| KWFC: Bringing you independent and sometimes biased New Zealand wine opinions and reviews since 1999 |
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| Written by Masters of Drinking Wine @ KWFC | |
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I am not quite sure when site hosting is up for renewal (I will have to ask Dave, I think it over the coming few months), but our subscription will not be renewed. As such, we also will no longer be accepting any wines for tasting/review from wineries. So please grab all the content you may wish to refer to in the future while you can (man we have had some good tastings over the years!) Thanks must go to our small bunch of regular readers. Many thanks also to the handful of wineries who we love the most (you know who you are). Thank-you for your support, thank your favour whenever we meet. We will still be your biggest fans, we will still buy your wine, and still recommend yours, our favourite drops, to others. Recent Front Page Features Hot Icon New Releases. I have quickly penned some brief impressions from Kumeu River after tasting the latest chardonnay releases from this dress circle producer. Click Here for reviews!
Esk Valley Terraces Vertical. Read our notes and salivate!! We taste every vintage made of this sensual NZ cult from 1994 onward incl. Click Here for the review! It has been difficult of late to contain our excitement for the recent vintages in Auckland. The current 2010 vintage has started, and save any huge nasty weather events in the next couple of weeks (which looks unlikely), Auckland is up for perhaps its greatest ever vintage. The picture to the left shows the stunning condition of fruit at Puriri Hills. 2008 and 2009 are looking good too. Over the past couple of weeks we have been unbelievably lucky to be offered sneak previews of both the 2009 Stonyridge Larose and the 2008 Puriri Hills Reserve, both which indicate Auckland will demand serious attention paid to it over the following two or three years. There are some excited wineries around hiding away some awesome wines. Exciting times my friends!! Start saving now!
We have a good set of reviews for Riverby Estate finally written up. Some impressive wines especially the Noble Rieslings! Click Here for our reviews!
Apologies to our "many" regular readers re lack of content lately. Just been going through a "can't be bothered writing" phase and the hiking, climbing and running have been taking plenty of my spare time. Anyway, I have finally written up some impressions based on the dozen or so 1998 Hawkes Bay reds I have tried over the last two months. Click Here for the write up.
1998 Hawkes Bay. We try the flaship red wine from Matua Valeey from this famous vintage. Click Here for our review for the 1998 Matua Valley Ararimu Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon. Have also polished off a couple of 2005 Unison Selection's of late. There are plenty of notes on site so i'm gonna be lazy and not repeat myself but man that wine is coming together and I just love the blood rose aroma it gives off in the glass. Yum! Helped Mark shift house yesterday and we celebrated with a bottle of the absolutely sublime and head turning 2007 Peregrine Charcoal Creek Riesling. All in tow rated it as exquisite. We have already written notes up on this wine, but tonight a 99/109. Yum New Zealand beats Champagne. Surprisingly one of our favourite Champagnes; NV Taittinger falls to 2004 Cloudy Bay Pelorus. Click Here for our review.
Just how good can Te Mata Elston Chardonnay be? Ever since I first got into wine this has been a staple purchase for the cellar. On the evidence of the 2003 vintage that we drank last night, this is unlikely to ever change. Click Here for our review. Craggy Range's prestige Bordeaux blend, "The Quarry". Read our notes and impressions from a recent vertical tasting. Click Here Its a dirty topic; Luxury Limited Edition Pinot Noir's. Are they reducing the quality of standard bottlings just for some wank factor and extra cash? We honestly can't keep up with all the $100 "Row 15 Private Reserve Direction Selection" type Pinot Noir's popping up. However it is kind of exciting to try one when it crosses your path at no cost. You could hardly say the standard 2005 Carrick Pinot Noir was a compromised wine. It featured on our "2007 Wine of the Year" write up and still is brilliant. Now, we review it's big brother; Click Here to read our note on the 2005 Carrick Excelsior Pinot Noir Hot Content. Stonyridge Larose Vertical. Not something you do every day but a great tasting of 12 vintages of one of NZ's most iconic wines. Click Here for our write up!
When a wine label pushes highly into the list of our "Wines of the Year", we seem to follow subsequent vintages closely. The 2005 version of Carrick Pinot Noir really impressed us a couple of years ago so it was good to try the latest vintage at last care of Mel's boss. Click Here for our review on the 2007 Carrick Pinot Noir. 2004 Penfolds Grange. A good muddy hike with Sean was followed up by the obligatory glass of the latest release of this Australian icon. Click here for our review 2007 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir. Finally we got our chance to try the latest vintage of perhaps New Zealand's greatest Pinot Noir. Click Here for our notes Easter Treats. Mark and Sean and crew assemble to tuck into some NZ classics; 1994 Goldwater Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and 1998 Martinborough Vineyards Reserve Pinot Noir. Check out the notes and wish you were there. Top Rung Pinot Noir. Dave and I have all been pretty busy training and preparing for the Oxfam 100km Trail Walk next week, but we have knocked off some good wines. it's just finding the time to write them up. Check out the tasting notes section for some including Escarpment's Single Vineyard Pinot Noir's; 2006 Voyager and Te Rehua. Also we knock off the first bottle of 2004 Unison Selection. Jay sizes up two vintages of a top Australian Riesling label Orlando Steingarten. Click Here for his review! Hawkes Bay Debrief. Check out the New Tasting Notes Section for the best of the wines we tried in the Hawkes Bay. We will post more soon, but if we get too busy or bored at least you have the cream of the crop New Contributing Writer. With so many slack bum writers on our team, we need to have plenty of people to ensure we tick over the new content. We now have the services of Jay who is currently living in England. He has attended a couple of Kiwi Wine Fan Club tastings and has a great mature palate. I know he has a love among others for great Australian wines and has some dream wines in his extensive cellar. He will no doubt give some more international content to our site. Stay tuned. Welcome Jay!!
Big Company Wine. Anyone that buys that overpriced Penfolds stuff before a gorgeous Syrah like the 2007 Church Road Reserve Syrah is beyond help. Church Road continues its remarkable comeback. Check out our notes for the 2007 Church Road Reserve Syrah and the 2007 Church Road Reserve Chardonnay We managed to hit two wineries over the weekend as a break from some hard graft in the garden which was long overdue. Check out the latest tasting notes section for reviews on two Reserve Villa Maria wines. We also visited Puriri Hills. I am not going to write notes again on their wines as there are plenty here already but safe to say the were stunning. The 2005 Puriri Hills Pope was just sublime - we are talking 104+/109. Words fail. Those Bordeaux junkies who haven't bought one yet, please see a doctor. You really are not well. Check out our latest news section for our impressions.
More holidays We visit Gisborne and manage to visit one winery; Millton Vineyards. Check out our review for our pick of their wines the classic 2008 Millton Opou Riesling. We also check out the first wines from a brand new winery in Whitford; Turanga Creek. Rod McDonald from Vidals fame is in charge of winemaking. Check out our note for 2008 Turanga Creek Late Harvest Viognier Holidays. We have been drinking a lot of the wines we have rated highly throughout the year lately as opposed to trying new wines. This is all good for us, but not so great for new content! Yesterday we had a bottle of the already reviewed 2006 Fromm Spatlese Riesling. It is so so good. Also 2008 Mt Difficulty Target Gully Riesling Happy New Year. We are all on holiday mode!! Had a chance to try the new 2007 Stonyridge Larose though so check out our note. Kate has sent in some brilliant notes from a Champagne tasting she attended last month. She is the queen of fizz so check out here notes here Riesling Masterclass. Well we polished off four rieslings including a German Auslese, 2006 Pegasus Bay Aria, 2007 Carrick Josephine and 2007 Fromm Spatlese. General opinion saw the stunning Fromm take first place though they were all super wines. It was a party, I didn't take notes (as we have already written these wines up) except for the 2007 Carrick Josephine Riesling. Dave's 35th saw a few wines including the brilliant 2007 Gibbston Valley Le Fou Riesling which we awarded our White Wine of the Year. Also 2006 Cottage Block Syrah Ash and Claire turn 10 years old. Where has the time gone? We opened some really good wines including a few already reviewed that we are looking at for Wine of the Year. However I have added impressions on some others from the cellar including 1994 Jim Barry Armagh, 2005 Puriri Hills Reserve and 2000 Unison Selection
50+ Pinot Noirs tasted and our verdicts can be found in the latest tasting notes section. Many icon labels and a few new discoveries. Check back often as we add all our notes.
New Winery Reviewed. Farmgate wines kindly sent us a pack of their wines to review. It took us a couple of weeks as we matched these wines with food and occassion. Check out our Latest Tasting Notes for our reviews. Sarah writes in with some Cable Bay notes: " as I'm now definitely a fan of Mr Culley. I was lucky to get invited to the new release tasting out at Cable Bay and I'm still not sure if a combination of the gorgeous Waiheke light and a degustation lunch turned my head but I'm pretty sure the wine was superb. I've posted the white notes on sup-positions but am sending you the Syrah note. Ahh, go on and post the Chardonnay too! It's so lovely. Superstar Syrah. It is easy sometimes to give out too many accolades but after a long think I have to ask "Are these two NZ Syrah the greatest examples I have ever tasted"? I honestly am thinking "Yes" is the answer to that question! 2006 Trinity Hill Homage Syrah and 2006 Bilancia La Collina Syrah. Make sure you read our reviews!
Check out the tasting notes section for three hot recent Reserve releases from Villa Maria: 07 Riesling, 05 Merlot and 06 Syrah Puriri Hills. Last week Mark and I attended a comprehensive vertical tasting of a dozen Puriri Hills wines including Pre release glimpses of the 2006 Puriri Hills Estate and 2006 Puriri Hills Reserve. Click Here for our full report 2000 & 2002 Te Mata Elston Chardonnay and 1998 & 2000 Te Mata Awatea are tasted as part of the 2008 Te Mata Showcase. Click here for our reviews Head to Head 2005 Te Mata Awatea Cabernet Merlot vs 2005 Church Road Reserve Cabernet Merlot. Two second tier wines from icon wineries battle it out. Lance has sent us in a pile of notes from his trip to Harvest Hawkes Bay weekend which he won like the tin bum he is. Click here to read some notes on a varied list of wines including some icon Hawkes Bay chardonnay's Well the big news of late has to be the sale of Unison Vineyards. Nervous times for fans of this super label. So we calm the nerves and crack open a bottle of their super successful 2004 Unison Syrah after a bottle of the divine 2004 Fromm La Strada Riesling (Spatlese)
What did you drink for Christmas?. We have no idea, but you can find out what we had in our latest tasting notes section. Watch out from notes on icon wines from St Clair, Dry River, Fromm La Strada, Pegasus Bay and Penfolds. Click Here for our review. "Just how good are those Puriri Hills wines"? I am glad you asked. We have just had the opportunity to try all of the current releases again. Click here for our impressions. Our Auswine Forum "Offline" Dinner write up is now complete. Click Here for our review. Included among the wines was the new 2002 St Nesbit and the 2002 Craggy Range "Le Sol" Syrah.Sunday afternoon drinks couldn't get any better as two top vintages of Te Mata "Awatea" Cabernet Merlot go under the cork screw. Click Here for our analysis of this icon wine Pegasus Bay is one of New Zealand's greatest classic wineries. Click here for a set of impressions from a recent Mail Order tasting. Benchmark Hawkes Bay Chardonnays tasted. Check out our notes on 2006 Sacred Hill Riflemans Chardonnay and also 2006 Te Mata Estate Elston Chardonnay From the cellar. Check out our notes on the 2002 vintage of a wine that has a huge following in New Zealand. I actually havent met a soul that thinks this is any less than "the cats whiskers". Click here for our review of 2002 Pegasus Bay Aria Riesling. Also we have a back vintage classic Pinot Noir 2000 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir Waiheke Island's Passage Rock was our discovery of the year last year. Click here to read our review of the latest vintage of their impressive Syrah; 2006 Passage Rock Reserve Syrah. Also Mills Reefs very impressive 2005 Mills Reef Elspeth Syrah  You will be dying to check out notes on a couple of new releases of NZ Super Classic Icons: 2006 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir and 2007 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Also you have to consider an extremely impressive value for money Sauvignon Blanc 2007 Sugar Loaf Sauvignon Blanc."What is the best red wine you have tasted from the Waikato region"? Not a question you get asked often if at all! At least now i can answer that in the very unlikely event I get asked. Click here for a left field wine review: 2004 Judge Valley Summer Rain Hot New 2007 Sauvignon Blancs. Click Here to get the low down on a line up of NZ's very best. Once more, most you will get good change from $20 for!! Yippee!! NZ Wine Overload!! Massive Report. It is in fact perhaps our largest write up for the year, and a big effort for a hobby website; our massive 2007 Wine NZ Write Up is ready. Click Here for White Wines. or Click Here for Red or Sparkling Wines. Get stuck in to exploring the largest NZ Wine Show in the universe Also we have a quick write up of our pre show get together including wines as varied as 1994 Henschke Mt Edelstone Shiraz, 1995 Chateau Pichon Loungueville and 1997 Lintz Optima. Click here for our review Click Here for a quick write up on 11 vintages of the classic Palliser Estate Riesling from Martinborough tasted side by side.  1998 is one of the most lauded, knocked, and generally talked about vintage in recent NZ wine history. As these wines finally reach their drinking windows, all is laid bare. Check out our prognosis for this vintage as we sink a bottle of 1998 Esk Valley Reserve Merlot Malbec Cabernet Sauvignon. Also just added, 1998 Church Road Reserve Merlot CabernetA NZ vs Australia tasting including 2005 Kumeu River Chardonnay and 2006 Craggy Range Glasnevin Riesling. Click Here to Review A few Icon Australian wines hit our Latest Tasting Notes section including 2004 Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon , 2003 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon and 2004 Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay. All you need to know about Unison Selection!!! Click here for our latest write up of a complete vertical tasting of Unison Selection 1997-2005 Ross gets to try one of NZ's most mythical wines. Once described as NZ's Lafite Rothschild, Matakana's Antipodean is one of the country's oldest and most reclusive cult wines. It is extremely rare and seldom seen. At $195+ a bottle it isnt every day you get to try it free either! Click here to read a review for 1993 Antipodean. Kumeu River produces New Zealands most sophisticated Chardonnay. 2006 was a top vintage which saw the release of two new single vineyard wines. Click Here to read our reviews of five 2006 Kumeu River Chardonnay's  Our big Mid Winter Red wine tasting went off with a bang. Black lips and teeth were the order of the day as we charged through a line up of some of the hottest wines on the circuit. They were served head to head in pairs. Included are some huge battles such as 2005 Te Mata Coleraine vs 2005 Puriri Hills Reserve and 2005 Passage Rock Reserve Syrah vs 2004 Vidal Reserve Syrah. We also taste the Parker darling 2004 Glaetzer "Amon Ra" Shiraz. Click Here to Read the Reviews and AnalysisMel writes up her latest trip to Marlborough and Nelson here. Make sure you check it out, includes visits to Cloudy Bay and Montana Does New Zealand Chardonnay perform after 10 years in the cellar? We taste two here which challenge the common opinion of doubt. A local wine shop tasting saw Peregrine Wines from Central Otago present. Well known for Pinot Noir, I was taken by one of their rieslings. Click here for the review  Craggy Range's importance in the NZ wine industry belies its age. The super premiums especially have quickly become Hawkes Bay benchmarks, trendy and cared about. We have knocked together reviews on a couple of them; 2005 Craggy Range Sophia Merlot Cabernets and 2005 Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah. Check out our reviews for Rongopai Wines. This winery used to be a one stringed guitar, but now it makes good wines that are in the Dry camp as well as the expected dazzling sweet wines. Heaven for Sweet Wine Freaks! This week we have had the luxury of trying a number of stellar and unsual dessert wines including the worlds greatest sweet wine Chateau d'Yquem from 1997. Also from Canada's greatest sweet wine maker Inniskillin comes the 2004 Inniskillin Oak Aged Vidal Ice Wine. Then as mentioned below we have a note out of perhaps New Zealand's greatest dessert wine label; Villa Maria Reserve Noble Riesling from 2005. It could also be a good idea to push the stellar 2006 Pegasus Bay Aria Late Harvest Riesling back on to the front page. Matakana has seen the boys. Click here to read our write up which includes a handful wines including a couple of Icon Australians. Matakana threw up a few good wines which included 2006 Ransom Clos de Valarie Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris is a variety that I think is over rated, but this one sure was good. Check out the latest Tasting Notes Page for more. Penfolds Super Premiums have been released. I had a chance to try the new 2002 Penfolds Grange today (at a hefty price) but declined. So if you are after Grange notes to justify, or make you feel better about spending $450 on a bottle of wine, you will have to look elsewhere. I dont know if you can be cured. However we do have notes on the 2004 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2004 Penfolds RWT Shiraz A few drinks with Jay and Dave have been written up including the young but impressive 2004 Unison Selection. Be sure to check out our awesome write up on Every Vintage of Unison Selection. Easter always seems to come hand in hand with a few top wines for the cellar. Be sure to check out the new notes on great wines such as the benchmark 2006 St Clair Pioneer Block 3 Sauvignon Blanc. Also covered are 2005 and 1995 Te Mata Awatea Cabernet Merlot. The 1995 vintage is a truely sensational drink, exceeding all our already high expectations by miles. Also a bottle of 2006 Pegasus Bay Aria Riesling was addressed in the best possible way. We take a peak also at the classic, almost immortal1994 vintage from Waiheke in the form of 1994 Peninsula Estate Cabernet Merlot Our Hawkes Bay 2007 trip is over. The highlight has been the release of the 2005 Te Mata Coleraine Cabernet Merlot. Click here to read notes on all the Te Mata new releases for 2007. For a summary of impressions from the entire Hawkes Bay trip, click here. Also in the Tasting notes section is a dozen or so notes on the tour highlights.From our "Believe it or Not" files comes a quick jotting from the gorgeous Melanie who drove 4 hours+ in a car just to taste one of the few wines from the wet and windy "why plant vines here" region - Taranaki. Wines from Taranaki, or Mel writing something up, its just hard to know which one is the more amazing. Click here for a very short set of impressions from Okurukuru Vineyard2006 Kiwi wine Fan Club Wine of the Year has been awarded, after much debate, to 2005 Fromm La Strada Spatlese Riesling. This beauty was served up at a 64th Birthday party I attended today. Truely magnificent!!! Follow that up with a 2004 Dry River Martinborough Terrace Gewurztraminer and you certainly are not lacking. Click here to read the tasting notes. You can also Click here to view the finalists for this annual award  We were very fortunate to have been recently invited to taste pre releases at Puriri Hills, Clevedon. In short the wines are superstars. A couple of these notes are, we believe, the first ever published anywhere; a Kiwi Wine Fan Club “You heard it here first”. We review five wines, including the sure to become cult ‘super cuvee’ 2005 Puriri Hills ‘Pope’ Merlot Cabernet Franc. Click Here for detailed reviews on all wines tasted. From our Northland specialist Mark, comes a review of a Whangarei cult wine. Longview do a good job of keeping White Diamond under those snobby Aucklanders radars, but those 'in the know' who live up north are well aware the legend: Longview's White Diamond. Click Here for a review of the latest vintage 2006 Longview White Diamond. This wine would have to take the prize for New Zealands most unique wine. Several other vintages notes will be buried somewhere in our archives too. Mel's birthday saw an assembly of the High Cheeses of the Kiwi Wine Fan Club writing team to treat out on 2002, 1998 and 1995 Te Mata Coleraine. Ross, Mel, David, Craig and the next day Mark all did due diligence on the three excellent vintages of one of NZs most famous red wines. Click here for the review  A winters trip to the Hawkes Bay. Snow on the hills, down to the road on the way home made a picture postcard visit. A beautiful fine still day winters day on Sunday. Apart from atrocious few hours on Saturday night as a front came through, we missed the bad weather lashing the rest of the country. Saturday night included watching the All Blacks test and Pina Colada’s. On to the wines, we took in Te Awa Farm, Unison Vineyards, Te Mata, Craggy Range, Mission and Esk Valley. The highlights were definitely Unison and Craggy Range. Craggy Range’s line up was simply other worldly, just displaying surprise after surprise, clinical and in devastating form. I was extremely impressed even after having tried a number of their new releases beforehand. Notes are posted on the tasting notes page.
Unison Vineyards is a magical vineyard. Everyone who knows me know im their biggest fan, and the 2004 delivers at least as well as any other vintage. It is very deep, compact and brooding. Id imagine it will be longer lived than the earlier vintages. You can feel a maturing of this now not so young label. Read the tasting note here It is clear to see that Craggy Range reds have excelled in 2004, which really is now being labelled as 'somewhat difficult'. The depth and texture in their wines are a stark contrast to the many thin overly acidic offerings we have seen from this vintage. Now all we need is for them to button off the oak a little when dealing with chardonnay and we can watch them assult for the title as king of the hill in the Hawkes Bay.
We are back from holiday. Happy New Year. I have a few notes to catch up on, but so as to tick this page over a little I will start with a chardonnay from one of New Zealand's greatest chardonnay makers; Kumeu River. I just can't wait for their long overdue new releases! 2007 Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay is a superlative summer chardonnay. Click Here for our review 2009 Kiwi Wine Fan Club Champion Wine of the Year has been announced. Click Here to read our write up! |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 May 2010 ) |
Welcome to Kiwi Wine Fan Club
Hot Icon New Releases. Some nice early reviews for you from one of the country's most important releases; Te Mata Estate. We had a good look today at 
We inflict a treat upon ourselves with a bottle of 2006 Church Road Tom Chardonnay opened for my birthday. Find out how we rate it by 
Head to Head Syrah. We taste blind two of the hottest kiwi red wines on the market at the moment, both at around the $30 mark they offer an awesome introduction to just how spectacular Hawkes Bay Syrah is getting. 
Craggy Range Prestige Releases. I have started writing these up including 
Waiheke Island Tour. Read our reviews from the best of five wineries visited including 2007 Stonyridge Larose, 2004 Goldwater Goldie and 2007 Te Whau "The Point". 
Te Mata Estate New Releases. We report from the Hawkes Bay showcase tasting. Perhaps the most important release on the NZ Wine calendar including 2007 Te Mata Coleraine, 2008 Te Mata Cape Crest Sauvignon Blanc and 2007 Te Mata Awatea. 
Happy 10th Birthday Kiwi Wine Fan Club. Yip we have now been online for a decade. To celebrate we have a write up of our 20 Greatest New Zealand wines tasted over the last decade. 
Pegasus Bay Riesling Vertical. We taste six vintages of this collectable white wine for you. Don't miss out write up 
Merry Christmas from Kiwi Wine Fan Club. We celebrate a successful year with a few top shelf wines including the wine I have to rate as the best wine I drank in 2008: the sublime 
Right place at the right time. We invited ourselves to the Villa Maria Trade tasting which was running when we dropped into the cellar door to buy some Riesling today. As a result of their kindness we can bring you a swag of latest release flagship reviews from their extensive stable. 
Hawkes Bay Legends. Slurp and spit tastings are sometimes a necessary evil for a part time wine blogger. However dinner with friends and family is always the best way to enjoy wine. When Carolyn turned up for dinner with a 
Top Notch Riesling. This is one of the expanding selection of stunning German styled rieslings being produced in NZ. This one is out of Central Otago. 2005 Amisfield Rocky Knoll Riesling is a 'Thinkers Riesling'; subtle and understated but suave, seductive and sleak. 
Hot New Icon Release. Yeah we couldn't resist. We cracked a bottle of 2007 Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay for Friday night drinks (as you do when there is no other excuse). 
Dave, our webmaster profiles a new series of wines from Gibbston Valley. The 'Expressionist Series' really stopped us in our tracks at the Wine NZ trade show. Check out our tasting notes section for his 
Like Dry River, Neudorf Vineyards is a megastar. Also like Dry River these wines are expensive, are seldom seen available for tasting and take a couple of years in the bottle to see their best. As such I am always shy in opening new releases to taste for this website, preferring to hang on to them and drink at their optimum point in development. The 
New Zealand's finest Riesling I was lucky enough on Saturday to try again both the 2007 Fromm La Strada Spatlese Riesling and the 2007 Felton Road Riesling. It was a social occassion and I didnt take notes (though you can look up previous efforts) but wow, these wines are both 'must haves'. They are both 'wow' wines. On the night for me it was too close to call though other peoples opinions gave the Felton Road the nod (just). I can't see either of these two wines being outside our annual Wines of the Year write up!! You cannot buy too much.
Matakana, north of Auckland, is a region without the hype of most. Sometimes it is hard to get excited past the broader 'good weekend day trip' formula of art, beaches, cafe's, markets and wineries. As far as 'fine wine' is concerned Antipodean and Providence have in the past demanded ultra high prices for some pretty smart though controversial cult red wines. Unfortunately many think they can hop on those coat tails no matter the merits of the drink in the bottle. Omaha Bay Vineyard however have some pretty tidy stuff. My pick of the bunch is the just released, and sure to be successful 
Sarah has sent us notes on a range of wines which has lit considerable interest among kiwi Pinot Noir fans. Put together by the talented Larry Mckenna, they are single vineyard expressions of the grape named The Insight Series. They are very limited but as far as i am aware they are still available at Fine Wine Delivery Company. 
Chardonnay is hot, well ok good chardonnay is hot and there are more and more examples of super seductive elegant wines around these days than seemingly ever. Check out Craig's notes on the 
Keep some money in your pocket. We don't seem to be very good at featuring "under $20 wines", but here is an attempt to do so without sacrificing our stunning home page dripping with icons for wines that no one really cares about! This is an obvious "No Brainer Wine Buy" 
Te Mata Estate New Releases. Perhaps March 1st is the most significant release date on the wine calendar with the launch of these wines. 
Dry River New Releases have been written up in the tasting notes section including 
Like with Miles' 1961 Chataeu Cheval Blanc in the movie 'Sideways', a special bottle saved sometimes never seems to make the special occassion. Our only bottle of the stunning 
Hot Red Hawkes Bay. Its been a busy time setting up a new computer here, work has also been crazy so the intended full write up has been downgraded to a quick highlights tour of impressions. Wine of the show for me was the 2004 Craggy Range Sophia. 
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