New Brighton Club 1 April

Ross Moloughney provided us with a great range of interesting wines form the Hancock portfolio.. and very generously a magnum of red and a couple of other bottles as raffle prizes which were very much appreciated as were the great discounts provided on the night.

Ross is also a great teller of tales and had some great ones about people he had met in the industry and some of his personal stories of his wine experiences in Australia and New Zealand.

Wines on the night were:

Lake Chalice Rosie 2007
Waipara Hills Riesling 2007
Ti Point Riesling 2007
Fallen Angel Sauvignon Blanc 2007
Jules Taylor Pinot Noir 2007
Kim Crawford SP Rise-n-Shine Pinot Noir 2006
Cable Bay Five Hills Merlot 2005
Lake Chalice Sticky Beak Late Harvest Riesling 2006

My fave was the Jules Taylor Pinot Noir - I had the 06 at the Casino recently and loved it even at $9.50 a glass. Don’t forget to post a comment on your favourites or anything else you might like to note….

Thanks Ross for a great night and we would welcome you back to do more from your portfolio anytime.

Websites to visit:

http://www.lakechalice.co.nz/
http://www.fallenangelwines.com/
http://www.tipoint.co.nz/
http://www.julestaylor.com/
http://www.waiparahills.co.nz/
http://www.kimcrawfordwines.co.nz/
http://www.cablebayvineyards.co.nz/

Cheers, JB

Brighton Club

Tasting on Tues 5 Feb with Bruce from Eurowines. Interesting mix of N.Z. European and Spanish wines with a Seresin Olive oil taste in between the whites and reds.

Simonnet-Febvre Cremant de Bourgogne Brut NV from Chablis in France - non descript methode 80% Chardonnay / 20 Pinot Noir - lost the bubbles in a few seconds - could have been the glasses though.

Willm Reserve Riesling 2006 from the French Alsace - dryish (7gms/l RS) Apricot / limes / apples but I think this is too young - needs another couple of years.

Wairau River Marlborough Riesling 2006 - nice Riesling - typical stone fruit and citrus, clean mineral acidity - again needs more time - preferred this over the Willm.

Torres Gran Vina Sol 2006 from Pendes in Spain - 80% Chardonnay and 20% Parellada, a variety I’ve never heard of - fermented separately and 6 mths lees aging then into Limousin oak. A bit flowery in the nose, but the fruit flavours (peach?) and oak balance well. Not my kind of Chardonnay though!

Te Mata Estate Woodthorpe Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2006 - nice wine as usual - great fruit concentration and oak balanced well, hint of Malolactic from barrel fermentation and lees - elegant finish, nice weight in the mouth.

Stonecroft Serine Hawkes Bay Syrah 2005 - lovely dense colour, almost ruby but lighter it’s Aussie cousins. Black berries and plums - velvety tannins - ncely balanced wine.

Torres Nerola Syrah 2005 again from Penedes in Spain - 80% Syrah / 20% Monastrell (Mouvedre) more raspberries and cherry in this one - mix of oak barrels contributing toast, mocha and vanilla. Nice wine….

Finished off with a Lustau Pedro Ximenez Sherry - licorice / black / raisins / sweet as…. Delicious.

Olive Oils from Seresin were Organic Extra Virgin: Plain, lemon and lime infused - wonder if the pepper finish and sharp flavours hadn’t dulled the palate for the reds though.

In Our Cellar

Just added a page with a list of the wine currently residing in the cellar.

A Weekend in Marlborough

Just spent a weekend in Marlborough for a friend’s wedding and while we were there visited a couple of vineyards for a taste and to take a few nice bottles home. We especially picked wineries that we had not visited previously and I thinks we chose well - the boot was pretty heavy on the way home…

Stopped at Kaikoura Vineyard for lunch on the way up but didn’t buy any wine there - Savvy was nice though with the platter although the food wasn’t as exciting as last time we were there.

Through Seddon and over the new bridge, right turn up the Redwood pass road led us to Vavasour where we tasted some great wines from the Vavasour, Dashwood, Goldwater  and Clifford Bay labels. Our picks were the Vavasour 2003 Awatere Valley Riesling (Gold ANZ 2006) , Vavasour 2007 Awatere Valley Sauvignon Blanc (Gold ANZ 2007) and the Clifford Bay 2006 Marlborough Riesling (Gold Top 100 2006).

Next day we visited Framingham Estate and of the wines tasted there loved the 2006 Marlborough Montepulciano and the 2003 Marlborough Dry Riesling. On to Nautilus Estate and a couple of standouts there - 2006 Marlborough Pinot Noir and the Winemaker’s Selection 2007 Sauvignon Blanc.

Next stop was Domaine Georges Michel - I have only tasted a few of this label but I remember that the Sauvignon Blanc was a well made wine - picks of the tasting were three in the La Reserve series - 2003 Chardonnay, 2004 Pinot Noir and the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc.

Hadn’t been to Hunter’s Wines for years so at the last minute decided to stop in there. Has changed a lot since my last visit, but the wines were as delicious as ever - grabbed a 2003 and 2005 Kaho Roa Winemaker’s Selection Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of the 2006 Sangiovese , one of only 100 bottled… they also make a 2005 Brookby Road Sauvignon Blanc / Chardonnay blend which will be an interesting wine to offer to friends at some stage …

So that was the end of the Marlborough visits (apart from the Makana Chocolate Factory - yummmm. A brief stop in Waipara at Mudhouse on the way home to CHCH and another tasting - the Mudhouse 2007 Marlborough Sauvignon and 2006 Waipara Hills Waipara Riesling being our picks there - a couple of bottles of the now discontinued label, Le Grys 2004 Marlborough Pinot Noir clear-skins found their way into the boot too - well at $10 a shot who wouldn’t - and it  turned out to be a bloody good drop too!

Overall a fantastic trip - BTW the wedding was great too. JB.

Happy New Year

Not much happened over the holidays - I was too busy having fun and eating and drinking to do any blogging, but it’s 2008 now so off we go.

You will see that most of the pages from NZ Winelinks have been migrated across to the blog, a few more to come and it will be complete. The NZ Winelinks site will cease being and the URL / Domain will point here instead.

Cheers

JB

New Look

Hi all you visitors.

What do you think of the new look NZ Winelinks Blog? I’m gradually shifting the whole website, www.nzwinelinks.co.nz to this blog site and eventually the site will be no more - the domain will point here instead. I have a couple of other things happening too.

Have a look at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bartlettsnz where I have started cataloguing my collection of New Zealand Wine-related books, and also at the New Brighton Club Wine Section’s Blog at http://newbrightonwineclub.blogspot.com/

Cheers

 JB

Liquorland Top 100 Tastings

Recently attended 2 tastings at Cellarmasters - Top 100 - a selection of the Gold Medal winners (10 whites and 10 reds) followed by another evening  where we were able to a taste of all the Top 100 Trophy winners.

When I get some more time I will post the list and some tasting notes. In the meantime here is the sie with all the winning wines. Top100

Value for Money Wines

Back at Cellarmasters now for the usual Wednesday Tasting. Braddon picked 9 wine for us to try blind, some we couldn’t pick.

Omaka Springs Marlborough Pinot Gris 2006 ($1 Church Road Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2006 ($20)
The Crater Rim Central Otago Pinot Noir 2006 ($29)
Domaine Esparanza Cabernet Sauvignon / Carmenere ($12)
Serenata Nero D’Avola Sicilia 2006 ($14)
Climbing Orange Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 ($20)
Thorn Clarke Shotfire Barossa Shiraz 2005 ($26)
Bremerton Langhorne Creek Selkirk Shiraz 2005 ($2 Lincoln Ice Wine (Semillion  / Gewurztraminer) 2004 ($22 - 375ml)

All great wines but the Serenata completely stumped everyone - My picks of the night were the two Aussie shiraz - just love the stuff…

Torlesse Tasting

NBWC hosted the winemaker from Torlesse Wines in Waipara who gave us some background info on the Torlesse Winery and the opportunity to taste some of their range.

http://www.torlesse.co.nz/

Omihi Road Waipara Sauvignon Blanc 2006 ($18.50)
Torlesse Canterbury Riesling 2006 ($16.50)
Omihi Road Chardonnay 2003 ($20)
Torlesse Waipara Cabernet Merlot 2003
Torlesse Waipara Pinot Noir 2006 ($20)
Torlesse Reserve Tawny Port ($25)

Nicely made and well priced wines - my faves of the night were the Savvy and the Pinot Noir.

NZ Syrah Tasting

Very nice New Zealand Syrah Tasting at Cellar Masters last wednesday - Most from the Hawkes bay except the Man O’ War from Waiheke, but all with very different characters.

Red Rock ‘The Underarm” Syrah 2005 ($23)
CJ Pask Gimblett Road Syrah 2005 ($27)
Tinpot Hut HB Syrah 2006 ($30)
Gunn Estate ‘Silistria’ Syrah 2005 ($32)
Alan McCorkindale HB Syrah 2006 ($40)
Stonecroft HB Syrah 2005 ($40) 
Man ‘O War Dreadnought Waiheke Island Syrah 2005 ($46)
Vidal Reserve HB Syrah 2004 ($57)
Sacred Hill ‘Deer Stalkers’ HB Syrah 2004 ($60)
(RRP NZ$)

Value for Money for me was the Gunn Estate and Favourite of the tasting was the Sacred Hill.