Adventures in New Zealand’s South Island

The stunning Milford Sound, which is actually a fjord

I’m just back from a rather magical few days in the South Island of New Zealand, a trip which took in two wine events (the Hamner Southern Pinot workshop and Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration), and some sightseeing. We drove down to Hamner on the newly re-opened SH1, which looks completely different to how it used to before the earthquake damage, but which is still a fine drive.

Hamner

Hamner itself is a modestly pretty alpine village with the main draw being the thermal springs. This is a swimming pool complex with a couple of water slides and also some genuine hot springs, and it’s sort of cool if it’s not too crowded. We drove from Hamner down to Tekapo to stay the night. Lake Tekapu is quite famous, and has a well-known landmark: the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

It’s pretty, but also very touristy round here, and one night is probably enough. The drive from Hamner to Tekapo via Christchurch is thoroughly boring, and gives no indication of the great South Island scenery that we were later to experience.

Lake Pukaki: on a clear day you can see Mount Cook at the other end. Not today alas.

The next day took us to Te Anau, where we were to stay two nights. On the way, we drove through Queenstown, with the dramatic Central Otago scenery and the vivid blue rivers, and then passed Lake Pukaki and Lake Manapouri, both of which are lovely.

Roaring Meg, in the Kawarau Gorge, near Queenstown. The vivid blues of the Central Otago rivers are otherworldly.

Lake Manapouri

Te Anau is quite a nice base, and it’s the best place to stay for tackling the drive to Milford Sound, where you can’t stay. From here it’s just over 2 hours to Milford, as opposed to an almost 5 hour schlep from Queenstown. The big attraction at Te Anau is the glowworm caves. These are something completely different, and the visit deep inside the caves is quite a memorable one.

Milford Sound lived up to its expectations. The drive itself is spectacular, and includes the remarkable Homer Tunnel. This 1.2 km tunnel is at a gradient and goes through solid rock. It took 19 years to complete and opened in 1954: before then, none of the fiords were accessible by road. As you leave the tunnel and enter the Cleddau Valley, it’s like entering a new world. Milford is different. It’s wild, rugged and primeval. There are several companies offering boat tours, and ours was really good. I imagine they are all really good. You just need to get out into the sound and then stare, and soak it all in.

On the road to Milford: the drive is pretty cool. The scenery keeps getting better and better.

The Cleddau Valley, just after leaving the Homer tunnel

The view of the sound from land

The boats leave from here: the tours last around 2 hours and you can pick tickets up for them online for about NZ$40. It’s best to get here early because by mid-morning the place fills up with tour buses.

Then we left to attend the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration in Queenstown. Perhaps my favourite picture from that event is below: Ned Goodwin, Francis Hutt and I stripped off and jumped in Lake Wakitapo on a very hot Saturday afternoon. Theo Coles took the picture. It was just perfect: crystal clear and cool but not freezing.

Then it was time to head back to Blenheim. We chose to go via the West Coast, over the Haast Pass, and it was a great choice, even though it meant driving for 14 hours with a few photo (and one swim) stops. Heading from Queenstown to Wanaka, we then drove along the side of beautiful Lake Hāwea.

Lake Hāwea

After a while, at ‘the neck’, we joined Lake Wanaka. Time to stop for some more amazing vistas.

Lake Wanaka

Then, we headed through to Makaroa, where we stopped for the Blue Pools.

Blue Pools: stunning but ice cold

Some people jumped off this bridge. It’s pretty high and judging by the red skin on peoples’ arms and backs, it hurts, even if you go in quite straight.

These are truly beautiful. I swam, but it was the coldest water I’ve ever swum in, so I was out pretty quickly.

From here, we headed over the Haast Pass, which is also beautiful, hitting the west coast. It was a nice day (not so common in the west coast), and we passed the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers (we didn’t have time to stop, but these would have been fairly epic, I reckon), before proceeding up to Hokitika, and then bearing inland at Greymouth.

As we got to the end of the Wairau Valley, it was dark. Vines begin here some 50 km from Blenheim, and then shortly become continuous. The valley has expanded quite a bit. We got home just before 11 pm, after a long day’s driving on single carriageway, windy roads. It was a stunning trip.

The places mentioned in the post

 

from Jamie Goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/from-the-road/adventures-in-new-zealands-south-island

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Two Hermit Rams: distinctive, natural Pinot Noirs from North Canterbury

Theo Coles makes the wines of Kalex, in Central Otago. But he also has his own brand, Hermit Ram, which is based in North Canterbury. These two Pinot Noirs are both quite different, but are equally compelling.

The first comes from a tiny (1200 vine) close-planted (7000 vines/ha) vineyard in the Waipara Valley. It’s on a truffle farm called Limestone Hills, owned by Gareth and Camille Renowlden, and has 300 Syrah vines in addition to 900 Pinot Noir vines planted in 2002/3. The soils are high pH black redzina over solid, mostly active limestone. Theo makes the wines from this site, in the Waipara Gorge, and first vintage was 2012.

The Hermit Ram Pinot Noir Limestone Hills 2015 North Canterbury
900 vines at 7000 vines a hectare, active limestone soils. Fresh and elegant with juicy cherry and plum fruit. There’s a leafy greenness sitting under the supple red cherry fruit with a fine spicy core. So fresh and detailed with potential for development. This is a beautifully restrained and complex wine. 94/100

The close-planted Limestone Hills vineyard (picture: Theo Coles)

The second is called Whole Bunch, and it comes from a close planted vineyard in the Omihi slopes with a predominantly clay soil that has streaks of iron oxide and limestone. This wine is 75% whole bunch and has no sulfur dioxide until bottling, and even then very little (20 parts total).

The Hermit Ram Pinot Noir Whole Bunch 2016 North Canterbury, New Zealand
This is a compelling, intriguing wine that has beautiful balance and should age well. Crunchy and juicy with some bright raspberry and red cherry fruit. Savoury and grunty but with some nice texture and some silkiness. Supple and fine. 93/100

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

from Jamie Goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/new-zealand/two-hermit-rams-distinctive-natural-pinot-noirs-from-north-canterbury

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Interesting Marlborough: exploring Gewurztraminer with Spy Valley

Paul Bourgeois, Spy Valley

Spy Valley is a medium-sized winery in Marlborough terms, with 250 hectares of vineyards spread over four sites. The home site is in the Waihopai Valley, and when Bryan and Jan Johnson first began their winery, they were pioneers here, planting most of the vineyard in 1993 and then doing some replanting in the late 1990s. As well as the home vineyard, they have the hillside Outpost vineyard in the Omaka, plus 25 hectares in the Lower Wairau, and the Tatou vineyard that they’ve just bought from Seresin (another 15 hectares).

I visited a couple of weeks ago with chief winemaker Paul Bourgeois and winemaker Richelle Collier. We did a bit of barrel and tank tasting, but they then decided that rather than do a standard range tasting, we’d instead look solely at Gewurztraminer. Not just one or two of them, but 30 different Gewurztraminers: pretty much all they have ever made.

Richelle Collier

Paul has been taking Gewurztraminer seriously for a while. ‘It was very exciting at the time to make a Reserve level Gewurztraminer in Marlborough,’ he says. ‘It was quite a luxury. The feeling at the time was that this variety did well here so we’d try it.’

They have around 7 hectares in G block in the home vineyard, and another couple near the winery. This is a variety that responds well to sensitive, and sometimes unorthodox winemaking. It has low acid, so there’s no point in trying to make it like Sauvignon Blanc. Instead, the balance to the wine is gained by using phenolics from the skins and for this reason they give the wine overnight skin contact. ‘If were in a hurry we’ll do a couple of hours in the press,’ says Paul. ‘When we measure the phenolics on this, it’s the most phenolic white we do. It’s up and down: in a cool year there are twice the levels than a warm year.’

They have a number of clones in the vineyard and these all behave differently, so they will normally do four picks for Spy Valley and one or two for the reserve wine, Envoy. ‘We do push the envelope with the Gewurztraminer,’ says Paul. ‘After a while, late in the season, the berries start losing sugar and a bit of black fungus grows on them. This fungus is the limit of how far we can push the ripeness.’

One vintage Paul decided to make a carbonic maceration Gewurztraminer. It had high VA but it was a good blending component. Gewurztraminer is also a variety that often gets brettanomyces, with its low pH. Surprisingly, the spiciness of brett can work quite well with this variety.

There’s a small but loyal following for this wine. ‘This is a niche of a niche wine, and I was worried it would die, but it has held on and it has been selling,’ Paul explains.

Spy Valley Hand Picked Single Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
11 g/l residual sugar. Lovely rose petal and Turkish delight aromatics. Really nice textured on the palate with good density and a fine spicy character. It’s pretty but has some seriousness, and just a touch of table grape sweetness on the finish. 91/100

Spy Valley Hand Picked Single Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
Lovely concentration and some sweetness here to the fruit. Table grapes and lychee with a hint of syrup. Nice jellyish texture with good weight and complexity. 89/100

Spy Valley Hand Picked Single Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
Nice weight and texture here, showing table grape, spice and lychee characters. Rounded mid-palate with a fresh finish and a hint of sweetness. 90/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2014 Marlborough, New Zealand
Textured with some sweetness to the palate. Spicy and exotic with sweet table grape and lychee fruit. Really quite sweet with a soft structure but nice brightness on the finish. Smoky on the finish too. 90/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2013 Marlborough, New Zealand
Lovely substance here with freshness and a bit of spiciness, and good acidity. Lovely soft mid-palate with textured lychee fruit characters. Lovely brisk finish, too, with real harmony and purity. Has very low acid (3.5 g/l, pH 3.8) but tastes fresh. 92/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2012 Marlborough, New Zealand
There’s a faint hint of cabbage and green, coming from the very cold growing season. Has some grape and lychee, too. A bit of sweetness on the finish with some buttery notes too. 86/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2011 Marlborough, New Zealand
Nice sweet table grape fruit with a hint of green herbs and a citrus twist on the sweet finish. Has texture but also a hint of bitterness, too. 87/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2010 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is herby and bright with some sweet grapiness and a slightly chemical floral note that distracts. Has a jellyish note. It’s not unappealing, and still has freshness, but there’s a slightly bitter twist. 88/100

Spy Valley Satellite Gewurztraminer 2010 Marlborough, New Zealand
A selection of some of the wilder parcels. Concentrated and textural with lovely spiciness here. Has a slight savoury, spicy twist. Nice density and complexity with a fine spicy character and depth and freshness. 92/100

Spy Valley  Gewurztraminer 2008 Marlborough, New Zealand
‘The most difficult one we have ever made, with lots of rain and disease, and we had to pick compromised grapes in the rain,’ says Paul Bougeois. ‘Were settling a tank and it started fermenting, and a month later the acid had gone up (Lactobacillus?) to a level that was unmeasurable. But the flavours were fantastic so we blended a bit in. We never managed to achieve this again despite trying.’ Very fresh and bright with a strong tangerine character and nice sweet grapey notes. This has lovely freshness and complexity with a bright personality. 90/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2007 Marlborough, New Zealand
Textured and fine with sweet grape characters and some lychee notes. This is really nicely integrated with lovely fruit character. Some mandarin and lemon as well as table grape and lychee. Mostly dry with a fresh finish. 91/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2006 Marlborough, New Zealand
Hot and early vintage. Rich yet still fresh with good concentration. Quite pure with a savoury twist to the table grape and pear notes. Has a fine spiciness and a lovely grainy but fine mouthfeel. Juicy finish: really impressive. 92/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2005 Marlborough, New Zealand
No oak influence and less skin contact in this and previous vintages, and also this is the driest. This has a nice delicacy to it. There’s a slight cabbage and mandarin edge to the table grape notes. Pure, simple and quite attractive, but lacking a bit of personality. Dry and linear. 88/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2004 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is before Paul Bourgeois joined in 2005. 14.5% alcohol, a ripe vintage. Sweetly fruit and quite rich with nice table grape characters, and a hint of lychee. Textured and dry on the finish with a bit of grip. Has generosity and depth. 89/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2003 Marlborough, New Zealand
Low yielding vintage because of frost in the region. This is dry and very fresh with a hint of mint to the citrus and table grape fruit. Good concentration and weight. Has a juicy tangerine character and some spiciness on the finish. 90/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2002 Marlborough, New Zealand
Still very fresh and with lovely ripe fruit characters: grapes, a touch of lychee, some melon even. Has higher acidity than some of the more recent wines (pH used to be adjusted), with a bright, fruity finish. 88/100

Spy Valley Gewurztraminer 2001 Marlborough, New Zealand
Cork sealed. pH 3 and a TA of 6 – this is Gewurz shoehorned into Sauvignon territory. Bright and fresh with lemons and tangerines and a nice spiciness. Still very fresh and tangy. Not the mosty typical Gewurz but delicious and bright. 90/100

Envoy

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
14% alcohol. 20 g/litre rs. Has Colmar clones which are less fruity than the Geisenheim clones, and they push the ripeness. Very fine and detailed with concentrated, textured, spicy lychee and table grape fruit. There’s concentration but also finesse with nice detail and purity. Finishes a bit sweet, but the wine is balanced. 93/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
12% alcohol. 100 g/l rs with lots of botrytis. Great concentration here. It seems really sweet and intense with a bright fresh personality but also lovely exotic lychee and pear notes. Very rich, sweet, pure and textural with great complexity and a fine, spicy finish. Has freshness even though the acid isn’t high (4 g/l), with the phenolics providing texture and freshness. A tiny bit of lift from the VA, but the wine manages to carry this so well. 94/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
Really perfumed with a strong Turkish delight character. Sweet with some mint and spice and a subtle smoky character on the finish. Rounded and sweet with complex spiciness and a bit of grip and clove on the finish. Very distinctive with a nice smoky savouriness adding interest. 92/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2014 Marlborough, New Zealand
There’s a nice freshness and spiciness to this wine. Lovely weight on the mid-palate with melon and lychee characters, and a fine, savoury spicy dimension. Delicate and detailed with good complexity and a refreshing finish. Not overly sweet. 92/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2013 Marlborough, New Zealand
Very fresh and compact with lovely texture in the mouth. Pretty, spicy and fruity with lychee and ripe pear characters. Lovely brightness and spiciness on the finish, with layers of flavour. Off dry with great balance and harmony. There’s something very interesting about this vintage. 93/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2012 Marlborough, New Zealand
There’s a honeyed, sweet, melony edge to the fruit here. Sweet and juicy with some green herbal notes and some mint in the background. A bit awkward at the moment. 87/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2011 Marlborough, New Zealand
They had very clean fruit everywhere, except for Gewurztraminer where they had botrytis early. Nicely textured with a strongly spicy edge, and a hint of marmalade under the table grape and lychee fruit. Textured and broad with nice weight and some sweetness apparent. Nice botrytis complexity here: a really complex, rich wine. 92/100

No 2010 made

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2009 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is really detailed and pretty with bright, juicy table grape and lychee fruit with fine spicy notes and a hint of mandarin and dried herb. Lovely complexity here. Pure and linear with nice sweetness and fine grained structure, as well as a lovely savoury twist. Such interesting phenolic structure here, and maybe a hint of clove on the finish. 93/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2008 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is distinctive and different, with a compact, grainy, spicy edge to the lychee and pear fruit. There’s some citrus skin, too. Has amazing freshness to it still, with lovely focus on the palate and some savoury detail. Really complex. Juicy finish with good acid. 92/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2007 Marlborough, New Zealand
A lovely vintage. Pretty, pure and fresh with lemon, table grape and a twist of honey. Fresh with some spicy detail and a bit of nuttiness under the focused fruit. Still very fresh and pretty. 91/100

Spy Valley Envoy Johnson Vineyard Gewurztraminer 2006 Marlborough, New Zealand
The first vintage for the Envoy Gewurztraminer. Really juicy and fine with nice brightness. Purchased the oak ovals for making Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer. There’s a sweetness to the fruit, with rounded table grape and lychee flavours, as well as a bit of spice on the finish. Good concentration and weight. Still pure and youthful. 91/100

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

from Jamie Goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/uncategorized/interesting-marlborough-exploring-gewurztraminer-with-spy-valley

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Exploring Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

Elaine, Adam and Sam

This year, the theme for the formal tasting at the Central Otago Pinot Celebration was Pinot from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The session was ably led by Elaine Brown, who has spent a lot of time in Oregon, with two Oregon winemakers: Adam Campbell of Elk Cove and Sam Tannahill of Francis Tannahill, Rex Hill and A to Z Wineworks. The wines were all quite different, but really enjoyable.

Eyrie Outcrop Pinot Noir 2014 Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Red Jory (basalt, volcanic) soils here. Decomposed basalt high in iron, with high water-holding capacity, so best in warmer years. This is a highly regarded subregion capable of making really complex wines. This example, from Willamette pioneers Eyrie, is fresh, quite lean and elegant with supple, fine red fruits. Lovely restrained style with some texture but also good acidity and some fine-grained tannins. Really pretty and expressive with elegance. This is naturally made with no acid additions, from organically farmed vines. No stems. 95/100

Elk Cove Mount Richmond Pinot Noir 2014 Yamhill Carlton, Willamette Valley, Oregon
This is from very different soils: marine sediments. They are 50 million years old, left by the recession of the oceans which have then been uplifted. They tend to give more dark fruit character and a different quality of spice. You have to be very gentle with extraction or you end up with real bruisers. No stems. 1996 plantings on own roots, all Pommard clone. This is quite generous, but still well balanced. There’s a freshness to the red cherry and plum fruit with a slight saltiness. Really appealing with ripeness and texture but also a supple freshness to this wine, and a fine spiciness on the finish. Lovely purity to this wine, which is highly seductive but not unbalanced. 94/100

Bergstrom Silice Pinot Noir 2015 Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley, Oregon
A large AVA with a range of soil types, including some loess. This is more marine sediments in the west of the AVA, which is quite large. This was the first vintage that was 100% whole cluster. This is concentrated with sweet raspberry and blackberry fruit. Juicy and focused with fine-grained tannins and a hint of green. Supple with a nice spicy dimension under the fruit. Well structured. I think the whole-bunch works. There’s a freshness and a brightness to this wine, which shows beautiful elegance as well as power. 94/100

Francis Tannahill The Hermit Pinot Noir 2014 Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Jory volcanic soils. 100% whole bunch. This has a supple, slightly green edge to the sweet cherry and plum fruit. There’s some brightness here, with perhaps a hint of iron and blood. It’s juicy and generous with a sweetness to the fruit that’s offset nicely by the structure and green herby stemmy notes. Finishes fresh. 93/100

Brooks Janus Pinot Noir 2014 Willamette Valley, Oregon
Destemmed, 10% new oak. Blend of eight vineyard sites but with a preponderance of Eola-Amity Hills. Fresh, slightly lifted nose with red cherries and raspberries. Juicy and lively on the palate with supple, grainy, spicy structure and some complexity. The acid is a bit lifted, but it’s a level that provides a savoury, spicy complexity. Elegant and quite detailed with nice brightness to the fruit. 93/100

Antica Terra Antikythera Pinot Noir 2014 Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon
Marine sedimentary soils, 12% whole cluster, 40% new oak. Ripe, open and floral with lovely sweet cherry fruit. This is really pretty and expressive with good concentration of sweet fruit and a fine-grained structure. There’s a lovely sweetness to this fruit with some raspberry crunch and nice spicy tannic structure. Such a beautiful wine that’s really pretty. 95/100

Walter Scott Sojourner Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon
From volcanic stony soils. 30% whole cluster, indigenous yeasts, 40% new oak. Supple, fresh and fine on the nose with lovely floral notes. The palate is fresh and expressive with sweet red cherries and a bit of fine spicy oak providing a supporting role. There’s lovely structure and grip. Very fine and expressive with a fine silkiness to the fruit. It’s sleek but still fresh and elegant. 94/100

Day Johan Vineyards Pinot Noir 2015 Willamette Valley, Oregon
Wild yeast, 30% whole cluster, 15% new oak. Smoky, spicy edge to the berry fruits nose. The palate is juicy with pronounced acidity, sour cherries, damsons and plums. This is quite distinctive and savoury with lots of cherry and raspberry fruit, but also some bitterness and sourness on the finish, but it’s not without appeal. 92/100

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

from jamie goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/oregon/exploring-willamette-valley-pinot-noir

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Air New Zealand’s Fine Wines of New Zealand tasting

This tasting highlighted some of the Air New Zealand Fine Wines of New Zealand Fine Wines of New Zealand. This selection is intended to recognize New Zealand’s benchmark fine wines, and is sponsored by Air New Zealand. The wines are chosen by a group of six: Alastair Maling, Michael Brajkovich, Sam Harrop, Simon Nash and Steve Smith and Cameron Douglas, and in order for a wine to be considered, it must have a track record of seven years or more. Each new vintage of a selected wine is checked for quality in order to be approved.

New wines with a seven-year track record are open to inclusion, through a three-step entry procedure. The intention is that the wines are therefore seen to be the peaks of the industry. This is a selection of the 70 wines currently in this classification.

I enjoyed most of these wines quite a bit, but I came away with the impression that in terms of varietal categories, the Pinot Noirs and Syrahs were a step above, while Chardonnay wasn’t quite at the same level.

No 1 Family Reserve NV Marlborough, New Zealand
Subtle toast and spice here with a nice citrus core. This has good concentration and balance, with complexity but also nice freshness and delicacy. Finishes a bit grippy and spicy. 91/100

Nautilus Cuvée Marlborough NV New Zealand
Bright, crisp and focused with lively lemony fruit. Tight and expressive with a brisk lemony finish. Very pure. 90/100

Quartz Reef 2012 Central Otago, New Zealand
Brisk and fresh with nice lemony fruit. Has a vivid quality to it with some pear and apple richness and some slight toastiness. Fine lemony fruit. A delicate wine. 90/100

Felton Road Dry Riesling 2016 Central Otago, New Zealand
Fine, lemony nose. Really pure. Textured and fresh on the palate with bright citrus fruit and a clean, linear personality. Primary and pristine at the moment. 91/100

Felton Road Block 1 Riesling 2016 Central Otago, New Zealand
Off dry and textural with lovely citrus fruit and some richer pear and melon notes. Good acidity, too. Very fresh and expressive with lots of potential, and a sweet finish. 93/100

TWR Toru SV5182 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
A fine, textural wine with some sweet citrus, melon and pear fruit. Very clean and pure with just a hint of sweetness. Very expressive. 91/100

Misha’s Vineyard Limelight Riesling 2014 Central Otago, New Zealand
Highly aromatic with a limey nose. Fresh, linear and intense on the palate with bold lime fruit. Very fresh and expressive. Just off-dry. 90/100

Framingham F Series Riesling Kabinett 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
Pretty, light, fresh and beautifully detailed with lovely lemon and melon notes, and brisk acidity balanced beautifully with some sweetness. Sweet but fresh and vivid. 93/100

Dry River Pinot Gris 2016 Martinborough, New Zealand
This is intriguing: there’s a slightly smoky, peaty edge to the concentrated pear, grape and apple fruit. Has some sweetness and a bit of phenolic character. Spicy finish. Weird but tasty. 92/100

Prophet’s Rock Pinot Gris 2016 Central Otago, New Zealand
Bright and fresh and quite complex. Dry with some fresh spiciness and a linear, mineral, concentrated palate. Has a bit of smoke and spice as well as some pear and apple fruit. Long finish. 92/100

Astrolabe Province Sauvignon Blanc 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
Fresh, bright and focused with a delicate seam of acidity and linear green pepper, tomato leaf and citrus notes. Nice balance and freshness, and quite an elegant expressive example of Sauvignon. 92/100

Vavasour Sauvignon Blanc 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
Fresh, vivid and intense with concentrated citrus and pear fruit with a strong but well integrated green hint. Green pepper, tomato leaf, cut grass and grapefruit, with some elderflower, too. Intense. 91/100

Brancott B Sauvignon Blanc 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
Bright with good concentration. Fresh and linear with nice delicate elderflower and tomato leaf notes, as well as some passionfruit. Has a really nicely balanced, pretty, expressive personality. 92/100

Tohu Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
Very bright and fresh, in a lighter style, with lovely crisp passionfruit aromatics and a fine greenness. Pretty and light, and delicious now. 90/100

Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
Linear, fresh and intense with lovely focus. Bright and fresh with subtle greenness. Nice lemony detail, too. Great acidity here. 92/100

Sacred Hill Rifleman’s Chardonnay 2015 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Intense, toasty nose with nice pear and fig fruit. The palate is bold and concentrated with a hint of cabbage and bold peach and pear fruit. Rich, toasty and spicy, showing good concentration, but a little funky. 89/100

Felton Road Block 2 Chardonnay 2015 Central Otago, New Zealand
Fresh, bright and quite pure with a lemony core and some pretty pear richness. Overall, it’s crisp, bright and linear with a lighter personality but also some spicy complexity. 92/100

Villa Maria Keltern Vineyard Chardonnay 2016 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Intense and concentrated with a nice balance of toasty, nutty richness, bold pear and peach fruit, and some fine spiciness. Very expressive with a concentrated, unfurled personality and some reductive depth. Very nice. 93/100

Clearview Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2015 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Bold and rich with fresh citrus notes and richer peach and fig characters, as well as a slight hint of coffee. Bright lemony acidity, too. Has real depth. 91/100

Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay 2016 Nelson, New Zealand
Quite nutty and creamy with nice texture to the sweet pear and citrus fruit. Quite bready, but also with lovely linear fruit. Has nice focus and a fine spiciness. 92/100

Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir 2014 Central Otago, New Zealand
Focused, finely spiced nose with some brisk cherry and raspberry fruit. The palate has a hint of mint and some brightness, and also a lovely textured core of red cherry fruit. Primary and linear with good structure: quite an elegant style. 94/100

Burn Cottage Pinot Noir 2015 Central Otago, New Zealand
Good concentration here with rich but balanced red cherry and raspberry fruit, and fine-grained spicy structure. This has depth but also finesse, with a silky texture under the fine tannin and acid structure. Very fine. 95/100

Kusuda Pinot Noir 2014 Martinborough, New Zealand
Has some warm spiciness on the nose, and on the palate lovely supple concentrated cherry and berry fruit, with a hint of stewed plum and very fine spicy structure. There’s a bit of meatiness and some attractive savoury depth. Drinking beautifully now, with just a twist of wildness to it, and a little sour cherry on the finish. Compelling stuff. 95/100

Craggy Range Aroha Te Muna Pinot Noir 2015 Martinborough, New Zealand
Concentrated and quite dense with sweet cherry and plum fruit. Rich and bold with some oak and also some firm structure. A bit closed and unyielding at the moment, but with potential. An ambitious wine. 92/100

Escarpment Kupe Pinot Noir 2014 Martinborough, New Zealand
Powerfully and vivid with a hint of blackcurrant, some fresh cherries and some nice spiciness. It’s concentrated and linear and the oak is showing a bit at the moment, but this has a lot of future potential. Currently a bit angular and primary. 93/100

Auntsfield Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
Ripe and sweetly fruited with fresh cherries and berries, and some nice fine grained tannic structure. Really pretty and bright with some raspberry freshness. Good concentration. Very much in a richer style with lots of stuffing. 93/100

Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir 2014 Central Otago, New Zealand
This has a damson, sour cherry edge to the bright fruit with good acidity and fine spiciness. Really bright with nice savoury detail. Very fresh and compelling. 94/100

Mount Edward Morrison Vineyard Pinot Noir 2014 Central Otago, New Zealand
This is ripe and supple with lovely sweet fruit. Cherries, plums and even some blackcurrant, sitting over fresh acidity and some spicy structure. Quite primary and unfurled at the moment. 93/100

Bell Hill Pinot Noir 2014 North Canterbury, New Zealand
This has a lovely freshness to it. Well integrated oak and lots of bright cherry and plum fruit, with elegance and nice brightness of acid, which integrates well too. This has a lot of energy, and really succeeds in marrying concentration and elegance. More red fruit than black. Lovely stuff. 95/100

Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah 2015 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Concentrated and sweetly fruited with a fine peppery edge to the bright black cherry and blackberry fruit. Quite dense and primary at the moment with lots of potential. Grippy and intense. 94/100

Trinity Hill Homage Syrah 2015 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Vivid and intense with lovely grip. Peppery edge to the black cherry and blackcurrant fruit with nice intensity and freshness. Grippy structure. Has a lovely savoury core and beautiful concentration. 95/100

Bilancia La Collina Syrah 2014 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Really vivid and expressive with beautiful bright raspberry and red cherry fruit. Juicy and structured with some peppery detail. Lean and linear with nice savouriness and brilliant focus: a lovely wine. 94/100

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

from jamie goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/new-zealand/air-new-zealands-fine-wines-of-new-zealand-tasting

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Sebastien Brunet Les Pentes de la Folie Vouvray

Another find at Scotch wine bar in Blenheim. So much Vouvray is disappointing, but this domaine, which Sébastien took over from his father in 2006, is making the most of these exceptional terroirs. This is his top dry Chenin, and it’s lovely.

Domaine Sébastien Brunet Vouvray Les Pentes de la Folie 2015 Loire, France
This Chenin Blanc is from 80 year old vines on clay limestone soils, organically farmed. Vivid and intense with a lean citrus core and some stony, mineral notes. Vital and concentrated, and still quite taut and unfurled with hints of herbs and cheese rind. Classic and intense in a dry style. 93/100

from jamie goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/loire/sebastien-brunet-les-pentes-de-la-folie-vouvray

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Oregon Pinot Noir: tasting 11 top examples blind

For the last few days I’ve been at the Southern Pinot Noir workshop at Hamner Springs. It’s an event that brings together winemakers from across New Zealand to taste and discuss each others’ wines. Everyone brings their wines, and then in groups of eight the wines are tasted blind. The discussion that follows is then shared with the rest of the room, and it’s almost always kind, but it’s also honest. People are bringing wines with issues, or trial wines, or special lots – and because of this, in order to create an open environment, no journalists are allowed. It is just winemakers. I got in as an accompanying partner, and I’ve been allowed to attend sessions where finished wines are being shown, and even then there are some things I’m not allowed to write about. But for most of the sessions, it takes place behind closed doors. It’s a really cool idea.

The first session was a really interesting tasting of Pinot Noirs from Oregon, including some of the established celebrity wineries and also some of the newcomers. These wines were all tasted blind, and I’ve kept my notes and scores exactly as they were written. For the first flight of five, we didn’t even know the wines were from Oregon: we were just told they were not New Zealand. After the first flight, we knew that the second flight was also Oregon wines.

I might change the scores a little bit if I’m tasting sighted: knowledge of the producer does change your ratings a bit, not necessarily because of bias, but because you can then understand the wine better. And some of the scores are a bit lower than if I was tasting the wines sighted. But’s that’s the nature of the exercise. So take the scores with a pinch of salt, and look at which wines fared best compared with their peers.

Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir 2015 Oregon
Supple, juicy and bright with sweet cherries and raspberries. Quite grippy with good acidity. Red fruits rather than black with nice freshness and focus. Grainy and savoury on the finish. It’s not an obvious wine but it is supple and has real drinkability. Understated and quite elegant. 90/100

Adelsheim Breaking Ground Pinot Noir 2015 Chehalem Mountain, Oregon
Sweetly fruited and generous with ripe, warm, sweet, ripe berry fruits. Quite warm with some spicy structure on the finish. Still Pinot but in quite a crowd-pleasing style, perhaps with slightly higher alcohol. 89/100

Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir 2015 Oregon
Ripe, clean and very fruity with nice juiciness and sweet, alluring raspberry and cherry fruit. Ripe and full with nice structure. Very pleasant but unremarkable. 88/100

Rex Hill Jacob Hart Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 Oregon
Plenty of colour and ripe fruit here. Black cherries, spice and some creamy texture and noticeable oak. Rich and ripe with a lush fruit character. Moving away from Pinot here more to an international red style, but well made nonetheless. 87/100

Bethel Heights Flat Block Pinot Noir 2015 Oregon
A hint of green on the nose here with supple, refreshing cherry and plum fruit. Nice grip and appealing fruit, but quite simple in style. 87/100

Division Wine Company ‘Deux’ Eola Springs Pinot Noir 2016 Oregon
Supple and very juicy with nice sweet berry and cherry fruit. There’s a freshness to this wine: there’s sweet fruit but also nice stony, savoury grippiness. Shows lovely purity and focus. 93/100

A to Z Wineworks Pinot Noir 2015 Oregon
200 000 case blend. Spicy cedar and vanilla on the nose. The palate is fresh with a bit of grip and some noticeable oak. Midweight and juicy with some savoury, spicy, cedary notes on the finish. 87/100

Goodfellow Whistling Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 Oregon
Fresh, supple and spicy with a bit of grip. Sweetly fruited. Juicy and midweight with nice focus to the fruit. Cherries, raspberries and some herbs. Lighter style and very drinkable, but with a savoury woody note on the finish and a bit of volatility. 87/100

Francis Tannahill The Hermit Pinot Noir 2014 Oregon
Ripe, sweet and lush with a very soft texture and appealing sweet cherry and berry fruits. Quite silky but with some freshness, and a slight damson bitterness on the finish offsetting the sweet fruit. 89/100

Big Table Farm Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir 2015 Oregon
Warm, sweetly aromatic nose with pot pourri and sweet herbs, as well as sweet berry fruits. The palate has a green herbal/seaweed edge to it, but there’s some attractive, savoury-edged cherry and plum fruit. There’s some elegance here, and nice fine-grained structure. Intriguing. 91/100

Minimus Dijon-Free Pinot Noir 2016 Willamette Valley, Oregon
Focused and quite elegant with sweet red berry and cherry fruit. Juicy and a bit grippy with a nice grainy edge to the focused fruit. I like the freshness and focus here. Has good concentration. 92/100

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

from jamie goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/oregon/oregon-pinot-noir-tasting-11-top-examples-blind

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Adding appellations: developing new GIs and why conjunctive labelling is important

I’ve been involved in quite a few discussions of late about developing new appellations (technically, geographic indications [GIs]) in new world countries, particularly New Zealand.

Currently, New Zealand only has regional GIs: Marlborough, Central Otago, Hawke’s Bay and so on. Within each of these regions there are unofficial sub-regions, but these are not officially defined. So Central Otago has Gibbston, Bannockburn, Lowburn, Alexandra, Bendigo, Wanaka and Pisa, while Marlborough has Awatere, Southern Valleys, Rapaura, Wairau Valley, Upper Wairau, Lower Wairau, Brancott, Omaka, Waihopai, Fairhall and Ben Morven, plus probably others. These aren’t defined and in some cases are overlapping. And if Awatere were its own region, it would be the second largest in New Zealand.

Currently producers are free to use these additional names on labels, as long as they are telling the truth. And there are also instances where producers’ names include places in them. For example, Rapaura Springs have just bought over 100 hectares in the Awatere, so they aren’t making wines that are just from Rapaura, which would create an inconsistency if Rapaura were to become a GI.

There have been moves to create official GIs in New Zealand. In Central Otago, the first GI will be Bannockburn, but plans to get this approved have run into a slight hitch: conjunctive labelling. This hurdle also foiled attempts to get Seaview in the Awatere recognized.

Conjunctive labelling is when the name of the subappellation is accompanied by the larger regional appellation, and usually it’s a very good idea, and ideally it should be mandated. So in Bannockburn’s case, the wine should be labelled ‘Bannockburn, Central Otago.’ This is important because it helps consumers who might not already know Bannockburn, and because it maintains brand equity in Central Otago. But the EU, an important export market, doesn’t allow New Zealand producers to practise conjunctive labelling.

Now a famous producer like Felton Road could label their wine ‘Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir 2016 Bannockburn, New Zealand’ and still sell it easily because everyone who buys Felton Road knows they are from Central Otago. But for most wines, the lack of the regional name would be a problem.

In France, for example, just the appellation name is allowed. You have Chambolle-Musigny on the bottle, and consumers are expected to know this is in Burgundy. Some appellations are so well known, this isn’t a problem. And in some regions, such as Alsace, the only appellations are Alsace AOP, Cremant d’Alsace AOP and Alsace Grand Cru AOP. That’s for quite a sizeable region.

Then there’s a separate discussion: does New Zealand need subregional GIs? There are many possible answers. Regions such as Marlborough and Central Otago are relatively young (1973 and 1982, respectively), but they are now at the stage where people are beginning to unravel the subregional identity as it applies to wine. In some ways, it’s a good thing that regions take their time because if you rush into this, it can stifle the healthy evolution of a region. Identifying subregionality is part of the journey of a wine region and it can enhance the region’s prestige and help ‘premiumize’ the offering. At the non-involved consumer level, though, it is often unnecessary and confusing. Geeks like complexity, and GIs help a region tell its story, once we reach the fine wine dimension.

GIs can be polarizing, and it’s bad news if they are established for political motives. They have to mean something in terms of wine quality and character, or else they are worthless. So for Marlborough, I think a good start would be ‘Southern Clays’, referring to the bits in the southern valleys with clay-based soils, often on hillside sites, which are producing most of the region’s best Pinot Noir. I would also do something that’s rarely done in the New World but which is common in the old: restrict the GI to specific grape varieties. So for Southern Clays, the GI should just be for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, varieties that do really well here. This would be a useful GI that would really help Marlborough’s reputation with Pinot Noir, in particular. Such a GI would merely be an official sanction of what quality producers are already observing.

There are also examples of unofficial appellations, and New Zealand has a few of these. In Hawke’s Bay, there is a Gimblett Gravels association, and also a Bridge Pa Triangle group: both of these are producer clubs, effectively, where a distinct terroir is being promoted. Chile has the Vigno group (for old vine Carignan-based wines in Maule). And Germany has the Grosses Gewachs, which is a special member club for top-level wine estates. Soon Marlborough will have the ‘Pure Marlborough‘ designation, which is likely to cause some controversy.

An example of a new world wine region where some new GIs are badly needed is the Okanagan Valley in Canada’s British Columbia. This is a very diverse region, with distinct climatic differences between the northern and southern ends. The problem this creates is that it’s a region that grows a lot of different varieties, and this dilutes its marketing message. New GIs would really help, and a BC Wine Appellation Task Group has made some sensible recommendations, including mandating conjunctive labelling.

And finally, one example of a sensible new world GI that has been thoughtfully defined is Gualtallary, in Argentina’s Mendoza region. This high altitude subregion has been defined on the basis of distinctive terroir differences, following an extensive scientific survey. If GIs are created with a lot of thought on the basis of good evidence, they can be a very positive step in the evolution of a wine industry.

from jamie goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/new-zealand/adding-appellations-developing-new-gis-and-why-conjunctive-labelling-is-important

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Interesting Marlborough: Corofin, with Mike Paterson

Mike Paterson, Corofin, in the Settlement Vineyard

Mike Paterson used to be the winemaker at Jackson Estate, but now he’s making his own wines, along with his wife Anna, under the Corofin label. The idea behind Corofin is to make Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from privileged vineyards in the Southern Valleys of Marlborough, and to allow these sites to speak through the wines. I spent an afternoon with him visiting some of his key vineyard sites and then tasting through the wines.

Auntsfield, owned by the Cowley family: this is where the Cowley Vineyard wines come from. It’s hidden in the Wither Hills, right at the back of the southern valleys.

Cowley

First vintage was 2012, and since this start new vineyards have been added. Mike says that he’s begun picking earlier, because there’s no one who regrets picking too early, but plenty of people who revisit their wines and then wish they’d not waited so long to pick. Part of the problem is waiting for uniform ripeness, which usually means that a lot of the fruit is a bit over-ripe. ‘It is easier said than done,’ he admits. ‘We are lucky that we are only taking three or four tons, so this allows us to pick on the cusp of ripeness.’

The Marlborough story is evolving as quite a few people are now focusing on making single-site wines. ‘In Marlborough there are plenty of great vineyards,’ says Mike, ‘but for many of these sites, there’s only one person speaking about them.’ He envisions a scenario where there’s a collective realization of which sites are effectively Marlborough’s Grand Crus. This could happen if in addition to the winery vineyard owners, other people made wine of these top sites.

The Churton vineyard, source of Pinot Noir. It’s a sizeable site on a ridge between the Omaka and Waihopai valleys

Abyss block, Churton

Mike really likes working with Chardonnay. ‘As a winemaker you have a bit more impact with the Chardonnay,’ he says. ‘There’s always a sense of detail. With Pinot, if you pick it at the right time, then you do pretty much the same thing all the time.’ For his Chardonnay he does not battonage, and the wine is sulphured and then goes to stainless steel for the last six months. He doesn’t use sulfur until this stage, but he thinks that if you only sulfur just before bottling, then it disappears, so the wine looks good for a while, but then looks tired. It needs to be built up, hence sulphuring before the six months in tank. In 2015 he filtered the Chardonnay, but in 2016 he didn’t. All the wines are cork-sealed.

In Churton

Corofin Folium Vineyard Chardonnay 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
Dry grown, Brancott Valley, mix of clones. Old puncheon and a stainless barrel. Natural ferment, natural malolactic, racked and sulphured in February then goes to tank for six months. Really focused with a lovely delicate, saline personality here. It’s really elegant with nice finesse and a delicate saline, mineral character under the fruit. Very subtle smokiness. Lovely finesse here, with such well integrated acidity. Very fine. 95/100

Corofin Carter Ashmore Vineyard North Corner Chardonnay 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
20 year old Mendoza clone at the back of Arbour restaurant. New barrel and an old puncheon. This is spicy and taut with citrus and pear fruit. The oak is nicely integrated, and the fruit has lovely presence to it, with good acidity. Refined with nice acid structure and a slight saltiness on the finish. Very fine and expressive, and probably needing a few years to show its best. 94/100

Corofin Folium Vineyard Chardonnay 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
Delicate but with lovely presence. Good acidity here with mineral, saline notes, nice ripe citrus and pear fruit, but it’s really light on its feet. There’s an amazing textural quality to this wine with fine spiciness. Really expressive and detailed with lovely precision, and just a little more presence than the palate than the 2015. Very fine. 95/100

Corofin Carter Ashmore Vineyard North Corner Chardonnay 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is fabulous. Really refined and mineral with lovely balance between the fresh citrus notes and the riper pear and apple characters. Good acidity, integrated well, with very subtle mealy notes and a touch of biscuit on the finish. Has great freshness and focus, with good concentration and presence. 94/100

Corofin Settlement Vineyard East Slope Pinot Noir 2012 Marlborough, New Zealand
Debut vintage, which was the third crop from this vineyard. No whole bunch, destemmed. Made at Sugarloaf winery then transferred it to Fromm. There’s a bit of development here, with a nice savoury, grainy character as well as sweet, autumnal cherry and berry fruits. Nice density and weight on the palate with sweet cherries and plums, and a fine spiciness. Textural with finely spiced tannic structure. Has some warmth and sweetness, but very well balanced, finishing with a slight twist of mint. 93/100

Corofin Settlement Vineyard East Slope Pinot Noir 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
777 and a bit of 667. 10% whole bunch. Only on skins for 13 days. Really interesting nose with savoury spiciness: ginger, mint, pot pourri and Mediterranean herbs. The palate has incredible presence and concentration, with lovely structure and freshness. There’s a dense black cherry fruit presence here with good structure and intensity, and a real spicy, meaty core. There’s a strong mineral dimension. This isn’t just about fruit but has a lovely savoury character, too. 95/100

Corofin Cowley Vineyard Main Slopes Pinot Noir 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
667 and 777. Very fresh with a good concentration of red and black fruits. Nice freshness with good acid and fine tannic structure. Supple and fine with nice black cherry and raspberry fruit. Really focused and bright. Still quite tightwound but with lots of potential. A serious wine, but give it time to add flesh and elegance. 94/100

Corofin Churton Vineyard Clod Block Pinot Noir 2015 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is the first vintage of this wine, which comes from an east-facing block. This is completely different again. Grippy and dense with lots of structure and focus. It has ripe black cherry and blackberry fruit but also some firm, grippy structure. The fruit has some ripeness: it’s quite silky and there’s some prettiness. But there’s also a lot of structure here that at the moment dominates a touch. Still, this wine is drinking really well now, but it has massive potential when these tannins resolve a bit. 95/100

UK agent: Flint Wines

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

from jamie goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/new-zealand/interesting-marlborough-corofin-with-mike-paterson

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Interesting Marlborough: the Pioneer Block wines from Saint Clair

Back in 1978, in the early days of Marlborough, Neal and Judy Ibbotson planted grapes, and began supplying Montana. Fast forward 16 years and they decided to launch their own winery, Saint Clair, which they began in 1994. The enlisted Matt Thomson to help with winemaking, and he remained consultant winemaker until last year.

Saint Clair became famous for their highly aromatic style of Sauvignon Blanc. The aromatics come largely from a group of volatile sulfur compounds called polyfunctional thiols, and the Saint Clair wines have very high levels. This is partly due to the location of their vineyards, which are largely from the lower Wairau around Dillons Point. This area, closer to the coast, has richer soils, producing dense canopies and Sauvignon Blanc grapes with typically high levels of polyfunctional thiol precursors. Aside from the aromatic Sauvignons, the real draw is the single-site series of wines under the Pioneer Block label. These are made in relatively small quantities and display distinct site-derived characters.

These days Saint Clair put a significant volume of wine through their impressive winery in the Riverlands estate, which is where much of the Marlborough region’s wine is made. They have a fleet of presses which are filled automatically by a system of pipes once the machine harvested fruit comes in: there’s a control gantry from where operations can be supervised, and it saves an awful lot of work manually filling and emptying the presses. There’s also a separate press area for the hand picked fruit.

Production is 90% white (of which most is Sauvignon Blanc) and 10% red (mostly Pinot Noir, although there’s also a vineyard that they’ve bought in Hawke’s Bay which supplies Merlot and Malbec).

Everything is kept separate in the winery, which means a lot of work at blending time, but this is necessary so that the growers (they rely on them for half their fruit needs) can get adequately rewarded for the quality of what they supply. For example, after harvest there will be some 130 different batches of Sauvignon, which are all tasted blind. Decisions about which might end up as the high-end Pioneer Block wines are then made, and interestingly it’s pretty common for all the top wines to come from around Dillons Point, where the soils seem to be suited to making these big aromatic styles. I tried through some of the Pioneer and Reserve wines. 2017 was a tricky vintage and you can taste this in some of the Sauvignons. But the Pinots, from 2016, were quite lovely and all very different.

Saint Clair Dawn 2013 Marlborough, New Zealand
A small-production traditional-method sparkling. 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir. Finished at No. 1. 200 cases. 6 g/l dosage. Tight and lively with nice focus to the citrus and pear fruit. Very clean and linear with good acidity. Lovely freshness to this wine with a subtle toastiness. 89/100

Saint Clair Sauvignon Blanc Pioneer Block 18 Snap Block 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
This wine comes from the Blackmores at Dillons Point. Really aromatic on the nose with lovely passionfruit and blackcurrant intensity: this is what Saint Clair is known for. The palate is a bit lighter than the nose would suggest: it’s citrussy and linear with a bit of pithy bitterness on the finish. The 2017 vintage makes its mark, but the aromas and fruit quality are lovely. 90/100

Saint Clair Sauvignon Blanc Pioneer Block 20 Cash Block 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is from the Registers in Dillon Point. It is always a bit green, and 2017 is no exception. Delicate tomato leaf greenness meshes well with green apple and citrus on the palate. Quite refined, but with a brisk acidic finish. The greenness works really well here. Stylish and pure. 91/100

Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is the flagship blend for Saint Clair. This year it’s from two blocks in Dillons Point. This is quite vivid and intense with some green notes on the palate supporting lively citrus and pear fruit. Tight and with high acid, this is a little reserved at the moment, but the quality is there. 91/100

Saint Clair Sauvignon Blanc Barrique 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
Fermented in barrels: this project started in 2012 when they ran out of space and had to use Chardonnay barrels for some Sauvignon. This is from hand harvested fruit, mostly wild ferment, with some barrels with high solids and some low. This blend consists of 20 barrels. Refined and expressive with some toasty, slightly buttery oak in the background and nicely textured pear and apple fruit. Fresh lemony finish. This could age well. 90/100

Saint Clair Chardonnay Pioneer Block 10 Twin Hills 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
From clay-based soils in Omaka. 30% new oak. Refined and spicy with nice rounded pear and white peach fruit, complemented by some toast and vanilla oak notes. Rounded and textured with nice softness on the mid-palate, and a spicy finish. Quite a crowd-pleasing style. 89/100

Saint Clair Chardonnay Omaka Reserve 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is all American oak, 30% new. It’s full, spicy and a bit smoky with some cedar and vanilla notes, and a hint of bonfire and bacon in the background. There’s lovely fruit here and the American oak adds a lot of character. A marmite wine. It’s very popular, apparently, and the blend is now quite big. 87/100

Saint Clair Pinot Noir Pioneer Block 4 Sawcut 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
This is from the Ure Valley, where the Buicks have a vineyard on limestone. 115 and 667 clones. 30% new oak. Fine herbs and spices on the nose as well as some sweet red cherry fruit. There’s a nice freshness and elegance to the palate. There’s some spicy oak, but the driving force is silky, fresh, slightly chalky red fruit. Has nice poise and weight. 93/100

Saint Clair Pinot Noir Pioneer Block 14 Doctor’s Creek 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
On New Renwick Road opposite Wither Hills winery. 10% whole bunch, 30% new oak. On the border of where the clay meets the gravels. Beautifully aromatic with floral cherry fruit, showing roses and violets as well as sweet fruit. The palate is really fresh and vivid with raspberry and cherry fruit, and a nice juiciness. Lovely weight here: a striking, direct wine with nice intensity. 94/100

Saint Clair Pinot Noir Pioneer Block 15 Strip Block 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
From the mouth of the Waihopai, opposite Delegats winery. Has clay soils. All clone 115, tiny bit of whole bunch, 40% new oak. Tight, backward and quite structured, with juicy, lively black cherry and raspberry fruit with a slightly smoky, spicy edge. Vivid, bold and quite weighty with good acid and structure. Needs time to open out, but could be very good. There are subtle green hints, too. 93/100

Saint Clair Pinot Noir Pioneer Block 23 Master Block 2016 Marlborough, New Zealand
From the Southern Valleys, at Ben Morven. This vineyard had Sauvignon Blanc but it didn’t do well, so it was top grafted to Pinot Noir. First vintage was 2012. Clones are Abel and 114. High proportion of whole bunch. Very aromatic cherry fruit nose with a stony edge. Has some meat and herbs, too. The palate has an open, elegant fruit and it’s sappy and stony. Real elegance here: a grown up Pinot with a lovely texture and some sappy, mineral notes in the mix. Very fine and expressive. 95/100

Saint Clair Pinot Noir Pioneer Block 17 Cabernet Merlot ‘Plateau’ 2015 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Made from grapes trucked down from Hawke’s Bay. Fresh and focused with nice sweet fruit: cherries and blackberries, together with some blackcurrants. Supple and direct with lovely freshness to the fruit and a bit of crunch on the finish. Very stylish and supple. 92/100

Find these wines with wine-searcher.com

from jamie goode’s wine blog http://www.wineanorak.com:/wineblog/new-zealand/interesting-marlborough-the-pioneer-block-wines-from-saint-clair

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