peter Yealands who had a rather different view of the merger or acquisition. “I’ve bought Ager Sectus lock, stock and barrel for cash and shares”, explained Yealands, adding that business was booming. “I needed Ager Sectus for their distribution network. We’ve sold two-thirds of next month’s budget already and I’m buying in wine because I’ve run out”, he enthused.

Confused? So am I.

An aerial view of Destiny Bay's winery (mid-left) and vineyards

Destiny Bay is a relative newcomer to Waiheke, established by the American family of Mike and Ann Spratt and their son Sean. They selected a wonderful site on the western side of the island in a north-facing ampitheatre. The winery is a red wine specialist with the vineyard planted predominantly with Cabernet Sauvignon but also Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Destiny Bay makes three wines; the entry level Destinae ($75 or $45 for “Patron Club” members), Mystae ($115 or $70 for members) and the flagship Magna Praemia ($275 or $165 for members). It’s easy enough to become a Patron Club member, simply log onto the site www.destinybaywine.com and register. The winery sells first to members with retailers and the export market getting whatever is left over.

2011 has been a tough year for Waiheke producers, in fact it seems to have been fairly tough for most North Island regions thanks to a fairly wet ripening season driven by La Nina weather patterns. Rain encourages rot while water-swollen berries tend to dilute flavours. Here’s a fairly typical photo of some Merlot grapes shortly before harvest.

While flavours, sugar level and colour appeared to be pretty good there are a number of rotten and bird damaged berries that will threaten quality if they are included in the ferment.

Destiny Bay’s effective but expensive solution is to reject as many defective berries as they can when the fruit is picked and then to have a further and even more rigorous selection process on a vibrating platform that allows small berries to drop though a grill before nine studious workers remove any further sub-standard material by hand. Look at the concentration on the faces of the nine sorters in the photograph.

Hand-sorting Merlot grapes

Although the ultimate wine is not likely to be as good as the impressive wines from the great 2010 vintage (I tasted barrel samples and can confirm that this is a “once in a lifetime” vintage) they should still be pretty good. Producers who don’t sort their grapes are likely to struggle.

Sean and Mike Spratt

Classy blend of Bordeaux varieties

Auckland surgeon, Ian Civil, collects classic Kiwi wines. He generously offers his carefully cellared treasures at an annual tasting for a few friends. We’ve tasted vertical selections of Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir, Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir, Felton Road Block 1 Riesling and Neudorf Chardonnay.

This year it was a ten-vintage vertical (back to 1997) of Obsidian, currently a blend of the five Bordeaux grape varieties. Obsidian was established in 1993 by Lindsay Spillman who attended our tasting and very kindly filled a few gaps with museum wines. For information on Obsidian or their wines check out  www.obsidian.co.nz 

The tasting revealed several things:

- This is an extremely ageworthy wine. The earliest example from the 1997 vintage was still in great shape and will probably continue to deliver pleasure for a number of years yet.

- It’s consistent. My lowest scoring wine, from the 1999 vintage, still managed to earn a silver medal rating. Most of the rest scored gold.

- No cork taint problems were detected in the 20 wines opened.

- The wine style has evolved in sophistication, partly (perhaps) due to greater vine age, and partly through winemaker experience, although the ten wines were made by several different winemakers.

- My top wine was from 2008, clearly an extraordinary vintage.

- The imprint of terroir was clearly evident. I have tasted verticals of Stonyridge Larose, Te Motu and Obsidian in the last week. All are within a stone’s throw of each other and yet each has a clearly definable cellar style.

- Brief tasting notes for ten vintages, plus the 2006 Black Glass (a wine that failed to make the flagship label in that year) are on my database.

One of the world's great wine styles

Early in my career as a wine enthusiast (definition: a wine enthusiast is someone who spends at least one-third of their disposal income on wine) I developed a passion for port in general and vintage port in particular. Port, I hardly need to explain, is a fortified wine from the Douro region of Portugal. Vintage port is wine made from selected, superior grapes harvested in a single year and given a couple of years maturation in barrel before a long, slow development in bottle. Vintage port from a good year should probably not be opened for at least 15 years from the vintage date.

I bought quite a lot of vintage port from the best vintages between 1970 and 1985. In fact I have so much vintage port and now consume it so infrequently that I only have a handful of bottles younger than 1985.

My passion has been re-kindled thanks to a tasting of Warre’s port by Rupert Symington, joint managing director of Symington Family Estates (the company that makes Warre’s and many other famous port brands) and Jorge Nunes, winemaker from Warres.

You’ll find brief notes on the seven wines tasted in my databse of tasting notes. Vintage ports tasted included 1980, 1994, 2000 and 2007. They varied from excellent to sublime. The 2007 is sublime.

Consider this. At a full retail price of around $177 a bottle the 2007 is an amazing bargain. Compare it in quality, power, complexity and longevity with Chateau Lafite 2005 0r 2009 – wines that have an eager queue of people waiting to pay $1500 to $2000 for a single bottle. Warre’s 2007 Vintage Port wins on every count.

The New Zealand importer has a modest six bottles and four magnums of the 2007 although you might find stocks in enlightened wine stores. When the world wakes up to the amazing value that vintage port offers the price must surely double or even treble overnight. When that happens I’ll feel really smug about the wines in my cellar – unless of course I’ve drunk them by then.

Central Otago Pinot Noir suddenly got better with the first release of a new wine by a well financed American enthusiast who is detemined to make truly great wine at any cost.

Marquis Sauvage (a name that made me think of sado-masochism, but hey, I’m getting counselling) is from a Chicago-based wine importing and distributing family. On a trip to Australia to visit Pinot Noir producer, Gary Farr, Marquis stopped off in New Zealand for a quick tour of our wine regions. He liked what he saw. In fact he liked Central Otago so much that he bought 11-hectares of bare land on a north-east facing site that formed a natural ampitheatre. The vineyard is in the Cromwell basin above Lake Dunstan.

Enlisting the help of heavy-weight consultant winemaker, Ted Lemon (owner of Littorai winery, the first American to run a burgundy vineyard and a man who’s CV looks like a Who’s Who of great Pinot producers), and began planting at the rate of 2-3ha in the first three years and around half-a-hectare each year after that. They now have a total vineyard area of around 11-hectares mostly in Pinot Noir but also with a little Riesling and Gruner Veltliner. The vineyard was established according to biodynamic principles right from the start – possibly the earliest biodynamic vineyard in Central Otago.

Marquis and Ted are “dedicated to going slowly”. They produced 250 cases of Pinot Noir from the 2008 vintage but sold it under a second label “Cashburn” in the US only (where Marquis claims it has earned almost a cult following). 550 cases were made in 2009 and bottled under the main label.

They use fairly traditional winemaking techniques. Grapes are hand-picked and sorted twice in the winery before fermentation using wild yeasts. The fermenting wine  is punched down four times a day by hand. Press wines are separated from free-run and reserved for the second label (making 250 cases in 2009). The wine is not fined or filtered in most years and no sugar or acid adjustment is made.

I learned about the rigorous and expensive winemaking process only after I’d tasted the wine. It helped to explain why the wine was so absolutely delicious. My comments read:

“Dense, powerful wine that’s loaded with flavour. Layers of red and dark fruits, spice and an interesting savoury edge that’s hard to define but easy to appreciate. Long and seamless. A very impressive first effort. This is clearly a winery with a great future. Price is $55. I scored the wine 95 points.

This is a “must buy” for all lovers of Central Otago Pinot Noir. I’d go even further and say “for all lovers of Pinot Noir”. Tasted alongside top Californian Pinot Noir, Martinborough Vineyard’s $170 Marie Zelie Reserve Pinot Noir and Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay Clos du Chateau de Ducs 1990 it more than held its own.

Marquis Sauvage owner of Burn Cottage Vineyard

Five southern hemisphere countries now vying for top slot

I’ve acted as selector and judge for the Tri-Nations Wine Challenge for the past eight years. It’s my favourite wine competition because we match the best wines from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to choose best of class and top country each year. The quality of the wines selected is spectacular. I say “selected” because it’s an “invitation only” entry process. Each year I choose my top seven or ten (depending on class size) New Zealand wines in the earnest hope that they will be good enough to beat Australia and South Africa (NZ won the last two competitions).

Now the competition has just got bigger and stronger. The addition of Chile and Argentina has expanded the competing countries to five. I look forward to tasting the cream of the crop from both countries and to seeing how the countries stack up against each other. Selectors and judges for the new competition are:

Huon Hooke (Australia)

Michael Fridjhon (South Africa)

Bob Campbell (New Zealand)

Fabrico Portelli (Argentina)

Eduardo Brethauer (Chile)

The compeition, which includes 100 wines from each country, will be judged in Sydney on 10-12th August with the results announced a few weeks after that. For more information see http://www.boutiquewines.com.au/