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It was Chardonnay all the way on Wednesday evening. We tasted the entire Cuisine Top 10 – with mixed reactions to some of the selections. Sue Courtney has reviewed all of the wines in detail below. Many of the wines will be open to taste in store this weekend.
It’s been such a busy week with the Olympics dominating the news – the All Black’s test in Sydney almost seems to be overlooked.
We have just received the Annual Report 2016 from N.Z. Winegrowers. The statistics in this report is always of interest as it highlights what happened with the vintage this year and it gives an indication of where we are going. The tonnes of grapes crushed this year totalled 436,000 up from 326,000 last year and once again there have been reports that the big tonnage will be welcomed by the industry. The bigger volumes will be good for the largest companies but there must still be a lot of wine still available from past vintages as to date we have not had a single wine company coming through the door with a 2016 Sauvignon Blanc for us to taste. Usually by late August we may have had 10 or 20 current vintage Sauvignon Blancs out in the market. Some of the stats are highlighted below.
With the Cuisine judges favouring the more “modern” style of Chardonnay we took the opportunity to sneak a big “old fashioned” toasty buttery wine into the glasses at the end of Wednesday’s tasting. The Giesen Single Vineyard The Fuder Dog Point Marlborough Chardonnay 2012 is now a fully developed, mature wine, ready for drinking right now. Amongst the very large turnout on Wednesday we got reactions in line with our expectations – half the room loved the wine, the other half not liking the style. This is how Sue Courtney reviewed this wine, “Beautifully honed savoury oak fills the bouquet and the taste is rich, full bodied, buttery, creamy, spicy and savoury and super smooth in its flow with a mellow characters usually seen in older wines.” This “premium” wine has a First Glass “buy now, drink now” price of $29.99. We have a lot of Chardonnay drinkers who will love this wine.
- If you ever doubted that the most corrupt sport ever contested was boxing, then the match awarded to the Russian boxer on Monday night would have convinced you. What a rort.
- And if you wonder why some of the rounds in women’s golf take 5 ½ hours then watch for a few minutes and you will see why. Many if not most of the women take so long to a make decision either in the fairway or on the green. Stronger action needs to be taken to speed up some of these ladies.
- How many competitors in Rio have gone down with “gastro” issues – not as many as Havelock North.
Some changes in the wine industry – Giesen purchased the Ara brand and stocks – not the vineyards.
Saint Clair buys Lake Chalice Wines – Gambo is on the loose, watch out New Zealand.
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Babich Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2015
The bouquet of this light hued wine has vibrant aromas of pineapple and pear, hints of banana and touches of oatmeal. It’s a juicy, fruit forward, medium-bodied style with fresh acidity, loads of tropical fruit, brightness to the zesty finish and an increasing mealy richness that adds a welcome savouriness as the wine lingers. An unoaked wine with an unbelievable result of 5 stars & Cuisine No 1.
First Glass Price: $14.99. |
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Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Chardonnay 2014
Grapefruit and butter caramel fill the honey-coated bouquet with concentrated savoury nuances wafting through. An approachable, mouthfilling and very appealing style with hints of malt, toasty oak, a creamy flow, a beautifully balanced savouriness, a flinty undercurrent, and a rich, powerful, reasonably dry finish. Very juicy and very tasty with roasted stonefruit and hints of baked caramelised lemon lingering – one of the standouts on the night. 5 stars & Cuisine No 5.
First Glass Price: 19.99 |
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Giesen Single Vineyard The Fuder Dog Point Marlborough Chardonnay 2012
Bright yellow gold, the colour of butter and very deep in hue compared to the other wines in the tasting tonight. Beautifully honed savoury oak fills the bouquet and the taste is rich, full-bodied, buttery, creamy, spicy and savoury and super smooth in its flow with a mellow character usually seen in older wines – the acidity and oak very integrated with hints of gunflint and luscious peach flavours miraculously appearing as the flavours linger. A fully mature wine for drinking rather than cellaring.
First Glass Price: $29.99. |
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Rapaura Springs Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir 2015
Lovely dark ruby in colour, the bouquet shows juicy dark cherries and plums with subtle spice complexity. It is beautifully fruited and rounded, and delivers plenty of attractive fruit flavours, wonderfully framed by fine tannins, leading to a lingering silky finish. A real crowd-pleaser.
First Glass Price: $15.99 |
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Altacena Tempranillo 2014
This vibrant purple maroon-hued wine has quite a spicy, savoury aroma with a hint of chorizo and cherry and it’s peppery and spicy upfront in the palate with firm tannins, a meaty depth, hints of tar and graphite and a juicy plum and berry sweetness. Made from 90% Tempranillo with 5% Syrah and 5% Garnacha, this great little summer BBQ quaffer is medium-bodied, easy going and juicy, and has an NZIWS gold medal accolade as well.
First Glass Price: $12.99 |
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Karen Lawton is our Saturday Challenge winner. The wines were Sauvignon Blanc 13, Marlborough Pinot Noir 14 and Merlot.
The Saturday Challenge continues each weekend and this Saturday you will be able to enter our Pick the Score – and it’s a test. All Blacks V Wallabies in Sydney, Saturday night. Entry is free.
Last week's email should have listed the winners from our Albert Mann evening. These lucky people were winners: Steve Pyne, John Cochrane, Jane Addington, Heather Bourke, Joyce Austin and Mark Ashcroft. These prizes will be available early next month.
Our lucky 3 email winners this week are:
- Garth Cumberland
- Randall Francis
- Chris Robinson
If your name is listed here, you are a winner – just for reading our email. A bottle of fine wine awaits your collection.
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The Harveys living it up in Hong Kong.
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Wednesday 24th August: Mostly new including the very new Sacred Hill Brokenstone 2014 ($45) and Sacred Hill Helmsman 2014 ($70).
Wednesday 31st August: T.B.C.
Wednesday 7th Sept: T.B.C.
Wednesday 14th Sept: No tasting – Final day of judging at the 2016 N.Z. International Wine Show.
Wednesday 21st Sept: Gold Medal Wines
Wednesday 28th Sept: Gold Medal Wines |
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N.Z. Winegrowers Annual Stats
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2007 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
| Number of wineries |
543 |
698 |
699 |
673 |
675 |
Producing hectares
(thousands) |
25 |
35 |
35 |
36 |
36 |
Average yield
(tonnes per hectare) |
8.1 |
9.8 |
12.6 |
9.1 |
12.0 |
Tonnes crushed
(thousands) |
205 |
345 |
445 |
326 |
436 |
Total production
(millions of litres) |
147 |
284 |
320 |
234 |
313 |
Domestic sales of NZ wines
(millions of litres) |
51 |
51 |
50 |
61 |
56 |
| Consumption per capita of NZ wine (litres) |
12.2 |
11.6 |
11.2 |
13.6 |
12.2 |
Total domestic sales of
all wine
(millions of litres) |
91.8 |
92.5 |
90.6 |
96 |
93 |
| Consumption per capita of all wines (litres) |
21.7 |
20.8 |
20.3 |
21.2 |
20.2 |
Export volume
(millions of litres) |
76 |
169 |
186 |
209 |
213 |
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First Glass Fine Wine Wednesday 17 August 2016
Cuisine Top 10 Chardonnays
Notes by Sue Courtney
Wines were tasted blind
Babich Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2015
The bouquet of this light hued wine has vibrant aromas of pineapple and pear, hints of banana and touches of oatmeal. It’s a juicy, fruit forward, medium-bodied style with fresh acidity, loads of tropical fruit, brightness to the zesty finish and an increasing mealy richness that adds a welcome savouriness as the wine lingers. An unoaked wine with an unbelievable result of 5 stars & Cuisine No 1.
13.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $14.99.
Gibbston Valley China Terrace Central Otago Chardonnay 2015
Light gold, clear and bright. The bouquet is concentrated and full with hints of grapefruit, just out of the oven vanilla biscuits, a waft of nutmeg and a sweet yeasty aura. The taste is concentrated and creamy with youthful acidity, an amalgam of citrus accented with apple and hints of ginger, an earthy flinty undercurrent and wild yeast esters. It has a profound depth of flavour, beautifully honed integrated oak and a juicy succulence to the zesty finish that is long and persistent. 5 stars & Cuisine No 4.
14.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $34.99.
Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Chardonnay 2014
Grapefruit and butter caramel fill the honey-coated bouquet with concentrated savoury nuances wafting through. An approachable, mouthfilling and very appealing style with hints of malt, toasty oak, a creamy flow, a beautifully balanced savouriness, a flinty undercurrent, and a rich, powerful, reasonably dry finish. Very juicy and very tasty with roasted stonefruit and hints of baked caramelised lemon lingering – one of the standouts on the night. 5 stars & Cuisine No 5.
13% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: 19.99
Villa Maria Reserve Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2015
Quite reductive and a little pongy when first sniffed immediately after pouring but this subsides to reveal stonefruit and mealy notes with touches of cedar. The taste is full-bodied, powerful, savoury, spicy and a little earthy at this stage of its life with vibrant citrus-infused tingles on the front of the tongue, a flinty slightly lean mid palate then quite savoury and soft on the back palate finishing with concentrated honeyed oak and grilled stonefruit with a nutty complexity and mouthfilling length. 5 stars & Cuisine No 9.
13.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $26.99
Rod McDonald Wines Quarter Acre Hawkes Bay Chardonnay Hawkes Bay 2015
The bouquet unlocks a memory of original blue-green Radox mineral bath salts as well as more typical savoury, toasty, mealy nuances while deep inhaling reveal hints of sandalwood and hand cream. Focused and restrained in a Burgundian style – it’s savoury, flinty, earthy and malty with spicy oak and a seamless flow, not overtly fruity – perhaps pear and a hint of pepino, and while it doesn’t seem big at first it builds in concentration and packs a punch on the finish with lingering notes of lemon and lime. Fascinating wine. 5 stars & Cuisine No 8.
13.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $28.99
Villa Maria Reserve Barrique Fermented Gisborne Chardonnay 2015
Tropical fruit fills the bouquet with complex, nutty, savoury, mealy notes and hints of grilled nectarine adding to the allure, and the taste is full-bodied and toasty with hazelnut, cedar and nutmeg notes, a complex mealiness, a beautiful almost butterscotch overtone and a sweet smokiness wafting through the honeyed oak finish that has bright, spicy accents. Wonderfully persistent, mouthfilling and long. 5 stars & Cuisine No 5.
14% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $29.99.
Villa Maria Single Vineyard Keltern Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2015
This wine really got the tasters talking as it’s quite different to the wines before it. Upfront reductive struck match characters on the bouquet then very attractive mealy, savoury, cedary scents that echo in the palate where the initial impression is all juicy ripe stonefruit, yet the wine is flinty and dry with grapefruit coming through in a meticulous balancing role. There are also hints of mineral bath salts with the mealy yeasty flavours more pronounced on the long, concentrated, mouthfilling finish. 5 stars & Cuisine No 2.
13.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: Sold out.
Saint Clair Pioneer Block 11 Chardonnay Marlborough 2014
The bouquet is creamy with very desirable smoky nuances and the taste seems juicy and forward with honeyed oak, nectarine and tropical fruit and a creamy flow yet there is a Burgundian-like restraint to the mid palate of the wine with its flinty, nutty, savoury, smoky undertones and lemonade fruit providing well-balanced acidity, then broadening out again on the finish with hints of just-ripe crisp white peach and vanilla custard coming through nicely. Drinking beautifully now but plenty of life ahead of it. 5 stars & Cuisine No 10.
13.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $29.99.
Giesen Single Vineyard The Fuder Clayvin Marlborough Chardonnay 2014
This is a big, gold, bold smelling wine with caramel-coated yeasty funk filling the bouquet and while it seems acid driven in the palate with is abundant grapefruit and citrus flavours the deep, rich sweetly smoked meaty savoury undercurrent makes it mouthfilling and complex. Hints of stonefruit emerge and while there is a flinty, earthy, dry gravelly note to the lingering finish the overall impression is creamy and long. 5 stars & Cuisine No 7.
13.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $49.99.
Vidal Legacy Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2014
Struck match on the nose subsides to reveal rather appealing mealy, malty scents. A super bold style of wine with all the bells and whistles – it's got butter caramel, malt, spice, stonefruit and citrus with tingling youthful acidity. It’s concentrated and mouthfilling with a seamless flow, finishing with a wine biscuit complexity and a flinty savouriness lingering. 5 stars & Cuisine No 3.
13.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $49.99.
Giesen Single Vineyard The Fuder Dog Point Marlborough Chardonnay 2012
Bright yellow gold, the colour of butter and very deep in hue compared to the other wines in the tasting tonight. Beautifully honed savoury oak fills the bouquet and the taste is rich, full-bodied, buttery, creamy, spicy and savoury and super smooth in its flow with a mellow character usually seen in older wines – the acidity and oak very integrated with hints of gunflint and luscious peach flavours miraculously appearing as the flavours linger. A fully mature wine for drinking rather than cellaring.
14.5% alc. Screwcap. First Glass Price: $29.99.
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Short & Sweet
- Two blonds walk into a building … you’d think at least one of them would have seen it.
- Phone answering machine message … If you want to buy marijuana, press the hash key.
- I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.
- A man came round in hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, “Doctor, doctor, I can’t feel my legs!”. The doctor replied, “I know you can’t, I’ve cut your arms off.”
- Our ice cream man was found lying on the floor of his van covered with hundreds and thousands. Police say that he topped himself.
- I can’t stop singing ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home’. “That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome.” Is it common? “It’s not unusual.”
- A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet. “May dog’s cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him?” “Well”, says the vet, “let’s have a look at him”. So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth. Finally, he says, “I’m going to have to put him down.” “What, because he’s cross-eyed?” “No, because he’s really heavy.”
- Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. There are 5 people in my family, so it must be one of them. It’s either my Mum or my Dad, or my older Brother Colin, or my younger brother Ho-Cha-Chu. I think it’s Colin.
- Police arrested two kids yesterday. One was drinking battery acid, and the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off.
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