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

Read More >

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.

Read More >

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.

Read More >

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.

Read More >

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.

Read More >

The Benchmark of Marlborough and representative New Zealand Vineyard

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.

Read More >

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.

Read More >

Indelible purity of fruit, fresh acidity and minerally redolent, texturally seamless with exhilarating tension – 2007 is clearly a harmonious vintage augmenting the stellar evolution of Sugarloaf Ridge.

To the frustration of many a wine enthusiast, wine Intel travels a lot easier than the bottles and invariably one finds themselves drooling over the prose of a sublime wine of miniscule production only to realize it is practically unobtainable in these parts.

Read More >

A conversation centred on the rapidly evolving Asia wine market with wine writing colleagues the other day brought to light the growing divergence in preference for wine styles or grape varieties between countries and metropolis’s around the region.

All of us are resigned to the fact red bordeaux or anything with “Chateau” on the label presently rules in mainland China and to a large extent Hong Kong, the umbilical supply chain of this commodity.

Read More >

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.

Read More >