"Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to spend two packed weeks racing around New Zealand and tasting wines. As could be expected, there was plenty of Pinot Noir among the wines presented at various events, and I have to say I am certainly impressed by the overall level of quality many of these wines exhibited.

There?s a fairly broad brersity of styles on offer from the north to the south of this long, skinny pair of islands, a long with some famous regions with identifiable styles as well.

Take for instance Martinborough in the southeast of the North Island. Martinborough is known for its rather funky style of Pinot, many would say it is almost Burgundian.

If you travel down to the south of the South Island you?ll end up in central Otago, home to a completely different style of Pinot: fruit forward and smooth and rich. Not that the wines from Martinborough lack richness, they just tend to be a bit more angular.

I like that angularity, so it is not surprising that some of my favorite wines, and particularly those from Central (as...

"Everyone knows NZ?s staple Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Pinot Noir is also definitely making it?s self known as another NZ varietal with world class potential that can be very elegant, even Burgundian in style. However, it is another region with other varieties that may be New Zealand?s most exciting export: enter the hearty reds of the Gimblett Gravels. Situated in Hawkes Bay, this region enjoys a warmer climate than much of NZ and the growing area is a low lying plain on the dryer east coast. Proximity to the ocean also plays a role moderating the temperatures in both winter and summer. Within this region lies the unique growing district of the Gimblett Gravels.

This area has remarkably deep and dense gravel soil deposited by the Ngaruroro River. In the late 19th century, a huge flood caused the river to change course leaving the original gravel riverbed high and dry. The soil is so poor here it is remarkable that anything can grow. However, as we know, our friend the vine flourishes in these types of challenging environments. Much of the...

"Notwithstanding that most pinot noir vines in New Zealand are less than ten years old, the idea of differing regional expressions of the variety has already been gaining ground for at least half of that time.

A ten-wine ?road-trip? in London, led by Dr. John Forrest of Forrest Wines, explored this theme, inconclusively to my palate, though different expressions in the wines were clear to see.

Not all pinot noir vines in New Zealand are infants. There are plenty that are a quarter of a century and more. But that plantings of pinot noir have increased by more than 80% since 2003 illustrates the burgeoning interest in Kiwi pinot noir, arguably the second-best place in the world that makes it. And Forrest is excited for the future coming from maturing vines, saying ?tannins are yet to be defined. We?re talking of 30 year old vines, at the oldest. Tannin structure is where, over the next 15 years, New Zealand pinot noir will flourish ? structure and texture.?

In the meantime, any emergence of regional styles is akin to evolution in practice.

The regions...

"This week a media release came out with the head line ?Marlborough Touted as Next Big Pinot Region?. For those that only know Marlborough as a Sauvignon Blanc producing region this will come as a bit of a surprise. It shouldn?t though. Marlborough actually produces 42% of New Zealand?s pinot noir, compared to Central Otago?s 28%.

They see themselves as relative latecomers at the New Zealand Pinot Noir game but argue that this creates an advantage in areas such as clonal selection and site consideration.

Dig a little deeper and you unearth a group of hard-core Pinot Noir winemakers.

The scene: typical New Zealand camp ground, no cell phone coverage, bunk rooms & zip water heater. Scattering of barrel samples of current vintage plus some older pinots strewn across the communal room, coveted Burgundies wrapped in socks in backpacks & suitcases.

The players: earnest types, life-long rough hands, furrowed brows and stained teeth. Sargent Major is ruggedly handsome, Prince of Pinot Martinborough-type.

The script: Stems. What influence do they have on pinot, much gesticulating, tasting and ?discussing? (read arguing and muttering under breath). Overall atmosphere:...

"The inclusion of two Gisborne Chenin Blancs in an independent top 40 Chenin Blancs in the World, is proof that the region and the winery producing these wines are premier.

The Millton's Te Arai, and Crazy by Nature Chenin Blancs, have been judged among the top 40 by independent wine consultant and roving sommelier Robert Giorgione.

"Overall it provided a positive and encouraging revelation that New Zealand can indeed make some great Chenin Blanc," said Mr Giorgione.

An old wine variety, that was used for jug wine in its early days in New Zealand, Chenin Blanc is now being described as an international cult wine and is riding a wave of success after three decades.

The relationship between Gisborne and Chenin Blanc is a long and extremely successful story – if not that well known.

Internationally acclaimed biodynamic winemaker James Millton says the Millton Chenin Blanc's recent recognition on a world stage shows it takes a long time to get spotted when you produce something that is idiosyncratic and less than one percent of the overall national wine production

James...

"It seems that the high-end wine market is going ballistic with Burgundy. Price corrections are taking place for blue-chip Bordeaux, an inevitable situation given the rapid, relentless escalation of its prices these past few years, a phenomenon fuelled single-handedly by China's seemingly insatiable appetite for the finest "branded" French wines.

As blue chip Bordeaux is forced into introspection, its captive audience and their monies naturally lean toward Burgundy as reported in recent auction in Hong Kong (see this link). This spells mixed news for the avid Burgundy lovers. Collectors who own ample fine burgundies in their cellar may be sitting on vinous treasure worth a lot more than originally anticipated while the less well-endowed others have to work harder to either procure from other producers or appellations, or be prepared to increase their budget in order to compete with the new converts of these limited wines.

Sometimes I can't help but feel the Old World folks have it easy. We speak so matter-of-factly of Burgundy (or the French appellations more generally) as reference standard where vitis vinifera thrives to...

"Red wines still make up 91% of total wine consumption in China, but white wine drinking rose 19% last year, with 70% further growth expected by 2015.

Last week, the global wine and spirits exhibition group spelt out its views in Shanghai of the fast-developing Chinese wine market.

Dominique Heriard Dubreuil, chairman of both Vinexpo and Rémy Cointreau, said China?s developing taste for white wine presents an educational challenge to vintners worldwide.

?In general, Chinese people don?t like to drink something cold, but white wine is not at its best when warm,? she said.

According to research commissioned by Vinexpo, last year China overtook Britain as the fifth largest wine market by volume, behind the US, Italy, France and Germany.

Consumption of wine on the mainland and Hong Kong rose by 21.5%.

Within three years, greater China will spend more money on still wines than the UK, and become the world?s second biggest wine consumer by value, after the US.

Vinexpo expects China to consume over a billion more bottles annually between now and 2015 ? a further 54% increase.

China is...

"The received wisdom is that the best pinot noir in New Zealand is made amid the dramatic landscapes of Central Otago in the South Island.

It?s certainly a distinctive style: sturdy, powerful, redolent of autumn fruits roasted almost to charring point, with a whisper of the scent of coffee being ground in the room next door.
When I smell a glass, I have instant flashbacks to the day I spent there earlier this year. I remember Nigel Greening driving from me from the tiny airport at Queenstown to his winery, Felton Road, chatting non-stop about hobbits (Lord of the Rings was filmed here), gold fields (?this had more gold than the Klondike and Ukon together?) and the dinosaur bones found buried in the clay. I think of the wild thyme spraying the hillsides green. Of Nigel pointing out of the car window, ?Over there, there?s a wilderness the size of Wales with valleys that no one?s been in for 50 or 60 years.? And I think of sitting in the restaurant at nearby Carrick, eating a spicy rare beef...

"New Zealand Riesling is one of my favorite under-appreciated wine categories, and a major reason is minerality.

Frequently I smell chalk, white stones, and other mineral notes in these wines; it's rare when I don't. Minerality is a loaded term for chemists and wine researchers, because it can be a catch-all for any non-fruit aromas. In New Zealand Rieslings it's often not elusive; some smell like you fell face down in a wet rock garden planted with stone fruit trees.

It's really noticeable if you open a group of New Zealand Rieslings at once, as I have had the pleasure to do twice recently. They might be from anywhere in the country, and their sweetness levels vary a lot, but that current of minerality is a defining trait.
I called a couple of Kiwi winemakers to see if they could explain why this is so.

"A lot of the reason for New Zealand Rieslings being the way they are is the cool climate, maritime influence, and very big diurnal variation," says Lynette Hudson, winemaker for Pegasus...

New Zealand took the top three places and four of the top ten, six of ten silver medals, and thirteen of nineteen bronze medals.

Grand Champion Wine, Jules Taylor 2011 Sauvignon Blanc
1st Runner Up Wine, Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc
2nd Runner Up Wine, Wither Hills 2010 Sauvignon Blanc
Gold Medal Wine, Nautilus 2010 Sauvignon Blanc.

The Gold Medal wines were featured at the Oyster Riot which will took place on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th Nov with 1,000 consumers paying $135 to attend each session.

This is further proof that any restaurant that sells fresh-shucked oysters needs to feature New Zealand wines with them.

Go the All Blacks! Go New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc!

David Strada
New Zealand Winegrowers Marketing...

"This past weekend the Kiwi national rugby team, the All Blacks, scored an emotional victory over their top rivals, France, to win the Rugby World Cup. As one of the largest sporting events on the planet, people from all over the world flocked to the small island nation to watch the six-week long series of games between nations such as Australia, Italy, South Africa, and the United States.

I was one of those who made the trek half way across the globe to attend not only a rugby match, but also to take part in a battle of the bottles. New Zealanders are obsessed by their national sport, but they?re also proud of the country?s wine culture. Winging to the land of the long white cloud ? as the local Maori people call New Zealand ? I was the American judge for a wine competition dubbed the First Fifteen.

Held in Nelson, one of the most picturesque spots in New Zealand, the focus of the...

Each nation was represented by fifteen wines; eight forwards (Syrah/Shiraz) and seven backs (Pinot Noir) selected by team captains. Teams consisted of four judges and were headed up by a well-known wine personality from each nation. Noted New Zealand expert Bob Campbell MW represented the Kiwis with Cameron Douglas MS, Corey Hall (The Gemwine Company), and Simon Nunns (Coopers Creek), whilst wine writer and critic James Halliday led the Australians into battle with Australian sommeliers Andrew Philpot, Patrick White and Matt Sweiboda.

The eight team members participated in a blind tasting on Friday morning to score each wine. The wines with the highest points made the 'First XV' selection and were unveiled at a media tasting in the NZ2011 Business Club Lounge in The Cloud on Queen's Wharf.

The pre-match warm up was well contested, but New Zealand wines rose to the occasion and dominated the tasting with five out of the...

The 'Pinot Smackdown' is a concept from the USA (Ed Thralls, Wine Tonite) and has, like many other Twitter community wine tastings, evolved into a global event.

New Zealand Wineries experimented with #Chardonnay day and NZ Wine made a lot of noise around the international #SauvBlanc tastings a few weeks ago, but now it's time to step up and shout louder!

If done properly, these 'events' have generated hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of impressions for wine brands internationally. It would be foolish not to get involved and tell the world how much we love New Zealand Pinot Noir.

If you're new to social media or have been simply 'dipping your toe in the pond of online conversation', a Twitter Tasting is when people who love wine gather socially both at physical locations such as wineries, wine shops and their own homes, and virtually via Twitter ? all these locations are brought together by the use of various hashtags. In this instance it will be #PinotSmackdown and, if...

#SauvBlanc Day will take place on Friday, June 24 around the world and New Zealand Winegrowers would like for you to join New Zealand wineries to be active participants. The idea is to get consumers, media, trade, and wineries to open Sauvignon Blancs on that day and to post comments about it. You can do this at any time during the day in your time zone. With the day beginning in New Zealand, we would hope that wineries, local consumers, and NZW would get things off to a rousing start!

Please mark your calendars to get involved and encourage others to do so as well. Sauvignon Blanc is considered to be New Zealand's grape and we need to be out in front on this.

St Supery Winery in Napa has taken the lead in organizing this project. In addition to the postings on-line, they will be hosting a winemaker panel tasting on the 24th in which New Zealand Winegrowers will be an active participant including two wines and there will be a general tasting afterwards at which we will be pouring a dozen NZ wines.

We look forward to seeing your postings! Remember to reference #SauvBlanc.

KInd regards,...

"Like a new immigrant struggling for acceptance, pinot noir faced dirty looks and derisive whispers when the grape arrived on the southern tip of New Zealand in the mid-1980s. John Wallace, the winemaker at Chard Farm, a top estate in Central Otago, recalls one early jab. ?I overheard someone in a bar saying, ?Chard Farm is a bloody good waste of merino land.??

The reference was to merino sheep, a breed prized by Italian tailors and makers of high-end athletic wear for its soft, ultrafine wool. For decades, merino farming was the lifeblood of this spectacular mountain terrain because of the region?s arid, wool-enhancing climate. Visitors can still see postcard views of flocks grazing on verdant slopes, especially at shearing time when their cartoon-like overgrown exteriors can make them seem like puff balls with faces. But over the past 25 years, many slopes have been turned over to produce a new and more lucrative commodity ? wine for people who can afford merino suits.

In just a generation,...

"So on the 26th May, 2011, we have Chardonnay Day. This follows the great success of both #CabernetDay and the Rose Revolution. Organised in part by @RickBakas and @MastermindTB?s Trish Barry, they have become a dynamic Social Media duo.

No matter what you think about Chardonnay it still remains very popular. Long gone are the days where all that was on offer were oak forests and cream in a glass. Now the new world has woken up to other ways to make this prestigious wine. Think Chablis, the Montrachet, think Hawke?s bay and Gisborne, but don?t forget the other regions as well. Most NZ wine making regions are making some great wines, and now is the time to celebrate them.

Get involved now and visit Chardonnay Day website

So raise a glass, join an event, or even start one of your own.

So who should do what?

Detailed below is a way for you to get involved.

What exactly is Chardonnay Day?

This is a global day to talk about Chardonnay via social media platforms. There?s no concurrent tasting, conversations...

"Despite the UK?s love affair with Marlborough sauvignon blanc, New Zealand is no one-trick pony. Its pinot noir has for the last decade been claiming its rightful place as the second best place in the world to make pinot noir. And now its syrah looks fair to set the wine world alight.

And mostly it?s being called syrah, rather than shiraz. Maybe this is to banter with the neighbours, though some think it?s more do to with the style of syrah/shiraz being made ? erring towards elegant, perfumed and linear rather than the big, occasionally bruising, but nonetheless brilliant, behemoths that the world is used to seeing from warmer climate Aussie regions.

David Cox, Director for Europe at New Zealand Winegrowers said ?the syrah now being produced has a classic New Zealand cooler climate identity but with a true northern Rhône style. We are one of only a very few new world countries capable of producing this grape with the intense blueberries and ripe, dark plums with gamey flavours but with the fragrant pepper which is so often the trademark of wines such...

"French wine producers and purist wine collectors have long held that it is simply not done to compare the accepted wine classics with wines made elsewhere in their image. They tend to mutter about the futility of comparing apples and oranges. My colleague Steven Spurrier was spurned by the French wine establishment for years after he organised the famous California v France tasting in Paris in 1976.

I find such comparisons hugely interesting and illuminating and I think it has been shown over the years that what the French are frightened of – denting the reputation and sales of their precious iconic bottles ? simply does not happen. If my experience is anything to go by, the gap between the best of France and the best of the rest continues to narrow. And yet demand for Bordeaux's first growths and Burgundy's grands crus has never been stronger. Everyone knows that a TopShop handbag will hold a wallet just as effectively as one from Louis Vuitton, but that does nothing to do shorten the queues for...

New Zealand is well known as a wine-producing country ? the problem is it?s recognized almost exclusively for Sauvignon Blanc. The electric gooseberry style of Sauvignon Blanc popularized in the Marlborough region of New Zealand has been a boon to the country?s wine culture, but has overshadowed the grand wines produced from other varieties.

From north to south, New Zealand?s unique terroir, which features well-draining, stony soils in climates that can range from near-tropical to sub-Alpine, has proven ideal for a wide range of grape varieties. Much of the research into what to plant where remains in its infancy, making this an exciting and dynamic time for New Zealand?s wine industry as it works to diversify.

Read more: http://www.snooth.com/articles/wine-regions/new-zealand-pinot-noir-445/?utm_campaign=659&utm_medium=email&utm_source=all&utm_content=1680#ixzz11Kr5s4Sf

Read More: http://www.snooth.com/articles/wine-regions/new-zealand-pinot-noir-445/?utm_campaign=659&utm_medium=email&utm_source=all&utm_content=1680

To read the full article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10677122

12 New Zealand?s wineries are laying the gauntlet down on each other, and the world, to make the best Riesling possible from the same plot of land. The concept of the challenge is that all wineries receive grapes from the same vineyard, picked and handled in exactly the same way, for the wine maker to decide which style best suits the grapes he has been given. Same terroir, same fruit? different winemaker.

The 12 wineries that receive the grapes are spread throughout the winemaking regions of New Zealand. Each winery received four tons of grapes from the highly-regarded Mudhouse Vineyard in Waipara, a place quickly emerging as a top spot for cool climate varietals. The grapes were handpicked and then sent to the wineries involved, upon which they were crushed, pressed, and left to the winemaker to decide his or her preferred style of Riesling.

Read More: http://content.corkd.com/2010/09/28/new-zealand-begins-to-flex-its-diveristy-muscle-with-projects-and-initiatives-geared-toward-riesling-production/

Some say wine is a fashion industry. They're not talking about the Diesel label's wine brand or the clothes made of cellulose from vats of vino past their use-by date: rather, the significant swings in trends we see in what we're imbibing and who's doing the drinking.

Despite a wobble in wine consumption due to the global economic crisis, the world has generally been drinking more wine, with its quaffing predicted to increase in the coming years. However, there's been a shift in drinking patterns, as the traditional wine-drinking nations of Europe drink less, while nations newer to wine, such as the US, China and New Zealand too, are drinking more than ever. Here we've downed an average of three more litres a year each over the past decade.

What the world is drinking has also been changing with the times. There's been something of a backlash against the highly oaked and alcoholic styles of previous decades. Now fresh, fruity and under 14 per cent appears to be flavour of the...

Oyster Bay, Delta "Hatter's" and Gunn Estate all get put to the test.

See: http://tv.winelibrary.com/2010/09/27/blind-new-zealand-pinot-noir-tasting-episode-921/

It?s a variety that certainly elicits strong reactions ? both positive and negative. Those who have persevered with growing the variety are often completely smitten. At Alsace?s Domaine Weinbach, Laurence Faller declared that she was overjoyed that there was to be a sizeable segment of an international aromatics conference devoted to what she described as her ?beloved Gewurztraminer?, a variety she considers to be as great as Riesling.

?There is no other grape or wine in the world with the characteristics close to the ones Gewurztraminer show,? she said, but lamented the fact that it?s still lacking the popularity and recognition that she, like many others, feels it deserves.

A difficult character
This in part can be down put down to its character, which divides wine drinkers. Those who love it, revel its highly scented nature: its intense notes of lychee, rose petal, Turkish delight and exotic spices like ginger and clove. Research into its flavours has indeed uncovered that the compound...