Normally $31. Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Merlot 2009 was one of only 3 to be given a 5 star / top 5 rating in the Cuisine Tasting - with the top wine retailing at $70 . 4½ Stars Michael Cooper, Best Buy – 100 Must try NZ Wines – Michael Cooper
and 18½ + Points, 5 Stars Raymond Chan ( senior wine judge ) who writes "A thoroughly modern, top quality, classy expression of the Right Bank Bordeaux style, this has a purple hued, ruby-red colour and a finely expressed, intense and tightly bound nose of pure black plum and dark red berry fruits. The medium-full bodied palate shows beautifully pure, succulently sweet plum and blackberry fruit flavours nuanced with elements of tobacco and cedar. The depth of fruit combined with elegant style is the feature of the wine. Very fine-grained tannin extraction underpins the fruit and provides a supple frame. The finish is rich and long. Drink this with roasted red meat dishes over the next 6-8+years. 80% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2%Malbec from the ‘Gimblett Gravels' vineyard, fermented to 13.8% alc. and matured 14 months in 35% new French oak barriques." Classy Merlot
Normally $25. Made using 'the traditional techniques of Chablis', the 2010 vintage is a very gently oaked style, full of interest. Grown near the coast at Te Awanga, and fermented in a mix of tanks (mostly) and French oak barrels, it is fresh and fruit-focused, with good weight and ripe grapefruit, pear and apple flavours, slightly mealy, finely poised and lingering. It's not showy, but refined and satisfying. M Cooper
"Terrific buying for a quality product from Craggy Range"
Normally $34. Michael Cooper has classified the Odyssey Reserve Iliad Gisborne Chardonnay as an Icon Wine, in his book 'Classic Wines of New Zealand' saying "From one vintage to the next, Rebecca Salmond makes one of Gisborne's classiest wines. "The 2010 ( 5 Stars ) is hand-picked from mature vines in the Kawatiri Vineyard at Hexton and fermented and aged in French oak barriques ( 30% new ), this wine has a creamy, toasty bouquet. Very elegant, youthful and harmonious, it has concentrated stonefruit, grapefruit and slight spice flavours, finely integrated oak and a long, poised finish." M.Cooper
Normally $24. The 2011 (4 stars) is richly scented and mouthfilling, with peach, pear and lychee flavours showing excellent depth, delicacy and balance. Slightly sweet, vibrantly fruity and youthful;, it has some spicy, gingery notes adding interest and obvious potential.
Light, dry and crisp from Spain. Proper rose made for consuming in hot weather. Made from Grenache in the traditional saignee method. After a maceration of around 24 hours, the juice is seperated from the skins by gravity with no mechanical pressing, to create a pale, delicate rose.
Normally $20- this is a great buy for a quality label.
Gold Medal, Champion Sauvignon Blanc 2011 and Champion Wine of the Show at the inaugural Marlborough Wine Show where more than 400 wines were entered but there could only be one winner. For the last two years in a row it was rated Top 10 Sauvignon Blanc and 5 stars from Cuisine’s Annual Tasting.
Michael Cooper, 5 stars , Wine of the Week (NZ Listener Magazine)
“...Invivo is a label to watch. This punchy dry wine was mostly grown in the late ripening Westhaven Vineyard at Dashwood. Rich and refined, it is tight and minerally, with vibrant, slightly nettley flavours, showing impressive intensity, delicacy, harmony and length
Normally $90. ( LAST OF THE XMAS DEAL ) A personal favourite with its small production and quality focus. The blend is 56% Pinot Noir, 34% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Meunier, including 10% of reserve wines from three former harvests, aged in oak casks for 2-6 years ."Elegant yet powerful champagne, has plenty of weight and flavour together with fine, nutty yeast autolysis and a creamy texture. A very stylish wine." Cuisine.
Given that their coastal facility on the Etang de Thau puts them cheek-by-jowl not only with the vineyards of Picpoul de Pinet but with a wealth of seafood and seafood restaurants; and that they had established generic bottlings of Languedoc red and rose of exceptional quality-price rapport, Hecht & Bannier's white 2010 Languedoc was a natural development. But instead of it's being by appellation a Picpoul de Pinet - which, as they rightly note, is not exactly (sadly) an internationally-known mark of quality - they took the liberty of playing around and found that an admixture of 10-15% Roussanne (from the Garde) brought floral and texturally rich dimensions to the luscious melon, pear, and fig fruit and saliva-inducingly saline minerality of the Picpoul. I think I've just captured the essence of this 2010 - which I tasted the day it was bottled - and you should require no further inducement, though I can tell you that I took the bottle for a spin in a local restaurant and found its versatility almost as prodigious as that of its rose counterpart." 89/100 R. Parker
"The 2009 Santo Cristo Seleccion Garnacha (bottled in screw up, still a rarity in conservative Spain) is one of them. Dark ruby red in color with a fragrant perfume of pure cherries, on the palate it is savory, easy-going, and a terrific value for drinking over the next 3 years".Parker
There are some tremendous values to be had in old-vine Garnacha in the sparsely populated DO of Campo de Borja.
