Unison Rosé 2008

I have previously tasted the 2006 version of this wine and, swirling this more recent edition tonight, my earlier note remains relevant to a large extent. This is a savoury rosé style, quite full and somewhat angular; in other words, a more challenging wine than some. 

On the nose, a funky meatiness mixes with flowers, spice, red fruits and vegetation. It’s a serious aroma profile, not blowsy or even particularly expressive. But there’s a nice clean fruit character underlining the whole thing that I like very much. The palate has an unexpected thrust of fruit sweetness that is both sympathetic and a little surprising – the effect is akin to the North African habit of adding fruit to elaborately spiced, savoury dishes, in that it is organic but also creates tension in the flavour profile. Aside from this rounded, sweet red fruit, there are florals and peppery spice and a general masculinity (in the context of rosé style, anyway). It’s fresh and with a good slippery yet somewhat grainy texture. Nice medicinal finish.
Not your usual rosé, then, and perhaps a provocative drink to those who like more outré pink styles, sweet or dry. Personally, I like it a great deal.

Unison Vineyard
Price: $A20
Closure: Stelvin

Unison Reserve Merlot 2007

Yesterday’s 2008 Dowie Doole Merlot was the first of what I hope will be three quite different expressions of this grape (the third is a Blue Poles wine from Margaret River). The second, this Unison wine, is from the Gimblett Gravels sub-region of Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. Imported into Australia by Eurocentric Wine

A nose whose interest remains somewhat locked behind bars – it’s all there, though, you just need to look a bit harder for it. Mostly, this is just young; tight aromas of liver paté, rich potpourri, dried mixed peel and all manner of other things (including a wisp of nougat-like oak). The complexity here is quite impressive, though on initial pouring it really needs some swirling to draw out what’s on offer. As the evening wears on, the aroma is evolving a more fluid and generous expression.
The palate is also quite tight but blessed with an immediate gush of red berry fruit that creates good impact. On entry, tingly acidity that contributes both texture and sourness to this rush of fruit. Darker berries build towards the middle palate, as do flowers and spice and a medicinal note, quite dense and sombre in overall profile, though at the same time very detailed, indeed almost etched. Abundant tannins creep in at this point, drying the tongue and creating a good deal of textural interest. Although not an overwhelmingly full wine, its youth clearly evident, it nonetheless communicates a sense of plush richness that is quite seductive. A lift of lighter fruit on the after palate continues on and on through a lengthy finish.
This needs a couple of years in bottle, or a good spell in the decanter, to shed some of its structural aggressiveness. There’s real quality here, though; serious in intent without resorting to stylistic exaggeration.

Unison Vineyard
Price: $A25
Closure: Stelvin

Te Kairanga Casarina Reserve Chardonnay 2006

I’m starting to wonder if I’m ever going to find a bottle of chardonnay that’s a color I want to see in front of me. Once again, this has got that buffed to a sheen glare I’d rather see in a Manhattan lobby than in a glass in front of me. Whatever, though, I should probably find something more serious to talk about than mere looks. Right?There’s a hell of a nose on this wine. It’s like a Supermarket Sweep contestant was so stressed that they filled the cart with Lemoneheads and Fleischmann’s Yeast, sort of: it’s kind of a hypnotic twisting in the breeze between fantastic cleaning products, 1950s style, and something a bit funkier – Thanksgiving Parker House rolls, perhaps, glistening with eggwhite fresh out of the oven. And yes, yes, there’s also subtle vanillin oak there as well, giving you pretty much everything you could hope for in a New World chardonnay.Nowhere near a California butter bomb in the mouth, the bright, sunny fruit is well preserved indeed, not taking a back seat to any kind of winemaker intervention. remaining squarely in the center here. I’m disappointed that the yeasty notes on the nose largely disappear once you taste it, but the texture is lovely indeed, slightly creamy, finishing on a every so slightly bitter note well hidden behind perky acidity. There’s also a subtly woody note on the midpalate which seems slightly off – it’s a little more overt than everything else deserves, I think – but all in all this is a lovely bottle of wine.That being said, I’m not sure what marks this as distinctly Kiwi. I find it slightly hard to distinguish between this, the Neil Ellis Elgin chardonnay from last week, and any number of New World wines. Thankfully, though, this is a fine example of the genre.Te Kairanga
Price: NZ $29
Closure: Stelvin

Te Mata Woodthorpe Vineyard Viognier 2007

There’s something unpleasant about the way this wine smells, but what is it exactly? It doesn’t really smell like viognier, that’s for sure. To me, it smells more like powdered milk, inexpensive celebrity perfume that’d excite Humbert Humbert, and low-grade canned peaches. There’s also something like unventilated FEMA trailers duking it out with bitter phenolics in a disused corner of your high school chemistry lab. Oh man, this is fascinatingly bad. I mean, yeah, I don’t really want to taste it but if you’re gonna go off, you might as well do it in a really interesting way, right?Greasy and plastic in the mouth, it does nothing for a minute before surging up on a Bit-O-Honey wave of sugary fruit worthy of a trashy Serge Gainsborough song before making a quick right turn into an unpleasant, gritty, almost milky finish with flashes of peppery notes that’s just a touch hot as well, making sure that virtually everything that can go wrong with viognier has in fact gone wrong by the time you’ll finish the bottle. And that, by any objective observation, is no mean feat. Congratulations to Te Mata for a job well done! Te Mata
Price: NZ $22
Closure: Stelvin

Neudorf Sauvignon Blanc 2007

Although I was fortunate enough to visit Neudorf last January, I completely neglected to write anything about my visit there. However, I did find a bottle of their wine (the only one in the entire shop!) upon returning to San Diego, and here it is:The nose is intensely tropically fruity and reminds me of pineapple more than anything else; it’s exuberant and nine-tenths of the way to a Mai Tai. However, the simplicity of the nose is deceiving: once you get some of this in your mouth, it goes in unexpected directions. First of all, the texture of this wine is unusual for sauvignon blanc (at least to me, New World kid that I am). It’s vaguely reminiscent of, I don’t know, Mexican fresas con crema, which is basically a light whipped cream dessert; this wine seems to me to have similar light-yet-creamy characteristics, a lovely balance between fruit and cream. Going back to the nose for a minute, the wine seems to have more in common with gewürztraminer than sauv blanc; it seems to be slighlty floral, tending towards roses, with some black pepper sneaking in at the side. Very, very curious.The mid-palate to finish of the wine return to relative normalcy; it does in fact wind up at the somewhat stereotypical gooseberry note you’d expect from a NZ sauv blanc. However, what’s exceptional is that it doesn’t dissolve into a shrill hoot of acidity; instead, it somehow maintains its composure and sneaks out on a soft ebb of sweet cream.This is really, really good stuff.As for visiting the winery itself, well, I don’t regret it, but I also was nonplussed by the experience. Obviously, Neudorf do great business; their parking lot was entirely full with Land Rovers and other Toorak tractor-esque metal, leaving little choice for many but to park on the grass. Once inside, the entire tasting room experience was one of those uncomfortable commerce-oriented experiences designed mostly to sell you product; although tasting room staff were friendly and knowledgeable, they turned decidedly cool when I declined to purchase anything opting instead to put $5 in the charity box they kept on hand for “gold coin donations” to their favorite charity for anyone who dared not buy wine on the premises. If there’s anything I truly despise at a tasting room, it’s being hounded to buy wine, no matter how good it is. Yes, Neudorf, your wine is amazing, but do you have to make us feel so little for not buying any on-site? It’s not always easy for international visitors to get wine home; some of us have to wait until we get home before hunting down some locally.That being said, I’m glad I did, and I’ll buy it again – I’m just bummed at the lingering bad taste your tasting room experience left behind.Oh, and would you please export your Pinot? It was amazing. kthxbye!Neudorf
Price: $16
Closure: Stelvin

Alan McCorkindale Cuvée Rosé 2002

There’s something about incredibly naff labels on fairly spendy bottles of wine that catches my eye, every time. This bottle is from a Glengarry wine shop in a snobby suburb of Auckland somewhere east of the harbor; I picked it up on the way back to the airport last month. Given that today is St Valentine’s day, pink sparkling wine is a categorical imperative, so here we are.Sure, the label looks like a near-sighted librarian threw it together in Microsoft Word after a hell of a bender the day before, but what’s in the bottle is impressive. A dark onionskin color with a somewhat anemic bead, the nose is very much that of a proper red wine and is at first somewhat jarring. However, paying careful attention reaps rewards: there is definitely a lessy note thanks to extended maturation on the lees, and there’s that telltale fine aroma of brioche that marks this as a superior wine.Rich and full in the mouth, balanced by wonderfully refreshing acidity, the first impression I get is of freshly sliced Bosc pears, which seems incongrous with the, well, pinkness of the wine. Stepping back for a minute, the effect is of crushed roses in a forgotten corner of a spice market; then again, roses do have a spiciness inherent to them, so I’m probably just being overly enthustiastic here. All put together, this wine is mesmerizing; the bead may not be noticeable, but it provides a certain fullness in the mouth which is charming and rare. Add the spices, fresh pears, and rosy notes and I’m certain that no person in the world would prefer a box of chocolates to this bottle of wine. Delicious.Alan McCorkindale
Price: NZ $50 (appx.)
Closure: Cork

Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir 2005

There’s not much to do in Te Anau, New Zealand, on the night of your very quiet wedding except hunt down a nice restaurant and order the flashest-looking bottle on the list. So it was that I ended up drinking this very wine a couple of years ago. I’ve since tried it a couple of times (most recently in New Zealand with Chris) and it continues to provide enjoyment. Wine’s funny like that; it can be as much about the circumstance as anything else, and often I give in to this subjectivity.

What pleasure in familiarity! It’s like Central Otago in a glass, sweet/sour plum, vanilla oak and ripe tomato leaf enthusiastically leaping from the glass. There’s a bit of peat-like funk that I don’t remember in this wine, and I put it down to the very beginnings of bottle age. The palate is where things are developing more noticeably. Firstly, texture. Mount Difficulty Pinot tends to be quite roughly acidic in youth, and although there’s still abundant acid, it has transformed from sandpaper to plush velvet. Hence, the wine feels full and weighty in the mouth, fruit flavour gorgeously unlocked. Not one for lovers of delicate Pinot, this wine is a full throttle expression of Central Otago fruit, generous and savoury, with ripe vegetal complexities and a cough syrup-like note. After a swell on the middle palate, there’s only marginally less presence on the after palate, and the finish is of good length. Is the finish a bit hot? Or is the oak a tad raw? Perhaps, but I’m not fussed, it’s just so tasty.
It’s a shame I don’t have more of this, as I think it has a good few years’ life left. I’d like to taste it again in perhaps two or three years’ time, as I suspect it will be truly luxurious at that point.

Mount Difficulty
Price: $A50
Closure: Stelvin

Chard Farm Finla Mor Pinot Noir 2007

This label is one of Chard Farm’s lesser Pinot labels, though this doesn’t imply any less integrity in terms of region or winemaking approach. 100% Central Otago fruit, from the Parkburn area, which is nearer to Cromwell than it is to the winery’s location in Gibbston. I mentioned in my writeup of Central Otago wineries that, often, I have enjoyed lesser labels in preference to their “reserve” siblings, because they can represent a fresher, less scaled-up expression of Central Otago fruit, and so showcase the essential attractiveness of this region’s character more directly.

This wine is a good example of my point. A forthright, full nose of savoury Pinot fruit and cough syrup, herbs and light oak. Luscious, very ripe, very fruit-driven, it gives the impression of considerable complexity deriving from the fruit itself rather than any winemaking trickery. In the mouth, impressive presence and generosity. The entry delivers flavour very quickly, along with a slippery, somewhat viscous mouthfeel. Things get fuller towards the middle palate, with savoury fruit washing over the tongue. There are some high toned flavour components here, herbal in character, but the berry fruit is so full it tends to dominate. Good extension through the after palate, with a nice lift and very fine, ripe tannins that create good persistence of flavour on the finish.

A fuller, more luxurious style than many, but one that focuses on fruit character rather than anything more complicated. If I were to level a criticism, it would be that the fruit may lack a little freshness, pushing the boundaries of ripeness somewhat. Still, there’s a lot to enjoy here.

Update: retasted the following morning, this wine showed greater delicacy and layers of perfume. The impression of overripeness was reduced slightly. Nice wine.

Chard Farm
Price: $NZ39
Closure: Stelvin

Three Miners Pinot Noir 2005

One sub-region of Central Otago I’ve not had the pleasure of visiting (as opposed to driving through) is Alexandra. This wine, purchased from the Central Otago Wine Company’s cellar door, was recommended as fairly typical of the sub-region. As an aside, I can highly recommend the drive South from Alexandra, as there’s a stretch of the most spectacular scenery, dotted with schist and scarred by dramatic slits as the Clutha river cuts through the landscape. Quite lovely.

Bang, we’re back in Central Otago. The nose is fragrant, meaty, with a big dose of pepper and dark spice. There’s also a bit of vanilla, a sprig of fresh thyme and rather savoury fruit. Though I’ve listed a lot of descriptors, this isn’t an overwhelmingly complex wine, or perhaps I should write that it’s not an overtly complex wine. There is a fair bit going on here, but its aroma profile has a coherence and integrity that suggests itself more than a collection of independent notes. It’s also quite similar to some cool climate Shirazes I’ve tasted.

In the mouth, more straightforward than suggested by the nose, with a clean shot of fruit dipped in fresh thyme. There’s a bit more sweetness to the fruit, although its core remains savoury. The oak here stands out more, pleasantly so, as its character meshes well with the fruit. Slippery mouthfeel of some elegance, this wine is light to medium bodied at most. Tannins, while adding some grip to the finish, are subdued and gentle.

As a whole, the wine exists mostly in the middle to high registers. By way of comparison, I poured myself a glass of the 2006 Hoddles Creek Pinot while tasting this one. Side by side, the Hoddles Creek was almost all bass notes, lacking presence and detail in the upper registers. Of course, they are completely different wines, both showing integrity in terms of their particular expressions of Pinot. Perhaps less crowd-pleasing, this wine strikes me as a Pinot for enthusiasts who don’t mind a thinner, funkier expression of the grape. I must taste more wines from Alexandra.

Three Miners
Price: $NZ25
Closure: Stelvin

Cloudy Bay Pelorus 2004

Looks like I’m a day late to the party here, but what the heck: today’s my last day on the South Island before heading for home via Auckland and Nadi tomorrow.

Even in a dingy motel glass (not even a wine glass!), the bead is persistent and the wine’s making quite a noble effort at building up some resemblance of mousse. The aroma’s hard to pick out, but it seems to be largely of zwieback and Granny Smith apples. Fine and foamy in the mouth, the lush, ripe fruit, surprisingly more pinot than anything else, with hints of roses and wild strawberries, gives way enticingly slowly to a finely toasted end, tapering out into a beautiful finish like the light crust on just-baked bread.

To be honest, this wine is one of my favorite sparkling wines in the world; it walks the line very carefully and deliberately between a garish New World fruitfest and an Old World exercise in severe, elegant restraint. For my money, this is the best wine you can get from Marlborough.

Bonus points: I don’t know who designed the foil for this bottle, but it’s exceptionally easy to remove and just oozes sophistication and needless expense. I love it.

Cloudy Bay
Price: NZ $40.40 (cellar door)
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: January 2009