Pinot Gris and Riesling Regional Styles

I have often thought that the way to market Riesling and Pinot Gris, to a lesser extent, is to have regional styles. For the consumer it is difficult to know what style of wine they are getting, unless it is written on the label, when they purchase a bottle of New Zealand Riesling and/or Pinot Gris.

The regional wine bodies should meet up and decide on a style of wine that suits their regional terroir and not just the market. This would give the consumer a much better idea of wine style and also give each region a point of difference.

Consumers, who do not shop in wine stores, are faced with shelves of wine that baffle them. They know not what style of wine they are getting unless having drunk it before. Come on NZ let's ave some regionality with our wines rather than the homogenous state of play that we see with Marlborough Sauvignon.

Wild Rock Dinner at Savour & Devour

Well I haven't written this blog for some time now but thought I would update everyone to how we are doing and what we have been up to.

On Friday we held our first Wine and Dinner night at Savour & Devour. The wines were from Wild Rock. The first wine that we were served was the 'Elevation' and combined with the Whitebait fritter and large prawn elevated this wine to a top three place in 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc's for me.

The palate weight and texture, because of the Riesling and Pinot Gris, added to the complexity of this wine and matched the food to perfection. This wine was followed by the equally impressive 'Pania' Chardonnay. The food to accompany this award winning wine was Murellen Pork (type of pig) belly infused with star anise on a creamy truffle mash with seared bok choy and rhubarb and apple puree. The delicate nature of the chardonnay was not over powered by the Asian style food nor did in any way compromise the flavour of the dish.

A soft creamy, lemon and lime scented bouquet and good fruit and hint of oak on the palate make this wine a knockout in terms of overall value and a real crowd pleaser.

Over the next dish, of rack of lamb served with a beetroot rosti and buttered kale, we had two wines served side by side. The wines were 'Cupid's Arrow' Central Otago Pinot Noir and 'Gravel Pit Red' Hawke's Bay Merlot Malbec.

The Merlot matched the food better than the Pinot Noir although the dinner room was divided on this. There are just some folk that cannot drink anything other than Central Otago Pinot Noir and some that try everything.

Wild Rock Reserve Syrah 2008 was served with some blue cheese and sticky ginger loaf and was the highlight of the night and I now prefer this wine to Craggy Range's Block 14.

The reserve was smooth with hints of white pepper and dark black fruit with a hint of tar and pencil shavings, ultimately seductive. This wine was another super model in her shear lingerie and fishnet stockings. The next morning it felt like she had taken me home and had her way with me.

Overall the dinner was a great success but left me feeling exhausted at the end of it. 

Yahoo!Xtra

The Good Side of Marlborough.

Although I start almost every Wine Vault TV show with a little rant about Marlborough I have also seen what Marlborough can produce. It is meeting guys like Aaron from Fiasco wines that really changes my perception of the industrial nature of Marlborough.

Aaron, who is also a winemaker at Indevin, makes his own wine under the 'Fiasco' label. Now Fiasco by name but not by nature. Aaron produces just 3 wines. The Sauvignon Blanc is one of the better wines from the rather unfortunate 2008 Vintage.

The Pinot Noir that Fiasco produce was featured on #TweetBunchNZ Twitter wine tasting. The Black Pearl, as it is affectionately known, is full of rich dark fruit with cherry and hint of Strawberry on the nose. This combined with good acidity and palate weight made for an excellent first vintage and great start to Fiasco wines as a winery.

Aaron has really engaged the wine community using such tools as Twitter, Video Blogging, and a normal text blog. All this hard work has started to pay off and providing the next vintage of wines are similar or better Fiasco has a bright wine  making future.

By Jayson Bryant

www.thewinevault.co.nz

Grey Lynn Reserve!

Now, as you probably know I make wine! For those of you that didn't know you do now. We make a red wine from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and sometimes Malbec. We source our grapes from Kumeu and then the rest is made in my basement.

It is the making of the wine that really interests me. I love the science, creation, and just getting my hands dirty. The grapes are crushed and destemmed with our own machine and then transported by car to my house. It is here that the wine ferments for about 7 days and is then left with the skins for a further 3 weeks, or until ready by taste.

It is a real team building exercise and everybody lends a hand where necessary and the result is seen in the video. Enjoy.

The Wine Vault