Latest News

Check back here for latest wine gossip. We promise no useless facts and figures, no boring industry stories, just the latest in imminent releases, hot deals and events to attend. Bullet point, and to the point this is your essential upload of news to care about. If you have any interesting snippets of info that you think others would like to know, drop us a line.

04/04/2010 Auckland vintage comment. Vintage is underway for early reds early as the days remain warm and weather placid. 2010 on waiheke looks like it will be very good to excellent. Waiheke Island is confident 2010 will compete with the excellent 2008 and 2009. Mudbrick was saying quantities are small however as a result of poor berry set early in proceedings. Stonyridge is pretty excited. The Malbec is in and more picking was planned today. Clevedon looks like it will be excellent-exceptional. Malbec is also in. Puriri Hills rates 2010 "if possible..better still than 2005, 2008 and 2009" describing the fruit as "so perfect it looks artificial". So here is hoping. All we need is reasonably kind weather to hold for later ripening varieties. Even a little rain now will do little harm as berry condition is excellent and the hard clay soils will run off like concrete. Auckland has had the driest start to the year since records began. No doubt north of Auckland will consider 2010 as a great vintage under sustained drought conditions.

25/05/2009. Wow its been a while since I updated this!! Just local news today. Turanga Creek has opened its new Cellar doors so you East Aucklander's have a new place to check out at Whitford. Apparently a restaurant is also in the planning

08/02/2009 Tried today many Puriri Hills wines 2004 Estate, 2004 Reserve, 2005 Reserve, 2005 Pope, 2006 Reserve

2005 Puriri Hills Pope No notes this time, just impressions but today underlined to me again that it is one of the best wines I have ever tried of any kind, at any time, from any country. I expected again much and yet again it over delivered expectations. It is just jaw dropping quality. Stunning, stunning, stunning. Years in this baby - needs time (i tried it the day after it was opened), but it will only become a legend. If you are in NZ and still havent got a bottle of this yet track down a bottle in retail at the old price and just buy it. Justify it as a valentines pressie or something!! In 5 - 10 years time i expect i will be arguing this is NZ's greatest ever red wine, possibly with one exception .....

I tried from barrel at Puriri Hills: 2008 Merlot, 2008 Carmenere and 2008 Cabernet Franc components from barrels destined for Reserve or Pope. 2008 was a fantastic vintage for Auckland. Two words for this stuff I will offer: "Start Saving". In the wineries mind, best vintage ever - to me it certainly looks the goods to be that. It will be made without consultant help which i really think is a good thing. These guys are hell bent on making absolute perfection. When it is released (anywhere between 18 months and 3 years away) be quick and snap some up but I can tell you now you wont be as quick as I will be!!

17/11/2008. We received an email from Unison Vineyard today announcing their new consultant winemaker is Jenny Dobson of Te Awa fame. "We are delighted that Jenny Dobson has agreed to join us and are confident that with her experience and background we will be able to ensure that Unison style continues". We certainly hope the outstanding wines from this estate continue to impress in years to come.

12/11/2008 The $550 price tag to Scenic Cellars Bordeaux tasting this year saw me taking a rain check. However the results of this 2005 Gimblet Gravels vs 2005 Bordeaux blind tasting match up have caused quite a stir. The $70 2005 Blake Family Vineyards Redd Gravels topped the tasting beating wines including the 2005 $1500-2000 a bottle offerings from First growth producers Ch Lafite Rothschild, Ch Mouton Rothschild and Ch Haut Brion. After the international wine media exalting this Bordeaux vintage as the greatest since 1961, it sure is a surprise, but can’t be ignored. Tasters included winemakers, experienced wine media and die hard enthusiasts. The ‘Judgement of Taupo’ as the tasting is being coined, may cause more than a little stir among drinkers of ultra fine claret and hopefully heighten interest of the Hawkes Bay region and its wines.

15/10/2008 "You must come taste the 08’s. They make the 05’s look pallid!" Judy Fowler from Puriri Hills wrote to me. To save those as uneducated as me jumping for their dictionaries, Pallid means "pasty, pale and white". To label the brilliant 05's as such in comparison to the 08's shows huge promise for this vintage. It certainly will be good to get a gauge on this freakish Auckland crop. We will report back when we get a chance to take up the invitation.

04/10/2009. More notable new releases. The new wine season seems underway. 2007 Te Mata Estate Bullnose Syrah and the new Kumeu River Chardonnays including 2007 Kumeu River Mates Vineyard Chardonnay have just been released.

03/10/2009 Cloudy Bay has released it's new 2008 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Although not quite the cult it once was this label always shows restraint and class for the true fan of the variety

3/9/2008 Unison Vineyards is back on the road with the release of its 10th vintage of the benchmark Hawkes Bay wine; 2006 Unison Selection. For the first time this is a Syrah based wine. We tasted this at Wine New Zealand and t is up to the usual standard with plenty of Unison character in the form of fine grained tannins and subtle complexity and class.

2007 Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay has now been released. The price ex winery is the same as last year at $55 a bottle. It is a tough fight at the top of NZ chardonnay between Kumeu River and Neudorf, but if pushed I would give the nod to Neudorf on the back of its consistency. 2006 Unison Selection has also just been released completing 10 years for this label. We certainly look forward to tasting this!

29/07/2008. Judy Finn from Neudorf Vineyards has let us know that the 2007 Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay will be released on September 1st. 2007 was a stunning vintage in Nelson and you can be assured we will waste no time in ordering a six pack upon release! The 2001 version of this wine won our Wine of the Year award in 2003.

28/07/2008 Sue Courtney had an interesting snippet on her blog a week or so ago regarding the decline in wine print media and the continuing rise of the internet. Viewing KWFC visitor statistics is a weekly habit for me as Google Analytics keeps us up to date with the steady growth of visitors to our little site. Today Dave ran me off some more far reaching statistics which really rammed home that our little site is now really starting to take off. Last month we hit 147% increase in visits over the same month last year with 120% increase in unique visitors. The growth has been exciting with Cheques from Google Ads now forecast to pay for this sites upkeep with money left over to invest into wine that our readers would love notes on. I haven't yet retired from my day job though. Thanks to all our regulars and visitors, thanks to our contributors and thanks to the wineries who have been crazy enough to quote us! We love you all.

28/07/2008 A bit slow off the mark here, and it has been slow to hit the shelves since release but one of our favourite wines latest vintage is out. 2007 Fromm Riesling Spatlese is a must for any serious riesling drinker. The 2005 version won our Wine of the Year award in 2006.

15/05/2008 Neil Martin is a person that needs no introduction to surfers of internet wine sites. His extensive www.wine-journal.com was the free home to many researching Bordeaux in the past. Sort of unfortunately for the tight ones amongst us he was snapped up by Robert Parker and now works under his wing at a price to readers.. Neil recently visited New Zealand and the resulting report has been released. His top wines included 2004 Vinoptima Late Harvest Gewurztraminer, 2006 Trinity Hill Homage Syrah, 2005 Craggy Range Le Sol Syrah, both the Mt Difficulty Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs, Rippon Vineyard Pinot Noir and 2006 Te Mata Coleraine. it is great to see someone with some understanding reviewing New Zealand wine from outside the camp. However for those in the know it isn't news. Most of these wines have already been highlighted to us especially noting Sue Courtney at www.wineoftheweek.com and of course the famous writers of this website! I get the feeling that domestic buyers are less inclined to become 'point lemmings' but it will be interesting to see what will result from international demand.

07/05/2008 I have in my hot little hand a bottle of the 2007 Pegasus Bay Riesling so expect this to hit the shelves soon!! Don't mess about, this will be hot stuff. We will crack it this weekend and post a review

07/05/2008 Well its fair to say Auckland didn't have an ideal couple of weeks around vintage with a bit of heavy rain hitting at annoying times. However with a bit of luck there will still be some excellent wines to flow from this vintage in Auckland and Waikato.

06/04/2008 (updated) 2008 Auckland's best vintage ever?? Auckland is holding its breath now with the region heading for perhaps its best ever vintage. ‘It aint over till the fat lady sings’ as they say, but even with a little rain from here on in Auckland (and the Waikato) should clock in with a truly great vintage.

December and January turned out so perfectly it had all of us native Aucklander’s describing the weather over the Christmas break as the best in living memory. While Austrlian’s sloshed around in uncharacteristic wet, Aucklander’s lay on the beaches. February saw a couple of weekends of wet weather with the odd tropical cyclone brushing the north though temperatures still remained high. March saw a return to settled weather with stationary anticyclones again hanging around endlessly. Easter saw not a drop of rain. Rain has threatened a couple of times since, but in the end nothing of substance has materialised (See picture to left taken on April 6th, a day forecast for rain!). We look to be heading deeper into April with another week of great weather under a large anticyclone. Things are looking good here especially for Waiheke and Clevedon which sit to the east coast of Auckland city.

Stonyridge has been reported here as saying the 2008 vintage is the best vintage ever for them from the 25 years they have been operating.

Even the most cautious are talking up the vintage as on par with the great 2005 on Waiheke Island. Te Whau are quoted concerning 2008 in the FWDC newsletter describing the vintage as a "Dream".

Puriri Hills is cautiously very excited. I saw the perfect fruit there last week, they are buzzing describing the fruit as better than the stunning 2005. Perfectly formed, tasting great, great acids, ripening stalks and fruit sugars sitting nicely at 22-24 brix already. The vines are in stellar health and have received no pressure from wasps or birds. Judy describes hopes of picking at leisure from now on under no weather pressure.

Davorin at St Jerome expects to be picking this week though you will have to wait close to a decade to try his flagship wine (the 1999 Matuka is the current release!)

It is time to start squirreling away a few spare dollars for the 2008 release in a couple of years. Hopefully faultless Puriri Hills Reserve and Stonyridge Larose are included in the offerings.

Below Picture: Villa Maria's Ihumatuo Vineyard on a balmy April afternoon. The fruit as far as I could see was already harvested

04/04/2008 Matakana's premier cult winery Providence is usually unavailable in NZ retail. The 2004 Providence however has been released in limited numbers to a few retailers including Caro's and Accent on Wine. At around $100-120, it isnt cheap but a definite starter in any classic NZ Bordeaux tasting that aspires to completeness.

12/03/2008 New releases for Te Mata Estate have hit the shelves, with prices only marginally up from last year. A solid set of wines should see strong interest. Penfolds also have released an above average set of wines in the context of the last decade. It will be interesting to see how the rise in interest rates, petrol prices and food prices will put the squeeze on luxury wine. It surely must have an affect somewhere!??

05/02/2008 It is with a great deal of sadness that we can pass on news that the fantastic producer Unison Vineyards, under the ownership of Bruce and Anna-Barbara Halliwell, has been sold. We are not sure what this will mean for the future of the wine labels, some of which sit amongst New Zealand's greatest. Pray a little prayer that the direction of the vineyard is maintained under the directon of the new owners. We will update you with any developments.

30/1/2008 Watch out for the new riesling releases from Pegasus Bay. Looks like this year a Dry Riesling is being added to the portfolio to add to the Off Dry or Classic version we all love. looks like the 2007 could be one of the best vintages ever for this label. Save up and buy up big. Should be widely available from fine wine shops when released, but buy up quick it never seems to last long.

24/1/2008 Sarah writes: Had the chance to try a (I think) pre-release of the 2006 Valli Waitake Pinot Noir by Grant Taylor. Yet another Pinot Noir showing the potential of this site. A really appealing wine with light fruit and a lovely, glinting, nuanced palate. It’s quite obvious that the vines are still young and I don’t expect this release will be a long-lived example, but it’s showing amazing promise in a persistence of flavour that belies those baby vines. Definitely one to watch!

28/12/2007 "To release or not to release" that is the question for Puriri Hills. This years double vintage release could lead way to 2008 seeing no further releases. Although Judy is uncommitted at this stage it could well be the end of 2008 before the 2006 vintage attempts to fill the big boots left by the almost sold out 2005 vintage.

10/12/2007 One of New Zealand's greatest Chardonnay labels new release 2006 Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay is available via cellar door. I dont know where my mail order newsletter went, it never arrived. This is an expensive label that only gets pulled out on special occassions, but when you drink it you certainly know why you buy it. Dont muck around if you want it. www.neudorf.co.nz

28/11/2007 St Nesbit, after a 15 year absense from the New Zealand wine scene has rejoined with the release of the 2002 St Nesbit Merlot Cabernet Franc Petit Verdot. One of the original NZ cult wineries, lovers of Bordeaux style reds will be keen to give this wine a lash. It retails for about $48 and is available from Accent on Wine, Parnell

28/11/2007 Lovers of Pegasus Bay Riesling will have to wait another 3 months or so for the release of the 2007 vintage. Edward Donaldson commented that the wine would be given more time in the bottle to improve its showing on release despite pressures to release early. Patience people!

28/11/2007 2006 Stonyridge Larose has hit the shelves stocked by Regional Wines and Spirits, Scenic Cellars among others. Shop around if you want a bottle or two of this but arent flush enough to stay on the mailing list. The last vintage I saw on shelf for anything between $89 and $220!