New Zealand’s Wine Industry Is Changing — Thanks to Māori Winemakers Embracing Indigenous Roots
USA | Food & Wine | Shana Clarke
When you visit New Zealand, you’ll likely be greeted with “Kia ora,” a Māori-language welcome widely adopted by the country’s English-speaking population. The Māori were the first people to inhabit Aotearoa, the traditional Māori name for New Zealand, who arrived from Polynesia around 1300.
A wine lover's guide to Waiheke Island
UK | Decanter | Olly Smith
Not far from the hustle and bustle of New Zealand’s biggest city, this blissful island paradise boasts a stunning mix of pitch-perfect wines and picture-perfect beaches.
New Zealand and the great Pinot paradox
UK | JancisRobinson.com | Richard Hemming MW
Let's start with a truism: the premise of terroir is that every vineyard confers something non-replicable into the wine that it makes. Furthermore, at its best, Pinot Noir offers the most vivid examples of that diversity, most famously within Burgundy. Yet here's the paradox: we often expect great Pinot Noirs made elsewhere to reproduce those burgundian qualities.
Roger Jones: ‘Recent experiences have reignited my enthusiasm for NZ Sauvignon’
UK | Decanter | Roger Jones
Back in January 2024, I took part in a three-day Decanter panel tasting of NZ Sauvignons that highlighted stark contrasts in craftsmanship and style. It left me pondering: has the magic of New Zealand, and especially Marlborough, faded?
From Sauvy B to Balanced Reds, Buy These New Zealand Wines Stat
USA | Wine Enthusiast | Christina Pickard
Whenever I mention New Zealand to folks here in the United States, a dreamy look comes over them, followed by an exclamation of how badly that person would like to visit the country, or how they once visited and adored every minute of their time there. They might mention a zippy Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc they’ve recently slurped, or a favorite Central Otago Pinot Noir they keep going back to. Few countries enjoy as universally positive an image abroad as New Zealand’s.
How 'magical' whites are the next big thing from NZ's Central Otago
UK | The Buyer | Roger Jones
Our New World specialist, Roger Jones, continues his tales from New Zealand. This time, he delves into the story of Central Otago, an area first brought to the UK's attention by the bold 'New World' Pinot Noir some 20 years ago. Today, the region not only produces Pinot Noir with poise and fresh, focused elegance but also magical white wines. On his recent visit to the region he met up with the key players, tasted some of the exciting new white wines and attended an outstanding celebration of wine and food called Roam.
Our wine writer meets his match in a NZ gorge
Australia | Australian Financial Review | Max Allen
It's only a "mid-level" hike, they said. Yes, well, all I call say is this: A New Zealander's idea of a mid-level is quite different to an Australian booze hack's idea of mid-level. Crikey, they're a rugged lot, the Kiwis.
Beyond Sauvignon Blanc: A Regional Guide to the Wonderful World of New Zealand Wines
USA | Wine Enthusiast | Christina Pickard
For a nation roughly the size of Colorado, New Zealand produces an outsized amount of wine. Around 105,000 acres are devoted to wine production. On the North and South islands, where most of the population lives, grapevines dot the dry riverbeds, valleys, lake edges and rolling hills pocked with limestone boulders. Vineyards span the subtropical Northland region to arid Central Otago, the most southerly commercial wine region in the world.
How to visit New Zealand's Marlborough wine region
UK | The Telegraph |Susy Atkins
As you sip the many local wines and weave your way through the crowd at the joyous annual Marlborough Wine & Food Festival, it’s easy to assume that wine and viticulture has long existed in the region. Not so.
Learning from the Māori
UK | JanicsRobinson.com | Max Allen
In 1896, one of New Zealand’s pioneer winemakers, a Spaniard called Joseph Soler, published a leaflet on propagating grapevines. Nothing unusual about that: 19th-century settlers often wrote about their experiences to encourage other gentlemen vignerons in the colonies. But this leaflet was different. It was written in te reo Māori, the indigenous language of Aotearoa, and its intended readership was the original inhabitants.
The wines of New Zealand with Jacky Blisson
Canada | Unwined with Mandi Roberts podcast | Jacky Blisson MW
Jacky Blisson MW joins Mandi on Unwined to discuss her recent trip to New Zealand, the New Zealand wine industry and the relationship the industry has with the land, how Māori philosophy is tied into wine practices, and sustainability practices that New Zealand leads in.
Tasted by Drinks Trade: Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
Australia | Drinks Trade | Ash Pini
Perched in the north of New Zealand’s South Island, the Marlborough wine region consists of three main valleys: the Wairau and Southern Valleys sitting between the protective shelter of the Wither Hills to the south and the Richmond Range to the north, and the Awatere Valley further south.
How the Hawke's Bay wine region weathered its most challenging year
Australia | Australia Financial Review | Max Allen
I'm in a minibus, hurtling around the Hawke's Bay wine region in New Zealand's north island with a handful of other wine writers from across the world, Our driver is Gordon Russel, renowned winemaker for many decades at venerable local winery Esk Valley, he retired a couple of years ago and now runs a wine consulting and touring business.
Reflections from the 2025 New Zealand Winegrowers Sommelier Scholarship Winners
Australia | Sommeliers Australia | Cyndal Petty and Liinaa Berry
Since 2015, Sommeliers Australia has collaborated with New Zealand Winegrowers on a global initiative that selects top Australian sommeliers for an exclusive, immersive journey through New Zealand’s wine regions, culminating in attendance at the Sommit. This year marked the first time since 2019 that international sommeliers were invited to participate. Sommeliers Australia’s chosen representatives, Cyndal Petty and Liinaa Berry, share their insights and experiences from the trip.
New Zealand pops its cork for one of the world’s great wine festivals
Australia | Australia Financial Review | Max Allen
Three days straight of nothing but pinot noir. Tasting it, drinking it and listening to people talking about it. Not to mention washing down lunch and dinner with rather too many glasses of it. If this is your idea of heaven, welcome to Pinot Noir New Zealand, one of the world’s biggest events devoted to this increasingly popular and endlessly fascinating grape.
Flow State
UK | The Drinks Business | Sarah Neish
The style of New Zealand Pinot Noir differs from region to region, but the one thing it always expresses is the physical and spiritual influence of the country’s waterways, writes Sarah Neish. “WE ARE water people and it is water that binds us,” said New Zealander Jeff Sinnott, a member of the Tuku Māori Winemakers Collective, at the long awaited Pinot Noir NZ 2025 conference held in Ōtautahi Christchurch in February.
Let’s Talk Pinot! Roger Jones at Pinot Noir New Zealand 2025
UK | The Buyer | Roger Jones
Pinot Noir New Zealand 2025, the international three-day conference held in Ōtautahi Christchurch, wrapped last week with the past, present and future of New Zealand’s most widely planted grape variety analysed and celebrated by a host of keynote speakers and 100+ Pinot producers representing eight different wine regions. New World specialist Roger Jones was there for The Buyer and in his first piece from the event looks at Pinot’s place in driving premium New Zealand wine and a variety that speaks uniquely of ‘terroir Aotearoa’.
NZ Pinot Noir 2025 Conference wraps up
Australia | Drinks Trade | Ash Pini
The New Zealand Pinot Noir 2025 Conference, held from February 11 to 13 in Christchurch, has been a long time coming, originally planned for 2021, COVID delayed the conference, heightening the delegates' appetite to come together and build momentum behind one of New Zealand’s favourite wine topics.