New look for Esk Valley

Villa Maria/Esk Valley/Vidal owner, Sir George, and Esk Valley winemaker, Gordon Russell, dropped around to show off the new Esk Valley label design and share some of the new release wines. The label is a great improvment on its rather old-fashioned replacement (Reserve label shown above – regular label is similar without the numbers and without the word “Winemakers” which replaces “Reserve”).

Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009 was pleasingly intense although just a tad too sweaty to earn a top score from me. I particularly liked Esk Valley Verdelho ($22.99), a wine I’ve been fairly lukewarm about in the past. Quite complex, dry and with a pleasing mineral character. It was significantly better than a Spanish Verdelho opened alongside it (Valdeorras Godello 2008 Gaba do Xil – weighty but too phenolic and drying). A dry-ish Marlborough Riesling 2009 ($22.99) also impressed. Nice purity, great acidity (how do you descibe acidity that is the opposite of hard? Somehow “sweet” doesn’t quite work. The acid was quite strong but pure and taut – it made me shiver slightly and salivate gently – I liked it very much). A weighty and cleverly balanced Pinot Gris 2008 ($22.99) followed. A touch of barrel fermentation added extra interest to a rich, velvet-textured wine that Gordon describes as his best yet. I’ve always liked the Esk Chardonnay and the 2008 regular label ($22.99) didn’t disappoint although it was out-gunned by the deliciously complex Esk Valley Winemaker 2008 Chardonnay.

On to the red wines starting with a Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec 2007 ($22.99) that punched well above its weight thanks to a cracker of a vintage. Very Bordeaux-like wine with dusty tannins and an attractive sappy complexity. Syrah 2007 ($22.99) was a wine that Gordon accurately describes as a “Shiraz for Pinot Noir drinkers” – a peppery, supple wine with silky tannins. There was certainly nothing Pinot Noir-like about Esk Valley Winemakers Syrah Gimblett Gravels 2007  which was as bold as its $60 price tag. This is a powerful red in a peppery Rhone-like style with masses of fruit supported by subtle, classy oak.

Esk Valley is in good shape under the enthusiastic stewardship of Gordon Russell.

Sir George (left) and Gordon Russell

Super stickies from the master of sweet

I recently attended a new release tasting of six Framingham Botrytised wines from the 2008 vintage – a year when botrytis made its indelible and sometimes painful mark on many Marlborough wines. The wines will be reviewed in full when I have had a second chance to taste samples blind with similar styles.

The wines are:

Framingham 2008  Botrytised Viognier 375ml (148 bottles) RS 250g/l $40

Framingham 2008 Botrytised Gewurztraminer 375ml (450 bottles) RS 240g/l $40

Framingham 2008 Noble Riesling 375ml (2500 bottles) RS 190g/l $30.95

Framingham 2008 No.1 Auslese 375ml (260 bottles) RS 220g/l $40

Framingham 2008 No.2 Auslese 375ml (265 bottles) RS 220g/l $40

Framingham 2008 No.3 Auslese 375ml (254 bottles) RS 275g/l $40

I plan to add prices and residual sugar levels when I can get these from Framingham’s brilliant winemaker, Andrew Hedley. All are very good (and very collectible). My own favourite is the Gewurztraminer, an absolutely amazing wine with pure botrytis and strong varietal flavours.

Andrew says that the harvest sugars on all three Auslese Rieslings are above or just on the minimum for trockenbeerenauslese wines in Germany.

The botrytised Viognier will be sold in a two-bottle gift pack with the (outstanding) 2007 Viognier table wine for around $80. The three Riesling Auslesen will be sold in a pack of three for $100 and the leftovers (if any) will be sold as single bottles at the above prices.

Stephen Bennett MW - photo taken two years ago but he hasn't changed much

Stephen Bennett MW, founder and principal owner of Auckland-based wine distributor, Bennett & Deller, has put his money where his fairly outspoken mouth is by launching his own wine label.

Bennett & Deller mainly distributes wine from France, Spain, Italy and Argentina although they have represented several local wineries, including Isabel, Daniel Schuster and Gravitas. Steve has worked with some of his brand owners helping them to fine tune wine styles to more closely meet the market. Now he has taken total control by “designing” three wines he describes as “uncompromisingly food wines” for his mostly restaurant customers.

To demonstrate the strength and style of his Sauvingon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Noir Steve presented them to me blind with other benchmark wines.

His Discovery Point 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was matched with Dog Point 2008, Cloudy Bay 2008 and Saint Clair 2008 Wairau Reserve – three wines that I had previously rated highly. Discovery Point has a retail price of around $22 while the others sell for $25-$32. Discovery Point did not disgrace itself, in fact I thought that this bone-dry style oozed Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc character. It has good power and purity – I gave it 90 points.

Discovery Point Dry Marlborough Riesling $22 was matched with Craggy Range Fletcher Vineyard Marlborough Riesling – a slightly uneven playing field because the latter wine has a residual sugar level of 13.5 grams/litre while the Discovery Point is 5 g/l – although the difference probably works in favour of Craggy Range. They are both good wines. The Discovery Point Riesling is weightier with a richer and more voluptuous texture. It is, as Steve claims, an excellent food wine that gives a nod in the direction of Alsace.

At that point I ran out of time to complete the tasting and had to dash. Steve left me three glasses of Pinot Noir: his Breaksea Sound 2006, Mt Difficulty 2007 and Peregrine 2007 – all from Central Otago. I tasted the wines a couple of hours later but didn’t record notes because they had been exposed to too much air by then. Once again Steve’s wine stood up well to the competition and at a $30 price point is significantly cheaper (Mt Difficulty is $40 and Peregrine $37).

A good start. I highly recommend all three wines. All are reviewed on this site (I haven’t yet figured how to hot-link them to reviews).