Hawkes Bay Syrah Tastings

Hawkes Bay is located on the eastern coast of the North Island and experiences some of the highest heat accumulation in the country. Hawkes Bay’s climate has been described as almost perfect for growing Syrah, and the Hawkes Bay Winegrowers Inc describe syrah as “the most exciting wine produced in the Hawkes Bay”. Hawkes Bay has a total winegrowing area of 4947ha, of which 34% […]

Seresin ‘Leah’ Pinot Noir Vertical.

Introduction

For this flight we tasted six Seresin ‘Leah’ Pinot Noirs from the 2005 – 2010 vintages. The purpose of the flight was to examine seasonal variation and ageing characteristics of wine. All the wines were made almost identically by winemaker Clive Dougall, who believes that wines should be an expression of time and place, and achieves this through minimalist intervention winemaking

Seresin Leah […]

The Riesling Challenge!

Introduction

The Riesling challenge was initiated in 2010 to exemplify the influence winemakers have in processing grapes into wine. The challenge was taken up by 12 leading New Zealand winemakers, who each received 4 tonnes of identical grapes, picked on the same day, from the same site (Mud House Glasnevin Rd block, Waipara) and distributed evenly from each part of the vineyard. Each winemaker […]

Pinot Gris is a beautiful grape, it has the most outstanding potential, it is easy to grow but difficult to make great wine from, but when done right it is the most adaptive, interesting and re

warding white variety in the world. Sadly though, Pinot Gris is very poorly utilised in most New World countries and especially here in NZ we are guilty of a heinous injustice against what could be the new Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Noir. And what is […]