Marlborough, beware!

During a recent trip to Marlborough it became very evident that all of Marlborough's eggs are in one basket. This comment doesn't concern the amount of Sauvignon Blanc that is planted or even harvested but about that 3 wineries in Marlborough process approximately 50% of New Zealand's wine.

On a visit to Cloudy Bay winery and Vineyard I was appalled at the frosty reception and cold, un-welcoming nature of this truly international brand. If I were a new visitor to New Zealand and had a faint interest in wine, I would, for sure visit Cloudy Bay. Well if this is the face of the industry I am sure that many people leave with a bitter taste in their mouth.

The wines from Cloudy Bay were not too bad, but the sterile, cold nature of their front of house is disturbing. Combine this with the unromantic nature of an industrial chemical plants called Montana, and Marlborough Vintners and the beautiful image of Marlborough quickly dissipates.

The only positive about those giant chemical plants is that they facilitate smaller producers to make wine without huge investment in a winery. But the way that the fruit is handled in these factories belies belief.

The reason that Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has an homogenous taste is because there are only a small group of winemakers making a large volume of wine. Yeah sure there are many different labels of Sauvignon but most are tasting the same.

The treatment of fruit from these big wineries is appalling. They machine harvest pretty much everything, then they automatically add Sulphur and then strip the fruit of all it is worth and then start fermenting it. Once fermentation is over they fine and filter it. This juice then gets bottled and delivered to our international markets.

The wine resembles nothing that the grape would truly make if it were not stripped of all known properties and irrigated in the vineyard.

There are, however, some great producers who care about their wines and their environment such as Fromm, Johanneshof, Fiasco, and Dog Point but not many. They are small producers making individual wines and worth seeking out providing they don't get to big!

Enough of my rant, goodbye.

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Fromm Wines, The Real Deal!

On a recent trip to Marlborough I tasted my way through many a winery, of which some were huge and impersonal, others huge and very personal, and there there was Fromm.

This winery in Marlborough is, to my mind, the most complete Marlborough winery in existence today. Although there are three labels under the one winery, Fromm, La Strada, and William Thomas, the core values and understanding of terroir driven wines remains the focus.

We tasted the wines and then went through their complete operation. They are small, almost boutique, but make wines of unbelievable quality for Marlborough. They are comparable to a little haven of France and should be given their own Appellation.

One of the things that impressed me, and was evident in their wines, was their approach to the land on which they serve. They are Biodynamic and live in harmony with nature. The environment felt healthy, the staff seemed happy and very interested in telling us about the land and style of wines they are striving for.

The guys at Fromm make me believe in New Zealand wine again. It is not all about making as much money as possible but about making the best wine possible and not raping the land for all it is worth. All the wines are made in small amounts and are extremely impressive.

Who says that Marlborough cannot make Pinot Noir? I used to but don not these days. They are making some of New Zealand's best and closely resemble Burgundy, and their Syrah is stunning.

All of the wines that we tasted showed incredible balance and restrained use of oak with great purity of fruit. And a wine that we tasted not for sale (Syrah, Malbec, Viognier, Merlot, Rousanne, and Cabernet Sauvignon) was great. It was full of depth and complex as hell with beautiful texture on the palate. If only people could get their heads around it, it would definitely be a winner in blind tastings.

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Video Blogging is Hard Yakka

I have been doing a video blog now for 3 months and it seems to be getting harder despite an increase in interest. The initial concept for on-line video tastings came from Gary Vaynerchuk with Wine Library TV. He increased Wine Library sales from $2 million to $50 million in seven years.

On the flip side of this video blog he gained notoriety as a wine critic. He has built a hugely successful following, with viewing figures up to 90,000 each episode.

For us we are trying to distance our video blog from our commercial venture so as to add a certain authenticity to it and because we do not stock every wine we taste make it impartial.

We are now up to 35 episodes and it is getting tougher to find time to make these videos, produce, and upload them. It takes on ten minutes to shoot them but well over 4 hours for the rest.

All of this aside it is great fun. We do all of the video in 1 take and so there are no wines tasted before the take or any notes written so it is my first impression of the wine(s). I really should have a cameraman to help but we are too small to this luxury.

Our feedback instore has been great and very encouraging so we will continue to explore this medium and hopefully become a little more relaxed in front of the camera. Thanks for the support.

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

I tasted these two wines after they were left as samples at the shop. As you can tell  really didn't like the Stop Banks wine.

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Wine Vault TV Episode # 27