New Zealand redux

[Thor]

A pile of wines mostly mass-market, but some not were lined up for rapid-fire tasting at a recent New Zealand Winegrowers event in Boston. I sincerely doubt most Disorderlies are interested in these notes, so Im not going to publish them here. However, the essays that follow them may be of interest; if so, the posts come in four parts, covering sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, riesling, and everything else.

Here are the highlights. As with most tastings of this nature, there was little time to spend with each wine, and the style of the notes reflects that unfortunate reality.

The Crossings 2008 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) Dry exposed rock. Grassy. Ungenerous. Very mineral-driven, with a long finish. An uncompromising style. (3/09)

Goldwater 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Wairau Valley (Marlborough) Intense gooseberry with lacings of asparagus. Crystalline. Rich but with sufficient acid, and thus balanced. Finishes greener than it starts. Good. (3/09)

Vavasour 2008 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) Very solid with some quartz at the interior. Ripe, structured, and intense. Good. (3/09)

Saint Clair 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Pioneer Block 1 Foundation (Marlborough) Vibrant, pure, and intense. Green mango, grapefruit, light orange. A slight bit of stick on the finish, but otherwise classic and very good. The class of the 2008s, for sure. (3/09)

Isabel 2007 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) Slate, cedar, and a fine particulate texture with laser-like intensity. Extremely impressive. (3/09)

Staete Landt 2007 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) Very mineral-dominated. grassy, with green apple skins. Long. Good. (3/09)

Villa Maria Cellar Selection 2007 Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) Intense, long, and ripe, with purity and balance. Hints of black fruit. The wine glows. (3/09)

Vavasour 2007 Pinot Noir Awatere Valley (Marlborough) Sharp and short, but whats here is tasty, fun, and crisp. Red berries, mostly. (3/09)

Staete Landt 2007 Pinot Noir (Marlborough) Reserved, dry, and difficult, with chalky minerality. Very long, though. A little bizarre, perhaps, but it might be worth holding for a while, to see what happens. (3/09)

Wild Earth Blind Trail 2007 Pinot Noir (Central Otago) Beet, blood orange, and luminescent red fruit with hints of herb. Fun, with good quality for its price. (3/09)

Wild Earth 2006 Pinot Noir (Central Otago) Mixed berries and dark soil studded with morels. Deep, with the first stirrings of complexity. Medium-length finish. Very good. (3/09)

Muddy Water 2007 Pinot Noir (Waipara) Black cherry and black truffle with a heart of darkness. Elegant and pure. Lovely. (3/09)

Palliser Estate 2007 Riesling (Martinborough) Intense lime, lemon, and limestone, but the wine is balanced rather than enormous or top-heavy. In fact, the balance is rather impressive. A wine of substance. The quibble is the a lack of complexity, though its young and theres plenty of time. (3/09)

Dry River 2007 Riesling Craighall Amaranth (Martinborough) Vivid. Crushed glass and rocks, both liquefied. Excellent acid/sugar balance. Incredibly pure. Very, very, very long. Incredible, and clearly the best wine of the entire tasting. (3/09)

Neudorf 2007 Riesling Brightwater (Nelson) Slightly reduced but still accessible. Mineral-dominated (gravel and sand). Dried Granny Smith apple. High-quality. (3/09)

Amisfield 2007 Dry Riesling (Central Otago) A smoked crystal core with a hint of cherry. Dark, brooding, and earthy. Quite enticing. (3/09)

Felton Road 2007 Riesling (Central Otago) Lots of sugar, front-loaded and obvious, but with the requisite acidity to match it. An explosion of apples follows. Big and long. Wow. (3/09)

Te Mara 2008 Pinot Gris (Central Otago) Sticky pear, spice, and minerality. Good intensity. Vivid. Neon-electric. Id call this a CGI pinot gris, and in a good way, but its not for everyone. (3/09)

 

[Dan McQ]

Thor,

I bought some of this at the NHSLC and it must have been a bad batch. All 3 of them had Baumard-in-Lawtons-kitchen asparagus stench to them that carried through on the palate. Lawton can confirm as I made him try it. I opened the last one last night. Same thing. Not the same wine you describe.

Provenance sometimes matters I guess.

 

[Thor]

Could just be different tastes. On the other hand, it's certainly true that the NHSLC isn't known for its storage conditions.

 

[Dan McQ]

Not different tastes I think, and certainly no cedar - Isabel (past vintages at least) is one of my favorite SBs.

 

[Bwood]

I keep waiting to hear that Thor has started the Kiwi WIne Journal. Soon?

 

[Salil Benegal]

Wow - some of those Rieslings really sound superb, particularly the Dry River and the Felton Road. Just surprised Muddy Waters wasn't showing a Riesling - their James Hardwick's among the best dry ones I've had from NZ.

 

[Thor]

Soon?

As enticing as that massive untapped market sounds...

(Besides, I love New Zealand. I don't want to ruin that by tasting 1200 sauvignon blancs, 1100 of which are virtually indistinguishable from each other.)

particularly the Dry River and the Felton Road

Those two especially, yes. And that wasn't even Felton Road's best riesling.

Just surprised Muddy Waters wasn't showing a Riesling

Well, he's only a man. He spells M...

There were very few -- actually, almost no -- upper-tier producers showing their wines. No surprise, really; this is the trade association event, so the commercial end is bound to be represented. What few upper-tier producers come to the market tend to do so individually. Most of the allegedly best stuff was actually apart from the main tasting, at the other end of the room. And, in sync with my assertions on which grapes actually shine here, that presentation was ten rieslings and ten pinot noirs.

 

[Salil Benegal]

Not surprising. I find most of the Sauvignons there (apart from a very few like Lawson's Dry Hills' version) quite boring. But then again, that stuff sells...

BTW, do you know if any of those Rieslings (particularly the Dry River or Felton Rd) are available at retail around the MA area?

 

[Thor]

The Felton Road wines are brought in by Wilson Daniels, Dry River by RO Imports. As for retail, I don't know; you'll almost certainly have to request the latter, but you might run across the former here or there.

 

[mark meyer]

I see you dont think NZ PG has improved. Sure dont see much of it moving in Sydney as it is generally in the A$20+ range and there are alot more boring Oz wines people will buy in that range before they go for the NZ PG. I would argue that the Morington area in OZ is making better PG than any I have had from NZ.

Looking at your PN and Other notes you sure wasted alot of time on bad wines.

 

[Salil Benegal]

Just got time to sit down and read the essays. Great piece on the state of NZ Syrah in particular. For the most part (the exception being an overly oaky and alcoholic Craggy Range Le Sol) I've really enjoyed the better examples of those wines - the issue is just the distribution/availability here, and the prices they go for. As far as being more aromatic and elegant alternatives to the big Barossa/McLaren brutes, they're great. My gripe is that the higher end ones are massively overpriced making it much easier/more sensible to buy Cote Rotie or Eden Valley/Victorian Shiraz as alternatives, and what I've seen available at the lower end in terms of NZ Syrah is either boring or crap (or both).

Cheers,

Salil

 

[Thor]

I would argue that the Morington area in OZ is making better PG than any I have had from NZ.

I haven't seen any here, but I'll look. Not that I drink all that much pinot gris anyway.

you sure wasted alot of time on bad wines

Well, trade/press tasting; it sorta comes with the genre. And since I don't usually taste those very wines, I figured I'd better, just to get a better sense of the actual (vs. geek) market.

 

[Thor]

Just got time to sit down and read the essays.

You have a lot of free time. (emoticon goes here)

NZ Syrah [...] - the issue is just the distribution/availability here, and the prices they go for.

As the numbers keep demonstrating, no one in this country is buying syrah, especially in that price range, so I don't know what their future is. If any. I don't know if they need the U.S. market for the better wines, though.

My gripe is that the higher end ones are massively overpriced making it much easier/more sensible to buy Cote Rotie or Eden Valley/Victorian Shiraz as alternatives, and what I've seen available at the lower end in terms of NZ Syrah is either boring or crap (or both).

Well, but that's not unique to syrah. Once you get any wine to a price where it competes with worldwide alternatives, there has be to a reason to "switch," as such. I talked about that in the pinot noir essay, as you read. I don't know how one overcomes that without intensive in-market work (which seems unlikely in this case), but then I'm no marketer.