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.

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

Jeffrey Chilcott - Italian-based Kiwi

 Expat Kiwi, Jeffrey Chilcott, breezed briefly into town from his currently chilly base in Barbaresco in the north of Italy where he has been making wine for the area’s top producer, Marchesi di Gresy, since 1990 (full-time from 1998).

Jeffrey’s famous family includes Masterton-based artist Gavin and Auckland-based crooner Grant. Marchesi di Gresy has around 36 hectares of vineyards including 12-hectares of Nebbiolo in a top site in the highly prized Barbaresco district. Jeffrey reports that Barbaresco is in good shape after a string of good vintages over the past decade. He was reluctant to pick his favourite years but under pressure named 2001, 2004 and 2006 (with others close behind).

He was even more reluctant to name a few favourite producers but is a fan of Giuseppe Rinaldi, maker of exceptionally fine and fairly traditional Barolo.

We tasted two New World wines made from Nebbiolo (the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco if you need reminding) unearthed from my cellar. The first, Herzog 2004 Nebbiolo, Marlborough, was very good indeed. Perhaps lacking some of the perfume I expect from great Barolo/Barbaresco it nonetheless showed real power and finesse with intense fruit supported by lashings of French oak. As the wine sat in the glass it got better and better and after 60 minutes was beginning to reveal very attractive aromatics.

The second wine was Brown Brothers 1998 Nebbiolo from Australia’s King Valley. While still attractive to drink we both felt it should have been enjoyed two or three years earlier. The fruit had dulled and the wine was showing plenty of bottle development without any of the haunting perfume of an Italian wine of a similar age. I should add that it has been stored at 14 C since I bought it ten years ago. That’s corks, I guess.

Jeffrey has an open mind about corks although he pointed out that no Italian DOCG wine is allowed to be sealed with anything other than a cork. After some discussion about the pros and cons of corks and screwcaps I produced two bottles of Trinity Hill 2000 Syrah, one under cork the other sealed with a screwcap. Jeffrey expressed a marginal preference for the wine under cork (he was served masked samples). It was certainly the richer and more complex of the two wines while the Screwcap wine appeared fresher with purer and more focused fruit flavours. Curiously the wine under cork appeared to have more tannins – a familar pattern whenever I compare red wines under cork and screwcap. Not sure why – I would have expected that the extra oxygen intake would have oxidised some of the tannins making it softer than the wine under screwcap. Any speculation on why this phenomenon occurs?

At a similar tasting for 23 Japanese wine trade people a few months ago the vote was 23 in favour of the screwcap sample. The outcome depends on the quality of the cork – the only variable in the the contest.

Craggy Range chief, Steve Smith with 7 vintages of Le Sol

Dinner on Vomo Island is never a humble event

Steve Smith’s plan to taste every vintage of Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah on the most luxurious tropical island I’ve ever visited or imagined seemed strangely appropriate. Le Sol is a product of the sun and Vomo Island is certainly not short of sunshine. Vomo’s executive chef, Shane Avant is a Kiwi who harnesses the freshest and best local ingredients (much of it from Vomo’s own extensive gardens) to produce a range of creative dishes that would not be out of place in a world class restaurant. If anyone could create a dish to enhance Le Sol’s intense and complex flavours it would be Shane.

The tasting was scheduled for the cool early evening although “cool” in Fijian means around 30 C. A bed of ice in a cava bowl solved the problem, allowing the wine to be tasted at a perfect temperature as the pink hues of sunset softly shimmered through drooping palm leaves.

I recall my first sip of Le Sol at Craggy’s opening ceremony – was it in 2003? It was 2001 Le Sol, the first vintage of this deliberately late harvested Gimblett Gravels Syrah that was billed then, as now, as the winery’s signature label. Sitting on my right was Australia’s first man of wine, James Halliday who exclaimed with some emotion, “this is f@@@ing good Shiraz” as his impressively bushy eyebrows raised like two small furry animals running for higher ground.

Le Sol is fucking good Shiraz. After seven vintages (excluding 2003 when Le Sol didn’t make the cut) the wine has evolved into a more elegant and perhaps more complex Syrah without losing any sense of the aweome power that impressed all who tasted the first vintage.

Here are my (brief) tasting notes (to include scores would be an indignity):

2008

Big, dense wine with an almost chewy texture. While hard to read, the wine is after all in its infancy, it is easy to recognise the power and complexity in this big and forboding Syrah. Strong, sweet fruit is interwoven with ripe tannins . The wine coats the mouth and lingers long after it has been swallowed. I can identify an array of dark fruits, Oriental spices, vanilla, bitter chocolate and very classy oak but there is a myriad of other flavours yet to be released. This is a very serious Syrah indeed.

2007

A finer, more elegant wine with greater fruit purity than the 2008. Taut, bright Syrah with an array of red and black fruits. Lovely sweet fruit, Syrah’s trump card, with impressive length. Hints of floral, wild herbs and cracked pepper adding extra complexity. The wine suggests a slightly cooler vintage than 2008 giving it more energy and vibrancy.

2006

This is the only vintage of Le Sol that included a small belnd of Viognier in the style of Cote Rotie. REd fruits, floral/violets, and spice/pepper characters. Perhaps the most floral wine of the flight – Viognier influence? A sligthly lighter and less robust wine but with pleasing suppleness and purity.

2005

One of the most Rhone-like wines thanks at least in part to a satisfying and thankfully subtle hint of brett. Intense, elegant wine with great mouth feel. Chocolate/mocha, licorice, floral/lavender, spice/pepper and forest floor/Bovril characters. Complex and attractive wine that’s just beginning to show some pleaseing bottle development. Tannins are beginning to melt and the wine has a lingering and layered finish. One of my favourites.

2004

This was a cooler vintage with more pronounced pepper (black and white) and wild herbs. Showing good bottle development but still quite focused with reasonably firm tannins. Coffee, forest floor and some fresh earth characters. Lengthy.

2002

Still showing a relatively youthful colour. This was a warm, dry vintage and teh grapes were picked late without pressure. “Le Sol extreme” with 15% alcohol that leaves a little heat on the finish. Rich, generously proportioned wine with Forest floor, earth, dark chocolate, savoury and leather – like getting into an old Jag on a hot day.

2001

Mellow, broad, rich wine with good bottle development adding character and complexity. Warm, savoury Syrah that lingers in an ever-changing kaleidescope of flavours on the finish. Halliday’s comment is still valid. I’m gratified to have a few bottles of this wine in my cellar. No rush.

Check out Vomo Island on their website www.vomofiji.com it’s the ultimate Pacific hideaway.

The results for my favourite wine competition have just been released with another victory for New Zealand.

The Tri-Nations Wine Challenge is an annual event which has been held for the past eight years in Sydney. As selector/judge for New Zealand I choose my top ten or seven wines (the number varies by class) in 13 classes (sparkling, Chardonnay etc.) and the wines are matched with similar styles from Australia (Huon Hooke is their selector/judge) and South Africa (Michael Fridjohn).

Wines are tasted blind by class. Each judge selects his top six wines in every class. The scores are added to determine top wine of class, country winner by class, top red, top white and top country overall.

New Zealand came top with 604 points against Australia’s 545 and South Africa’s 294. Australia won for the first six years while New Zealand has won the last two – hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend.

New Zealand won the following trophies:

Riesling – Mt Difficulty 2009 Target Gully Riesling, Central Otago

Sauvignon Blanc – Saint Clair 2009 Pioneer Block 2, Swamp Block, Marlborough

Pinot Noir – Craggy Range 2008 Te Muna Vineyard Pinot Noir, Martinborough

Syrah/Shiraz – Vidal Reserve 2007 Reserve Syrah, Hawke’s Bay

Bordeaux blends – Villa Maria 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, Hawke’s Bay

Other Red Varieties – Black Barn 2009 Tempranillo, Hawke’s Bay

New Zealand scored top red with Craggy Range 2008 Te Muna Pinot Noir and earned forst equal in the Chardonnay and Sweet Wine classes.

Tim and Judy Finn celebrating 30 years of winemaking

I cannot think of another New Zealand wine producer that has been making top wines across their entire range as consistently as Neudorf over three decades. Chardonnay is the star with Pinot Noir, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc very close behind.

To celebrate this significant milestone Tim and Judy presented vertical tastings of selected wines over the last decade for their Moutere Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Riesling and Pinot Noir.

Here is a brief summary of my tasting notes:

Moutere Chardonnay (08, 04, 02 and 99)

Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay is in a class of its own. It’s could easily be (and has frequently been) mistaken for Puligny Montrachet, or at least very good white burgundy. My favourite was the 2002. Not as powerful as the 04 or 08 but pure burgundy from head to toe and exhibiting real power with great subtlety. A truly beautiful wine. The 99 (the only wine under cork) was the least impressive and probably approaching the end of its life although still giving great pleasure.

Moutere Pinot Gris (09, 04 and 01)

I love the purity of flavour and textural qualities in all the wines. All showed a little sweetness but it was beautifully managed by sugar-coated tannins to give a drying, though not tannic, finish. There are also hints of spice – perhaps star anise? The 04 was my marginally top wine closely followed by the 09 with the 01 only marginally behind. All are under screwcap.

Moutere Riesling (09, 05 and 02)

I recall staying with Tim and Judy a couple of years ago when Tim served the 05 Riesling with dinner. I was profoundly impressed with the wine. Tim shrugged his shoulders and said “the current vintage (07) will be exactly the same with a bit of bottle age”. I bought a case.

The 05 was my favourite. It balances sweetness against beautiful fruity acidity achieving an exquisite, mouth-watering tension. I love it. Both the 09 and 02 showed similar characteristics – the 02 was still remarkably youthful.

Moutere Pinot Noir (08, 05, 03 and 01)

If Chardonnay is Neudorf’s top wine which is second, Riesling or Pinot Noir? It’s a hard call but I pick Riesling by a narrow margin although their Pinot Noir is a world class wine. I like the edginess of the Pinot – its hints of floral and vibrant acidity. When I first tasted this flight the 05 was a clear winner but as the wines sat in the glass the 08 opened up magnificently. Potentially I think the 08 will be a better wine but right now I still put the 05 slightly ahead. The 01 and 03 were lighter/more elegant styles with 01 my preference.

Neudorf's Moutere vineyard

I’m in Vienna attending VieVinum, an Austrian wine fair/symposium. I was intrigued to receive an invitation from “11 Women in Wine” to dinner at the well known Eisvogel (“Ice bird”) restaurant where they promised to offer the 11 best wines they have made in the past decade.

Eisvogel is in a large, ancient fair ground. We enjoyed an aperitif in a Ferris wheel dining car – the same one that featured in the film “The Third Man” – in fact the hero, Harry Lime, dies in a dining car in the final scene. Below is a photo of the dining car near the apex of the wheel with a close-up of a couple in the next car enjoying a romantic meal for two – actually there was (appropriately) a “third man” in their dining car.

 Spokesperson, Heidi Schrock, introduced the evening with a heart-felt speech about the history and objects of the group although put her foot in it slightly when she said with a final flourish, “enjoy the wine and enjoy the women”.

In fact I did very much enjoy the women all of whom seemed to be strong, passionate and as committed to the goal of producing great wine as they were to their own families. I asked the women at my table if it were possible to taste the difference between wine made by women and those with male makers. They responded by saying that modern winemaking equipment (the fork hoist was used as an example) meant that physical strength was no longer a prerequisite to becoming a winemaker. That had opened the door for women. They talked about the benefits of sharing ideas and even equipment within the group. One woman said that a thesis had recently been written proving that wine made by women did indeed differ from that made by men. She promised to get me a copy.

Women are far more nurturing than men and as wine requires a fair bit of nurturing in vineyard and winery it seems entirely feasible that they wine they produce may reflect that.

One thing is certain. Women winemakers enjoy themselves and party harder than men winemakers.

The eleven women are show in the photo. Their names are (from left to right):

Michaela Ehn, Helma Muller-Grossmann, Sylvia Heinrich, Birgit Braunstein, Heidi Schrock, Silva Prieler, Jutta Ambrositsch, Judith Beck, Petra Unger, Ilse Maier and Birgit Eichinger.

The world's most popular Sauvignon Blanc in pill form

A few minutes ago I finished tasting 41 examples of Sauvignon Blanc from the 2009 vintage – an estimated 15% of all wines produced. 26 were tank samples. A few of those were cloudy although most had been blended and fined ready for bottling. 31 samples were from Marlborough with the rest from Nelson (4), Hawke’s Bay (2), Gisborne (1), Wairarapa (1), Martinborough (1) and Waipara (1).

I’m reluctant to post tasting notes of individual wines because they are work-in-progress. Most of the bottled samples are not ready for review with release dates months away in some cases.

However the tasting gives me a chance to assess the vintage, although that assessment may change once I’ve reviewed a wider range of more mature wines.

After an emarassingly large and extremely variable 2008 Marlborough vintage most growers and winemakers dropped crop in pursuit of quality rather than quantity. That was good news for the 2009 vintage and spelled a change in attitude which promises to boost the quality of future Marlborough vintages.

February was very wet but March had half the average rainfall and April was fairly dry. That’s good news for Marlborough Sauvignon which mostly gets picked in the first half of April although one viticulturist told me, “God smiled on the greedy this year. We did a severe shoot and bunch thinning to massively reduce crop and our grapes were at their most succeptible (for botrytis and other rots) when the March rain hit. We had an outbreak of bot. while other greedier growers emerged unscathed”.

There has been a fair amount of over-the-top praise for the vintage by winemakers who, it’s fair to say, have a lot at stake if the vintage is indifferent or bad.

I don’t believe that 2009 was a great Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc vintage. It does seem to be at least a good vintage and significantly better than the previous year but perhaps not as good as 2007. As I said before, that view might change in time.

Flavours are ripe without showing a lot of very ripe tropical fruit and passion fruit characters. Acidities are high but the wines show good purity and energy. Variation in quality was less than I expected although the handful of truly excellent wines in the tasting did stand out from the field. Their was a thankful absence of bad wines.

Two wine producers are worth a mention. Saint Clair seem to have achieved its usual high standard with its flagship wines while Pernod Ricard also deserves praise for lifting the quality level in its whole range, at least all of the wines featured in the tasting.