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.
Hosted by Wayne Kennedy, Murray Jaspers and Michael Kuus
Wednesday 9th April, 8 pm Start
Door Price: Members $16 / Guests $20
Immediately after the Gold Medal Winners from the New Zealand International Wine Show were announced last October, your club set out to acquire three bottles of seven gold medal wines for us to taste this month. April was chosen to do this as that is a time of the year when the wine industry is busy with harvest, and thus many wineries are unavailable to present to us.
The beauty of doing this immediately that the announcements were made were two-fold. It meant that the wines were still available and more importantly it also gave us an opportunity to secure seven trophy wines, including the McArthur Ridge Southern Tor Pinot Noir which was the Champion wine of the Show.
Many of these wines are hard to come by now, so we are fortunate that your committee acted so quickly. All that remains is for you to attend and enjoy a great trophy tasting.
Please remember your tasting glasses
The wines we will be tasting are:
2024 Leftfield Pinot Gris, Marlborough
2024 Wairau River Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough
2024 Sileni Advocate Grand Reserve Albarino, Hawkes Bay
2023 Bladen Eight Rows Riesling, Marlborough
2022 Kirrihill Regional Series Clare Valley Shiraz, South Australia
2021 Church Road McDonald Series Merlot, Hawkes Bay
Darren Naylor from Brockenchack Vineyard in Australia, and a family representative [son-in-law converted from swimming coach], presented to us last month, when we had 26 people for the evening. Those that couldn’t attend missed a great evening and an opportunity to taste some new flavours, as this is the first time this family-owned vineyard has presented to us.
Their vineyard is in Eden Valley, which is described as being ‘Barossa’s beautiful high country, one of Australia’s premier cool climate wine growing regions, characterised by its rugged beauty and varied topography’. Darren explained to us the complexities of their property and vines, and the weather that effects their harvests, and how they work with other vineyards at times. And while all their wines matter to the family, their Shiraz is their primary wine.
He also revealed that other vineyards have started to use casks from Hungary, but they had found these to be inferior to the French or US casks, so they don’t use these in their productions.
To remind you of the wines we tasted on the night:
NV Great Scott Sparkling Shiraz the Welcome Wine
2023 Mackenzie William 1896 Riesling – cellars well, they are drinking their 2010 now
2021 Charli Jaye Chardonnay – made from Mendoza clone, only planted 12 years ago
2023 Tru-Su Rosé – made from their Shiraz
2021 Zip Line Shiraz – 60-95 years old vines
2021 Miss Bronte Cabernet Sauvignon – from 12-year-old vines
2018 Jack Harrison Shiraz – this will cellar for between 10-14 years
2018 William Frederick Shiraz – a special taster of premium wine and one of only two corked wines in their cellar. The rest of their wines are screw-cap.
Contact details for Brockenchack
Email NZ Agent, based in Queenstown +64 277 034 616
Wine orders on the night were good, thanks to everyone.
Happening again, 7-8 June at TSB Arena in Wellington: NZ’s Largest Wine Celebration | Winetopia Events 2024. Go into their website to purchase your tickets if you want to attend.
New Routine
It was great to have everyone help with the tables and chairs at the start of last months’ meeting and taking the same down after the meeting. Also taking the tables contents: spittoons/water jugs/cracker plates back to the kitchen. Could we please continue this new routine.
Reminder
We can’t arrive to do the setting up activities any earlier than 7:30pm as we interrupt the cleaner(s) schedule, the cleaners are in the hall until 7:30pm.
Wednesday 8th February, 7.45 pm Door Price: Members $14 / Guests $18
Victoria’s wine regions. labelwines.com
There is much to admire and emulate in the wines of Australia. For many members such wines may well be amongst your favourites. Perhaps such wines are from South Australia, perhaps Western Australia, but for this tasting to kick the year off for the club we are highlighting Victoria.
For many wine enthusiasts the wines of this state fly under the radar. If so, you are missing a treat. On a much smaller scale than the neighbouring South Australian state, the wines of Victoria have their own charm, distinctiveness and award-winning status. And some plantings are indeed old vines.
As with NZ there are a number of different vineyard regions within the Victorian state and some well-known vineyards which we will explore under the guidance of Keith Tibble from EuroVintage, who is very well acquainted with these wines.
Across the state from the south (Mornington) to the central near Melbourne (Yarra Valley) to the interior (Grampians , Murray River) there is a diversity and quality that elicits awards and a dedicated following
Mount Langhi (Ghiran)
…is a highly famous cool climate-based winery in the Grampian range of Northern Victoria. Established in 1969 by the Fratin Family, the site had been planted (like Hawkes Bay’s Te Mata ) back in the late 1890s; after one poor and challenging year in 1980, the Fratins decided they needed a consultant and hired the noted winemaker Trevor Mast. Six years later, Trevor his wife and partner Ian Menzies purchased the varied blocks. They started to develop the concept of Cool Climate (Victorian) Shiraz, a personal vision of Trevor that has led Mount Langhi to be regarded as one of Australia’s greatest shiraz producers. We will taste two shiraz wines, the superb but great value Billi Billi and the superb ‘Mast’ awarded 96/100 in Decanter.
Yering Station
…is an acclaimed producer almost as famous for its cellar door and restaurant as their amazing Yarra Valley Wines. Originally the first grapes were planted in 1838 by the Ryrie brothers; this was Victoria’s first winery and was the largest Victorian vineyard right up to the 1980s. Purchased by the Rathbone Family in 1996, Yering Station is sister to Yarrabank, a sparkling producer jointly owned by a champagne House Devaux. However, Yering is famous for its Burgundy style wines – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – and we will taste the legendary reserve chardonnay along with two superb Pinots, the superb Yering station 2021 and the unique value Village 2021.
Lindauer is an iconic Kiwi sparkling wine brand, but soon some of your favourite bubbles will be more Aussie than local.
Lindauer is a Kiwi favourite, but costs of local grapes are forcing owner Lion to look overseas.
Starting from next week, the Lindauer Classic Brut going to market will be made with Australian grapes rather than New Zealand, while the Classic Rosé will be a blend of Aussie and Kiwi.
Both were previously made with 100% New Zealand grapes from Gisborne and Hawkes Bay.
Jane De Witt, head winemaker at Lindauer owner Lion, said the decision had been made to keep costs stable.
“As with everything that’s happening at the moment costs have increased significantly for us,” she said. “We’ve really struggled to find the volume and the quality that we’re happy with to ensure the quality and the value that our consumers expect.
From next week, bottles of Lindauer’s Classic Brut and Classic Rose on sale will be made with Australian grapes.
“Costs are increasing, so if we are to supply Lindauer to the consumer at the same or similar price point we just couldn’t continue using New Zealand grapes.”
De Witt originally claimed Lion would not decrease the volume of grapes it purchased from New Zealand growers, indicating they would be deployed to other Lion-owned wine brands, which include Wither Hills, Huntaway, Daniel Le Brun and Morton Estate.
After Stuff reported that, however, Lion clarified this point, saying it was purchasing two products’ worth fewer grapes, but claimed that volume would be picked up by other, non-Lion, wine companies.
The new Classic Brut and Classic Rose grapes would be sourced from South Australia, which provided the best climate for the chardonnay, pinot noir and pinotage grapes used in the styles and mimicked the New Zealand grapes that had been used before.
Lion head winemaker Jane De Witt said she hoped if consumers could detect a difference in flavour, it would be an improvement.
Initially De Witt was disappointed to be in a position where using foreign grapes was inevitable, she said.
“But I’m really happy with what we’ve got in bottle.”
While all efforts had been made to keep consistency through the Classic Brut and Classic Rose, both of which are non-vintage, De Witt said she had “decided you can never underestimate the consumer in what they can and can’t taste”.
If they could detect a difference, she hoped it would be deemed an improvement.
The move to foreign grapes was a permanent one for these two styles, De Witt said. The only other Lindauer wine made from non-New Zealand grapes was the Prosecco, which used Italian grapes.
Members may recognise Simon’s name. He presented to the club back in April 2018 but has recently moved to a new company in wine and spirit wholesaling, Colab Wine Merchants Limited.
This company is interesting in that its 2 principal shareholders are 2 well-known wineries:
As you can see, all 3 of these areas are in the state of South Australia which is one of the iconic new world wine regions and so we are really looking forward to tasting some great wines from this area.
More details next month.
News just in
CoLab is now presenting a range of European wines from their portfolio. The wines to be presented include:
Alpha Domus Collection Sauvignon Blanc, NZ
Vivanco White Rioja, Spain
Guerrieri Rizzardi Pinot Grigio IGP Veneto, Italy
Domaine Dupre Bourgogne Chardonnay, France
Vivanco Rioja Crianza, Spain
Vivanco Rioja Reserva, Spain
Chateau Mauciol Cotes du Rhone Villages Red, France
