Tasting wine in Johnsonville since 1980.
Continuing our theme of visiting the wines of established European countries, in November we will head to Portugal with Victor from Confidant Wines. Detail is still being worked on and will include some food matches to continue the celebratory theme of November tastings.
More detail next month. Suffice it to say it will be another great tasting from an established wine country.
Another great meeting. This meeting of French wines with some cheese matches recorded the second highest attendance with 42 members and 2 guests attending. The meeting was characterised by both great wines with great cheese.
Alex’s presentation style suited the meeting format. During the pouring of the wines, Alex chatted to various tables in turn, allowing time to taste and chat about the wines. 62 bottles were ordered from Maison Vauron with mostly 2 or 3 bottle orders. Great feedback was received from club members.
The committee thanked Anne for organising this meeting and preparing the cheeses for the meeting.
PS You may be able to purchase some of the cheeses offered at this tasting (amongst many other exotic things) from Ontrays, 38 Fitzherbert Street, Petone.
A couple of messages for members:
It would be a great help to meeting organisers if members responded when asked if they will be attending tastings. For events like the Maison Vauron tasting and the upcoming November meeting, where some catering is required, it is a great help for the organisers if they have a reasonably accurate idea of numbers attending. Your assistance in this regard would be appreciated.
We would like to be able to create a roster around looking after the club’s glasses. We are working on reducing the number to a smaller tray than the current two but would like some offers of assistance from people who would be prepared to take the glasses home, clean them as required and bring them back to the next meeting. This would not be onerous if we had a number of members willing to help. Let us know if you can assist.
In researching information for the Negociants/Yalumba tasting this month it is apparent that space in this newsletter does not allow for the inclusion of all the information we might like to pass on. Wayne has been “surfing” and found some interesting stuff on the Government of South Australia site. I include two links here which you might be interested in looking at. The first is about Yalumba Wines while the second is a Wine Quiz. Have a look.
We have been talking to Saigon Van Grill Bar after many members were disappointed over the July dinner. They had offered a voucher, presumably for use at their establishment, but the committee thought that this might be difficult to use appropriately. We have been negotiating for something more feasible but are having little joy at present. We will keep you informed. In the meantime, some of our members will remember that the site now occupied by Saigon Van (201 Cuba Street) was occupied by Orsini’s, a top Wellington restaurant. We have uncovered some snippets of Orsini’s history which are included in “In the News”. Makes interesting reading.
Cheers
Robin Semmens
Editor
A woman was driving home in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.
She stopped the car and asked the woman if she’d like a ride. The woman thanked her and got in the car.
After a few minutes, the Navajo woman noticed a brown bag on the back seat and asked the driver what was in the bag. The driver said, “It’s a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.”
The Navajo woman thought for a moment, then said, “Good trade.”
A moonlit planting five generations ago has made Yalumba Australia’s most historic family owned winery. Fiercely family-owned extremely progressive and committed to looking after the land and its people, they acknowledge that the reputation of their wine is only as good as the next bottle a customer drinks. So they put the same attention to detail into every bottle of wine they make, regardless of variety, quantity or price.
Now there is a reason for Negociants to look to present Yalumba’s wine. Negociants New Zealand was established, by Yalumba, in 1985 to import and represent the finest wines of the world. They are passionate and knowledgeable about fine wine, and are committed to professionally representing family- owned wineries from around the world.
Negociants New Zealand is one of New Zealand’s leading fine wine merchants, distributing many of New Zealand’s most celebrated wines, as well as prestigious imported brands from Australia and the world to licenced trade.
Bound to be a cracker this one.
There was a good turnout for this tasting. The tasting was characterised by good wines, good presenter equals a good night in spite of the bad weather. Lisa thanks the club for a great tasting and commented that they had received good orders from the club.
Indeed, by our reckoning, this was the second biggest group of orders from a tasting. Just shows that even on a wet winters night a good presentation and good wines will succeed. Thanks to all those who attended and ordered.
We had better not leave it too long before we invite Clearview back. Remember too, that if you are in Hawkes Bay, a visit to the winery and a meal at the red shed are well worth the effort.
We would be grateful if you could give Anne an indication as to whether or not you are likely to be attending the tasting. This will ensure that we can share out the very nice cheeses as evenly as possible. You wouldn’t want to miss out now, would you? Anne’s email address is ammegget@gmail.com.
As I prepare this newsletter our President is also trying for some balmy weather, though in Bali rather than France. What he will not be doing though is matching the warmth with some good New Zealand wine. He reports that at a restaurant a bottle of Matua Sauvignon Blanc (generally available for about $13 a bottle on our supermarket shelves) was on offer for the NZ equivalent of $80.00 phew. He and Dinah have been reduced to drinking the local beer.
We will be visiting the wines of France, Australia and Portugal over the latter part of the year. Much to be enjoyed.
Cheers
Robin Semmens
Editor
The best of New Zealand wine will be discovered at New Zealand Winegrowers’ refreshed wine competition later this year.
The New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards is the official national wine competition of the New Zealand wine industry, replacing the Air New Zealand Wine Awards and the Bragato Wine Awards, two of the industry’s major wine competitions.
The New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards will combine the very best components of the previous competitions, with a focus on rewarding the grape grower and their single vineyard wines (a core component of the Bragato Wine Awards), as well as championing New Zealand wine excellence on a larger scale (a key objective of the Air New Zealand Wine Awards).
John Clarke, New Zealand Winegrowers Board Chair, says the New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards is a fresh approach to celebrating excellence in New Zealand wine.
“The opportunity to recognise the achievements of our grape growers and winemakers in one competition is exciting. The New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards will help us to continue building on New Zealand wine’s excellent global reputation,” Mr Clarke says.
Judging of the wines will take place in the first week of October in Auckland. Highly regarded Hawke’s Bay winemaker and Chair of the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, Warren Gibson, will lead as Chair of Judges, with Marlborough winemaker and Chair of the Bragato Wine Awards, Ben Glover, alongside him as Deputy Chair.
Mr Gibson says the new competition is an exciting opportunity to completely refresh the New Zealand wine awards scene.
“The New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards 2018 is more than an amalgamation of the previous two; it is the development of a new, fresh and exciting format. The focus is strongly towards celebrating the entire New Zealand wine industry, with a particular focus on vineyard excellence and
regionality,” Mr Gibson says.
Entries for the New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards open on 1 August, with the winners celebrated at the New Zealand Wine Awards on Saturday 3 November in Wellington. More information on the New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards can be found at nzwine.com/events.
The pub had just closed and Paddy was taking a shortcut through the cemetery when he fell into a newly dug hole that the gravediggers had left uncovered. Paddy made a valiant attempt to get out but couldn’t make it. He gave up, pulled a bottle from his hip pocket and decided to settle in the corner until morning.
Half an hour later another drunk fell into the hole.
“You’ll never get out lad,” said Paddy
But he did, in one mighty leap.
Maison Vauron is a family story born 19,000km from Auckland, in the charming city of Saint Etienne, 50 km southwest of Lyon, in the Northern Rhone. Everything started in 1879 when Antoine Vauron began his business as a wine merchant. As Obélix, the famous French cartoon character, his great-grandson Jean-Christophe Poizat, fell into it when he was young and perpetuated the family tradition.
In 1991, Jean-Christophe took the opportunity to travel to New-Zealand to learn more about NZ wines. Six months after arriving he would meet his future wife and some years later, his business partners, Peter & Scott. The influence of family has always been strong, with siblings of both JC and Peter involved in various parts of the operation and are still involved today, likewise the partners of both JC and Scott work in the business.
Mention of JC may stir up religious thoughts in some. The theme this time though is fine wine and cheeses, so heavenly still comes to mind. A tasting not to be missed, more in the next newsletter.
We had 48 confirmed and paid people a week before the dinner, but sadly we had two late cancellations on the morning of the dinner. Generally, members liked the venue even though the stairs were challenging for some. Several attendees thought, and the committee agreed, that there was not enough food. The general feeling was that the food was of a good quality but sparse and that the quality did not relate to the price charged. It was suggested that we maybe should have charged a little more to get more food. It was decided to feedback to the restaurant about the dinner. Other than the issue of the food, the committee felt that the evening was enjoyable.
For future dinners, your committee thinks we should encourage people to mingle and chat more while the bubbles are served. To accomplish this we would, where possible, prefer to serve the pre-dinner drinks away from the tables.
A highlight of the evening was the presentation to Cecilia of her life membership.
See more event photos in the gallery.
As you will note from the “looking back” item we have taken on board the complaint from a number of those attending the July dinner re the quantity of food provided. We will be taking this up with Saigon Van.
You may remember tasting the Seifried Zweigelt at the Seifried tasting back in August 2017.
You may be interested that the wine has been mentioned by Jancis Robinson in an article about some of the different wines now being tried by New Zealand producers.
The accent on Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir is well established but there is an increasing move towards different varietals and the article comments on a number of these. Anne Seifried was rapt to get a message from Jancis telling her how good their Zweigelt is.
Cheers
Robin Semmens
Editor