Bob Campbell is one of only 264 Masters of Wine in the world. An international wine judge, Bob judges wine professionally in ten countries and contributes regularly to publications around the world. His specialty is New Zealand wine which he reviews from an international perspective.
Blake Family Bordeaux blend beats the big boys
and the winner is ...
1. Blake Family Vineyards “Redd Gravels” Gimblett Gravels
2. Chateau Lafite-Rothschild Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
3. Sacred Hill “Helmsman” Gimblett Gravels
4. Mills Reef “Elspeth” Cabernet Sauvignon Gimblett Gravels
5. Chateau Mouton-Rothschild Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
6. Trinity Hill “The Gimblett” Gimblett Gravels
Here is a picture of James Halliday shortly before a tasting he called “both audacious and courageous”. I include the picture because I particularly like it.
Wine guru James Halliday in full flight
I spoke to James after the event. He said “This was no put up job. It’s hard to argue with the results which cannot be swept under the carpet”.
Here are my comments on the wine: “Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc blend that beat three First Growth Bordeaux and a bunch of other distinguished wines from the same vintage. This really is a very classy red – wonderfully dense, long and linear flavours contained by very fine tannins. An aristocratic wine without any hint of coarseness. Quite remarkable. Very complex although it’s difficult to describe the array of berry, floral, spice and savoury flavours.” Score: 97 points
October 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I wonder how the results would look for the same tasting in twenty (or more) years time?
GW
October 31st, 2008 at 6:00 am
Not all of us were ‘invited media’ – Emma and I paid $550 each for a ticket to this tasting, thinking it was, as in previous years, a good look at a recent Bordeaux vintage, not a competition between Hawke’s Bay and France. Perhaps winemakers should choose their descriptors more carefully, rather than tarring us all with the same brush.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:29 am
GW
That’s an interesting question and we’ll probably never know the answer. The famous tasting in 1976 when a lineup of Napa Cabernet Sauvignons thrashed top flight Bordeaux reds was repeated 30 years later resulting in a similar, and largely unpredicted, win by the Napa.
As a postscript Stephen Bennett MW (one of the panelists) discredited the ability of his fellow judges and claims to have correctly picked all of the Bordeaux wines and pronounced them superior to the Gimblett Gravels reds.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Ah but well hmmm not exactly a flash vintage for Bordeaux in the Judgement of Paris stuff..whereas 2005…or even ’82, ’90, ’96, ’00 and we may have a very different result. My money is on Bordeaux.
GW
November 21st, 2008 at 10:49 am
The tasting was in 1976 but the vintages were earlier than that. French wines included the 1970 Haut-Brion, the 1970 Mouton Rothschild, and the 1973 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles. But when the scores were tallied that afternoon at Paris’ InterContinental Hotel, it was the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay from Napa that finished first among the whites, and the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, also from Napa, that was tops among the reds. According to Taber, one unnamed, aggrieved Bordeaux chateau owner later told Spurrier, “You’ve spat in our soup.”
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Not surprised GW is the one to lay the bait with the arrogance of an Aussie cricket captain, but in this case he does have a point even if it is the obvious.
Personally id also love to know why the organisers/ high profile critics felt not all attendees opinions were worthy of count among the official results. That sort of self seperation does them no service at all. It is sickening to think that they felt someone that would dish out $550 to attend had nothing to contribute the world of opinion, or that they would somehow dillute the validity of the results. Personally for me if ‘real drinkers’ opinions were among the results I would have found them more compelling.
I have talked to a couple of people also who attended and disagreed with the ‘official’ results and found the bdx on balance superior. I am not surprised. Personally I can’t see how big bold chunky Mills Reef can compete with the refinement and grace of a first growth. Seems too much of a staged marketing stunt to me.
That said, I attended the 00 bdx tasting at scenic cellars and I was itching to try them side to side with the 00 Coleraine for some perspective. Would have been very interesting. Shame though that the top bdx game is little more than academic these days for mere mortals
Love your work Bob
C
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 am
I’ve just received this interesting press release which documents a Gimblett Gravels vs Bordeaux tasting in London. Bordeaux triumphed on this occasion although the Kiwi wines were in the minority.
NZ Red Wines – Serious Contenders
The only major gap between a selection of Hawke’s Bay red wines
and the best from Bordeaux these days would appear to be just the price..
Q: What do you do when a low-key tasting of your wines in Taupo confirms that your wine is up to scratch with the very best from Bordeaux from that celebrated region’s very best vintage from the past decade?
A: Take the whole thing to London, invite some of the world’s best palates and wine critics and do it all again, just to make sure.
Jancis Robinson, Michael Schuster and Neal Martin all have big reputations within the international wine community. This afternoon they hosted a tasting panel in London that included wine industry luminaries such as James Lawther, Oz Clarke and a number of other extremely influential writers and wine buyers.
The occasion was a double-blind master class tasting of six wines from the Bordeaux region in France alongside six wines from the Gimblett Gravels wine district in New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay. Apart from the provenance of the wines, even the names of the wines were hidden from participants until the tasting was complete and the results collated.
Before the results were announced, Jancis summed up the sentiments that were strongly mirrored by the majority who had participated “..it wasn’t evident as to which wine was (from) which (region)”, words echoed by Michael Schuster’s comments “…there was a lovely freshness in all the wines, and it was quite difficult to tell which was which”.
With more than a dozen refined Bordeaux experts in the room, these statements are very encouraging for the winemakers from the fledgling Gimblett Gravels. As Rod Easthope, winemaker at Craggy Range, explains “In a tasting of this stature, it is always a primary reflex for palates of this skill and experience to attempt to identify the Bordeaux wines, and in this case there were certainly some surprises.”
The panel collated its results (as shown below) for the ‘top six’ wines. The list includes two Gimblett Gravels wines.
Considering the quality and reputation of the French wines, this is an exceptional outcome, extremely encouraging for the Gimblett Gravels, where the vineyards were only seriously established at the beginning of the 1990′s.
This result is very significant for New Zealand wines. The UK is the largest importer of Bordeaux wines in the world, and the complexity and depth of these wines make them the most popular category for the UK’s consumers. Amongst the several high-level buyers present at the tasting, all expressed pleasant surprise at the afternoon’s discovery.
One of the UK’s largest Bordeaux Traders is Farr Vinters who were represented at the tasting by Stephen Browett who stated “I haven’t tasted much NZ wine, the last time I did a proper tasting was more than five years ago and I found 70% to be (undesirably) herbaceous – today there were no herbaceous tones – this has completely eliminated my (previous) impression of NZ red wines.” These sentiments were further supported by wine writer Oz Clarke who stated that he felt that the Gimblett Gravels wines had undergone ‘dramatic’ development in the past eight years.
Perhaps the most telling of the day’s comments came from Jancis Robinson who mooted to the entire panel the proposition that “the (Gimblett Gravels) wines tasted were the closest comparison to the Bordeaux wines of any wine region (in the world) today.”, a sentiment that received full support from the assembled panel.
There is now no doubt whatsoever that the Gimblett Gravels has helped create a ‘tipping point’ for the world’s perception of New Zealand’s Bordeaux-styled red wines.
The Results
1
2005 Chateau Lafite Rothschild
2
2005 Chateau Mouton Rothschild
3
2005 Chateau Angelus, St Emilion
4
2006 Sacred Hill – The Helmsman
5
2005 Chateau Haut-Brion
6
2006 Newton Forrest Cornerstone
March 18th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Great post, I bet a lot of work and research went into this article.