IWM October 2008

Winegrowers New Zealand has decided to actively promote a policy of sustainability, requiring wineries to sign up to a code of ethics or become ineligible for entry into the competitions and promotional events it organises. As more and more wineries are therefore forced to jump on the sustainable viticulture and winemaking bandwagon, one has to wonder where 'sustainable' ends and marketing begins. On the one hand, it seems a bit ridiculous for wineries to promote themselves as friends of the earth whilst on the other be responsible for churning out evermore complex PR packs full of self-promotion.  It is fair enough for a producer to send background notes and technical information out with the wines, but often it appears education/information is not the main thrust of these particular brochures. And whilst on the subject, perhaps someone could invent a method of sending out sample bottles that doesn't involve polystyrene packaging, surely the most difficult material of which to dispose? There was talk of using popcorn as a cushion; now there's a great idea. 
 

 

We first reviewed Hihi Wines last year in the Independent Wine Monthly January 2008 after coming across the very likeable proprietor Andy Nimmo at Wine New Zealand. A boutique Gisborne winery with an eclectic and wide-ranging selection of wines, with more waiting in the wings, Hihi has just received its first gold medal from this year’s Bragato Awards for the 2007 Malbec (congratulations Andy!) and it may well be that this tiny producer who up until now sold the vast majority of its wines through the local farmers’ market and direct to restaurants, may be coming soon to a shelf near you. Hopefully though, Andy will resist the urge to conform his range and also resist dollying up his wines with lots of new oak as it would be a shame to see the producer of ‘Sweet As’ Chardonnay Gewurztraminer blend turn into just another characterless name on the bottle, rather than the quirky, well-priced, pleasant-drinking producer it is.
 

2008 Hihi Pinot Gris is lightly fragrant with pear and spiced apple. Not especially intense but a pleasant fruity palate, off dry to medium with some light oiliness and a pear drop finish. Clean and easy to drink. The nose on the 2008 Hihi Gewurztraminer is again lightly aromatic, with soft Turkish delight, orange blossom and rose petal notes.  You seldom see a New Zealand gewurztraminer sitting at 12.5% alcohol and compared to many of the intensely aromatic in-your-face styles that come out of Gisborne, this is not especially varietal. But it offers nice clean fruit, medium sweetness and a crisp finish.  Like the Pinot Gris, this isn’t a particularly intense wine but it is cheerful and unpretentious, easy to drink and well priced.  Nimmo's 2008 Hihi Viognier has a moderately intense nose with hints of musk, lavender and jasmine. The palate is clean and creamy, with some residual sugar fleshing out the flavours.  The alcohol is a touch noticeable making the finish a little hot. 

The 2008 Hihi Rosé is a blend of pinotage, merlot and malbec, pale raspberry in colour and showing raspberries on the nose as well, along with cherry, light strawberry and a touch of spice.  There is also a slightly earthy, feral whiff which may or may not be pinotage’s contribution to the blend.  The palate is light-bodied, just off-dry with moderate fruit intensity spanning the berryfruit spectrum and fresh acidity which should give the wine structure to partner food well.

The 2007 Hihi Malbec was a standout in the line-up; plenty of ripe fruit on the nose along with prominent spicy/cedary oak, some pencil lead, lots of ripe plums and brambly berryfruit. Firm but ripe tannins on the palate and again oak makes its presence felt, particularly on the finish where the aftertaste is dry and cedary. The nicely balanced acidity reins in the sweet fruit which shows dark plum and red and black forest berries. A nicely made wine, and a big step up for Hihi. It will be interesting to see how this variety develops for Nimmo. The 2007 Merlot Malbec has a light, gently plummy nose, touch of spicy oak and simple direct character. Palate is firm, the fruit is showcased and the oak, while noticeable is in balance. A tad short but plenty of fruit and an appealing style.

The name of the 2007 Lock, Stock and Many Barrels makes us smile, perhaps as much as anything because we liked its namesake film so much.  A blend of cabernet franc, pinotage, merlot and malbec, this is surely the minestrone soup of Hihi wines, with the blend changing each year depending on what is lurking in the barrel room. This vintage is a bright and fairly breezy number, with a medley of cassis and red fruits on the nose, fruit-driven with only a smidge of light oak and a clean, sweet-fruited and simple palate. There is some moderate tannin on the finish so it ends dry and firm, and the odd hint of stalky notes and funky pinotage whiffs. Pulls up a bit short but a good, fun quaffer. Perhaps Guy Ritchie should think of buying a case or two to ease the trauma of his impending divorce.

The 2007 Hihi Pinotage shows big bold flavours, dark plum and asian spices.  Fruit is simple and straightforward in character.Quite firm tannins, a faintly astringent finish.  The oak is quite noticeable; adds a sweet cinnamon and nutmeg edge to the palate but seems to a bit overbearing for the realative simple nature of the wine.

 

 

 

It would be fair to say that while we were not especially overwhelmed by the deliciousness of the premium black label The Ned wines we were sent for review, there wasn't anything particularly wrong with them either.  They are nicely made and certainly drinkable.  But it would be also fair to say that we were surprised by the accompanying publicity pack, iwhich, though lavish and no doubt costly to produce, had more than its fair share of grammatical and spelling errors (terrior, anyone?).  Quite why The Ned team feels the need to accompany what are presumably middle-market drink-soonish wines with such an extravaganza of glossy pages, moody photographs and PR puffery is a mystery, but why they didn’t have someone proof read it for them is even more of a mystery – and it hardly gives one confidence in their attention to detail.  

The 2008 The Ned Waihopai River Sauvignon Blanc has a moderately pungent nose with crisp lime, passion fruit and cut grass, plenty of gooseberry, nettle and capsicum.  Decent intensity of fruit at first, the palate is dry with a nice texture and clean, "sucking on lemons" finish, although a definite pithy element creeps in right at the end and the intensity diminishes.  
The most noticeable thing about the 2008 The Ned Pinot Gris is the faint pink hue, not often seen in NZ pinot gris. The nose has plenty of fruit (mostly baked pear), quince, vanilla and spice and some floral notes. Lightish in body, just off dry with talcum powder and quince notes and a textural element perhaps from the small proportion that was barrel fermented, though again that slightly pithy element as seen on the sauvignon creeps in on the finish.  The 2007 The Ned Pinot Noir has the sweet/sour nose, quite typical of Marlborough Pinots, with aromas of rhubarb, tamarillo, tomato leaf hints, light poached plums. The palate is moderately concentrated with raspberry and red cherry fruit, the oak is handled well as it doesn’t overwhelm the fruit but does leave an odd slightly toasted coffee finish with mars an otherwise squeaky clean palate. A balanced wine with some texture and length but one that is oddly unappetizing at the same time.

 

 

 
 

 

Whilst the 2008s are flooding onto the shelves, there are still plenty of 2007 (and older) Sauvignon Blancs about the place and it is always interesting to see how they are holding up in the bottle.  The 2007 Forest Estate Sauvignon Blanc does have the merest touch of tinned peas on the nose but the dominant aromas are of nettle, greengage and lime and whilst there is a touch of candied pineapple, this wine is definitely at the herbaceous end of the Marlborough spectrum. The palate is very similar to the nose; one might almost say it’s an old-fashioned Marlborough sauvignon (and that is not pejorative by any means) with plenty of fresh cut grass, lime and citrus. There is good weight and length – all in all a very nice wine that is still drinking well now.  We tasted the 2006 vintage of  the James Randall last year (IWM March 2007) and found much to recommend. However we were disappointed by the 2007 Forrest Estate James Randall Sauvignon Blanc which seems to have less intensity than the standard label and, as it costs around twice as much, didn’t seem to offer a good deal at all.  Lime, citrus and white peach on the nose, restrained fruit flavours of capsicum and grass, a smooth textured palate but seems a bit short on acidity.

 
 

 

 

 

There has been much talk of the quality of the 2008 Marlborough vintage.  Happily the 2008 Lawson's Dry Hills Sauvignon Blanc is as good as ever; ripe blackcurrant, gooseberry and a hint of passionfruit, full flavoured and rich with a citrussy thread of mouthwatering acidity. Lovely poise and length.

There's something bracing about good dry Riesling. So we were pleased to come across the 2006 Lawson’s Dry Hills Riesling as it made a nice change from all the sweeter numbers that cross our paths (not that we don’t fancy a few of those too). The nose is packed with lime marmalade and orange zest, beeswax and , at two years old, is starting to show a little touch of toasty, kerosine bottle development creeping in too. The palate is elegant and taut, with good intensity and plenty of length.  A lovely crisp citrussy finish with some very nice secondary characters developing and adding complexity. Attractive drinking now though it looks to have a few more years up its sleeve. Unoaked chardonnay can be an unattractive beastie but the 2007 Lawson’s Dry Hills Unoaked Chardonnay is a good example; clean, fruit driven  and fresh with stonefruit and ripe apple flavours.  One whiff of the nose of the 2004 Lawson’s Dry Hills Chardonnay and you are transported instantly to good old-fashioned chardonnay, Marlborough-style. An almost decadent nose of butterscotch, brioche and hazelnuts, baked apple, ripe melon, rich and pungent. The palate has plenty of brown biscuit and again ripe apple and melon fruit, straddling the divide between primary and secondary characters very well. Acidity is still bright after four years in the bottle and the wine is drinking well.  Most likely at its peak now but should hold a while yet. Hats off to LDH for making a New World Chardonnay that looks better with age!  The four wines tasted all offer very good value as well.

    

 

 

 

In the past we have commented on keen acidity levels in particular wines, but the 2007 Aurum Chardonnay must surely be a contender for the IWM’s ‘most mouth-puckering award’. A wine of two halves, it starts encouragingly enough with lots of peachy, melony fruit, plenty of toasty oak and not too much of the 'cool climate' character. Unfortunately on the palate the screamingly high acidity is the first thing to notice though there is a little citrus and green apple fruit too. (NB: we re-tasted this wine the next day, in the interests of fairness and it was definitely still showing the same exuberant acidity, so we don’t think we were just having a combined off-moment.)  After tasting the Chardonnay, it was with some trepidation that we approached the 2007 Aurum Pinot Noir.  But all was comfort and joy indeed with this wine.  Initial impressions of the nose showed masses of dark cherry and wild raspberry, attractive sappy/stemmy notes some floral and mushroom hints.  This buoyed our spirits but we were still a bit nervous when tasting . . . no need to worry though as there was lots of warm, ripe, sweet fruit, masses of cherry and berry, good intensity and length, well integrated oak and firm, but crucially, appropriate acidity.  A well-made wine with a tendency towards sophistication, this wine held well in the glass, boding well for a bit of longevity and hopefully further development of the complexity already hinted at in this youthful stage. Very well priced.

 

 

 

 

 

Brown Brothers is an establishment in Victoria, a family winery that is practically a dynasty. But it is no slave to tradition and produces a simply astonishing range of the weird and the wonderful alongside the more typical offering of an Australian winery. They also have a fabulous restaurant and very friendly cellar door; well worth a visit of you should happen to be in the Milawa area. 

Cienna is a cross of Sumoll, a Catalonian variety from Spain with Cabernet Sauvignon, a combination Brown Bros feels is ideally suited to Australian conditions.  The wine sees no oak and when fermentation is complete has an alcohol level of 5%.  An incredibly vivid deep raspberry purple, the nose on the 2008 Brown Brothers Ciena gives a slightly odd mix of bubble gum and green beans. The palate is light, ever so slightly thin, sweet and fruity, and fairly frivolous in nature. There is some discernable tannin but it is overall a pretty innocuous softie.  It will no doubt suit its purpose and target market, and will probably be just the ticket if you like sweetish, fruity reds. But from the Brown Brothers stable you could do better, notably the Dolcetto Shiraz which is just as frivolous but has slightly more gravitas.

 
 

 

 

The 2006 Te Kairanga Pinot Noir is showing quite a bit of development for 2006, with almost a brickish tinge creeping in to the colour. Pleasant nose, with some plum, tamarillo and light spice, hint of tomato leaf. An oddly fruitless palate with tinge of bitterness, liniment and a slightly dried herbs edge. Certainly showing its age, but not necessarily in a good way. Lighter bodied, it has some intensity and moderate length and the balance is good but is a curiously unsatisfying wine.  Te Kairanga has a fair pedigree with good pinots, so perhaps this particular bottle has aged worse than others? But on the basis of what we tasted, it is not worth seeking out now.

 

 

 

 
Another new winery from Central Otago, this Pinot Noir was made by Carol Bunn and the team at VinPro from fruit grown on a vineyard in the Pisa Ranges. The name comes from the hillside that has been terraced to provide 25 steps - a mini Douro in Central.  Thankfully the debut release isn't port-like - the 2006 25 Steps Pinot Noir has a pale cherry colour which leads to a light, delicately fragrant nose of raspberry, cherry and fresh herbal notes with some attractive stalky, stemmy hints. Soft raspberry fruit on the palate but the texture and tannin is very firm, veering towards quite extracted. This is bit of a shame as it as the fruit is pretty and delicate but the tannin just seems a tad overbearing at this stage.  Perhaps this wine would have been better made in a lighter-bodied softer style? Overall the fruit is good and there is a nice quite, ‘grown-up’ quality to the wine – it is not just another Central Otago fruit bomb.

 

Main Divide, named for the Southern Alps, is the second label of the well-regarded Waipara winery, Pegasus Bay. Over the years the label has developed a reputation for quality wine at reasonable prices and seems to be pretty consistent across vintages. Main Divide has a similar character to its Pegasus Bay older siblings in that the wines are usually fruit-forward and quite lush in style.  But the Main DIvide range is appealing as soon as released (in contrast to Pegasus Bay's wines which are often quite 'out there' stylistically and which repay cellaring handsomely). The range could be described as 'safe' in that most consumers will find them pretty appealing; wines to take to dinner parties perhaps? Fruit is sourced from Waipara and Marlborough.

 

The 2007 Main Divide Waipara Valley Riesling can be summed up in a word. Delicious. The nose is inviting and pretty with plenty going on – white flowers, honey, lime blossom, peach, vanilla and sherbet, opulent almost. The palate is fine and light bodied, lemony and floral, with a honeyed apricot richness. Excellent balance with poised acidity reining in the high level of residual sugar to give a refreshing, zesty finish. The wine is reasonable low in alcohol at 11.5%, lengthy and finishes clean. If you weren’t careful, you could polish off a whole bottle of this wine before you knew it.   

Chardonnay has come in for rather a hammering of late, (if the fascist Riesling Stormtroopers get their way it will become extinct no doubt) but it can be the most versatile of wines. The 2006 Main Divide Chardonnay has a rather bold nose, with lots of ripe peaches and poached apple, mealy, bran biscuit and hazlenuts.  The palate is quite citrussy and has an attractive dry finish, just a tad buttery. A very appealing wine, with lovely balance and good length. A chardonnay that has plenty of rich fruit but isn’t at all cloying or flabby, just nicely elegant and ripe. Difficult to imagine many people objecting to a glass or two of this…  

Unfortunately Main Divide was not as sure handed with its pinot as it was with the chardonnay. The 2007 Main Divide Marlborough Pinot Noir starts out promisingly enough with quite a pretty nose of spicy red and black fruits, poached plum and light vanilla. The palate is bold and ripe, dense and sweet and has a spicy, cedary finish but it is almost too rich for its own good. While the lighter body and emphasis on acid rather than tannins tells you it is pinot noir, it is almost non-varietal and at times seems to be an almost generic red. All that rich sweet fruit will certainly seduce a few, but it definitely heads towards cloying and begins to look a bit flabby and certainly not fresh in the glass. There is good intensity and length but it seems blowsy and lacks the freshness, elegance and balance seen in the two whites.

The back label of the 2006 Main Divide Pinot Noir Tehau Selection states ; “The Donaldson Family traces its Kiwi roots back about 1000 years. In keeping with this we have chosen to honour this special New Zealand wine with an ancestral name.”  This is also repeated on the website. Given this rather astonishing claim (there were very few humans in NZ at that time, let alone ones presumably keeping ancestral records) it is a shame that the Donaldsons do not give further information. Be that as it may, this wine is made from hand-harvested fruit from selected Waipara sites, is dark ruby, with a dense and spicy nose, hint of tomato sauce, lots of plums and cherries, very forward and intense. The palate is similarly dense and ripe, hard to reconcile with pinot noir in some ways (being a variety known for lighter colour and body) but nice drinking all the same.  Almost chocolately finish, lengthy and ripe.  Despite the good acidity and rich fruit, it is in some ways pretty hard to imagine this wine really staying the distance but it makes for attractive drinking now and will surely please most punters.  The grapes for the 2006 Main Divide Pinot Noir Tipinui Selection come from clay soils in Marlborough’s Brancott Valley and give a paler coloured wine, though the nose has more of the dark cherries and berryfruit of its Waipara cousin, and with some spice and sappiness.  The palate is lighter bodied than the Tehau, but certainly has firmer tannins, more grip and extract apparent. It has good, quite delicate fruit which seems rather strangely at odds with that lip-puckering finish.  Should be good with food though – it would be interesting to try this wine with duck as there is a gaminess to the wine and the nice lift of acidity should be a great foil to duck’s fattiness.  This is a very different wine stylistically from the Tehau and it is very interesting to try them side by side.  After time in the glass, it was the Marlborough wine that held up better but, we suspect, many people will prefer the seductive lushness of the Waipara pinot.

 

 

 

The nose of the 2007 Paritua Riesling is clean and quite ‘pure', lots going on. Hints of honey and quince add sweetness, lots of citrus fruit, herbal thread running through, but on the palate the fruit seems to fade a bit faster than expected to a creamy finish. Good but not great, especially for the price. 
It is good to see winemakers persevering with Semillon Sauvignon blends, especially when it is done well. The Paritua website unfortunately sheds no light on the decision making behind their wine styles, as oddly it makes no mention of the Paritua wines at all, just the lower-tier Stone Paddock range.  So we can only guess at their motivation for going down this road, but  the 2007 Paritua Semillon Sauvignon Blanc is a fairly complex and rather moreish number with a rich and ripe nose of tropical fruit, fresh straw, guava, melon, lime and cut grass. There is some coconut, presumably from the oak although this is not especially noticeable. The palate is crisp, medium-bodied with a roundness to the fruit which is mainly stonefruit and grapefruit. Good wine with substance and balance.  Will be interesting to see how this label develops over the vintages.  The nose on the 2007 Paritua Chardonnay  is immediately enticing with brown biscuit, ripe melon, peach and spicy creaminess. The palate is full-bodied and ripe, good acidity and fairly elegant but let down by a lack of real intensity and length. This is a shame as it has the makings of a stylish and interesting wine but at the moment is a bit hollow and blowsy.  
“At Paritua Vineyards, we appreciate that truly great wine speaks of the land in which it was born. Our vineyards in the heart of New Zealand's acclaimed wine-growing region, Hawke's Bay.”  
Hmmm. So why then, do we have this Central Otago interloper with their pinot noir?  Again, no clue is given by the website as to why the HB winery has suddenly veered south.  There’s certainly nothing intrinsically wrong with doing so, and let’s face it, in general there is better pinot coming out of Otago than Hawke’s Bay but it seems an odd thing for a seemingly heartland Hawke’s Bay producer to do. So, what’s the 2006 Paritua Central Otago Pinot Noir like? Well, nicely made with fine oak handling and good balance, but nothing really special, and there will be plenty of competition and better wines at the $40 mark. Soft nose with poached rhubarb, red licorice, spice and vanilla, quite a dense palate but a little too firm and short - could do with more fruit on the palate, which is a criticism one often levels at Central pinots.  So, not a bad effort but at $40 we would want to see more intensity and complexity.
The 2006 Paritua ‘Dinah’ Noble Semillon has a very golden colour with a similarly intense rich nose, redolent with tropical fruit and poached apricots and some vanilla. Very sweet palate (225g/L), again rich and luscious although a touch simple.  But pretty damn delicious with enough acidity to cope with the sugar. 

 

 
 

One of the most delicious things about rosé wines is the pretty colour. The 2007 Unison Rosé has a lovely pale strawberry with a light but vibrantly fruity nose which follows onto the palate. Dry with good fruit although rather austere (possibly too austere for those used to the sugary fruit bombs that are most rosés) this is a grown up rosé that is still drinking well when many of its 2007 peers will have faded. The 2006 Unison is a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and syrah with a spicy ripe nose, the distinctive herbal cabernet thread running through. Rich plum, fruit and oak spice lead onto a dense and smooth palate, seamless and ripe, very finely nuanced and elegant, lovely ripe tannin, everything is finely balanced, this is a really delicious wine. Very stylish, quite restrained and lovely length. Drinking beautifully now but should get better and better over the next five years or more.
Earlier this year, Unison Vineyards was sold to an English couple, Philip and Terry Horn. They have retained Bruce Helliwell, one of the founders of the vineyard, as a consultant. 

 

 

 

 

The 2006 CJ Pask Declaration Chardonnay is almost a posterchild for retro chardonnay – one sniff is a flashback to the golden age of Hawke’s Bay chardonnay where there was masses of expensive toasty oak, oodles of sweet butterscotch fruit and no one for a minute thought of the phrase ‘over the top’.  So needless to say this is no shrinking violet but it makes a pretty good fist of things. Yes, there is loads of oak but it is good stuff and there is the fruit to carry it. There is plenty of ripe stonefruit and warm apple fruit, mixed with mealy, buttery, hokey pokey and hazelnut notes. Lengthy and nice balance. This is of a particular style, a blast from the past even, and one that we couldn’t really drink a lot of, but along with shoulder pads and big hair, the fans are still out there…The nose on the 2005 CJ Pask Declaration Merlot is bold, dense, ripe and rather inviting. Lots of spice and some nice bottle-aged complexity emerging. The palate is surprisingly elegant and subtle despite the masses of plummy fruit and fine oak, tannins are ripe and balanced, the finish is lingering with spicy plums and blackberry.  This is looking really good and has plenty of life left yet. 2005 is regarded as a good year for Hawke’s Bay and certainly the quality of fruit in this wine back it up and combined with the undoubted skills of the CJ Pask team has resulted in an impressive red.  
Straight Malbec is only made by a handful of producers in this country, with fairly mixed results. It is interesting to see CJ Pask releasing the variety in their top tier label, although it doesn’t seem to be at quite the quality level seen in the other two wines we tasted. Compared to the merlot, the nose of the 2005 CJ Pask Declaration Malbec is of a similar fruit spectrum but is considerably lighter and simpler with a hint of herbal notes (not unripe though). The palate shows ripe red and black fruit, quite firm acid and medium tannins but it comes across again as a simpler sort of beast altogether. Not without style though and again a lengthy wine. Interesting to see a Hawke’s bay red at 12% alcohol – hens’ teeth these days?

 
 

 

The 2007 Gladstone 12,000 Miles Sauvignon Blanc has a talc and lemon nose, some light herbaceousness, a light-bodied palate with moderate acidity and fruit intensity. Lacks a bit of length and interest, a pleasant enough quaffer but likely to be surpassed by the more appealing and popular Marlborough Sauvignons. By way of contrast, the 2007 Gladstone Sauvignon Blanc has a lightly scented nose opening up to citrus fruit, herbal cut grass, green bean a capsicum notes, a hint of peasiness creeping in. A gentle palate with lemony fruit, highish acid and moderate fruit intensity – it also has a slightly chalky mineral texture that adds more interest and elevates the wine to a slightly higher score than the rest of the sum of its parts would lead to.  
Weirdly, we were reminded of tomatoes when smelling the 2006 Gladstone 12,000 Miles Pinot Noir; tomato sauce and plums. Then comes a herbal edge which was certainly leaning towards an unripe side, liniment and spice. The palate is light-bodied with poached plums and a dried-out herbal liniment edge. Both sweetish and insipid, it does have some redeeming features in its length and nice texture.

A tribute to the historical alliances between France and Scotland, 2006 Gladstone Auld Alliance is comprised of the best of Gladstone’s Bordeaux varietals; the 2006 is a blend of 55% cabernet franc, 25% merlot and 20% malbec.  A pleasant nose of cassis, hint of violets and green beans (which is not as bad a combination as it seems on paper) and attractive spiced plums, a savoury note and cedary oak. The palate is smooth with ripe fruit and sensitive use of oak, in keeping with the fruit as this is quite a lighter bodied red. Easy to drink with ripe fruit, this isn’t as complex or distinctive as the nose first suggests but it is a nicely made wine offering enjoyable drinking over the next year or two.