The Auswine Forum

Wine NZ 2003

Three days. Close on 400 wines tasted. It was hard work, and not the best environment for detail, but the best way to get an overall picture on the NZ wine scene. My overall impression this year is a continued improvement and deepening of quality in New Zealand wine. Good to see some really stylish, polished wines on show. I will run through some of the highlights.

The Whites

Sauvignon Blanc was not so memorable this year. Maybe it’s just too dull and dreary here to get too excited yet. Most 03’s had just been bottled and were shy and disjointed. Even Cloudy Bay showed its usual ‘on release mediocrity’ which is always well gone by Christmas! I enjoy classic Marlborough styles. St Clair 03 ($23) did it for me with the most classical wine of them all, massive, concentrated, clean and long. It is great stuff. The St Clair Wairau ($24) offered the same but in a more restrained manner. Wither Hills has another big wine from 03, while Villa Maria’s 02 Reserve Wairau ($23) is a sensational wine one year on from release, even better than when we seriously considered for inclusion in our top dozen last year. This is a very special drink.

Riesling this year was a star for me with many labels stepping up with serious styles, fine structures and great concentration. Sugar, acid balances were excellent. Many still, especially in Marlborough, are in to the fresh, open, fruit driven styles, but there are a sprinkling of really serious cellar worthy efforts which really compete with the Australian greats in size and quality. Thinking of wines such as 02 Fromm La Strada Riesling ($28) and the 00 Fromm La Strada Auslese ($48), 02 Pegasus Bay Riesling ($25) and 02 Pegasus Bay Aria ($30), 02 Corbans Private Bin ($22) and 02 Villa Maria Cellar Selection ($19) is enough to make you wish for summer. I will be filling my cellar with these.

Chardonnay can be so much of the same after trying a few. There were however some big standouts. The large companies seem to have excelled especially in the bang for your buck stakes. The 02 Montana Reserve is excellent wine at well under $20. The 00 Montana R ($25) is another top wine at a great price, full of gorgeous fruit, careful oak handling and a sexy silky structure. 02 Te Mata Elston ($36) looks great. 02 Mission Jewelstone ($25) followed up a stunning 01, all elegance and style, fine pear fruit and apple flavours. The oak hardly shows. Careful chardonnay buying here, can result in a good catch for reasonable prices.

Herzog followed up last year with some of the most stylish whites on show. The Viognier ($40) here was to me the best of this variety on show, with added complexity interest and bucket loads of class. The Chardonnay they make also in a similar mould. Didn’t really try any stand out Pinot Gris although the Villa Maria Cellar Selection wasn’t a bad effort for this over rated wine variety. It is crisp with good acidity and backbone. Stylistically at the leaner end of the spectrum, well balanced. Gewürztraminer was the same as pinot Gris; no real stand outs this year.

The Reds

Pinot Noir shows more promise than last year with many deep, black-fruited numbers. Textures seemed better overall with excellent efforts from 02 Seresin, 02 Wither Hills ($45), 02 Villa Maria Reserve ($50), 01 Geisen Reserve Marlborough ($40) and 00 Canterbury ($50). In the more burgundian mould we had 02 Kawarau Reserve ($36), 02 Stratford ($40) and Fromm La Strada. Fromm’s 01 Fromm Vineyard wine ($55) was my favourite of a smart trio produced here (Estate, Clayvin, Fromm).

In the straight merlot department it was hard to look past the 00 Te Awa Farm Boundary Merlot ($50), which was all class. It is elegant and stylish but still with heaps of depth. This was a notch up even on the year in, year out excellence of 01 Esk Valley Reserve ($50) and 01 Villa Maria Reserve ($40) which produced more silky, fragrant, black fruited examples, very smart wines. A sample of the yet to be released 02 Esk Valley Terraces ($100+) brought back memories of the rich, expansive and silky 98 Reserve they produced. Hard to justify the price tags of wines like this now I feel.

Reserve Cabernets from the big 00 Vintage and new estate labels from the promising 02 vintage mixed to produce some good solid wines. Vidals looks solid, the 02 Cabernet Merlot ($19) should be a standout value for money wine on release in November. The 00 Reserve Cabernet Merlot is smart. The highly priced 98 Vidals Solar Cabernet ($90) is a powerful reply to Montana’s 98 Tom (not shown) and should live 10 years longer. Stunning wine that needs a pile of time. Of course the classic 00 Te Mata Coleraine ($60) was bathing in the glory of its latest international accolade. Spicy black fruits, and solid spine of ripe tannins characterise this fine effort. No one needed to tell a KWFC reader though, this is old news, “KWFC top dozen of the year 2002”, what greater accolade can you seek?? Alpha Domus Aviator 00 ($55) is an exceptional effort. It is a stylish and tightly knit wine. Mills Reef has some very solid red wines in the Elspeth range peaking with the newly released 00 Elspeth One ($50) which is an exceptionally stylish wine.

Syrah is the future of the Hawkes Bay. There are so many very, very, good wines, stylish wines, and exciting wines. Add this to some of the leaders in this field which didn’t show and the picture is very rosy. Even obscure Syrah producers like (02) Crossroads ($22) are producing seriously deep, and complex wines at very good prices. Vidals too is excelling in some fantastically textured, ripe and deep wines both Syrah and Cabernet Merlot not at the expense of structure and definition. The 02 Vidals Soler Syrah is excellent. Other producers too are doing well. Nice to see some real weight in these wines now and some big full textures, more black fruits and better ripeness.

The Sweet and Sparkling Wines

Sweet wines are thin on the ground this year. Value for money it is hard to go past the 02 Coopers Creek Noble Riesling ($20). Gorgeous drink. Tried some good sparkles too from the likes of Cloudy Bay, Le Brun Family Estates and Daniel Le Brun.

No doubt a good proportion of Kiwi Wine Fan Club’s Top dozen kiwi wines of the year will come from within this write up, some really impressive bottles.

Cheers


Craig
Full tasting notes (with scoring to 2dp) posted soon at:
www.kiwiwinefanclub.co.nz

Craig,

An excellent report.

However you do not comment at all on the 2003 Rieslings and did you try any unoaked Viognier, E.g. TW Viognier 2003 from Gisborne?

While the Herzog Viognier is a gorgeous wine - it could have just as easily been Chardonnay - in fact you say they are similar. So where is the delicacy of the Viognier grape? I couldn't find it and doubt whether I would pick that wine as V. in a blind tasting. That lost it points for me. (Yalumba are leading the field in down-under Viognier and the Yalumba Y Series 2003 at about NZ$16 is excellent, as is the Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2001 - a terrific wine that shows how to successfully combine oak with this delicate grape. They have had 22 years experience after all.)

Unlike you, I was very excited by Sauvignon Blanc - but then I tasted a line-up of about 25 before the Show then spent a whole day just concentrating on this variety, I thought there was lots more complexity and terrfic mouth-filling flavour on a whole, compared to 2002. In fact, many of the 2002's I tasted at the Show were quite flat in comparison, having lost that vinbrant zing of youth. I stopped tasting them after a while as I wasn't making notes on them unless they were new releases. Mind you I have been drinking the Greenhough 2002 just recently - I love it.

My top Marlbrough SB's included
Saint Clair Wairau Reserve 2003 and Drylands 2003
while many others were a big improvement on last year's effort, eg Forrest.

Favourites from other regions included
Greenhough and Kaimira Estate from Nelson,
Amisfield from Central Otago
Te Mata and Kemblefield from Hawkes Bay.

If you haven't tasted them you should also seek out the Saints 2003 and Kim Crawford 2003 - the regional Marlborough blend bottled July 2003. KC was not at the Expo and I don't think I saw the Saints there either.

I agree with you about Syrah - I am really enjoying drinking the new New Zealand style. Another hot tip for Syrah is the new Selaks Founders Reserve Syrah 2002 - a first release from the Mohaka area. It should be coming on the market in a couple of weeks. I also very much liked the Passage Rock from Waiheke.

And one bubbly I'm going to hype is the Huia Brut 1999 - just released.

Are you going to the Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc celebration - it's on September 15th (I think?)

Cheers,
Sue

SueNZ wrote:
While the Herzog Viognier is a gorgeous wine - it could have just as easily been Chardonnay - in fact you say they are similar. So where is the delicacy of the Viognier grape? I couldn't find it and doubt whether I would pick that wine as V. in a blind tasting. That lost it points for me. (Yalumba are leading the field in down-under Viognier and the Yalumba Y Series 2003 at about NZ$16 is excellent, as is the Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier 2001 - a terrific wine that shows how to successfully combine oak with this delicate grape. They have had 22 years experience after all.)

Unlike you, I was very excited by Sauvignon Blanc - but then I tasted a line-up of about 25 before the Show then spent a whole day just concentrating on this variety, I thought there was lots more complexity and terrfic mouth-filling flavour on a whole, compared to 2002. Sue

Sue

To most peoplr the fact a wine is gorgeous is more important to whether it is easily picked at a blind tasting. The majority of wine drinkers are not interested in the academics of blind tasting, they are more interested in drinking it with friends where the quality is the big thing.

Chardonnay is styled from flinty, tight Chablis to fat toasty oaky aussie examples. Why are we so narrow minded about Viognier?? I would rate the Herzog as the best in the country based on the last 2 vintages efforts. It has style, it has X factor.

As for price, fair comment it is expensive.

Sauvignon Blanc. As there are some 03s that are better than the 02 version of the same wine (Seresin comes to mind for me), the opposite is true with some others. Omaka Springs for example was way better last year (02) than this year (03).

I think it is too early to make judgements here anyway.

C.

Thanks for the notes.

What was Coleraine's latest accolade.

Great wine. Have a case of the vaunted 98 but seemingly controversial vintage. The hospitality of John Buck, aswell as the novel open air Opera at the Hawke's Bay winery a NZ highlight for my wife and I?

I think it is about time we sent Torb to NZ!

JamieBahrain wrote:I think it is about time we sent Torb to NZ!

Why?

Enjoy your "roadshow" wine tours Torb.

Think you would enjoy a "warm" Hawke's Bay vintage and holiday.

You may be out of your comfort zone with all that pinot from the south though.

JamieBahrain wrote:What was Coleraine's latest accolade.

Hi Jamie. My interpretation of the Press Release was

"In a secret judging of all the 1000's of wines on show at VINEXPO, Te Mata Estate Coleraine 2000, was voted a top ten wine by the international judging panel of leading wine writers and sommeliers. The Te Mata wine was voted 2nd best red wine on show and the 6th best wine overall, against competition from all over the wine world. For these achievements the wine was awarded a Top Ten Star Wines Award 2003."

Personally I have never been sucked in by the monstrous tannins of the 1998 Coleraine. But many people say they love it. The 2000 has so much more going for it and is better balanced overall. I would enjoy drinking the 2000 whereas I don't know about the tannins from the 1998 and if they will ever soften in my lifetime. I've made some notes from a recent vertical on my website if you care to look at this article - The Evolution of Coleraine. I rated both 2000 and 1999 ahead of the 1998.

JamieBahrain wrote:I think it is about time we sent Torb to NZ!

Yes - it is about time he tasted a real good Syrah!

Cheers,
Sue

In 10 years time the 98 will be a far better Coleraine than the 99. The 99 is drinking now and very open in comparison. So I guess it depends what you are wanting in the wine that will decide this for you.

On the 00, I will let you have that one. Compared to the 98 it is very smart, whether it is better than the 98 time will tell....probably a lot of time eg 10 years.

C.

Craig(NZ) wrote:In 10 years time the 98 will be a far better Coleraine than the 99. The 99 is drinking now and very open in comparison. So I guess it depends what you are wanting in the wine that will decide this for you.
C.

Craig,
My definition of a great wine is one that drinks well at all stages of its life.
This is what I am looking for these days because, baby face, in 10 years time I will probably be dead.
Cheers,
Sue

Craig
Good to have an over all view of wine nz, would have liked to be there but couldn't make it,should hold it down in the Christchurch next year.
Interesting point you made about the Sav.Blanc, saying best given time until xmas to give a true indication as to what they are like. I have a rule of never tasting them until after xmas, when they have had time to settle down from being whisked from the vine.bottle and shelve. Many years ago Montana were the first to release the latest vintage and that was usually in Oct. Now lots of companies have then on the shelve in August, can't be good for an honest appraisal of the wine. I guess its all driven by market exposure and cash flow. My tastes in Sav. Blanc have changed over the years in that now i preferred them blended with semillon which tend to take a bit of the acid out and gives a creamer flavor, Pegasus Bay Sav. Blanc Semillon one of my favorites ( no regional bias of course)

Disappointing to read that no Gewürztraminer took your fancy, last year the Mills Reef Res. 02 and Seifried Res.02 along with Wairau River 02 were stand out Gewurztraminers and all different styles, may be its to early.
Frighting to see some of the prices you were quoting for Riesling, love the grape and you use to get some bargains but that seems to be a thing of the past as it gains in popularity.There are a number of easy early drinkers out there but i like the Kiwi ones with about 4-5yrs of age on them, just had a Hunters Marlborough 99, yum .golden colour, citrus and apples and enough sweetness to balance it all.

Sue

You raise an excellent point. I am one who totally agrees with you and to be frank I think cellaring wine is over rated. People who rate a wine based on its ability to cellar disturb me actually and I really think there are more bad old wines than bad new releases.

I seem to select very very carefully wines I plan to cellar long term. if there is any doubt on its ability, I will drink it young and enjoy it. I plan never to drink a wine past its best. Before its best is more enjoyable.

To drink now as far as Coleraine is concerned I think the 94 and 97 look good. 99 also is drinkable but it may benefit from a bit more time. 91, 95, 98 and 00 need a bit more time, though its hard to imagine the 91 getting any better.

I doubt I will be buying any 2040 Latour.