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. Scroll down to view the website.
Kevin presented to us, with his views on the Marlborough history of wine growing, supplying and the present, as well as his predictions for the future of the area. All very informative and well received, leading to more than a bit of discussion by the members present. An intriguing evening of information and wine tasting.
A reminder of the tastings we had during the evening:
Riverby Rosé 2023 – Welcome wine – gold medal winner at NZ International Wine Show
Cicada Gewurztraminer 2023 – gold medal winner at NZ International Wine Show
Riverby Reserve Chardonnay 2022
Riverby Sauvignon Blanc 2023 – gold medal winner at NZ International Wine Show
Riverby Gruner Veltliner 2022
Riverby OVB 2021
Riverby Reserve Pinot Noir 2020
Riverby Noble Riesling 2019 – multiple award winner.
As well as the above, we were offered a small tasting of two of Riverby’s Rieslings:
Sal’s Block Riesling 2023 – this was a dri-ish tipple with 20gm of sugar
Eliza Riesling 2023 [blend of Riesling and sweet grapes] with 40gm of sugar
Both well received, depending on how sweet you like your wines. Kevin mentioned that most of his Rieslings go to the Scandinavian countries in Europe.
This tasting was clearly enjoyed, as evidenced by the 141 bottles ordered from Kevin. Well done.
www.pegasusbay.com Wednesday 13 March, 8 pm Door Price: Members $16 / Guests $20 PLEASE REMEMBER YOUR GLASSES
The Family, mmersed in the wine industry since the early 1970s and were pioneers of local grape growing and wine making.
The Donaldson family have been seriously involved in wine since the early 1970’s and were pioneers of local grape growing and wine making.
Associate Professor and Consultant Neurologist, Ivan Donaldson, first became interested in wine when his girlfriend at the time, Christine, gave him a book simply called ‘Wine’, penned by English industry legend, Hugh Johnson.
After travelling to explore the wine regions of Europe, Ivan return home to plant one of the first vineyards of modern times in Canterbury, and to marry Christine, who has been an integral part of the Pegasus Bay story.
The first vineyard was a hobby with Ivan making wine in the garage at home on the weekends. In-between seeing patients at his private practice in the evening and after his shifts at the public hospital. He also started writing a wine column in the local newspaper and was a judge in numerous wine shows around the globe.
By the mid-1980s Ivan and Chris had decided there was definitely a future for wine making in Canterbury. They went on to plant Pegasus Bay with the help of their four sons, who have all ended up working in key role within the business.
Ed will be presenting a selection of wines from their premium Pegasus Bay label as well as some from their Main Divide collection:
Main Divide Rosé 2023
Pegasus Bay 2021 Sauvignon Blanc
Pegasus Bay 2020 Chardonnay
Pegasus Bay 2023 Bel Canto ‘Dry Riesling’
Main Divide 2021 Te Hau Pinot Noir
Pegasus Bay 2020 Merlot Cabernet
Pegasus Bay 2021 Finale ‘Noble Semillon Sauvignon Blanc
You’ll all remember the article I published on the Granite Belt in the August edition of our Cellar Club Newsletter, of course. The Granite Belt has over 50 wineries, from boutique producers through to award-winning estates – along with breweries and distilleries [for vodka and gin].
Well, I decided it would be a great break to go see what it was actually like.
This holiday was a little tempered when the area in Brisbane had a series of fires start in early November just before we were due to go. So, we tracked them as best we could via the internet, plus were in contact with the locals [via email]. The locals confirmed the fires were out in their area before we departed New Zealand shores.
The damage done by the fires was quite apparent as we got close to the Granite Belt, which is between 900 – 1,000m above sea level. Both sides of the road were scorched in places, and the railway line that [did] run through Granite Belt territory was completely charred. They use untreated timber in Australia and treat the rails with creosote to preserve it! Fuel to burn there.
On the way to the Granite Belt area, we stopped at the Summer Lane Camel Farm. Nice, and a different place to have morning tea, buy gifts and experience camels, if you’ve never had this experience.
On the Friday evening when we arrived in the Granite Belt, our first stop was at Balancing Heart Vineyard, a short drive from the town of Ballandean, with the backdrop of Girraween National Park. We indulged in a tasting flight and one of their woodfired pizzas – well worth it. They were welcoming and had a relaxed approach at the end of the day.
Balancing Heart Vineyard
Blanc de Blanc – blend of their chardonnays
Verdello – soft, pineappley taste, dry on palate
Rosé – cherries on the tongue and nose
While we were enjoying our time at the vineyard, we could walk along the vines and see the naturally occurring balancing rocks. These were throughout the area and are huge! You could slightly smell the smell of ash or burnt wood in the air, but as they’d had four days of rain before we arrived, the odour wasn’t that strong at all.
Well worth a visit, taste wise and visually.
Saturday, and our second vineyard was Ravencroft Vineyard, which is a boutique vineyard and small batch winery, founded by award-winning winemaker Mark Ravenscroft. The new owners had worked with Mark for three years to get a good transfer of knowledge and skill. All wines are made on-site with minimal intervention and additives.
We joined in with other visitors and did a full tasting:
Verdelho 2022 – very gentle on both nose and taste
Vermintino 2022 – really lemony [their crop wasn’t very good that year, so they imported the grapes from Chalmers in Victoria]
Skin Contact Fiano 2022 – smooth with honey and fruit on the tongue [this is a Naples variety]
Reserve Chardonnay 2021 – it had eight months in oak, and was lovely
Rose Sangiovese – dry Italian style, smooth, could alter with food [Tuscany variety] had added Fiano and Vermentino to boost flavour
Nero d’Avola 2022 – light and grassy – would go great with pizza on a Friday night [Chile variety]
Reserve Petite Verdot – aged in old oak barrels, you can taste mushrooms/ earthiness, smooth and dry.
2022 Cherry Bomb – total cherry nose, smooth, dry, nice cherry flavours on the tongue
Pinotage Waagee 2021 – smooth, dry, fruity, lemony bite at the end as it goes down.
Would recommend a visit, to relax in the atmosphere and taste their wines.
That same day, while it’s not a vineyard, it’s well worth going for a meal at Varias Restaurant & Fine Training facility, training the staff of the future. Their menu reads like a tantalising travelogue of the Granite Belt’s finest food producers. We had the two-course option at $59 per head, plus wines of course:
Sparkling Marsaane – pear, citrus and honey esp. honey, went magnificently with the pork belly entrée’
2023 Verdelho – pears on the nose and palate [John’s wine for the whole meal]
Tempranillo 2023 bronze medal Qld Awards – soft tannins, dry finish, white pepper, red fruit, went well with the Main of brisket with broccalini, pumpkin, greens beans and the best road potatoes.
Dessert was Lemon meringue pie with Raspberry ice cream.
This establishment would be the equivalent to the Whitireia & Weltec Hospitality Campus we’ve been to as a Club in Cuba Street. Well balanced and thought-out meals and wine combinations. Located at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism, this restaurant is all about celebrating seasonal produce year-round.
Then on Sunday, we had what was the most comprehensive wine tasting of the week in the Granite Belt, at Ballandean Estate Wines. Ballandean Estate is Queensland’ oldest operating winery family-owned and operated by the Puglisi family since 1932.
This is a single-vineyard, cool climate made-with-love wine establishment, with Shiraz from 50-year- old vines, as well as their ‘Strange Bird’ varietals.
We had booked in for one of their tastings, hosted by their wine educators. Their tasting came six limited release wines served with a gourmet platter, to complement the tasting. The platter turned out to be a meal in itself! When you arrive at the Estate, you go through to their Barrelroom Wine Lounge.
Must add in that they had a disability path, as well as their main steps, into them establishment. Handy if you are disabled, but perhaps mostly handy on the way out?
Ballandean Estate is one of the vineyards in the Belt that grow ‘Strange Bird’ wines. Strange Bird wines are rare, alternative varieties that represent less than one per cent of Australian vines – albarino (also known as alvarine), chenin blanc, cortese, fiano, gewurztraminer, gros and petit manseng, gruner veltliner, malvasia, marsanne, roussane and savagnin. While we didn’t taste all of these, we certainly tried a few.
Monday night we dined at Granite Belt Brewery. On the way up their driveway, driving past the vines, we saw kangeroos grazing the vines, with joeys in their pouches, so special. They weren’t bothered by us, but were keeping an eye on us, as we’d stopped the car for the photo opportunity. The Brewers is Stanthorpe’s premier brewers, crafting delicious beers and ciders since 2012. They use the local water supply, as well as the finest malts, hops and yeast.
It wasn’t a busy night for the restaurant, but it was about half full, and while they were focussed on craft beer the food and wine was fabulous. Everything was of course overwhelmed by the thunder and lightning storm that hit sometime before we were to leave to go back to our accommodation. Driving back-country roads without the sky full of stars to guide you [besides the GPS], was a little dodgy, so the valley-wide lightening was quite helpful!
OTHER things we enjoyed seeing during our stay was their Mt Marlay lookout – don’t walk up to it! There is an 8% gradient to get up that particular piece of road – drive!
Go and find their pyramid – a local farmer got overwhelmed by the number of smaller granite rocks on his property and constructed a 17m high pyramid with them! Quite impressive and good photo opportunity, though you can’t get into the field now, selfie still looks pretty cool.
Viewing their giant thermometer is fun too. The Belt is the only area in Queensland that usually gets snow every winter. They’re fully equipped and operational during their Winters for visitors.
They have their own Granite Belt Christmas Tree Farm, which was so much fun! This runs from Oct-Feb of each year. We were there in the last week of November, and it was packed! As well as rolling up to pick your own tree, getting it cut down, then using their tree wrap machine(!) there was a huge barn set up for all sorts of artificial trees and larger decorations, a smaller building with shop full of smaller decorations, plus morning tea supplies and gelato – we tried Christmas cake gelato and Kinder gelato. Both passed the test. Again, would recommend if you’re there at that time. Go to Sutton’s Juice Factory & Cidery – they are famous for their apple pie, and their steak pies are pretty good to! We indulged in both.
There were two places that we wouldn’t recommend, as the experience we were anticipating simply didn’t happen:
Hidden Creek, whose website we had checked 2-3 times before we got to it, to see if we could breakfast there. According to their website this was ok, but on getting to their vineyard, not so:
Robert Channon Wines was off-hand and disorganised. Not welcoming to the point that even though their vineyard had an ‘Open’ sign out at the gate, no-one was around, facilities were semi- closed and the only person we saw ran away!
Despite the above two businesses, we had a delightful time, met interesting and informative people and tasted some great wines. Would recommend paying a visit to the area if you don’t mind a three-hour drive inland from Brisbane.
Wednesday 14th February 8 pm start Door Price: Members $10 / Guests $14
We have lined up for your February Club Monthly meeting an evening with Kevin Courtney of Riverby Estate from Blenheim.
Riverby are a boutique, family owned and run wine producer in Marlborough’s Jackson Road heartland. All grapes are grown on the estate vineyard by descendants of the Matthews family, who have been farming the property for over 100 years. The Matthews farm was called Riverby and the original homestead, depicted on the Sauvignon Blanc back label, is still in use.
On their approximately 70ha vineyard they have three different soil types that allow the family to grow a variety of grapes, and their range of award-winning wines come from individual parcels on that single vineyard. Although not all their wines are made every year, as this depends on the quality of grapes for vintage.
The Riverby name originated from the Opawa River and its tributaries, which meandered through the property. This river was diverted in the 1930s to stop Blenheim from flooding, creating what was eventually to become ideal grape growing land. The rainbow trout on the Riverby label is symbolic of the fish that used to swim where grapes are now grown.
Old Vines Reserve Chardonnay 2020 – Silver Medal NZIWS 2022
They are proud to practice sustainable grape-growing techniques throughout the whole grape-growing and winemaking cycle and are also pleased to be eligible to be members of Appellation Wine Marlborough (AWM) because of their vineyard practices and restricted yields.
In a throw-back to past glories, sheep are used extensively throughout the vineyard to control weeds and grasses.
Wines for the evening:
Riverby Rose’ 2023 – Welcome wine – gold medal winner at NZ International Wine Show
Cicada Gewurztraminer 2023 – gold medal winner at NZ International Wine Show
Riverby Reserve Chardonnay 2022
Riverby Sauvignon Blanc 2023 – gold medal winner at NZ International Wine Show
Riverby Gruner Veltliner 2022
Riverby OVB 2021
Riverby Reserve Pinot Noir 2020
Riverby Noble Riesling 2019 – multiple award winner
The evening was well attended, and our presenter was Tim Turvey, winemaker, vineyard owner and the person who had returned tanned from Australia the day before after planting a pineapple plantation.
Tim regaled us with the history of how and why he set up the vineyard, built the house, established a native tree nursery and the expansions through to other regions of New Zealand for the different grapes he wanted to be able to use. He has 28 grape varieties they currently work with, plus a 100-year-old Olive tree that the original property owner, Vidals, planted.
He told us how the ‘White Caps’ range got its name, simply by white caps being the only colour available at the time for the new wines.
Our special treat was the extra tasting of their 2022 Reserve Chardonnay with a big buttery nose and taste from a challenging vintage, so it is in short supply.
The evening was finished with their Sea Red Dessert wine, a nice sweet touch.
A reminder of the wines we tasted during the evening:
Antonia presented us with some of the Babich wines, mainly from Marlborough, where their new winery is situated. Their base is still in the Henerson Valley, where the Babich family first settled.
Antonia regaled us with the Babich family members’ comings to New Zealand at an unsettled time for the world and why they turned to making wine, with their increasing presence here and their increasing knowledge base. An interesting evening for everyone.
The different labels certainly made for an interesting evening.
A reminder of the wines we tasted during the evening:
Wednesday 13th September, 8 pm Start | Door Price: Members $10 / Guests $14
Clearview Estate has grown and owner-operated since 1986: Tim Turvey & Helma van den Berg.
TIM TURVEY & HELMA van den BERG
Purchased in 1986, the neglected but historic Vidal’s No.2 Vineyard at Te Awanga, Hawke’s Bay, was set to become Clearview Estate. Tim Turvey, with business partner Helma van den Berg, took on the challenge of bringing it back to life. Together, they hand-grafted and planted the first vines in the winter of 1988. Clearview Estate Winery Ltd was established for the first red wine vintage in 1989, following experimentation in prior years. Chardonnay began in 1991 with the release of the first Reserve Chardonnay.
Over the next several years, Tim and Helma planted thousands of trees, including avocado, olive, bay, citrus, gums, and melia. And they didn’t stop there. Together, they expanded the vineyard by three acres each year, grafting and planting vines, ramming posts, running wires, training young vines, and, for many years, completing all of the pruning themselves.
Today, the business proudly remains owner-operated. Tim oversees the vineyards and works with chief winemaker Matt Kirby and assistant winemaker Rob Bregmen to create legendary, much-awarded wines. Helma manages the finance, restaurant, gardens and her extraordinary team. Steeped in history, Clearview Estate Winery Cellar Door and Clearview Estate Restaurant have become an iconic and awarded destinations for both locals and visitors from afar.
194 Clifton Road, Te Awanga, Hastings, Hawke’s Bay.
Hiking in Girraween National Park. Photo / Lachlan Gardiner
You’re not alone if you’ve never heard of Queensland’s Granite Belt. This little-known wine region has been kept closely under wraps. With epic scenery and delicious drops, no wonder Queenslanders don’t want us to know about it, writes Caroline Gladstone.
Balancing Heart Vineyard occupies a prime position in the shadow of Girraween National Park – a 117sq km expanse of forests and creeks dominated by spectacular granite outcrops, arches and bizarrely shaped lumps of stone sitting precariously atop lofty peaks.
This is the Granite Belt region of southern Queensland, home to more than 50 vineyards, wineries and cellar doors.
Balancing Heart takes its name from a heart-shaped chunk of granite that rolled down the mountain eons ago and has pride of place among the vineyard’s premium shiraz vines.
Balancing Heart Vineyard is home to bizarrely shaped lumps of stone sitting precariously atop lofty peaks.
With altitudes between 800m and 1500m, the Granite Belt is Australia’s highest wine region, which took root, so to speak, 15km away at Ballandean Estate. There, in 1968, Angelo Puglisi produced the first shiraz on a vineyard his grandfather had bought 30 years earlier to grow table grapes.
Five decades on and shiraz and its cool-climate cousins, – chardonnay, cabernet, and merlot – are still the region’s mainstays, however, a growing number of Mediterranean varieties including fiano, petit verdot and nebbiolo and an Eastern European wine, saperavi, are gaining notoriety.
Yet, despite high praise from wine writers, the region – three hours from Brisbane and an hour from the New South Wales border – is relatively unknown. Mention it to a sophisticated Sydneysider or Melburnian and you’ll likely draw quizzical looks. It seems this 305ha pocket, on the eastern spine of the Great Dividing Range, is still very much a Queensland secret.
And Queenslanders love it, flocking there in record numbers during the Covid border closures to sample the fruits of the vine and stock up on gourmet produce and snuggle into guesthouses during winter, fondly known as brass monkey season.
At its centre is Stanthorpe, Queensland’s coldest town, which proudly displays its chilly temperatures on a giant thermometer outside the visitors’ centre.
Barrel View Luxury Cabins in Ballandean are designed to look like giant halved wine barrels.
The town (population 5500) and a clutch of northern Granite Belt villages have a long agricultural history. Decades before commercial vines were planted, they grew apples, pears, berries and stonefruit. Today the region’s one million apple trees produce around 20 per cent of Australia’s crop, while fruit and vegetables are still very much part of the economy. Growers such as Nicoletti Orchards and Eastern Colour open their farms to the public for apple and strawberry picking and the hottest ticket at the biennial Grape & Apple Harvest Festival, a fixture on the calendar since 1966, is the public grape crush where bare-footed folk squish as many grapes as they can to be crowned Queensland’s grape-crushing champion.
With such a bounty of good food and wine, a Granite Belt trip deserves at least a two-night stay and an escorted winery tour to remove the angst of drink-driving. Mini-van day tours visit five wineries and include lunch, while new ways to explore the vineyards include self-guided or group cycling tours that travel on e-bikes.
Accommodation choices run from the cosy to the curated with many guesthouses, bushland cottages and cabins set among the vines. One that has grabbed the headlines since its opening in October is Barrel View Luxury Cabins in Ballandean.
Views of the grapevines and distant hills from Barrel View Luxury Cabins.
Designed like giant halved wine barrels with exterior timber cladding bound by metal hoops, each of the three cabins is the last word in decadence, with curved travertine walls, slick kitchens with the latest appliances and huge oval windows bringing in the views of the grapevines and distant hills.
Another property embedded in a vineyard, with the added advantage of an onsite cellar door, is Ridgemill Estate. Comprising 12 studio cabins and a three-bedroom cottage, guests have several wine experiences at their fingertips from tastings, master classes and vineyard tours led by the winemaker.
Heading out from Brisbane, a good place for a lunch break or even an overnight stay is Warwick, an historic town of impressive sandstone buildings and eclectic events including the annual rodeo and the Celtic Festival. Here the place to stay is the Abbey Boutique Hotel, an 1891-built Gothic-designed former convent and girls’ boarding school. Each of the 12 individually themed rooms has a story, such as the sought-after Bavarian room, once the girls’ dormitory and later the nuns’ chapel, and the Mother Superior’s room, created from four smaller nuns’ cells, with a glorious, canopied bed and cosy fireplace.
Ridgemill Estate boasts 12 studio cabins embedded in a vineyard.
A short detour to Allora, 25km north, would appeal to history lovers: it houses both the restored Glengallen homestead, considered the finest house in Queensland when built in 1864 by wealthy pastoralists, and Mary Poppins’ House. The latter was the childhood home of author P.L. Travers, who as a 6-year-old girl moved there with her family in 1905. Guided tours tell the story of the girl, born Helen Lyndon Goff, who later adopted her father’s first name of Travers, and changed Helen to Pamela, reportedly because she thought it was ” pretty”. She moved to England in 1924 and began writing her famous novel, the first of a series of eight Mary Poppins stories, 10 years later.
From Warwick it’s an hour’s drive to wine country and the first Granite Belt village of Cottonvale, home of Heritage Estate Wines. Another 50 wineries are located down country roads in the villages of Thulimbah, Applethorpe, Severnlea, Ballandean and Wyberba that lead off the New England Highway as it wends south towards Girraween National Park and the NSW border.
Wine enthusiasts can partake in a “Winemaker for the Weekend” course at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism.
Each has something different to offer.
Heritage Estate Wines holds tastings, lunches and monthly five-course degustation dinners (complete with old movies) where guests dress to the nines in a huge mid-19th century cellar door that was once an apple barn. Owners Therese and Robert Fenwick love to entertain and their latest offering is a weekly Friday night progressive dinner that begins with hors d’oeuvres among the vines and culminates with dessert in the cellar door.
Ballandean Estate, the oldest winery in Queensland, offers daily tastings and grazing platters in the rustic barrel room amid century-old wine barrels, while Whiskey Gully Wines’ cellar door occupies the 1880-built colonial homestead known as “Beverley”, where owner and multi-instrumentalist musician John Aldridge entertains guests at Saturday night dinners with an array of tunes.
Robert Channon Wines offers guided wine tastings including their award-winning verdelho in a venue that overlooks beautiful Singing Lake, and weekend lunches in the Persian Poppy, the region’s most exotic restaurant where dishes such as camel tajine grace the menu.
Discover a spectacular setting of giant granite boulders in Girraween National Park.
While locations and quirky features differ, what unites Granite Belt wineries are their “Strange Birds” – the wine varieties that represent less than 1 per cent of Australia’s vines, which include fiano, frontenac gris, malbec, gewurztraminer, marsanne, sylvaner, saperavi and nebbiolo. Visitors can pick up a Strange Bird Trail map and head out on a journey of discovery. One not to be missed is Bent Road Wines; owners Glen and Andrew provide tastings in an old timber church they bought on eBay, and show visitors the huge amphora vessels, known as qvevri, imported from Georgia (the former Soviet Republic) that has made saperavi, a robust red wine, for more than 8000 years.
“Winemaker for the Weekend” course at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism, the only facility of its kind in the world, or book a “Wine Philosophy” course with Balancing Heart Vineyard’s winemaker and viticulturalist Mike Hayes.
Named 2017 Queensland Winemaker of the Year, Hayes leads a fun session of swirling, sniffing and tasting of five of the vineyards top drops, including the acclaimed Campfire Company Red, in a spectacular setting beneath the granite boulders of Girraween National Park.
Getting there
WHERE ARE WE? Southern Queensland, Australia. Within 3hrs drive of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.
Brisbane is the easiest airport to fly into from New Zealand, with many of the Granite Belt’s townships sitting a 2.5-hour drive south of the airport.
Sustainably Crafted New Zealand Wine – 100 years in the making
Wednesday 9th August, 8 pm Start Door Price: Members $14 / Guests $18
People thought Josip Babich was crazy back in 1912. Planting vines in West Auckland and then patiently making wine the difficult way – with great vision, graft, thoughtfulness, ingenuity, and true craft. That pioneering spirit is something that still runs deep in our veins today, and we’ll keep ‘paying it forward’ for as long as we exist.
Over 20 years ago, we registered our first sustainable vineyard – a New Zealand first. But we’re not content to look back because what you’ve done is not who you are. We’re more excited about our future than ever and applying 100 years and three generations of winemaking experience to sustainably craft the most drinkable wines from New Zealand to the world.
Sustainability is always better when shared. Babich’s iconic NZ wine regions: Marlborough is home to some of the world’s finest Sauvignon Blanc. And a second home to Babich since we established vineyards there in 1989. Hawkes Bay is internationally renowned for its soil profile – perfect for supple, robust and sophisticated reds.
John Loughlin from Askerne Vineyard presented to us last month, and he was very pleasantly surprised to find 45 members and guests attending. We have to go way back to 2010 to find that number exceeded, so thank you, everyone, for supporting us with your presence.
John explained that Askerne now has 32ha to grow the 17 varieties of grapes that he and his wife now cultivate, and whilst Askerne is right beside the Tukituki River, they were spared the full force of Cyclone Gabrielle. It could easily have been much worse, as the water rose to 30cm below the top of their stop bank!
Their cellar door is now open 24/7, and John said please visit if you are up in Hawkes Bay for some tastings, He went on to explain that whilst we weren’t tasting these on the night, he felt their Pinot Gris was looking really smart, and their Pinot Noir really good too.
The wines tasted on the night were:
2022 Sérieux Rosé – the welcome wine
2020 Semillon
2022 Reserve Chardonnay
2021 Gewurztraminer
Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc
2021 Cabernet Franc
2019 Late Harvest Semillon
And it was pleasing to note that the quality of these wines was reflected in the excellent number of wines orders received on the night.
So, thanks again to everyone for your support and a special thanks for John for his well delivered tasting presentation.
Wine News – Imbibe from NZ House & Garden April 2023
Sparkling and sweet wines such as champagne and late harvests – 6-10C
Mermaidary tackles the tricky topic of what wines to chill and by how much.
What temperature should you serve wine? The topic can be controversial. I have heard gasps of horror when pulling a bottle of chardonnay from the rack, opening and pouring it – bypassing the fridge. I prefer medium to full-bodied white wines at room temperature. And you can imagine the horror when I take a red wine from the fridge because I like reds slightly chilled, flying in the face of ‘the rules for how wine should be served.
The accepted serving temperatures are listed below, but I regularly flout those rules. I like my sparkling whites colder than 6C, which is a cardinal wine sin, but I find it gives the bubbles more vigour. I also enjoy reds when they are well below 13C, as it gives the wine more structure and definition.
In fact, in hotter climates such as in Australia, drinking red chilled is standard practice. Australian wine icon Taylors recently put a wine temperature sensor on its bottles which changes colour when the bottle reaches its optimum level of chill.
One place that always seems to get it wrong is your local bar or restaurant. Bar fridges are set to a standard temperature so juice, wine, beer and even milk are all stored in the same fridge at the same temperature. This means medium-bodied wines, in particular, can be served much too cold, which deadens the wonderful aromatics present in the wine. Red wines are invariably stored on a shelf in direct sunlight or near the warm kitchen. So, the best expression of your favourite wine might not be from your local eatery.
While there are guidelines, the perfect temperature is simply the one that you enjoy best. So open a bottle and you do you.
Agreed serving temperatures
Sparkling and sweet wines such as champagne and late harvests – 6-10C
Roses and light-bodied whites such as Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris – 8-10C
Medium full-bodied whites such as Chardonnay and Albarino – 10-13C
Light-bodied reds such as Pinot Noir – 10-13C
Medium to full-bodied reds such as Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon – 10-13C
Wow, nine wines! This was an interesting evening full of updated information about the Esk Valley region and touching on areas of Portugal that most members present haven’t been to yet.
The variety of wines was great, beginning with Linden Sparkling Rose’ from Esk Valley, a blend of Merlot and Pinotage, a delicious start to the evening. The rest of the evening’s selection was:
Confidencial Reserva Rose –10-grape blend
2020 Casa Santos Lima Chardonnay
2022 Moutere Hills Riesling
2020Waipara Downs Pinot Noir
2020 Confidencial Tinto-Red – 10 grape blend
2019 Mosaico De Portugal
2017 Colossal Reserva Casa Santos Lima
Parcelas Portuguese Tawny Port
Most of the wines for the evening had received at least one gold medal in competitions, with some receiving ten gold medals.
