New Zealand wine labels

With more and more competition for shelf space and visibility it seems as though there is more attention to detail in label design than there is quality wine being made.

This is also evident  in the choice of name for the winery/vineyard. Soon every little stone, rock, hill, bluff, spur, plant, range, oh you get it, will be named on a bottle of wine. Let the confident winemakers put their own name on the label or the road upon which their vineyard is situated.

And whilst I am on a roll please choose a better design. To many fonts and colours distract the eye and why are we obsessed trying to look so different? Get more traditional and you will sell more wine.

Wine is still a product that is supposed to conjure up memories of holidays and special occasions not an everyday commodity like Coke! Keep it neat and simple and the product will move off the shelf without needing and assistant.

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Krug 1995 Vintage Champagne Wine Tasting

Last night saw a group of tasters gather for a tasting of the prestigious Krug 1995 Champagne. We had also gathered more wine to taste after the said wine.

The Krug was a good opener although it left people a little bewildered as to how it could justify the price tag of $450. It was beautifully balanced with yeasty slightly zesty nose. The oak was present and the bead was small and evaporated with little fuss and excitement in the mouth.

The next wine was a Rudi Pichler 2005 Reserve Gruner Veltliner. Now this was something special. It had all of the mouth texture of a Gewurztraminer and the subtleness of Pinot Gris with the acidity of Riesling and was so layered and lingering it was the topic of conversation for some time.

This was followed by a Portuguese white that was interesting but not memorable enough to write about.

The fourth wine of the night was Cullen's Diana Madeline 2001. The whole evening was really brought about to see if this wine was corked or not and whether the rest of the case was worth hanging on to. Well it wasn't corked, far from it in fact, but was so big that it overpowered everything on the dinner table.

Unless you are able to find Kangaroo or Venison to have with this wine don't bother opening it. The fruit was opulent, lush and big. The eucalyptus and American oak evident on the nose and everything was in balance but unless you like Blackberry Jam then this wine is not for you. It was another typical big Aussie Red!

Well the night progressed and fortunately turned back to European wine. We tasted Clos de L'Ob ac 1993 from Priorat, Spain.
For most around the table this was the wine of the night.
It was also the most discussed and the conversation lasted almost as long as the taste of the wine. This wine was so layered that we were describing the different components and subtle flavours and mouth feel for a long while after. It was definately European with some earthyness to it but the fruit and oak were all measuered and perfect.

We finished the night with two wines from France but that is another story saved for another day.

By Jayson Bryant

www.thewinevault.co.nz

The Garden Vineyard is fruitless!

Well with high expectations riding on this tasting I was a little taken back to discover that someone had scrumped my fruit and forest floor and any character that may have been there.

The tasting was conducted as part of our TV series on You Tube when we recorded the last 5 episodes in a day. Now everyone is riding the Grand National winner that is Central Otago Pinot Noir but this one had no jockey on it giving it any direction.

If this wine were a rock star/celebrity it would have to be Courtney Love. Full of promise but always disappointing in reality.

The wine in question Olssens 'Slapjack Creek' Reserve Pinot Noir.
What is does have is a bright dark cherry complexion and  then it is just like any other 35-40 dollar Central Otago Pinot.

WVR 84 points, RRP $69.99

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Bruno Paillard Rose Champagne

Romance was in the air and didn't pass me by, well if it wasn't for the wife it would have. What she had done is gone out and bought a beautiful bottle of Champagne. The bottle in question was Bruno Paillard Rose and that with pizza was my romantic night in.

In my mind, Champagne is perfectly paired with pizza and/or Fish 'n' Chips. So there we were, sipping Bruno's wine and what a wine it was. The strawberries were very evident with a small amount of yeast/brioche also. The palate weight is perfect and the acid levels great, enough to cut through the fat of the pizza I was eating but not dominant.

Anyway the night was perfectly brought to a close with chocolate cake which no wine would have cut through.

www.thewinevault.co.nz

For a Hawke's Bay Winery, not bad!

I always think that wine should be made where the winery is located and the grapes grown. Nowadays this romantic notion has long since disappeared in New Zealand.

Look at Montana, now owned by Pernod Ricard, they own 50% of wine made in New Zealand. This figure astounds me, not for the fact that it is just an industrial process rather than a passionate affair with the wine maker at one with the land, but all of the other connotations associated with big industrial factories as we have just seen with Fontera and San Lu!

Well that hasn't spoilt my wine this evening. The wine in question is that of Sileni 'Grand Central' Central Otago Pinot Noir. Now this wine already has hit the right note with me because it is the name of a bar I used to frequent in my 20s, a damn good bar in those days as well!

Well Sileni have made a Central Otago Pinot that tastes more like Pinot than most Central Otago wines at half the price. What I really like is the fruit with good tannin structure is at the forefront and not clouded by oak. Thanks for this evenings wine Sileni.

Cheers.

Jayson Bryant

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Madame Rouge Aperitif from Waiheke

People living on Waiheke fall into two groups, those that are there for the life style or those that can't get off the island. It is the first group of people that interest me. They tend to be the most organic less materialistic people.

The people whose chose to live somewhere rather than those who are born somewhere tend to be me involved in the community and in a certain way of life.

Now the wine from Miro is definitely made by those who want to contribute to a way of life. The wine I am drinking, as I write this, is an aperitif called 'Madame Rouge'. It reminds me of that great French claasic 'Pineau' or 'Pineau des Charentes'.

Pineau is made from unfermented grape must and Brandy, but I cannot be sure how they made Madame Rouge nor can I get any information from their website.

The taste is of sweet, ripened red fruit with a consistency of a cordial. It reads on the back label that one can add ice cubes and water. I Personally think that leaving it unadulterated is to taste the drink at its best.

It is beautifully balanced and well made and ideal as an aperitif or digestive, supplementing  Port or Brandy. It is great to see vineyards, and wineries alike, making alternative products from their fruit. WVR 87 points. RRP $50

 

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Nautilus Chardonnay 2006

The Nautilus Chardonnay 2006 is straw coloured and has a really nice mealy, toasty, lemon zesty nose and that is transferred onto the palate. The wine is delicately balanced with restrained use of oak and not too much Malo (butteriness), all this combined really makes this wine great for roast chicken, and other delicate European food. WVR 91+, RRP $29.

Jayson Bryant

www.thewinevault.co.nz

The Wine Vaults Summer Wines

Summer here has been great and long may it continue, although you wouldn't be saying that in Melbourne right now! The temperature there is in the 40's and people are dying and bush fires raging.

I would hate to think what that is doing to their wine industry, that combined with the caterpillars in Western Australia, and drought in South Australia it only leaves the Hunter Valley in reasonable shape.

Here things are different and it looks like another bumper harvest for our grape growers across the country. Hopefully the lessons of 2008 have been learnt and that there has been some green harvesting, thus allowing the remaining fruit to be more concentrated and reduced yields to manageable levels for the wineries.

The ideal wines for Summer are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, and Pinot Gris. Chardonnay, for me, is the wine of choice as it offers a diverse range of styles. You can have big oaky, buttery ones or more austere Chardonnay like Chablis.

Hatton Estate make a beautifully balance Chardonnay called 'EC2'. It is more Chablis in style with no oak treatment and purity of fruit is the focus, along with texture and minerality. Craggy Range also make a Chardonnay 'Kidnappers' but this wine sees oak but is so in balance that it is less obvious.

For those who are trapped in the 80's then Odyssey make a big buttery style wine called Iliad' . Craggy range also make a Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay that is bold in style but both wines prove very popular still.

For those of us who want to be daring why not try a Rippon Osteiner White wine. It is very dry and just like biting into a Granny Smith apple with malic acid being the most obvious taste. This wine makes great summer evening drinking and matches tomato salads and seafood perfectly.

Go on be daring and treat yourself during this beautiful summer and not get stuck in a rut with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Champagne Sales down in this crazy world.

Well it seems that drink the of choice, for most, has become unaffordable for many and is due to increase in March. With the economic crisis well under way this may well force the hand of some big Champagne Houses to hold off from raising their prices. Over the Christmas period Champagne sales dropped significantly and New Zealand Methode Traditionelle or Bubbles were up.

We are now making fine examples of this wine and so I would expect to see signs of growth in this area. Once you bypass Lindauer then you enter, and can experience, the realm of exciting wines.

The top New Zealand Sparkling wines are from Quartz Reef in Central Otago, Arcadia from Amisfield (another Central Otago wine), Nautilus Brut, and Huia Brut. These wineries make very fine examples of Bubbles that don't necessarily cost and arm and leg.

Expect to pay upwards of $25 for a quality wine, but no more than $40. As soon as you start paying $40 or more you may as well buy the real thing, which can start from as little as $35.

This is great news for those who love bubbles but can't afford them everyday, or every six months for that matter.

Jayson Bryant

www.thewinevault.co.nz