Vine cuttings can be matched to various soils and regional characteristics of other countries, enhancing the complexity and finish of a wine.
With practically every significant pinot noir producer in New Zealand available in Hong Kong, my advice is to be adventurous in your selection, as you will not come across a bad wine, with quality high across the board. Rather, it is a question of budget or regional style and above all, what appeals to your taste.
It’s a big call, nailing the single wine of the year that was most impressionable amongst so many good bottles moreover, an ever-increasing myriad of high quality, relatively more approachable wines produced around the globe. However, this is wine that stimulated my sensory core, viscera and thoughts most in terms of complexity, compelling quality and sheer enjoyment.
It was my house red for a period; I simply could not get enough of it, drinking the supplier in Singapore dry. I then resorted to hording bottles on my travels to Malaysia, where it is on the wine list at the inimitable Datai resort on Langkawi Island www.ghmhotels.com
Unparalleled, sensuous Pinot Noir perfectly matched to Peking Duck at Imperial Treasure on October 20th 2010
Acclaimed actor, Sam Neill, is equally known for his fervent passion for pinot noir, his Central Otago vineyard Two Paddocks the most sort after pinot on the planet impossibly scarce yet now available, albeit miniscule quantities, in Singapore, exclusively through Hermitage Wines.
Sugarloaf Ridge vineyard is a family owned vineyard begun in 1998 by Dr Simon Stanley. Simon’s daughter and her husband, Julian and Kristin Colvile, formerly long time habitants of Hong Kong, assumed ownership in 2007 and are now on Sugarloaf’s 8th vintage and each one has been award winning! The vineyard is positioned at 42 degrees south (the same as Marlborough and correspondingly in the northern hemisphere, southern Burgundy).
Curtis Marsh shares why it’s impossible to make up his mind when it comes to a favourite wine.
Whenever I’m asked, “What is your favourite wine?” I reply, “The wine I haven’t tried yet”, emphasising that I gain the most pleasure in discovering new taste sensations.
The fact is: I have a wandering palate for food and wine, greatly influenced by my mood and by different cuisines, although inevitably, there are certain flavours, varieties and regions I enjoy more than others.
In this “old world” wine village, the small but successful Wairarapa settlement of Martinborough is home to an unsurpassed charm. Climate and soil are everything to this wine town.
Martinborough is renown for producing premium grapes, which in turn produce world-class, award-winning wines. The international trophies abound for a region that produces just small percentage of the nation’s fine wines.
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.
Directly following the New Zealand Pinot Noir Celebration 2010 in February this year, I attended the Nelson Aromatics Symposium, staying with the Finns at Neudorf Vineyard.
I was met at the airport by Richard Flatman, who had just left Two Paddocks in Central Otago to join the Neudorf team. Flatman is one of the most passionate organic and biodynamic viticulture practitioners in the country and clearly the Finns are not resting on their laurels in bringing him onboard, forever striving to improve in the vineyards with a no compromise approach to every facet of making wine.
Savouring my glass of 2007 Seresin Sauvignon Blanc, actually I am guzzling and already on to my third glass, so good is this wine; concentrated, complex, invigorating and comparable to any top Sancerre or Pouilly Fume. It is the quintessential New Zealand wine, an exemplar and nexus to the geography and fast-evolving wine culture of New Zealand.
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.
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