Cabernet Sauvignon - The Big Boy of the Wine World

Cab Sauv is the most widely grown wine grape in the world and is mostly grown in France, Chile, USA & Australia, Spain. Cab Sauv LOVES a hot climate. It's a thick-skinned grape which makes a big meaty, tannic, flavourful, higher alcohol wine. A great wine to age if that's your thing as these wines will keep beautifully for a decade and then a decade more. 

Originally From Bordeaux, there isn’t a lot of pure Cabernet Sauvignon here in New Zealand, the climate works against us so we tend to blend Cab with other things (Merlot mostly) 

There are undoubtedly some great NZ Cab Sauvs mostly from the Hawkes Bay but I think personally that some of the best New World examples are from Australia & California.

Robert Mondavi was a very interesting character born in US to Italian parents he founded his own winery in 1966 in his 50's. He was a pioneer of the New World wine industry and was credited for establishing the California wine industry and really putting California wines on the world stage at a time when New World was seen as the poor cousin of wine. We have a lot to thank him for here in NZ! This gorgeous Robert Mondavi Private Selection 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby in colour but medium bodied with soft tannins. It smells of black cherries & blackberries and is a really approachable Cabernet Sauvignon. Also, you can get this wine in the supermarket for only $18 so a great one to try if you want to give Cab Sauv a try!

Angus The Bull 2104 is a bit of a go-to Cab Sauv for me as this is a wine that is made for meat - literally. Winemaker Hamish McGowen worked on a cattle ranch before becoming a winemaker so knew everything there was to know about beef, so when he starting making wine and couldn't find a wine to live up to the standard he wanted to go with his steak - he just went ahead and made his own! Made from Victorian grapes  Angus The Bull is almost purple in colour & with flavours of ripe black fruits & oak. This wine is not messing around! 

This wine also comes with one hell of a backstory Hamish is the eldest of three boys and when his little brother was born he was a whopping 10lb 11oz (4.8kg) and named Angus so the nurses promptly named him Angus The Bull and hung a sign on his crib to that effect! Angus the Bull was born & lives on in a Cab Sauv you can get for $25 

Ok, excuse me while I weep into my wine but this Villa Maria – Reserve Gimblett Gravels 2007 is so beautiful and so special it deserves the shedding of a tear or two. This has only just been released and it's rare to find a 100% Cab Sauv in New Zealand but rarer still to find a ten year at this price. $63 might seem like a lot but it really isn't for a wine of this calibre. This wine smells like a combo of ripe blackcurrants and even coffee, the taste is so fine yet quite powerful and it's a wine that, cellared correctly will keep for another 10 years at least. This is the kind of wine you would buy now to share with your son or daughter who was born in 2007 to share with them on their 21st birthday. 

Yes WAY Rosé

There is no doubt about it - Rosé is so hot right now! It is in 40% growth in recent years & has transcended both the gender & seasonal barriers, once upon a time women drank rosé in summer. How times have changed....now real men drink Pink, there's even a Brosé  movement

Rosé is a bit unique in that it’s not a varietal of wine per se – it’s a style. It’s usually lumped in with the white wines but it’s actually made red grape, you can make from any red grape you just “leave on skins”. This just means that the grapes are left for a little while longer with the skins attached before having the juice pressed out. Usually, the longer it's left the deeper the pink colour will be.

As mentioned you can make Rosé from any red grape but In NZ our Rosé tends to be predominantly Pinot Noir, so the most common aromas you will smell in an NZ Rosé are strawberries & cream or roses. Yum!

European (or Old World) rosés tend to be bone dry and floral and New World rosés (AKA us in NZ) are usually less dry & more fruit forward.

Rosé is not a wine to cellar or keep, it's a drink now wine, it's fun, it's summer in a glass and here are the rosés that I think you should drink RIGHT NOW!

Wither Hills Pinot Noir Rosé 2017 made from Marlborough Pinot Noir, you just can't go wrong with Wither Hills, consistently good wines, widely available at an excellent price point - this wine is no exception. A beautiful mouthwatering pink clour with a delightfully dry and refreshing and fruity strawberries and cream style. Buy at least one at the supermarket for $18/$15 on special and eat with platters of hummus, olives, crackers & cheese and a gaggle of mates. 

Two Rivers “Isle of Beauty” Rosé 2017 is another Marlborough Pinot Noir Rosé is firstly the most beautiful bottle of Rosé I have seen in quite a while, tall, thin, elegant with a beautifully dappled punt (the dent thing in the bottom of a bottle of wine) that makes it look like a glass strawberry in the bottom of the bottle. Gorgeous. The wine most definitely lives up to the quality of the bottle it comes in. This is definitely a European style of Rosé which makes a great deal of sense as the winemaker David Clouston spent 3 vintages making wine in Corsica, (known as the "Isle Of Beauty) apparently he tried making NZ styles of wine & almost got run off the island - but that's a story for another time! This rosé is vibrant salmon in colour and quite simply a joy to drink. This wine should definitely be paired with traditional Mediterranean food like Tapas in the sunshine and is available for $25/$20 on special

Terra Sancta Rose 2017 is the only Central Otago Pinot Noir and it is definitely something special. It has that typical Otago scents of stone fruit & berries that we know and love and it just fills the mouth with flavour (and happiness). The Terra Sancta vines are some of the oldest in Bannockburn & as I've said before "Old Vines Make Great Wines" (you can quote me). This rosé is darker and it is one that I would be more likely to eat with and I will drink rosé with pretty much any meal (well almost) so this one suits me as this wine will go pretty well with almost anything too. It can even stand up to something as flavourful as lamb but I think this with roast chicken served out of the deck with some friends around? Yaaaaas!!! You will get this wine for $28/$25 on special.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a great Rosé in NZ, we are absolutely spoiled for choice, and as far as I'm concerned you shouldn't be spending more than $25. 

So that's that sorted now all we need is some sunshine.....(please..?)

Vegan Wines

Ok, this one is going to come as a bit of a shock, but as a general rule - wine isn't vegan....I know, I know and yes you are right, grapes are a fruit so if grapes are vegan and wine isn't what the hell else is in our wine and how did it get there?

Simply put grape skins & other things (stems, pips) can cause haze, and haze is basically wine that's bright and clear or even worse - floaters in your wine! So wineries go through a process called "fining" they add additional products like Gelatine (Animal Collagen), Isinglass (Swim bladders of fish), Albumen (egg white) or Casein (Milk Protein) as these elements, once added attach to the "bits" floating in the wine and help them sink to the bottom so the wine is beautifully clear. As a result, traces will remain hence most wine isn't vegan.

Next time you are enjoying a bottle of wine take a quick glance at the back of the label, somewhere in there it will say something to the effect of "due to the methods of making the wine traces of egg whites/milk protein etc may remain". See that? Down there in the small print? Bingo! See non-vegan wine.

Let me hasten to say this is absolutely standard practice in winemaking, it is in no way harmful & the traces are just that - traces, it won't affect the taste or the quality of the wine at all. It just won't be vegan. 

So I've picked three wines from wineries where the entire winery is vegan so you are safe picking any wine from any of these wineries. 

Momo Pinot Gris 2017 from Central Otago is the lower tier of the Seresin Vineyard. Seresin have succeed with Momo (Maori for "Offspring") in making a bloody amazing range of wines which are organic & vegan & in an amazing price bracket. This Momo Gris is only $19. This wine is so central otago with beautiful fresh stone fruit flavours & bright acidity. Sooo moreish! Pick this up from www.seresin.co.nz or via traditional Liquor Stores

Everyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with Te Whare Ra Wines from Marlborough and I love all of their wines, but the one I have chosen here is the 2017 Toru, "Toru" which means “three” in Maori and this wine is an aromatic blend of Gewürztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris. Floral without being too floral bringing out the best of all three varietals. It is not at all sweet which you would think so with that blend! It's about 7grams of residual sugar making it just off dry. You can get this in liquor stores for about $28

Rockburn Pinot Noir 2015 fromCentral Otago is a stunning Pinot, in fact ALL of the Rockburn wines are pretty bloody impressive. This wine is so perfectly Central Otago Pinot. Fruity taste of red and black cherry, smooth tannins (so not bitter) and a long delicious finish. It's so elegant & this wine would be such an amazing gift for a vegan friend (or any friend at all). Rockburn are multi-award winning and with this wine, you can really see why! This retails at $50 but I have seen it for $40 in New World which is a steal!

The thing I love about these wineries is that they believe that the less you interfere, the more you get wine which is an expression of the land & the grapes. They treat the land and the vines with love and respect and allow nature to decide what wine comes from that - just beautiful. 

So for those of you wondering is all vegan wine hazy with floaters? Not at all, wineries just use different techniques, for example, they Hand harvesting - this helps as the grapes are treated nicely & as a result, you only get grapes in the mix. They don't fine their red wines – leave it for long enough the bits will settle.  For white wines, they use tiny amounts of Bentonite (volcanic mud!) which is completely natural to fine/stabilise their whites. 

Happy Vegan Shopping Yawl! 

Drink Wine Like A Celebrity

Celebrities, they have it all! Turns out they have it all and a winery on top! When I found out that Brad and Angelina make a Rose called Miraval, I wondered, who else makes wine - turns out everyone does .....John Legend, Drew Barrymore, Madonna, Donald Trump, Mick Fleetwood & Cliff Richard, anyone who's anyone, owns their own winery.....

So what celeb wines do we have here in little old NZ? Well actually, we do have one or two (or in this case three..)  

Irish TV host Graham Norton makes a range of wines with Waikato Winery Invivo. How on earth did that happen I hear you say? Well, Invivo is run by (winemaker) Rob & (marketing guru), Tim. One Friday evening a few years ago Tim was watching the Graham Norton show and noticed that Graham & his guests were had drinks and Graham, in particular, was always drinking white wine. So Tim gave the BBC a call – asked if they could send them some free wine. Graham tasted it and liked it & now they have three varietals (Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé, and Shiraz) and are working on a fourth which will be a Prosecco to be released early 2018.

Every Tim & Rob  go to either Ireland or the UK to blend the wine with Graham as it's really important to them that it be actually Graham's blend & not just a name on the label.  They also make a very funny blending video each year which is always fun to watch. 2017's video is featured here - have a look!

It’s a massive success story & even though I like all three wines here I'm  recommending the Sauv as it’s the original & one that I loved at a time when I was getting tired of Sauv. It’s zesty & fresh & fun and only $18 - hard to pass that one up!

Sam Neill, despite the fact that he swears (literally!) that he’s not a celebrity – when questioned on wine-producing celebrities his response was “I am not and never have been a celebrity – I have never been pictured in Hello Magazine, with a Kardashian or in a bikini“ Regardless of this self-professed non-celeb status, he was in Jurassic Park - so that's celeb enough for me! Either way, Sam's Central Otago vineyards make bloody good wine, mostly Pinot Noir & Riesling under the brands "Two Paddocks" and "Picnic". The Pinots tend to sell out most years. The one that I got my hands on was the Picnic Riesling. This Riesling is the family fav at Two Paddocks HQ, apparently they regularly get together for TP family roasts & this bottle is the first to empty. It's an off-dry style with zesty acidity which is organically farmed & hand harvested. It's pretty yum and only $25

Also I just have to mention, anyone who doesn't follow Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) on Twitter needs to get on that immediately. Anyone who has the wit to name his livestock after various celebrities is alright by me. The man is hilarious!

John Kirwin is a name every Kiwi knows and loves, our own beloved Former All Black, Author, Mental Health Advocate and now Wine Maker - ah JK, is there anything you can't do?? John has a range of wines called JK14, (14 was his AB number). JK’s wife is Italian from Treviso in Veneto, Northern Italy (this area is known for Prosecco and also Tiramisu) so it makes sense that the JK14 Wines are Italian Reds, Whites & Prosecco. This collection has been put together with so much love each of the bottles is named after someone dear to the family and tells a story. 

The wine I have chosen from the collection is the Malanotte. I discovered this wine at Winetopia this year and it blew my mind, nothing else lived up to this wine so  I had to go back at the end & buy some! Only two wineries in the world make Malanotte – side by side in Veneto and the people of the area believe that Malanotte is the wine that Jesus had the Last Supper. Well if it's good enough for Jesus! This wine really is superb & it comes with a sense of humour as the front label on the bottle states: “Approved by Jesus Christ….we’re pretty sure!"

The whole JK range is available at www.jkwines.com & the ranges in price from $20 to $60. The Malanotte is the top of the range at $60 and it's so worth it. A very special wine. 

Non Central Otago Pinot Noir (Yup, it's a thing)

It's just a fact that Pinot Noir is a more expensive wine to make because simply put it's not that easy to grow, harvest or make – it’s thin skinned varietal which means the grapes are more susceptible to disease, rot and even sunburn when on the vines and it has to be hand picked unlike other grapes that can be machine harvested. 

Central Otago gets all the glory but actually, Marlborough is starting to win as many wine accolades and the Pinots are SO good! My two favourite non-Central Otago regions are Marlborough & Martinborough. Marlborough Pinots are a lighter style and very red fruity wher are Martinborough Pinot is more savoury & earthy

My picks for Non-Central Pinot are: 

Dashwood Pinot Noir 2016 from Marlborough is a lovely easy drinking Pinot with delicious smells of plum & berries, you just cannot go past this wine for value for money coming in at only $18 and available at supermarkets nationwide. This wine was recently chosen by Etihad as one of their Business Class wine selections. 

I'm a fan of Allan Scott wines and I have been for years, they are consistently good quality! This delicious Pinot Noir from the Generations range is a single vineyard wine which has aromas of plums & cherries & is super fruit forward which is typically Marlborough. A bit of a treat this wine is about $32

I have nothing but good things say about the wines from Martinborough Estate from, well you guessed it, Martinborough. Martinborough is regarded as the New Zealand wine region most similar in growing conditions and wine style to Burgundy and the team at Martinborough Estate were the first vineyard in Martinborough to grow Pinot Noir grapes. This wine is a little more expensive at $68 but it really is worthy of the price point. If you have a Pinot Noir adorer in the house whom would appreciate that then this one is most definitely worth the investment. For a Pinot-loving Dad this would be such a special Father’s day gift. Also if you can find one from 2013 then definitely buy it as that was an exceptional year for Martinborough!

Chardon-YAY!

I'm here with some pretty important news.....Chardonnay is making a comeback. Ya heard it here first people! 

I got into Chardonnay a few years ago to an ex – what he lacked in husband material he made up for in impeccable wine taste.  I like all Chardonnays but most popular are the buttery & oaky Chardys. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I do think it's when Chardonnay is at its best.

Chardonnay in NZ had a boom in the 1980’s & 1990’s & Chardonnay was New Zealand's most widely planted grape variety from 1990 till 2002 when Sauvignon blanc finally surpassed it. Then people started going off plan & making unoaked Chardonnay which didn’t appeal to anyone so it kind of died off & actually became a bit naff – but it’s back and it's never been better! 

Although NZ Chardonnay is mostly known for being from the Hawkes Bay my picks are from pretty much everywhere except the Hawkes Bay (I'll do some HB Chardys at a later date) 

Huntaway Reserve Chardonnay is from Gisbourne and dollar for dollar is one of the best value Chardonnays out there. I think this might have something to do with the fact that the vineyard where these grapes are grown are some of the oldest in Gisbourne. Old vines make great wines! You will get this from the supermarket for $18

Wither Hills Single Vineyard Benmorven Chardonnay is a Marlborough Chardonnay and as it's a single vineyard (this means all of the grapes come from one - in this case organic - vineyard). This won best Chardonnay in Marlborough at the 2015 Marlborough Wine Show. This wine is only from traditional liquor stores.

Soho “Carter” Chardonnay 2016 is from Waiheke and is named after “Maximus Carter” Soho's owner Rachael Carter’s beloved Dalmatian who has since passed – because of the fact that they are both of an excellent Pedigree. Couldn't think of a better tribute to a beloved pet. This wine is definitely a bit special & also a single vineyard wine. Full price this wine is $38, 34 on special but I have seen it as low as $32. 

Below is the link to me talking about what is definitely my favourite white varietal with Wendyl Nisan on the RadioLIVE Long Lunch

Que Syrah Syrah!

Syrah & Shiraz are both made from the Syrah grape however only Australia calls it Shiraz

Syrah and Shiraz are essentially different styles of the same thing, Some people think they are the same but I really don't agree! 

A wine-loving friend that the difference between Shiraz & Syrah is that Shiraz is like a fling you're a little bit embarrassed you had looking back but Syrah is the guy you bring home to meet your parents - haha. Shiraz is a big, bold it knows what it's doing & you get what you want from it but Syrah is softer, gentler & to be savoured & respected :)

Syrah is one of the darkest red wines on the market, it's almost opaque! It's medium to full-bodied with medium and you can smell berries, mint and black pepper even tobacco sometimes.

In New Zealand most of our Syrah comes from the Hawkes Bay –  Syrah loves a hot climate! Within the Hawkes Bay there is a super special region called The Gimblett Gravels – GG is an absolute mark of quality, it is only 800 hectares of land and there is a strict criteria linked to the soil & 95% of the grapes have to be from the GG area to be labelled as a "Gimblett Gravels" Wine. 

My favourite Syrahs are: 

Trinity Hill Syrah 2016 comes from the Hawkes Bay & this wine comes from the same vineyard & winemaker as the Trinity Hill Homage Syrah - arguably the best Syrah in Australasia & at a price point of $130! So you can get a taste of the same genius but at a fraction of the price (available supermarket for$19.99).

Squawking Magpie – The Gravels Syrah 2014. This is an amazing Hawkes Bay Boutique label and this wine is from the Gimblett Gravels - this wine is dark and inky - delicious!  Peppery, Dark berry fruits - YUM! THis wine is about $29.99 but you can get it on special for $26.99 from Farro

Te Whare Ra 2015 Syrah is an amazing winery run by a couple & Anna (wife obviously) not only runs an organic, vegan, biodynamic winery but also is Mamma to not one but TWO sets of twins! Busy lady! The winery has an amazing family dynamic & is certified organic. This is the treat yourself wine but the story as to why it is special is compelling. Also NOT Hawkes Bay. $49.99

Click below to listen to my Syrah recommendations on the RadioLIVE Long Lunch