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We think Quartz Reef’s sparkling wines punch incredibly above their weight when it comes to price and quality expectations but the Blanc de Blancs, now on its second vintage ever, is a real surprise. Winemaker Rudi Bauer is more than a dab hand at making bubbles using the traditional method of production; the same way as champagne. And he's had a long history of making it, so it's a real treat to taste his new - and only the second one ever made - vintage of Blanc de Blancs.  Here is our review on the wine.  2015 Quartz Reef Blanc de Blancs $75 This top notch bubbly is the second vintage of Rudi Bauer’s biodynamically certified Blanc de Blancs made 100% from Chardonnay, all grapes hand picked from a 15 hectare vineyard which is planted on sun drenched, north facing terraces in Bendigo, Central Otago. The vineyard was biodynamically certified in 2011 and the wine was made using the traditional method of sparkling winemaking. It's aged on lees for 60 months and disgorged by hand on site at Quartz Reef in Cromwell, Central Otago. T This wine is a great example of méthode traditionnelle.

If you're stumped for Xmas presents for your nearest and dearest, what about pushing the boat out all the way and buying a big bottle of French red from the  country's most famous southern Rhone wine appellation, Chateauneuf-du-Pape? This outstanding wine is our most high priced of our Top 25 Wines of 2020, as selected by our specialist wine team here at Regional. And it's also from 2016, which will go down in the vinous history books as the best of this century, potentially even the best of the past 100 years.  This big, bold and beautiful blended red can be enjoyed (no, make that, loved) now and can equally be cellared for the long haul. It's a keeper. Here are the details: 2016 BRUNIER VIEUX TELEGRAPH LA CRAU CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE $153.99 This special wine is made with grapes grown on 70 year old vines grown on the stony Crau plateau, in the south east of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation. It's a blend of 65% Grenache Noir, 15% Mourvèdre, 15% Syrah, Cinsault, Clairette and 5% other grapes, all hand picked, double sorted during harvest and gently pressed with selective destemming, followed by 30 to 40 days’ traditional fermentation in a combination of stainless steel and wood. This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered and is a great expression of southern France's most famous Mediterranean appellation. Buy 2016 Brunier Vieux Telegraph La Crau Chateauneuf-du-Pape here

It’s been a year to remember, in more ways than one, so we thought it was time to celebrate the good things about 2020 with our Top 25 Wines of the Year. This tasty bunch spans the gamut of styles from great tasting bubbles and Pinot Noir from the South Island of New Zealand to complex Nebbiolo from the north of Italy, and much more besides. We have had tastings, discussions and chats about which wines rate the highest for our staff this year and have selected this list based on tastings with suppliers, at wineries and with samples to sent us directly for potential stocking in store. We have come up with this list, not least because we love the taste of these lovely wines. And that's a good reason to buy a couple of bottles to celebrate the end of a challenging year and the start of a fresh new one.  * Our top 25 list is not a ranking but a group of the wines we think hit the highest notes with our team this year.   Regional Wines' Top 25 Wines of 2020 Quartz Reef Brut NV $27.99 This is one of our best sellers, year round and comes from Central Otago, which is home to more Pinot Noir than you can shake a stick at so it goes to reason that this full bodied, dry, toasty sparkling wine is made mostly from Pinot, which makes up 72% of the blend along with 38% Chardonnay, blended together, aged on their yeast lees in bottle for two years, prior to hand disgorgement on site at Quartz Reef winery in Cromwell. Characterful, consistent and delicious. Buy Quartz Reef Brut NV here   Nautilus Brut Cuvee NV $34.99 Winemaker Clive Jones aims for the top by modelling this dry, full bodied bubbly on the best - Bollinger Special Cuvee. Both bubblies are Pinot Noir dominant and aged for longer on lees than their counterparts traditionally are, which provides them with a rich flavoursome character which lingers with every sip. Nautilus Brut Cuvee spends three years on lees prior to disgorgement; that's phenomenal for a traditional method, multi vintage bubbly under $40. Buy Nautilus Brut Cuvee NV here   2017 Greystone North Canterbury Pinot Noir $39.99 Organically certified, talented winemaking and flavoursome grapes with balance, thanks to the long, dry, high diurnal range growing season in North Canterbury. Greystone Pinot Noir ticks all the boxes, the most important being that it tastes as great Pinot should. Bright fruit, savoury earthy secondary flavours and the gradual development of tertiary complexity. This is an outstanding wine from an outstanding (and under rated) wine region.   Buy Greystone Pinot Noir here   2016 The Boneline Waimanu Pinot Noir $38.99 This beautiful North Canterbury Pinot Noir is starting to hit its straps thanks to four years' time to develop interesting savoury flavours and a deliciously concentrated dark cherry note. The Boneline is the name of the vineyard/winery formerly known as Waipara West, due to its westerly situation in North Canterbury. It is a beautiful place to visit and produces stellar wines such as this one. Buy The Boneline Waimanu Pinot Noir here   Champagne Lallier R016 $54.99 Our team at Regional have had the pleasure of tasting all Lallier Champagnes and we're hugely impressed with their quality and value for money. This champagne house is based in Ay, one of 17 Grand Cru villages in the Champagne region. It was founded in 1906 by Rene Lallier and sold in 2004 to Francis Tribaut who is the current owner and winemaker.  This bubbly is a blend of 62% Pinot Noir and 38% Chardonnay, 81% of the grapes grown in 2016, with the balance being reserve wines that are two to three years old on average. The name R016 refers to the vintage from which the majority of the grapes in the wine come; it's all about transparency in grape source. Dosage is 8 grams per litre and 85% Grand Cru vineyards makes this wine an outstanding expression of very good quality champagne.  Buy Champagne Lallier R016   Andre Clouet Grand Reserve Champagne NV $59.99 The family owned Andre Clouet champagne house dates back nearly 300 years and this Grand Reserve is one of our staff faves hers at Regional. Where else can you find a 100% Pinot Noir grower champagne made from Grand Cru vineyards, which ages on lees for four times the minimum requirement in the Champagne region. It offers incredible taste and richness. Buy Andre Clouet Grand Reserve Champagne NV here   2016 Guigal Cotes-du-Rhone $23.99 Guigal's famous Cotes du Rhone is a blend of 50% Syrah, 40% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre, aged for 18 months in large oak foudres in the northern Rhone, in Ampuis. Long skin maceration time provides depth and richness to this dry, full bodied, soft red wine, which is made from vines with an average age of 35 years. The 2016 is our current vintage in store and is a stunning year for Rhone reds, with many critics rating it the best in the past century.  Buy 2016 Guigal Cotes-du-Rhone here   2017 Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon $29.99 This complex blend of Sauvignon Semillon is a maverick South Island take on the classic white Bordeaux theme, offering fresh, bright and delicious aromas of ripe apple, lime, gooseberry and passionfruit. Both varieties were aged on their natural deposits of yeast lees for approximately 10 months, prior to blending. This lees contact brings creaminess and body. Once bottled, the wine was aged for another year before release, allowing integratation and depth. Buy 2017 Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon here   2011 Seresin Sauvignon Blanc Organic $24.99 Organically certified, nine year Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough which drinks brilliantly well now? Yes. Here it is. The extra age in bottle complements this wine which has developed complex savoury notes, a full body and creamy aromas in a beautifully balanced aged Sauvignon. Buy 2011 Seresin Sauvignon Blanc Organic here    2015 Churton Marlborough Best End Sauvignon Blanc $41.99 Best End Sauvignon Blanc literally is made from the best end of Churton Estate's small biodynamic Sauvignon Blanc vineyard. And what a wine. Creamy notes, savoury flavours and a lingering zesty finish all make this one of Marlborough's best white wines. No surprise it's made by the Weaver family, who have carved a niche as a great wine producer across its range of classic French grape varieties. All Churton wines are certified organic with Bio-Gro New Zealand and are also made from biodynamically farmed grapes.  Buy 2015 Churton Marlborough Best End Sauvignon Blanc here   2019 Terras Gauda Albarino $35.99  This is a stunning and distinctive northern Spanish white wine made 100% from the Albarino grape. The Terras Gauda winery overlooks the gentle green countryside of Galicia in north west Spain where its vineyards are planted and since the winery develops its own yeasts from the vineyards, it has honed in on an individualistic style. We hope you'll enjoy this as much as we do - a fascinating dry white.  Buy 2019 Terras Gauda Albarino here   2017 Umani Ronchi Casal di Serra Verdicchio $23.99 Verdicchio is one of Italy's greatest white grapes and makes a wide range of styles, such as this dry, full bodied and flavoursome nutty white from the Castelli di Jesi DOC in the Marche region in Central Italy.  Verdicchio is mostly associated with the Marche region but also grows widely in Veneto in northern Italy and is known there as Trebbiano di Soave, as confirmed by DNA testing. Buy 2017 Umani Ronchi Casal di Serra Verdicchio here   2018 La Colombera Derthona Colli Tortonesi Timorrasso $42.99 This is a great dry white that gets better with age and is also hugely complex right now. It is made from the Timorasso grape, one of the great white grapes of northern Italy, which nearly died out following phylloxera in the late 1800s, until it was revived in the small Colli Tortonesi DOC of Piedmonte. Buy 2018 La Colombera Derthona Colli Tortonesi Timorrasso here   2016 Produttori del Barbaresco $61.99 Produttori del Barbaresco makes this wine as a regional blend from the small Barbaresco appellation (DOCG) in Piemonte in north west Italy where 51 members collectively own approximately 100 hectares of the entire appellation. This is an outstanding wine from the great 2016 vintage, showing the power, delicacy and seductive structure of the great Nebbiolo grape.   Buy 2016 Produttori del Barbaresco here   2015 Villa Antinori Toscana $38.99 A top wine from one of Tuscany's most famous wineries. This is drinking superbly now at five years old and puts Central Italy's best red wine foot forward; a must try for both red wine lovers and Italiaphiles.  Buy 2015 Villa Antinori Toscana here   2015 Savage White South Africa We have small quantities of this high quality wine from winemaker Duncan Savage, a fan of cool climate whites from the western cape of South Africa, which is where he sources Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon from to make this outstanding blend, which also includes Clairette Blanche and Chenin Blanc.  Buy 2015 Savage White South Africa here   2019 Foradori Teroldego Lezer $34.99 Elisabetta Foradori is a northern Italian winemaker from Alto Adige in the north east, which is home to the red Teroldego grape, used to make this complex and delicious pale red wine, which suits being chilled. She is northern Italy's queen of low intervention winemaking and produces wines made in barrel, amphora, stainless and cement. Lezer means 'easy' and this wine lives up to its name.  Buy 2019 Foradori Teroldego Lezer here   2018 Churton Petit Manseng $44.99 Petit Manseng is a rarely known, refreshing white grape grown in a small appellation in the south of France. It makes outstanding wines such as this organically certified one from the Weaver family's Churton Estate in Marlborough. A stunning wine.  Buy 2018 Churton Petit Manseng here   2017 Lime Hill Pinot Noir $46.99 Iron fist, velvet glove, tasty Pinot Noir. This wine comes from a small .8 hectare vineyard on the remote road to Castlepoint in the northern Wairarapa. Limestone dominates the soils on this vineyard and this wine expresses seductive red fruit flavours and stunning depth. It could age well but it tastes great now, so why wait. Buy 2017 Lime Hill Pinot Noir here   2019 Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay $32.99 One of our biggest success stories in October this year. Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay is classically modelled on great white Burgundies, with 100% malolactic fermentation, expressing purity of fruit with its citrus notes and rounded full body.  Buy 2019 Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay here   2014 Puriri Hills Estate $45.99 Judy Fowler founded Puriri Hills Vineyard in the rolling Clevedon Hills, south east of Auckland, and she produced her first red wine in 1999. Her aim is to make the best New Zealand expression of great red wines that emulate the best from the right bank of Bordeaux.  Buy 2014 Puriri Hills Estate here   2012/2014 Greywacke Marlborough Riesling $29.99 This is a must try, made with hand picked grapes grown on the organically certified Ashmore Vineyard in Fairhall, Marlborough then fermented with a combination of spontaneous yeast and inoculated ferments (50/50) were taken to 12.5% ABV and residual sugar of 19.5 grams per litre, which makes this wine medium dry. It tastes of ripe Granny Smith apples underpinned by zesty lime flavours and bright acidity.  Buy 2012/2014 Greywacke Marlborough Riesling here   2019 Black Estate Home Vineyard Chenin Blanc $39.99 Chenin Blanc is one of the great white grapes of the wine world and is beautifully expressed in this dry white from North Canterbury, which rocks with flavours of crisp and crunchy green apples, a note of spice and a honeysuckle impression on the bone dry finish.  Buy 2019 Black Estate Home Vineyard Chenin Blanc here   2016 Brunier Vieux Telegraph La Crau Chateauneuf-du-Pape $153.99 This special wine is made with grapes grown on 70 year old vines grown on the stony Crau plateau, in the south east of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation. It's a blend of 65% Grenache Noir, 15% Mourvèdre, 15% Syrah, Cinsault, Clairette and 5% other grapes, all hand picked, double sorted during harvest and gently pressed with selective destemming, followed by 30 to 40 days’ traditional fermentation in a combination of stainless steel and wood. This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered and is a great expression of southern France's most famous Mediterranean appellation. Buy 2016 Brunier Vieux Telegraph La Crau Chateauneuf-du-Pape here   2017 Domaine Pates Loup Vent d’Ange Chablis $77.99 Domaine Pattes Loup is a 24 hectare certified organic vineyard owned by Thomas Pico in the village of Courgis in Burgundy's northernmost outpost, Chablis. Pico makes outstanding dry whites from the Chardonnay grape and his wines are new at Regional Wines this year, highlighting what we think is Chardonnay at its best. Pattes Loup means 'wolf's paw'. Buy 2017 Domaine Pates Loup Vent d’Ange Chablis here

If The Abyss sounds more like a scary movie than a great wine, you only need to taste a sip to recalibrate your thoughts. The high priced Marlborough Pinot Noir is made from a hillside vineyard which backs onto a precipitous cliff, hence the name, The Abyss. The vines here were planted in 2000 at a high density of approximately 5000 vines to the hectare, making it pretty unusual for New Zealand where most vines are grown on flat land at significantly lower density, providing in general far less competition for water and nutrients from the soils. And that's part of what makes The Abyss so different. The raw material has had to struggle a lot more than unusual. Just how this translates into the taste of the wine is a matter of much ongoing debate in wine circles, suffice to say that the wine is outstanding and among the top tier of New Zealand Pinot Noir. It's also 100% certified organic with Bio-Gro New Zealand andgrown biodynamically, so the grapes were picked on a root day and a flower day, respectively, on 1 and 3 April this year. Yields were low. The concentration of flavour in the wine is high.  The juice had a high proportion of whole berries in the ferment which was done with indigenous yeasts over 7 to 10 days with hand plunging twice daily over this time. The wine then stayed on skins post ferment for one lunar month and aged in French oak barrels for 18 months. A modest 10% of the oak was new, so this is about expressing the place; not the oaka.  Winemaker Sam Weaver describes The Abyss Pinot Noir as an iron fist in a velvet glove.  The velvet part is easy to see and the structure also impressively lives up to this description. We have small volumes of this great Marlborough Pinot Noir. Be in quick.

If you’ve ever been to Galicia, you may have been perplexed by the presence of tartan, Celtic jewelry, and buskers playing bagpipes. Wait a minute, you thought. I thought I was in Spain? Then the rainy landscape, green ferns, and white beaches made you think that maybe you hadn’t left home at all and were still in New Zealand. Until you ate some of the best and most unusual seafood of your life at lunch, looking out past the stone ruins on the headland to sea, a bottle of exquisite Albariño from nearby Rías Baixas on the table, and concluded that this place wasn’t like anywhere else at all. A brief background Originally settled by the Celts, and subsequently incorporated into the Roman empire (where it was named Gallaecia), Galicia has at many points in European history been its own independent kingdom. Gallego, the Galician language, is a blend of Spanish and Portuguese. With a border that shifted boundaries relatively frequently, the people of the region identified first and foremost as Galicians, regardless of which official rule they were under. Although Galicia possesses an abundance of both seafood and metals, it has for parts of its recent history been extremely poor. Following the Spanish civil war in 1936 and the subsequent years under General Franco’s rule, Galicians found themselves with seafood but often no bread, coffee, penicillin, or lightbulbs. Portugal, just over the river, was faring much better economically due to its colonization in Africa. Due to the unique geography of the Galician-Portuguese border, with hundreds of kilometres of coastline combed throughout with inlets and rivers, the border was very permeable. A lucrative industry of contraband sprang up. This began with essential food and medical supplies being carried over the border with shepherds, but the logistics quickly grew to incorporate boats. These were used to navigate up the rivers and move steadily bigger amounts. Owners of boats and fishermen suddenly found themselves in a position to make a lot more money than they could from harvesting seafood. The narco trade When the South American drug cartels were looking to expand their market into Europe, they found in Galicia a ready made distribution network. In the 1970s, Galicia became the main entry point of heroin and cocaine to the rest of Europe. The book Fariña (“Flour”) by Nacho Carretero and the Netflix series of the same name detail how this developed. In previously impoverished fishing villages, the unusual presence of luxurious houses and cars appeared at the same time as newly drug dependent youth. The locals began to protest and police reinforcements were brought in from Madrid to assist with the crackdown.   The best wine on their doorstep With contraband and trafficking being increasingly risky, people sought a new source of income. Fortunately, at the same time as the trafficking had been going on, scientists and oenologists had been working hard to isolate the best vine clones from the many that covered the region. The name of the famous grape of Galicia, Albariño, is said to come from Alba, meaning white in Latin, and Riño, from the Rhine valley. It was purportedly carried by monks in the 16th century from Germany and is thought to have been a variety of Riesling. It had however long since adapted to the Atlantic climate and soil of Galicia and acquired a completely different taste profile. It was the perfect match for the local seafood, being crisp but with hints of delicate stone fruit and great length. But consistency was somewhat hit and miss. A team from the Spanish Superior Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC), together with the passionate viticulturist and winemaker from local Albariño producer Terras Gauda, Ana Oliveira, undertook an exhaustive study of 200 of the different clones of Albariño present in the region. From the wines made from each, they isolated five with the characteristics best adapted to the climate and agronomy of the region. Terras Gauda planted each of these five grafts in the areas of the vineyard according to the topography. The best version of Albariño was now possible. Other wineries began to also focus on single parcel production and Galicia began to achieve justified fame for its unique white. Terras Gauda and Albariño Galicia is worth visiting just for the experience of sampling the vieiras (tiny scallops), percebes (goose barnacles), fresh fish and lobster with a bottle of Albariño. The old vines lend a great concentration to the wine. Other countries with similar climates are now experimenting with planting Albariño, and it is becoming more widely available in New Zealand. Spain is however still very much the benchmark. On the Spanish side of the Minho River that separates Portugal from Spain lies Terras Gauda. No longer in territory muddied by narcos, the winery stands proudly on the hill and overlooks the gentle green countryside. Each type of grape and each parcel is harvested when its ripeness is perfect, and is vinified and fermented separately. For the fermentation, Terras Gauda uses its own yeasts, selected from their vineyards. The yeasts are unique to the winery and have been patented. This is one of the reasons the TG wines are so consistent because they don’t need to rely on commercial yeasts. If you are in the area, it is well worth arranging a tour. If not, you can order one from one of the restaurants we supply to (see below for a list of these), or find a bottle on our website, chill it to 12 degrees, and break out your best seafood.  Try this Albarino...  Buy 2017 / 2018 Terras Gauda Albarino for $35.99 here   About the writer Sophie Cotter of St Vincent's Cave is a Spanish Wine importer and writer, whose blog is so interesting that we wanted to share it here, especially this piece on Albarino which originates in Galicia, in north west Spain.

When you visit a region such as Marlborough, it’s hard not to be slightly fearful of the swathe of monoculture cutting its way into the countryside that wine now represents. Grape growing may not be as harmful as intensive livestock farming, but as an industry in expansion, its role is becoming more and more relevant. Organic wine has therefore become an increasingly important commodity in relation to how this country looks forward at protecting its environment and promoting its eco and biodiversity. Currently, there are no government incentives (subsidies or tax breaks) to becoming certified organic, so the onus sits firmly with the winemakers when weighing up this decision. They are at the head of the manufacturing/consumer chain, the ones creating the wine after all but, it's not as simple as waking up and deciding to call yourself organic. With most certifications there is a lengthy conversion process, initial costs and ongoing costs which will need to be balanced against the rewards (both financially and morally) that will ideally be reaped in the future. These rewards will hopefully be in the form of decreased input costs of pesticides and herbicides and lower maintenance costs from improved vine and soil health. Ultimately the key result will be better wine which will reward the winemaker with justifiably higher prices on his or her wines, and this is where the consumer comes into play. As consumers of wine we need to think about our role in the situation too. Today, the consumer needs to play an active role in helping bring about change - we are just as important in many ways as our purchasing drives the industry. We should be actively seeking out organic wine and, arguably, even at a higher cost. This is the support the industry needs to egg on the conversion process, which will afford us better products that are healthier and, in the long term, could even reduce in price as benefits start to filter back into the industry. In one sense, organic wine is an integral cog in the ever increasing move towards premiumisation, encouraged by consumers who are becoming more willing to spend more to drink better.  The demand for organic wine is on the up which shows that things are moving in the right direction. Consumers are now keener to know the provenance of what it is that they are putting inside themselves and are increasingly aware of the need to look after ecosystems and promote biodiversity. Global pandemics, climate change and outbreaks of infectious disease within agriculture will only push this demand further. Retailers such as Regional Wines also have a role to play in making these wines readily available and, of course, communicating their existence to the consumer. So, if producers, consumers and retailers are doing their bit - what about the government? There is an organic regulation bill being put through parliament at the moment, and this is possibly the first step towards greater involvement by the government who, in my opinion, have been sorely missing. If the Government is finally realising the importance of the organic sector, who knows, next we may see legislation of minimum organic requirements for wine producers and greater incentives to allow this to happen.  You only have to look at organically farmed vineyards, often with cover crops of wildflowers between their vines to know that organics and biodynamics are the better way to farm. With regions such as Marlborough showing no signs of decreasing in size, it really is important that we do what we can to protect our country as a whole - and organic wine is definitely part of the bigger picture. ------ We are celebrating Organic Wine Week in store with Jack Weaver of Churton Estate who will be opening three organic wines from the Churton Natural State range on Wednesday 23 September. You can visit Regional Wine’s organic wine collection by clicking here.

Mountford Winery sits stylishly on the limestone slopes of North Canterbury's Waipara Valley where its new owner, Takahiro Koyama, is carrying on the great work that his well known predecessor did. The winery has changed hands twice in its life and for most of its history, the wines have been made by CP Lin; not only an outstanding winemaker but a blind one, whose taste buds and palate are legendary for good reason. Fellow winemaker Theo Coles then made Mountford Wines for a couple of years in 2014, 2015 and 2016. There was no 2017 vintage produced and Takahiro took over from 2018 onwards. Mountford may be small but the quality has a long track record for being superlative.  Late last month, our store manager Matt King and wine advisor, Joelle Thomson (that's me, by the way, writing this story in third person), were lucky enough to meet Takahiro Koyama for the first time and taste the wines. Takahiro visited us with his distributor Brandon Nash of Dhall & Nash. The pair showed their newest releases and we now have a couple of highlights of the Mountford Wine range in store, which are likely to be joined by others from the range in future.   * All grapes in Mountford Estate's production are grown on site. None are bought in. The entire estate is nearly 10 hectares and heavy in limestone. All grapes hand harvested.   Pop into Regional to buy these outstanding newcomers... Buy them here.  2014 Mountford Estate Homage $28.99 Takahiro Koyama is both winemaker and owner of the 10 hectare property that is Mountford Estate, planted on the gentle limestone slopes of the Waipara Valley in North Canterbury.  This wine is an equal four way blend of RIesling, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Gewurztraminer, inspired by the great white co ferments and field blends of Marcel Deiss from Alsace in France. It took six years to get a crop from these vines and when the vineyard did produce one, it was small, so flavours are intense and rich with well balanced residual sugar of 20 grams per litre and fresh acidity providing length and balance.  2015 Mountford Estate Chardonnay $38.99 Deep golden, waxy characters, hand picked, whole bunch ferment in barrel, full bodied and dry with great balance of acidity adding freshness. Aged in a combination of barrel and stainless. Big and fresh. Long on the finish and rich with great balance.  2016 Mountford Liaison Pinot Noir $28.99 Just released.  Absolutely delicious. Grapes were all destemmed into small open top fermenters with pump overs at juice stage. This wine has beautiful refreshing, well balanced acidity and brightness. Drinks well right now but clearly has potential to hold for up to five years, evolving interestingly over that time. It was pressed into French oak where it had wild yeast fermentation and spent 16-18 months; it was then bottled with no fining or filtration.

First is always a big claim to make but in the case of the relatively unknown Marlborough wines from Auntsfield, it's true. The brand is family owned company and the inspiration comes firmly from the French camp. Burgundy and white Bordeaux are the wines that inspire the Cowley family's wines but there is also an interesting history behind their wines and the vineyard on which their grapes grown. It is the original site of the first grapes and wines ever to be planted and produced in Marlborough.  Auntsfield was originally founded by David Herd in 1873 and wine was produced there by David Herd until 1905 when his son, John Paynter, took over. Which explains why the winery is on Paynter’s Road today. Herd planted Muscat because he brought cuttings of it with him from Australia to produce fortified Muscat. The winery today is now producing Muscat again in homage to the winery’s’ early days and vines grow on the same patch of land that Herd once used.  Auntsfield wines are made by brothers Ben and Luc Cowley, whose parents were looking for land for many years when they happened upon this piece of it in Marlborough, in the late 1990s. They bought 100 hectares and currently have 65 hectares under vine in a mix of 50% Pinot Noir, 45% Sauvignon Blanc and 5% Chardonnay. Three single vineyard wines are now made from these vines which grow on clay hillsides above the Wairau Valley at about the same elevation as the Clayvin. The Auntsfield Vineyard has its own microclimate and the soils are a combination of greywacke rock mixed with clay. Ben Cowley is the viticulturist while his brother Luc is the winemaker. The wines are made at the Dog Point Vineyards winery. 2019 Auntsfield Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Flinty, dry, fresh, salty… no oak but lees work to replace the green spectrum - flavours of intense lime, lemon blossom  and leanness in taste with medium to full body. Dialled down aromatics - not the tropical style. Beautiful flinty. RS 2-3 grams each year.  2018 Auntsfield Single Vineyard Chardonnay  Two small blocks on the vineyard (only 5% of overall production - 600 to 700 cases). Clone 95, burgundian clone and Mendoza clone - no malo. Their philosophy is no malolactic but a rich and flavoursome wine due to low cropping levels, which are easy to achieve with Mendoza clone (aka hen and chicken due to small berries). This wine is dry and full bodied, due to 10 to11 months in oak, 25-30% new, all French. Powerful. 2019 Auntsfield Single Vineyard Pinot Noir  Deep ruby-crimson colour, very youthful, totally dry, very tight. Clonal blend off the main slopes at Auntsfield on the steepest oldest hillside portion of their vineyard. Planted in 667, 777 and Abel clones of Pinot Noir. All spur pruned. Very small, very tight bunches and 2019 was year of small berries with great depth of fruit tannin coming through. Very gentle winemaking, all French oak, 25% new for less than a year in oak. Savoury character and very dark fruit flavours.  We have all of these wines in stock, with the exception of the 2019 Auntsfield Pinot Noir (which we will roll to soon). In the meantime, we have the sensationally savoury and delicious 2015 Auntsfield Pinot Noir. Buy it here. 

When Sue and Greg White gave up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht, they could barely have imagined that it might lead to a life of winemaking in Marlborough, but that's exactly what happened. As romantic as their story has been, it's also been a lot of sheer hard work, which is why their winery has become one of the most successful in Marlborough today. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery. Their new winemaker is Peter Jackson, who co hosted the Instagram tasting last night with me last week, featuring this delicious aromatic pair of dry whites, which impressed me with their freshness, relative dryness and high quality. 2018 Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Gris $21.99 Pinot Gris is a versatile grape variety, which can taste rich and expressive or simple and straightforward, depending on the crop levels in the vineyard and winemaking style. This tasty little number from Whitehaven Wines in Marlborough puts the variety’s best foot forward with its dry style (5 grams residual sugar per litre) and refreshing acidity adding nervy zest to the flavoursome citrusy style. Impressive. 2017 Whitehaven Marlborough Riesling $21.99 Riesling is never far from mind when visiting New Zealand’s biggest wine region, which may make a sea of Sauvignon Blanc, but which can also produce outstanding wines made from this under rated German variety. This wine is made from a combination of hand and machine harvested fruit which was fermented at cool temperatures to retain fruit freshness as well as 11.6 grams per litre of residual sugar, nicely balanced by bright tasty acidity. It’s a succulent little number which rocks a lime zest flavour and drinks beautifully now but can age for at least a decade.