The second time I flew home from New Zealand this year, I was fortunate in that I was on a nonstop flight back home to California – no stops in Fiji this time! – which meant I was able to grab a few bottles at the airport. The Auckland wine shop isn’t half bad, but the prices are nothing special and they tend not to have particularly interesting wines, but of course compared to Los Angeles it’s a godsend; last time I flew out of LAX, I think I remember seeing Robert Mondavi Coastal Chardonnay for a whopping $25 a bottle. Ouch!As mentioned previously, I was fortunate enough to stop by Neudorf winery last January, where an overwhelmed tasting staff dealing with too many customers towards the end of a day on a holiday weekend graciously put up with my wanting to taste but not buy (due to lack of luggage space on the way back home from vacation). Looking at Neudorf’s Web site I now see that there’s a fancy version of this wine that Bob Campbell and Jancis Robinson really really liked – and of course what I have is “the cheap one,” the less-fancy one relegated to airport wine shops (but apparently not exported to the USA). Operating on the principle that only the very best wineries put out less expensive wines that are worthy of the same name the fancier ones have, let’s see what this wine is like…An absolutely beautifully soft goldish-green in the glass, I’m grateful that they’ve bottled under screwcap so that it made it home safely without turning that awful oxidized golden color. The nose is very, very Burgundian, with a sort of reduced burnt-match smell that’s reminiscent of just a small amount of sulfur. Frankly, it’s mouth-watering. The overall effect is of roasted nuts and straw, with no particular buttered-popcorn notes that would ordinarily mess with California wines at this price point.The entry of the wine is smooth, lush, and full at first, before being briefly – very briefly – overwhelmed by racy acidity that screams New Zealand to me. Quickly, though, it quiets back down into an resolved dance back and forth between the ripe fruit and the supporting acidity, finishing on a lengthy descent through well-grounded notes of roast hazelnuts and fresh stone fruits. It’s all perfect for a summer’s day, somewhat less oppressive than a Meursault with a real sense of lightness and finesse. Finally, I should say that if there’s any wine this reminds me of, it would almost be a riesling from Burgundy (if such a thing existed, of course): the light delicacy of the aromatics is a wonderful match for the acidity and heft of the wine.Really delicious, great value, and beautifully packaged, it’s a bummer this wine doesn’t seem to be easily available locally. If the less fancy wine is this good, I’d love to know what the “really good” one tastes like.Neudorf
Price: NZ $30
Closure: Stelvin