Want to try something new, and not already a member? Come on your own, grab a friend, workmate or partner and join us for our next tasting. Take a look and see who's presenting.
What a brilliant evening! Organised by Wayne and hosted by Michelle Fraser from Clearview, a wine judge in her own right, plus with an extensive knowledge of viticulture and wine making.
Due to illness and holidays, we had only 27 attend the evening, but book your diaries for next year, as this may be repeated with next year’s Gold Medal Winners!
Michelle filled the evening with knowledgeable tips about the different growing regimes, different classes of grapes, the different way grapes are treated/processed, i.e. in stainless steel or oak barrels, skins in or out; plus her sayings that kept us laughing:
ABC – Anything But Chardonnay
Pinot Gris – Puma wine, younger girls juice
Chardonnay – Cougar wine, older women’s juice
Gewurztraminer – how to says this: Girls Get Meaner
She gave us updates on what some of the bigger personalities in the Hawkes Bay area are now doing, with Gordon Russell now in retirement, until he decides what his next project will be. However, his daughters are now up and running through their new brand Three Fates.
This was an evening that was full of surprises, and to those of you who couldn’t make it, the below wines that we tasted are available from New World, The Good Wine Company, and other NZ locations.
Lindauer Special Reserve Rose NV -Gold Trophy from a female wine maker, Jan DeWitt.
2022 Leefield Station Gewurztraminer -Double Gold Trophy for Champion Gertz this is owned by the same family who own NED wines.
2022 Brancott Estate Letter Series O Chardonnay – Double Gold Trophy for Champion Chardonnay + Champion Wine of the Show again a female wine maker, Laura Kate Morgan
2021 Daisy Rock Reserve Pinot Noir – Gold Medal
2021 Esk Valley Artisanal Hawkes Bay Malbec Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon – Gold Medal sadly Esk Valley is now more, so snap up this one if you like Bordeaux style wines.
French Wine Merchants, Established 1999 Dedicated to bringing the best of French wine and food to New Zealand
Presented by Scott Hurrell, Wednesday 11th October, 8 pm Start
Door Price: Members $18 / Guests $22
For our newer members, Maison Vauron is a French Wine Merchant company set up in Auckland in 1999 to bring the best of French wine and food to New Zealand. They have presented their wines to our club several times previously and we are very lucky to have them do so again.
Pierre Vauron’s original business card in 1918. ‘A la grappe dorée’ (‘The golden bunch’) was the name of the business then, established and based in the town of St Etienne (South West of Lyon) since 1879. The card mentions that Pierre was specialising in white wine from all regions and red wines from the Beaujolais.
The company resulted from a visit to NZ in 1991 by Jean-Christophe Poizat who wanted to learn more about NZ wines. Jean-Christophe is the great-great-grandson of Antoine Vauron who in 1879 set up a wine merchant business in Saint Etienne, 50kms southwest of Lyon, the city scheduled to host the All Blacks last 2 pool games in the 2023 RWC.
Six months after arriving JC [as he is often called] would meet his future wife and then some years later, his business partners, Peter & Scott. The importance of family is central to Maison Vauron’s operation, with siblings of JC and Peter involved in the business, as are the partners of JC and Scott. Every year Maison Vauron likes to return to France to taste the wines and try the cheeses, meet their producers and most importantly, make new discoveries. This year, wine mentors, Jean-Christophe and Will are also attending the Rugby World Cup, hosted by France.
As a result of their absence, Scott [responsible for trade sales] has agreed to step up to the batting plate and will lead us through a tour of French vineyards that will reflect various grapes and wine styles.
Scott is well qualified to present these wines, as he previously trained for 11 years as a winemaker in the Bordeaux area of France.
France is about to destroy enough wine to fill more than 100 Olympic-size swimming pools. And it’s going to cost the nation about US$216 million (NZ$365m).
Ruining so much wine may sound ludicrous, but there’s a straightforward economic reason this is happening: Making wine is getting more expensive due in part to recent world events, and people are drinking less of it. That’s left some producers with a surplus that they can’t price low enough to make a profit. Now, some of France’s most famous wine-producing regions, like Bordeaux, are struggling.
In June, the European Union initially gave France about US$172m to destroy nearly 80 million gallons of wine, and the French government announced additional funds this week. Producers will use the funds to distil their wine into pure alcohol to be used for other products, like cleaning supplies or perfume.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told reporters that the money was “aimed at stopping prices collapsing and so that winemakers can find sources of revenue again”, according to Agence France-Presse.
The decline in wine consumption is not new, according to Olivier Gergaud, a professor of economics at France’s Kedge Business School who researches food and wine.
Wine consumption in France has been plummeting since its peak in 1926, when the average French citizen drank about 136 litres per year. Today, that number is closer to 40 litres, The Washington Post previously reported. Consumers are also inundated with beverage choices now, and they’re choosing wine less and less.
“We have an underlying issue of, ‘How do we better engage with the consumer and make wine more relevant, make wine a relevant choice for consumers that have a lot of options?'” said Stephen Rannekleiv, the global sector strategist for beverages at Rabobank, a Dutch financial firm specialising in agribusiness.
As consumption has taken a nosedive, production costs have increased and inflation has tightened budgets around the world. That’s especially true since the Covid-19 pandemic, which shuttered bars, restaurants and wineries, driving up prices. The war in Ukraine also influenced the industry by disrupting shipments of products essential to winemaking, like fertiliser and bottles. And on top of the pandemic and war, climate change is forcing growers to adapt to new harvest schedules and reckon with more extreme weather.
Costs are so high and demand is so low that some producers can’t turn a profit.
While this year’s subsidy is getting a lot of attention, the French government intervention is not a new phenomenon, according to Elizabeth Carter, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who has studied the French wine market.
“I am not vaguely at all surprised that France is looking to destroy surplus and prop up prices by limiting quantity, because this is something that they’ve actually been struggling with since the 19th century, wine overproduction,” Carter said.
She said there’s been an internal push-and-pull in France for decades as producers grapple with what quantity of grapes to grow and how much wine is too much. The nation has long regulated the wine market intensely, in some cases telling producers how many vines they can grow and how far apart they have to be, in an effort to prevent the market from being flooded.
So while this buyback program isn’t totally new, Gergaud said, he hopes the industry takes this moment to consider longer-term solutions.
“We need to think in terms of, you know, long-run adaptation to these changing conditions,” he said. “We need to help this market to transition to a better future, maybe with more wines that would respect the environment. Adaptation to climate change is a real challenge.”
And regardless of its current woes, wine is too strong a part of France’s identity for the market to go anywhere. It’s certainly in the government’s best interest to keep the industry happy: French President Emmanuel Macron has even said that a meal without wine “is a bit sad”.
French wine producer Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines has bought Central Otago vineyard Akarua Estate, which it hopes will eventually produce 60,000 bottles a year of premium organic pinot noir.
Bordeaux-based Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines received Overseas Investment Office approval to buy the 52-hectare estate, with 34.5ha of vines, in Central Otago’s Bannockburn, along with the Akarua Estate vineyard from New Zealand company the Skeggs Group.
Ariane de Rothschild, president of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which also owns Marlborough vineyard Rimapere, said the region’s soil was world-famous for its exceptional growing conditions for pinot noir.
She said that the terroir, or environment, at Bannockburn was on par with the Burgundy region in Eastern France.
“The addition of our second New Zealand winery is part of our wider strategy to develop a portfolio of premium international wines from exceptional terroirs.
“Central Otago’s international reputation for pinot noir provides a unique opportunity for us to complete our range and move into the production of organic wines – one of the fastest growing categories,” she said.
Winemaker Ann Escalle, who was technical director at Rimapere before moving to Akarua Estate, said the soil had all the elements they were looking for, and the slope was gentle enough for the vines to be able to develop well.
Akarua Estate vineyard in Central Otago has been sold to Bordeaux-based Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines.
The region’s climate was known for its hot and cold extremes, but the site was not too harsh. At the same time, it was dry and windy enough to keep diseases away.
“We think that what we have here at Akarua is really top potential, and we can bring it to the world. We would like to produce some of the best pinot noirs in the world because it’s possible,” she said.
The vineyard, which produced about 80% pinot noir along with small amounts of chardonnay and riesling, was not organic yet, but work was starting on converting it immediately.
When fully converted and organically certified, the vineyard would produce more than 60,000 bottles of organic wines annually for the international and domestic markets.
The soil had all the elements required, and the slope was gentle enough for the vines to be able to develop well, said Ann Escalle.
The wines would continue to be produced under the Akarua brand. The Akarua Estate vineyard was founded in 1996 by former Dunedin mayor Sir Clifford Skeggs.
Skeggs Group managing director David Skeggs said the new owners had significant global influence and networks and would bring new opportunities for the Central Otago wine industry.
The Skeggs Group would continue to produce its Rua brand from its 90 hectares of established vineyards in the Bannockburn and Pisa sub-regions.
The nine vineyards owned by Edmond de Rothschild Heritage in France, Spain, South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand produced 3.5 million bottles of wine a year.
The Jura is a wine-growing region in Eastern France, bordering Switzerland. It sits just to the east of Burgundy but feels a world apart in many ways.
Burgundy is arguably the epicentre of the “fine wine” world (although Bordeaux may have something to say about this), with a long history of monastic and aristocratic estates, tiny plots of globally treasured terroir, and today, massively inflated prices.
The Jura is historically associated with its agricultural traditions of the collective production of Comte cheese, its obscure oxidised wines matured under a veil of yeast and left in barrels for literally years (much like a very cold climate dry sherry), and perhaps for its particular mountain-country style moonshine.
Or, just as likely, it was the admittedly very picturesque backcountry region you passed through on your way to skiing in the Alps. Until 20 years ago, it would be fair to say that most people in France, let alone the rest of the world, barely thought of this quiet, seemingly isolated region as much more than an oddity of the wine world.
But after a week spent tasting the region’s wines and visiting its winemakers, the transformation is startling. Both in terms of the wines being made here and, even more so, the wine world’s perception of the region.
I spent the first two days of my stay at Le Nez dans le Vert (the name translates literally as Nose in the Green, but is a play on Nose in the Glass, with a wink to organics), a wine fair featuring a line-up of many of the best organic wine producers of the region.
Since all of the stars of the region farm organically, that means, in practical terms, that is really a collection of simply the region’s best wines.
This is part of the region’s transformation and the attention it is now receiving. Small, determined, and very hands-on family-run estates committed to laborious viticulture, have shone a spotlight on the incredible potential of the region’s unique soils and its cold climate to produce astounding and nuanced wines.
NACHO DOMÃNGUEZ ARGENTA/UNSPLASH “After a week there, I’m convinced the wines of this region are among the best being made anywhere.”
While this is also true of changes in many grape-growing regions over the last couple of decades, the underlying factor in the Jura is they are exceptionally blessed in terms of “terroir”, and much of its potential is yet to be discovered.
When I first attended Le Nez dans le Vert around a decade ago, the wines were already great, but as a buyer, you always felt you could largely give or take what you wanted. This time, as I visited winemakers, I met buyers, journalists and wine fans from Munich, Amsterdam, Rome, London, New York, Tokyo and Seoul.
The global thirst for Jura wines is seemingly unquenchable. Somewhat victims of their own success, many of the winemakers at the tasting spent much of their time apologetically explaining why they couldn’t sell wine to new clients. Demand now greatly outruns supply.
I’m pretty sceptical about hype in the wine world; for whatever reason, it’s a business that seems to invite hyperbole, but after a week there, I’m convinced the wines of this region are among the best being made anywhere.
And there’s plenty to say they are going to get even better. I’ve met many exciting, driven young winemakers making their first wines for every “star” of the region whose wines and vineyards I was looking forward to visiting before I got here.
Some locals and others from all corners of the globe came to the region to work for and learn from the trailblazing generation before them, who are now putting down roots in the Juracian soil and pushing even further forward.
Much like its wines, the region is charged with energy and life today. As much as there are many reasons for optimism for the region’s future, especially if, like me, you find yourself seduced by its wines, there are twin menaces on the horizon.
The first is the effect of climate change. In one sense, the general warming of the planet is something that has driven interest in traditionally cooler regions like the mountainous Jura. But with it, global warming has also brought unpredictable and dramatic weather events. The 2021 vintage in Jura was hit with a double blow of heavy frosts in early spring, killing off much of the early season growth, and then weeks of rain throughout the summer, creating significant problems with mildew and odium.
BIG DODZY/UNSPLASH “After a week there, I’m convinced the wines of this region are among the best being made anywhere.” In New Zealand, we’re lucky to have a few key importers bringing in some of the best producers from the Jura.
Winemakers have recounted losses of production of up to 85%. The financial pressure that creates is very difficult to bear for a region based on small family-run farms. Similar climatic events have menaced several of the last decade’s harvests.
The cruel irony is that just as the hard-earned attention of the wine world has turned to Jura, the hard-working winemakers have nowhere near enough wine to satisfy that demand and finally see financial returns on years of commitment and investment.
Although it was alarming to see up close, I was aware of the problems with yield from conversations with friends and winemakers before my trip. What I hadn’t expected was the effect of the global wine market on the region, or more specifically, on the access of the region’s wines to wine lovers.
I encountered many stories of Jura wine bottles 10-15 years ago that was easily accessible to anyone but are now being traded on grey markets at prices in excess of 1000 euros a bottle. Speculation is a menace for genuinely interested consumers and winemakers who are still selling their wine for more or less the same low prices as they have for years in the hope their wines end up in the glasses of enthusiastic wine lovers.
As small artisan producers are struggling to keep going in the face of diminished yields, speculators are making fortunes and inflating the market beyond the reach of most. It seems anathema to the spirit of this wild, strange and beautiful region. And again, I’m reminded that Burgundy is so close by.
In New Zealand, we’re lucky to have a few key importers bringing in some of the best producers from the Jura. As befits this off-centre region, it’s tricky to recommend specific wines, as availability is complicated. Best try tracking these wines down either directly through their importers or at one of the following switched-on wine bars or restaurants.
In Auckland, try out Star Superette or their affiliated restaurant Bar Celeste, both on Karangahape Rd, or take a trip to Cave a Vin on the North Shore. In Wellington, the restaurant Highwater or wine bar Puffin are good ports of call if you want an introduction to Jura wine. Gatherings in Christchurch are a good starting point for those curious about Jura wines in the South Island.
Maison Vauron is the New Zealand importer of cult southern Jura winemaker J-F Ganevat and also of the trailblazing Domaine Tissot, who makes stellar oxidative wines. Domaine du Pelican is the Jura project of the esteemed Burgundy producer Guillaume d’Angerville, based on their purchase of the estate of the “Pope of the Jura” Jacques Puffeney. In New Zealand, their wines are imported by Peter Maude Fine Wines.
Domaine Bottes Rouges are one of the many new ambitious producers of the region. Their wines are imported to New Zealand by Wine Diamonds.
Contact any of the above to find out what Jura gems are available and where to find them.
What a great turnout for our Trifecta event from the Hawkes Bay vineyards!
This event was well attended by Club members, plus we had four guests attend. There were eight wines to sample for the evening, plus the owner Peter Robertson was there to let us in on some of his planting/vineyard secrets.
Peter explained to us how he started his wine career working for McWilliams making a rose spritzer that they used to export to Fiji! Times have certainly changed as have tasted in the 21st century.
2022 Fiesta Rose – a Syrah dominant variety, floral with strawberry and melon on the tongue
2022 Robertson Pinot Gris – this variety was from Brother John of Mission wines who introduced Peter to a 15-year-old bottle of this Pinot!
2021 Bergman Chardonnay – named after the Ingrid Bergman roses on their property. A more modern style rather than the heavy buttery style of old
2021 Barrique Fermented Viognier – surprisingly smooth in the mouth with fresh mineral notes
2021 Back Block Syrah – this variety had its first vintage in 2000, spicy and this is their biggest-selling wine!
2020 Ohiti Estate Cabernet Sauvignon – light and spicy but smooth with a year in old oak
2021 Hillside Syrah – actually grown on land that Peter was invited to use to grow grapes. Woody but smooth in the mouth.
2019 Reserve Vintage Gold Label Cabernet Merlot – a Bordeaux style wine, black fruits with subtle spice, this is wine is closed with the traditional cork stopper.
Our thanks go to Peter for his generous support for the Club, and to members for their support through the volume of sales.
The main types of wine include red, white, rosé, sparkling, and fortified and dessert wines.
Exploring new wines can help expand your palette and knowledge of drinks to pair with different dishes.
Grapes from all over the world give wines a range of flavours from fruity to oaky to dry.
Wine types vary and each style has a distinct taste that suits different people’s preferences. d3sign/Getty Images
Humans have produced and enjoyed wine for over 8000 years, so it stands to reason that this grape-based beverage would be easy and stress-free to enjoy, right?
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Wine education covers a great deal of information, from grape types to geographic regions to flavour profiles. While some drinkers love to geek out to the nuances and details of this subject, others can feel a bit overwhelmed when they walk into a wine shop.
While there’s no limit to the amount of information that you can learn, a few basic guidelines will help direct your shopping experience and allow you to get your hands on a bottle that suits your tastes and preferences.
As vast as the world of wine is, most wines can be classified into five main categories: red, white, rosé, sparkling, and fortified and dessert wines. Below, you’ll find a rundown of these categories, with a breakdown of 28 popular variety types.
To offer some expert insight, we’ve enlisted sommelier and wine educator Caroline Conner who teaches online courses to wine lovers seeking to enhance their knowledge and broaden their wine-related horizons.
Why is it important to know about different types of wine?
“The best way to learn about wine is to approach it like learning a language,” says Conner. “You can DIY it, but without lots of real-life practice, it’s hard to get anywhere.” Knowing what you’re tasting and why can help you along your wine journey in a number of ways:
Developing your palate: You may have heard the term “palate” tossed around by wine drinkers in the past, but it really just refers to a sense of taste, which can be developed by simply tasting. The more flavours you experience, the more sophisticated your palate will become because you’ll understand how taste elements differ from each other and how they work together to create unforgettable flavours.
Discovering food and wine pairings: Wine and food are a natural match for each other, and when you figure out which wines taste best with which dishes (according to your own palate), then you can take your meals to the next level.
Gaining a global perspective on wine: As corny as it sounds, you really can “travel the world” by tasting wines from different countries, continents, and regions. Learning about the climate and soil conditions of a particular country can help you understand how the wines from that nation develop their flavours. Paying attention to common wine and food pairings from that country will clue you in on how best to enjoy the bottles you purchase.
How to talk about wine
Because flavours are so subjective, it’s easy to dismiss wine-tasting terms as pretentious and less-than-useful. However, understanding a few basic phrases can give you all the vocabulary you need to describe the wines you enjoy (and the ones that you don’t). To get you started, here are a few commonly-used wine words:
Dry: “Dry” essentially translates to “not sweet”. Dry wines don’t contain residual sugar from the fermentation process (or, if they do, it’s in a very low quantity).
Off-dry: An off-dry wine features a small amount of residual sugar, which gives it a gentle sweetness. The French term for off-dry, “demi-sec,” is also frequently used in wine tastings and on bottle labels.
Sweet: A sweet wine — also known as a dessert wine — contains significant amounts of residual sugar and has a pronounced sweetness in its flavour.
Oaky: Many red wines and certain white wines undergo a process of ageing in oak barrels, and said barrels impart a woodsy, toasty flavour to the wine. The more time the wine spends in the oak barrels, the stronger the “oaky” flavour will become.
Full-bodied: This is a term generally used to describe red wines, and it refers to both the flavour of the wine and to its texture. A full-bodied wine boasts rich, complex flavours, a robust texture that coats your mouth and tongue, and (in most cases) a higher alcohol content than a light-bodied or medium-bodied wine.
Tannins/Tannic: Tannins are natural compounds found in wine grapes (particularly in the skins of said grapes). These compounds affect the texture of the wine in the mouth; the drying sensation that you may experience when drinking a glass of red wine comes from tannins. Tannins exist in both white and red wines, but because red wines are produced and aged with the grape skins still in contact, the tannic structure of red wines tends to be more prominent.
Grape: The vast majority of wines produced worldwide use grapes as their core ingredient. Wine grapes differ from “table grapes” designed for eating; they’re typically smaller, juicier, and more acidic. Most wine grapes are of the Vitis vinifera species, a style of grape specifically cultivated for wine production.
Style: Some wines are named after the style of grape used to make them; “Chardonnay”, “Cabernet Sauvignon”, and “Pinot Noir” are all examples of grapes that often lend their names to their wines. However, some wines take their names from the regions where they’re produced. French wines are especially notable for this pattern: “Champagne”, “Bordeaux”, and “Burgundy” all fit into the “wines named after regions” theme.
Now that you know how to talk about it, let’s get into the wines themselves. Below are many of the most popular wine styles you’ll find in stores and at restaurants, along with a few underrated gems.
Red Wines
Merlot
Cabernet Sauvignon is a very popular red wine, while a merlot offers a softer taste. Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
Merlot is a red grape that’s grown throughout Europe, South America, Africa, Australia, and the United States. According to Conner, “some of the greatest wines in the world” are Merlots. “It’s plummy and juicy, and a bit softer than Cabernet [Sauvignon], which it is often blended with,” she says. It tastes delicious alongside charcuterie boards, roasted vegetables, and even cheeseburgers.
Cabernet Sauvignon
Like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon can grow in a wide variety of regions and is, therefore, an easy bottle to scoop up at any wine shop. As for flavour, Cabernet Sauvignon is full-bodied and dry. “Cabernet Sauvignon is ‘bigger’ than Merlot, and it has lots of tannins, which are those chewy, drying particles in reds,” says Conner. “It’s wildly popular and you can find stunning examples all over the world.”
Pinot Noir
“Pinot Noir is widely loved because it’s one of the rare lighter reds, but has tons of flavour and complexity,” says Conner. “It’s most famously from Burgundy, but there’s great Pinot all over the place, like in Oregon, New Zealand, and even Germany.” But she does warn that these wines can be fairly pricey: “Pinot is picky and fickle, it’s prone to disease and only thrives in certain climates. You have to be a good winemaker to make the best of it, in any conditions! That’s why it’s so prized, because when it’s good, it’s good, and the winemaker took these grapes from the right place, treated them right, and made them sing.”
Syrah/Shiraz
Wines made with this red grape can claim two names, depending on where the grapes are grown and where the wines are produced. In the Rhȏne Valley region of France, these wines are called Syrah, but in Australia, they’re known as Shiraz. In both cases, you’ll find a rich, deeply-hued red wine with strong dark-berry notes and high tannins.
Zinfandel
Like Syrah/Shiraz, the Zinfandel grape produces “big” red wines with lots of stage presence. Notes of dark fruit, tobacco, and leather are common when tasting Zinfandels. It’s a popular grape in California vineyards (and most Zinfandel is indeed grown in the Golden State), but you can also find it in Italy, South Africa, and New Zealand.
Gamay
The Gamay grape is perhaps best known as the primary grape used to make Beaujolais. Made in France, Beaujolais wines are beloved for their light texture, high acidity, low tannins, and bright fruit flavours. Every November, the first release of Beaujolais bottles (known as “Beaujolais Nouveau”) makes a huge splash in the wine market both in the U.S. and abroad.
Sangiovese
If you’ve ever enjoyed a glass of Chianti at an Italian restaurant, then you’ve experienced the Sangiovese grape. This purple-red grape produces many styles of wine made throughout Italy, all notable for their medium body, high tannins, red fruit flavours, and hints of spice. If you need a wine to pour at a red-sauce dinner, then Sangiovese will do you right.
White Wines
Chardonnay
Some well-known white wines include Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Albariño. Mykhailo Lukashuk/Getty Images
“Chardonnay is a true winemaker’s grape; it can really do it all,” says Conner. “A lot of people think they don’t like it because all they’ve tried is their mom’s oak-bomb, buttered-popcorn ’90s Chardonnay. This style still exists, but it’s not very trendy anymore, so it’s easy to find Chards with less oak, more fruit, and more balance. Try Chablis from France if you want to taste a spectacular unoaked Chardonnay.”
Sauvignon Blanc
This white grape famously makes lightweight wines with clean acidity and pronounced fruitiness. “Sauvignon Blanc is all about that fruit,” says Conner. “It has two main styles: the super-intense version with passion fruit aromas coming out of New Zealand, and the more restrained, grassy French style from Sancerre. There are great Sauvignon Blancs from Chile and the USA too.”
Riesling
White grapes are typically easier to grow in cooler climates than red grapes, and Riesling, which originally hails from Germany, serves as a prime example. Riesling wine is highly versatile; it can be sweet, dry, still, sparkling, and anything in between. Its fruity, floral flavours tend to pair well with white meat, fish, and anything spicy.
Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris
Known as Pinot Grigio in Italy and Pinot Gris in France, this white grape makes a highly approachable and popular wine with citrus notes, zingy acidity, and a pleasant undercurrent of minerality. Alongside a platter of fresh seafood or a cheese plate, Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris truly shines.
Gewürztraminer
The Gewürztraminer grape is native to Germany, and wines made with it tend to feature fruit flavours like apricot and pear, along with herbaceous notes. In the US, Gewürztraminer proves especially popular at Thanksgiving, thanks to the fact that the wine’s gentle fruit and herbal aromas pair perfectly with turkey, stuffing, and all of the fixings.
Chenin Blanc
Commonly grown in the Loire Valley of France and in South Africa, the Chenin Blanc grape translates to a white wine that’s light-bodied, appealingly tart, and easy to pair with a variety of dishes. Try it with soft cow’s milk cheeses like brie or with grilled or roasted veggies.
Albariño
If you’re a fan of Sauvignon Blanc but want a white wine with even more fruit presence, then Albariño, a wine style native to Spain, could be perfect for you. Albariño is a medium-bodied white, which means it works very well as a food wine. Pair it with shellfish, white meat, or an entrée salad.
Rosé
Rosé wine is made by removing skins from red grapes. Dulin/Getty Images
Contrary to popular belief, most rosé wines aren’t made by combining white grape juice with red grape juice. Instead, they’re made by removing the skins from red grapes after a brief period of time, resulting in a wine that’s light, refreshing, and a pretty shade of pink.
Provençal Rosé
Some rosés are made with only one type of red grape, but many — like the mega-popular, super-refreshing pale-pink rosés that come from Provençe, France — come from a blend of grapes. Conner urges us to embrace blended wines like Provençal rosés: “I think that blends are underrated,” she says. “Many of the famous European wines are blends, and all the better for it! Blending is part of the art of winemaking, and especially with climate change disrupting vineyards, it will continue to be important in order to achieve balanced wines.”
Zinfandel Rosé
Zinfandel rosés got a bad rap for many years due to the perception of “White Zinfandel” as overly sweet and not especially nuanced. However, you can now find plenty of quality Zinfandel rosés on the market, and many feature a delicate sweetness that makes them a great partner for BBQ dishes or grilled salmon.
Grenache Rosé
Grenache is one of the grapes most commonly used in the Provençal rosé blend, but you can also find rosés made solely from this red grape. Grenache rosés burst with summery fruit flavours like strawberry and watermelon, and they’re delicious with Caprese salads, grilled eggplant, and Mediterranean fare.
Sangiovese Rosé
Italian “Rosato” wine often comes from the Sangiovese grape, which gives this varietal a darker hue than some competitors and makes it a robust and spicy wine with plenty of red fruit flavour. There’s no better partner for Sangiovese rosé than pizza (especially grilled pizza).
Tempranillo Rosé
Spanish Tempranillo (also grown in the US and South America) has an almost savoury quality to it, which gives this medium-bodied rosé an advantage where food friendliness is concerned. Enjoy it with anything from grilled meats to tacos to seafood to Spanish classics.
Sparkling Wines
Champagne
Champagne isn’t the only type of sparkling wine — there’s also Crémant, prosecco, cava, and Lambrusco. Yulia Naumenko/Getty Images
Some drinkers use “Champagne” as a catch-all term for “sparkling wine,” but the only wines that can truly claim the Champagne name must be produced in the Champagne region of France from grapes grown there. You can use white grapes to make a Champagne (called a “blanc des blancs”) or red grapes (a “blanc des noir”), but either way, you’ll end up with a phenomenal bottle packed with citrus notes, a bit of yeastiness, and a prominent fizz.
Crémant
Not all sparkling wines produced in France fall into the Champagne category. If a wine is made using the same techniques as Champagne but isn’t from the Champagne region, then it’s known as a Crémant. Crémants boast many of the same flavour characteristics as Champagne, but they can often be purchased at a far lower price, making them one of the best bargains in the wine world.
Prosecco
These once-obscure sparkling wines of Venice now claim a major share in the wine market, and these Italian sparklers are bright, crisp, fresh, and very reasonably priced. Drink with a cheese and charcuterie board for a great start to a fun evening.
Cava
Cava, the sparkling wine most closely associated with Spain, uses the same production process as Champagne, but it’s made with a different range of grapes. The result is a dry and lively wine with a pleasant minerality — an almost flinty taste that comes from the soil where the grapes are grown. In fact, this minerality makes Cava a smart pairing choice for creamy dishes and sauces, since the wine has enough fortitude to cut through those weightier ingredients.
Lambrusco
All of the sparklers listed above are whites — even the Champagnes that are made from red grapes. But you can also find sparkling reds, a great example of which is a Lambrusco. Lambrusco comes from Italy and is made from grapes of the same name. It can be either sweet or dry, but all versions have a relatively light body and a potent fizziness that makes it a whimsical choice for pizza or pasta night.
Fortified and dessert wines
Port
Fortified and dessert wines include Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Moscato. Westend61/Getty Images
One of the most popular sweet wines on the market, Port takes its name from its country of origin, Portugal. It’s a fortified wine, which means that it has a distilled spirit added to it, upping its alcohol content. Port comes in four different varieties: Ruby (a red Port), Tawny (a barrel-aged Port), White (a Port made with white grapes), and Rosé (a Port made the same way a typical rosé wine would be made). Bold cheeses, BBQ with a sweeter glaze, and, of course, desserts all pair beautifully with Port.
Sherry
Like Port, Sherry qualifies as a fortified wine. It comes from the Andalusia region of Spain, and while all Sherry undergoes some level of ageing, darker versions (like Oloroso Sherry and Amontillado Sherry) spend more time in the barrel than lighter versions (like Fino Sherry). Sherry can be drier than other fortified wines, which gives it more food flexibility. It works just as well with an appetizer spread as it does with dessert.
Madeira
Madeira, a fortified wine from a Portuguese island off the coast of Africa, bears many similarities to Port and Sherry. It often features nutty flavours and a hint of caramel, along with fruit notes like orange and peach.
Moscato
A sweet Italian wine made from the Muscat Blanc grape, Moscato can be either still, sparkling, or semi-sparkling (with a lighter level of effervescence). The most popular Moscato, known as Moscato d’Asti, falls into the latter category. Moscato’s pronounced but not overwhelming sweetness lets it pair nicely with spicy dishes, savoury cheeses, and fruit-based desserts.
Insider’s takeaway
At the end of the day, a “good wine” is any wine that you enjoy. Spending serious bucks on high-end bottles isn’t necessary for a great tasting experience, but a bit of know-how will help simplify your shopping and will increase your chances of ending up with a wine that’s exactly what you want to drink.
While up in the Hawkes Bay for FAWC during Queens Birthday weekend, as well as attending the Fun Do evening [read Fondue!], we visited the Abbey Winery and Brewery – an excellent choice too!
Abbey Winery and Brewery lies in the Bridge Pa Triangle of Hawkes Bay on the old Ngaruroro riverbed. From these red meal alluvial soils, Abbey Cellars produces world-class wines from a wide range of varietals. As a single estate winery, they use only what they grow themselves to create their wines.
Reserve a group table at the Abbey kitchen for tasting & dining
When you go there, you can enjoy a flight of four wines [75ml each] for $15. Our choice was:
2018 Reisling – diesel on the nose; lime on the palate; dry on the back of the mouth; better at room temperature than chilled as it opens up on your taste buds.
2020 Rose’ – Malbec and Franc mixture – jubes on the nose; smooth red berries on the tongue; dry after taste but not unpleasant; pleasant pink colour
2019 Envy Carmenere [originally planted in the Medoc region of Bordeaux, a member of the Cabernet family of grapes] – named for its crimson colour [really dark red], 12 months in French Oak; dry on the nose, slightly smokey too; dry to taste with leather coming through; black pepper at the back of the throat – food makes this wine really smooth to drink
2019 Temptation Malbec – 12 months in French oak, smooth, dry on the nose and at the back of the throat, cloves on the tongue; dark red colour – add food, and you get black pepper at the back of the throat, and the nose intensifies
This place was well worth the stop, both for the wine tasting, wine purchase and the food.
I would recommend putting it on people’s itinerary when up in the Bay.
Chateau Margaux dates from 1812; the property, now owned by Corinne Mentzelopoulos, has been a wine estate since the 18th century.
When her father died in 1980, Corinne Mentzelopoulos inherited a business empire that included 1600 grocery stores, 80 buildings in central Paris, a hotel that was once the home of Louis XIV-and a run-down vineyard the family had purchased almost on a whim three years earlier.
Today, the vineyard has made her a billionaire. It’s Chateau Margaux, one of just a handful of properties that can claim the prized Premier Cru designation bestowed by Napoleon III in 1855 upon Bordeaux’s very best terroirs for making wine.
Kiwis are drinking their red wines too warm and our whites too cold, according to expert sommeliers.
Refrigeration leaves white too cold, and chances are red is too warm in the current summer weather.
Wellington wine bar Noblerot served its wines at a range of temperatures according to the varietal; the prime range for red wine was between 18 and 22 degrees.
Noblerot Chef Joshua Dodd with co-owner and sommelier Maciej Zimny
Co-owner and sommelier Maciej Zimny said lighter, fruitier reds, such as pinot noir, lent themselves to being chilled to the bottom of that range.
During warmer summer weather, Zimny recommended chilling red wine from up to 10 minutes before serving, which would reduce the temperature by between three and five degrees.
“When you taste the wine, at a lower temperature it seems complete,” he said.
“Even when it’s slightly colder that it should be it will provide much more pleasure.”
That’s because of the alcoholic smell was exaggerated when it was warm, which was unappetising, according sommelier at Auckland’s French Cafe, Stephanie Guth.
She said. however, the sight of a chilled red wine was odd for customers.
“You want to do it justice but it’s such a weird thing for people to see, red wine in an ice bucket, even though you know it might benefit from it,” Guth said.
Twenty minutes in an ice-bucket before opening and drinking might help to boost the flavour in a pinot noir.
“The more complex the wine you have, the warmer it should be served,” Zimny said, referring to rich red wines such as merlot or Bordeaux varietals.
Conversely white wine should be served chilled, however complex oaky chardonnays should be served slightly warmer than other whites.
So chardonnay’s flavours lent better to slightly warmer temperatures than sauvignon blanc, about 14 degrees as opposed to 10 degrees, because it was important to make sure oak flavours were prominent.
Pinot noir and chardonnay hailed from the Burgundy region of France, and both were classically stored in the same cellar under the same conditions. He said wines have either been served too warm or too cold since the invention of refrigerators.
Cellar temperature was perceived as something quite different to what was initially intended, room temperature, Guth said.
Leaving white wine to warm up slightly released flavours hidden by colder temperatures.
“It doesn’t harm the wine but you tend to get a little more out of the aromas.”
The only reason one should drink a bottle straight out of the fridge was “if you don’t want to taste your wine”, she said.
Dear fellow member of the New Zealand Wine Community,
Are you interested in the trip of a lifetime that truly celebrates the art and culture of wine?
Then join us and Explore Bordeaux like never before Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Sauternes, Médoc and Margaux are but a handful of the appellations that make Bordeaux wines world famous. At the heart of this legendary region, the city of Bordeaux invites visitors to savour its grand architecture, tempting cafés and superb museums. Celebrate joie de vivre in this land of wine and oysters, truffles and cognac, as you cruise the Dordogne, Garonne and Gironde Rivers.
We have been given the opportunity to put together a group of wine lovers from New Zealand and send them on a journey never to forget.
Viking River Cruises is one of the most amazing river cruising companies in Europe whose amenities, service and itineraries are second to none. The Chateaux, Rivers and Wine cruise will take you on a journey into the depth of Bordeaux with an opportunity to enter into the most stunning venues and experiences.
As we are creating a group booking this will give us access to the best discounted prices available, which will include the cruise package which we have an unbeatable group rate combined with the option of return Airfares to and from Europe for $550 per person. We will also have some fantastic options if you wish to extend your journey and see some more of Europe.
This will be taking place in July 2017 if you think that this maybe something of interest to yourself or any of your colleagues, please let me know.
Should you have any further questions or would like to receive some brochure’s in the mail, please don’t hesitate to contact us on either 0800 625 427 or at newplymouth@cruiseabout.co.nz.
A very enjoyable tasting We had a great evening and Ben Coles was a relaxed and entertaining presenter. The wines were more than pleasant and members were keen to make orders. Yet another top tasting, to repeat the wines offered;
