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.
NZ’s most versatile wine region?
Which road for the best Pinot Noir?
A group of Martinborough wineries (you never get a full complement because they’re a passionate bunch who seem to hate each other) gathered in Auckland to show their wares to the wine trade. They staged a panel tasting, complete with audience, to prove the premise that Martinborough is New Zealand’s most versatile wine region. I was one of the panelists. We reviewed 11 wines ( a curiously unbalanced number) to demonstrate that Martinborough can make a wide range of wine styles well.
The wines were (with very brief comments, sorry no scores):
Craggy Range 2008 Te Muna Sauvignon Blanc – one of the best 2008 Savvies from any region. Taut, minerally wine with subtle melon and stone fruit characters.
Vynefields 2007 Classic Dry Riesling – very pure, dry-ish (5 gms RS) Riesling with an interesting backbone of fine tannins adding to its structure.
Nga Waka 2003 Riesling – a stunner. Intense wine with strong mineral and pure kero flavours (in a nice way).
Dry River 2007 Pinot Gris – powerful, intense but subtle wine. A clear leader on the Pinot Gris game.
Margrain 2008 Pinot Gris – I liked this wine more than those around me. Bone dry, taut, subtle pear flavours and fine tannins that worked well.
Palliser Estate 2007 Chardonnay – succulent white peach and melon with subtle spicy oak. A very modern New World masterpiece.
Martinborough 2006 Chardonnay – a wine clearly modelled on white burgundy. Powerful, complex and impressive. It will be an absolute knockout in a couple of years time.
Alana 2006 Lumiere Pinot Noir – garish label, a new top-of-the-line Pinot from a winery that’s trying hard. Fine, tight, mineral, delicate and relatively austere. Really opened in the glass (worth decanting). Top stuff!
Escarpment 2006 Kupe Pinot Noir – wonderfully intense wine that achieves a peacock’s tail of many flavours on the finish. Full of fruit, spice and classy oak.
Kusuda 2006 Pinot Noir – Hiro Kusuda is the most fastidious winemaker I’ve ever met. His wines are beautifully immaculate. This wine is all about texture (which is great) although a complex array of flavours did begin to emerge after a while. Like the Alana it needs plenty of bottle age.
Ata Rangi 2006 Pinot Noir – A silken texture, powerful yet restrained fruit flavours and much more. Deservedly hailed by many as NZ’s best Pinot. No argument from me.
I was dissapointed not to see a Dry River Syrah and perhaps a good Bordeaux blend such as Benfield and Delamare 06 to drive the point of the tasting home. Yes, Martinborough can make many wine styles very well. Incidentally, according to my database of 23,000 wine ratings, Martinborough wines have a higher average score (84.32) than any other NZ wine region – they also have the highest average price ($34.44). Curiously Marlborough has the second highest average score (82.62) but is sixth highest in price ($24.57). I guess Marlborough wins on value.
Finally, which sub-district of Martinborough makes the best Pinot Noir; the original Martinborough Terraces or the cocky newcomers in Te Muna? It’s a close race but I’d still put my money on Martinborough Terraces by a very narrow margin. That could be about to change.
October 29th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Good Précis Bob. Just one question, is that signpost real or manufactured?
October 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am
It’s real – sort of. I tweaked it in Photoshop. It’s on the main road at the Te Muna turnoff. I though the third sign to Hinakura was an unecessary complication so removed it.