Pegasus Bay Pinot Noir Prima Donna 2009 – Waipara Valley, South Island, New Zealand
Also notes from a vertical tasting
Having already announced Pegasus Bay Prima Donna Pinot Noir 2009 as the “Most Auspicious Wine for Chinese New Year 2012 Year of the Black Water Dragon year”, I had in fact already singled it out as my “Red Wine of the Year”, so impressed by its sheer profoundness and energy, yet harmonious elegance. Read More >
Walter Bourke: September 15, 1945 – September 19, 2003
I first met Walter Bourke in 1986, at his legendary Melbourne restaurant, Maria & Walter’s. I had been invited to the ‘Table 8’, an underground group of the most serious wine palates in Australia, which convened regularly in the upstairs private dining room at Maria & Walter’s for extravagant banquets with vertical tastings of some of the most coveted wines in the world.
Walter Bourke Homage – Pinot Noir Producer of the Year
Must-Have Wines Best of the Lunar Year – 2010 – Year of the Tiger – Best Wine of the Year from the Cellar
Quartz Reef Pinot Noir 2002 and 2003 – Central Otago, New Zealand
New Zealand’s Quiet Achiever: Rudi Bauer, Quartz Reef
Having long realised the most modest vignerons invariably make the best wines, I have always greatly admired Rudi Bauer, both as a person and his Quartz Reef wines. You will not find a more humble winemaker than Bauer, although he does remind me a lot of Ian Marks at Gembrook Hill, in the Yarra Valley, Australia, both hypercritical of their wines, continually censuring themselves.
Martinborough Pinot Noir scoops top prize from 10,983 entries in world’s biggest wine show
A small winery from Wairarapa which only planted its 12 hectares of vines in 1999 has triumphed over Pinot Noirs from 19 other countries including France, Italy, Australia, the USA, Chile and Germany to win the International Pinot Noir Trophy at the world’s biggest and most prestigious wine show, The Decanter World Wine Awards. London’s Royal Opera House was the venue for last night’s unveiling of the 28 ultimate world beating wines from the 10,983 entries in the 2010 Decanter World Wine Awards.
Originally intended to be part of my larger project “Australia Benchmark Chardonnay Producers” I am sure readers will not mind if I include chardonnay’s soul mate, pinot noir in this coverage of new releases from Sugarloaf Ridge. The 2007 Sugarloaf Ridge Chardonnay is indeed a blinder, nothing short of exemplary and in my view, the benchmark for Tasmania.
In the late 1950’s Jean Miguet at La Provence, east of Launceston and Claudio Alcorso at Morilla Estate near Hobart, pioneered the renaissance of Tasmanian wine industry. The late 1960’s and 70’s saw the establishment of Graham Wiltshire’s Heemskerk vineyard on the Tamar, followed by Andrew Pirie at Pipers Brook, north of Launceston and Freycinet Vineyard on the Eastcoast in the early 80’s; the suitability and reputation of chardonnay in the cool-climate of Tasmania was slowly chiselled.
Reuters Life! – It’s a big call, nailing the single wine of 2009 that was most impressionable amongst so many good bottles and an ever-increasing myriad of quality, relatively more approachable wines produced around the globe.
However, Two Paddocks Pinot Noir 2006 from Central Otago, New Zealand, is the wine that stimulated my sensory core, viscera and thoughts most in terms of complexity, quality and sheer enjoyment.
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