In the land of Sauvignon Blanc, the one who make it different is King … I am paraphrasing an old saying here but what I’m trying to get you to understand is that everybody knows that New Zealand make great Sauvignon Blanc, of that there is no doubt, but the question on everybody’s lips should be, when confronted by the New Zealand section at your local liquor store: what else can they do?<\/p>\n
As it turns out plenty.\u00a0 This year with close to 40 wineries in attendance I tried to avoid New Zealand’s signature grape and instead focused my attention on “anything else”.\u00a0 At one point I started asking producers what wine they were most proud to pour for me, and 90% picked something other than Sauvignon Blanc – seems the Kiwis are getting the message loud and clear:\u00a0 If you are going to have a sustainable wine industry you can’t focus solely on one grape – the world wants to see what else you can do.<\/p>\n
The Wine Fair was broken down into two parts – the self pour media seminar and the trade portion.\u00a0 This year’s seminar wanted us to focus on ‘The Amazing Aromatics from New Zealand’, other than Sauvignon Blanc, and the “Various Faces of Syrah” from different parts of this dual island nation. I was less impressed with the Pinot Gris selection, the best of this mediocre lot was an Akarua 2009 Pinot Gris<\/em> from the Central Otago. (***+)<\/p>\n My palate fared better with the Gewurztraminers, the Spy Valley 2010 Gewurztraminer<\/em> ($21.95) had just what you’d want from this grape – nice floral and rose petal nuances with a dash of spice. (****)<\/p>\n Seminar (syrah) …<\/strong> The Rest of the Show (alphabetically, four-stars and above) … (to see the best of the rest, click here<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
Seminar (aromatics) …<\/strong>
I thought all the Rieslings (3 in total) were quite nice, the best of which was a Mt. Beautiful 2008 Cheviot Hills Riesling<\/em> from Canterbury; at $18 it delivered fresh fruit, petrol, peach, apple and pear … beautiful is a good name for it. (****+)<\/p>\n
Seven Syrahs were on the table for sample, four from the Hawkes Bay region, two from the Gimblett Gravels (a sub-region of Hawke’s Bay) and one from Waiheke Island.\u00a0 My favourite was the Sacred Hill 2007 Deerstalkers Syrah<\/em> ($39.99) from Hawke’s Bay proper; it was deep, rich and dark fruited with some sour black raspberry notes on the nose; the palate proved just as deep and rich with flavours of raspberry, smokiness and earthiness leading to a firm mouthfeel and good tannins; the finish proved to be very Syrah-like with lots of peppery notes (****+).\u00a0 Rounding out my top three were two from Gimblett Gravels: Mission Estate 2009 Reserve Syrah<\/em> ($26.95) with its slightly plum-pepper finish (****) and Villa Maria Cellar Selection 2008 Syrah<\/em> ($37.95) with meaty-earthy and chalkiness in the mouth … with time this should develop into something wonderful, say 3-5 years (****).<\/p>\n