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Gunn Estate Pinot Gris 2007

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Time for an experiment. I'm not afraid of wine made for the price conscious consumer, perhaps as much out of necessity as anything else. But I tend to stick with tried and true favourites; those acknowledged bargains that, in terms of quality, consistently sit above their price points. I also tend to shop in the $15-20 price range for my everyday wines. Habit can mask new opportunities, so this evening the other half and I decided to visit our local 1st Murphy and purchase one dozen bottles, the total of which was not to exceed $120. 

It was surprisingly difficult, not because I'm a snob but because there's actually a quite limited range of wines under $10. It turns out life is much easier when you have $15 to spend on a bottle of wine. Despite this, we emerged twenty minutes later with a full dozen. Here's the first.

Immediately odd. The bottle says "wine of Italy and New Zealand" and, according to the back label, it's a "skillful" blend of Hawkes Bay and Italian wine. I spent the majority of last week examining 2006 white Burgundy offers, so jumping from the obscurity of individual vineyards (or parts thereof) to a more transcontinental concept of regionality has my head in a spin. A nice golden colour, crystal clear. The nose is all about crisp green pears and that slight prickliness that, to me, is characteristic of Pinot Gris. So far so good.

A flavoursome entry that shows more pear and perhaps some sweet herbs too. Mouthfeel is thick and a bit oily, with relaxed acidity that sits on the right side of flabby, but only just. The mid-palate demonstrates a fullness of body that, in the moment, feels very satisfying but which trails off precipitously as the wine enters the back of the mouth. The wine's line shrinks back to a thin echo and passes to a soft, slight finish. I wonder if there's a little residual sugar propping up this wine's flavours of unripe pear and herbs? 

Overall, this wine strikes me as well judged, extremely drinkable and entirely forgettable. At $A11.40, it's quite well priced and, for me, delivers an appropriate amount of value. Good BBQ or lunch wine, and a pretty good start to the bargain dozen.  

Price: $A11.40
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: August 2008

Craggy Range Sophia 2005

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Craggy Range has by far the most glamorous tasting facility of all the wineries I visited in Hawkes Bay late last year. Its natural setting is glorious, but the spacious room itself is all glass and shiny surfaces -- very upscale indeed. Worth a visit, for sure. There's also a large range of wines available for tasting, including this, one of Craggy Range's premium cuvées. It is a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and, on tasting at cellar door, was almost impenetrable. I took this as a personal challenge, of course, and purchased a bottle for later tasting.

Dark and dense, with flashes of purple. The nose is initially compact and savoury, with a good dose of iron filings and minerality and not much else. With time and some energetic swirling, a range of other notes emerge to add complexity. There's a sense of purple flowers, dark berry fruit, perhaps a slight saltiness too. The nature of the wine's oak gains some clarity too, and it's quite present, though totally integrated. A hint of volatility rounds things out. The pitch never rises above a bass register, and there's an ongoing sense of depth and power to this wine's aroma.

The palate is very much in line with the nose in that it's both dense and reserved. Flow over the tongue is very tightly controlled, and from entry to mid-palate a slither of iron, complex berry fruit and sappy oak slides confidently along. It's medium to full bodied and certainly substantial, yet measured and never clumsy. The after palate is marginally more relaxed and slightly sweeter in profile. Flavour is most complex at this point, and the wine's lift helps each strand of flavour to fully define itself as it lands on the rear of the tongue. Just as it reaches its peak, it starts to fall away to a very long, satisfying finish. Tannins are remarkably fine and approachable, though their abundance suggests the capacity to age well. 

I feel vaguely guilty for drinking this wine so young. Although there's a lot to enjoy now, it does need some time to relax a little and develop the spaciousness it currently lacks. This wine is all about quality, power and balance. Fantastic.

Price: $NZ50
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008

Saddleback Pinot Noir 2005

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Peregrine's second label Pinot, composed of Central Otago and Marlborough fruit. I've noticed this blend of regions in a few Central Otago producers' lesser wines. It's an interesting mix in theory, with both regions having quite distinctive Pinot flavour profiles in their own right. Second tasting of this wine, with more positive results this time around.

Initially stinky and somewhat unattractive, with stale spice notes dominating a nose of disjointed fruit flavours. After a few minutes, though, the wine is cleaner and more delicious. The Marlborough influence is evident, with a tamarillo-like note in amongst the more Central Otago cola and plum flavours. Good intensity and enough complexity to make it worth smelling repeatedly.

Good, flavoursome entry that shows more bright, moderately sweet fruit flavour alongside slightly smokey, spice notes. Certainly prominent acidity, but not overwhelmingly so. Entry continues to a fruit-driven, medium bodied mid-palate of tasty tamarillo and red fruits. Moderate intensity of flavour, and although flavours are bright, they are also dense enough to be mouthfilling. Mouthfeel is quite velvety and sophisticated. The fruit intensity drops off rather precipitously through the after palate, and the finish is consequently a bit hollow.

Perhaps not a wine for regional purists, as it's neither here nor there when it comes to communicating a sense of place. If you can get past that, however, you'll find a tasty wine of distinctive character and reasonable price. Try it with pork.

Peregrine
Price
: $NZ25
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: May 2008

Peregrine Pinot Noir 2006

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For those visiting the Central Otago region, do drop by Peregrine's cellar door, as much for the spectacular setting and architecture as the wines. I enjoyed a wide range of wines when there last year, but right now we have the key label in its portfolio: the Pinot Noir.

This wine, made from fruit of the Cromwell Basin (Northburn) and Gibbston Valley sub-regions, makes an interesting stylistic comparison with well known wines from the Bannockburn sub-region (specifically, the 2006 Mount Difficulty and Felton Road Pinots previously tasted here at Full Pour). On the nose, this wine is a detailed, perfumed wine of impressive complexity. There are notes of bright sour plum, spice, sap, sausage and citrus mixed into a well integrated flavour profile. It's a delicate nose, and if I were to compare it with the Bannockburn Pinots, I would say this wine shows greater finesse and complexity, perhaps at the expense of outright impact.

Initially, I found the palate to be structurally overwhelming, with prominent acidity and tannins washing away any substantial trace of fruit flavour. Some vigorous swirling, though, has helped to rebalance the palate, and through the evening it has become more drinkable, if still highly structured. Acidity and bright fruit weave in and out of each other on entry, creating a very focussed first impression. As the wine moves to the mid-palate, it remains quite driven in its line, but the fruit relaxes somewhat to express hints of sweetness amongst the primarily savoury, sour flavour profile. There's a lot going on here, flavour-wise, with more sour plum and spice, plus a strong mineral streak. The flavour continues to build towards the after palate, where a clean, attractive burst of red fruit presents, before velvet tannins whisk the wine away to a lengthy finish.

Frankly, this wine isn't ready to drink now and, as excited as I am about it, I should note that its best days are ahead of it. Having made that point, this is an excellent wine that has enormous potential to become superb with a few years in bottle. It's already complex, and just needs time for its structure to soften and let the fruit emerge from its cage. One that's worth waiting for (and excellent value).

Peregrine
Price: $NZ39
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: April 2008

Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Noir 2006

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I really don't know what to say about this wine. It smells like Pinot Noir, more or less... and I'm at a loss for descriptors past that point. There seems to be some kind of weird spritziness on the tongue, and I find myself wondering if there's been a small refermentation in bottle as well; there's an odd, yeasty note that's unattractive and it mostly tastes of pizza dough that someone dropped in a wax cup of strawberry Kool-Aid at the end of a children's birthday party.

Fifteen minutes after pouring, there's kind of a foamy, frothy ring around the wine as it sits in my glass. It's not very attractive. Here's a snapshot:



With additional time and air, this wine is about as far from good pinot noir as it gets. It's medium bodied, atypically so for Pinot. The wine is heavy, dull, flabby, and overripe. There is no finish. There is no excuse for shipping this wine overseas; it should have been consumed as sangria, preferably in Nelson.

Thankfully, our street's recyclables are being picked up by the city overnight. I don't want to have to look at this bottle in the morning and be reminded of my mistake.

Villa Maria
Price: US $17.99
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: April 2008

Mount Riley Savée 2007

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I don't recall having tasted a sparkling wine made from Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc grapes before, so it was with particular interest that I sampled this number.

A fresh, lively nose that strikes me as pretty but perhaps less explosive than many still wines made from the same grape. What's interesting about the palate is that it shows very evident Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc character in the context of a highly atypical wine style. There's the trademark grassy, passionfruity, capsicummy flavour profile, surrounded at entry and after palate by lively fizz. It's an odd, unexpected combination that nevertheless shows great freshness and is certainly fun.

Whether it's a style I prefer over the still version remains questionable. The winemaking does blunt the typical flavour profile a bit, which may please some people but, for me, may not satisfy the craving for utter vulgarity that usually strikes before I reach for a Marlborough Savvy. I think this would be a great wine to serve as an aperitif if you're looking for a variation on the usual sparkling theme.

Mount Riley
Price: $A25
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: March 2008

Giesen Sauvignon Blanc 2007

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I remember when I first tasted this wine, in the late 90s. I came a bit late to Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, you see, but the Giesen gave me an inexpensive taste of what it was about. It continues to be my favourite "reliable" example of the genre, and as 2007 has been talked up in the Marlborough, I was interested to taste this wine over the weekend.

As is typical with this wine, somewhat explosive aromas of cut grass, passionfruit and other astringent fruits leap from the glass. This is a wine that bursts into the room with all guns blazing. It's piercing and characterful and gloriously vulgar. It's also, within the context of the style, balanced and attractive.

The entry shows tingly acid and a sourness that carries through to the mid-palate. Within this light bodied wine, there are intense flavours that mirror the nose, along with a somewhat scouring mouthfeel. There's a deceleration towards the after palate, and the finish is an echo rather than a substantial continuation of the wine's flavour, but by that time, you're ready for another sip anyway.

No great complexity of flavour, then, but it's a hugely enjoyable wine that exists at the more outré end of the stylistic spectrum for "budget" Sauvignon Blancs. Personally, I don't see the point to the softer, more rounded wines that are crafted for maximum acceptability but, to me, represent a denial of terroir and style.

Giesen
Price: $A15
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: February 2008

Kathy Lynskey Gewürztraminer 2006

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This wine, impossibly pale - approaching a sort of white tea, white grape juice clarity - smells of good quality rose petal tea from China: smooth, floral, beautiful, perhaps not terribly complex, but then again Gewürztraminer seldom is, at least on the nose.There's also a sort of clove oil spiciness, but only just.

In the mouth, this wine is a big surprise. It's full, fleshy, but not fat; oily, but pleasantly so, and all in all strangely austere, restrained. It's got a marzipan fruitiness combined with a dry finish, good length, and a miraculous ability to keep you going back for another taste. If anything, it reminds me of French orange blossom honey combined with Dresdner stollen: all gentle spices, orange peel, hay, and quiet. Delicious.

When summertime rolls around in another few months, I'm looking forward to reading on the back patio with a glass or two of this; it's delightful, elegant, and just the sort of thing to have with a burrito al pastor.

Kathy Lynskey Wines
Price: US $13.99
Closure: Diam
Date tasted: February 2008


Unison Selection 2005

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The flagship wine from Unison Vineyards in New Zealand. As with the regular Unison, this wine is a blend of Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, proportions unspecified.

A spicy, peppery, dried floral, clean-fruited nose that keeps shifting from under my feet (nostrils?). It's a forthright. slightly lifted nose that promises intensity and dexterity in the mouth. Fruit is deep and complex, moving between shots of cassis, sweet raspberry liqueur and other goodness. Creamy, custard oak adds plushness. As it sits in the glass, high toned spice is giving way, partly at least, to fruit and oak. I love wines like this, constantly changing and revealing layers of complexity.

The palate is initially a bit disorienting, in that it is perhaps less momentous than indicated by the nose. Once you adjust to the scale of it, though, it vibrates with fascinating flavours. Entry is tingly and acidic, signalling the other principal pleasure of this wine: texture. Intense fruit flavour registers soon thereafter, flowing to a medium to full bodied mid-palate of clean, complex fruit and spice. Coffee-ground oak is a fairly prominent flavour influence, and is somehow appropriate given the acidic, extracted nature of the mouthfeel. The after palate leaves behind any plushness of fruit and progresses to a more oak-driven savouriness that suggests some time in bottle may be beneficial. Finish is long, slightly sweet and a little aggressive.

I wish I had more bottles of this. It's a different wine from the Unison, although clearly emerging out of the same idea of "wine." It's a bigger wine in most ways, built to drink slowly and examine closely. I love it. Start drinking in about 5 years.

Update: I've been following this wine for two days (unrefrigerated) and it has really opened up to become almost voluptuous. Great balance, the after palate and finish filling out nicely. No signs of the wine tiring yet.

Unison Vineyards
Price: $NZ48
Closure: Diam
Date tasted: January 2008

According to Trinity Hill, this wine is made only in vintages of a certain quality, the previous release being a 1998 wine. This 2002 is the current release and was purchased at cellar door a few weeks ago.

Characteristic dustiness is most noticeable on the nose, along with equally typical cassis fruit aromas and some supporting cedar oak. Some age is evident, not through any prominence of tertiary aromas but from good integration of flavour components, each seeming to melt into the other in a relaxed fashion. Good balance. Entry is smooth and fairly immediate, with fruit flavour registering quite quickly on the palate. The middle palate shows the same dustiness as the nose, but which here comes across as an attractive gravel note. Slightly simple red and black berry fruits sit underneath and are propped up by more savoury oak. As with the nose, flavours are well integrated. Weight is medium bodied at most, and the wine gives an overall impression of elegance rather than power. Fruit flavour continues linearly through the after palate, rising attractively towards a finish of fine, chalky tannins. Satisfying length.

I wondered at some points whether it lacks a little in intensity on the palate, but perhaps it's a stylistic thing rather than an absence of flavour. I suspect a lot of people will enjoy this interpretation of Cabernet, which is stylish without being a showpony of a wine. It could certainly sit longer in bottle if you were so inclined, though it's drinking well now. We had this wine with Wagyu rump and it matched the beef really well, all flavours intermingling deliciously.

Trinity Hill
Price: $NZ29
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: January 2008

About Full Pour

Full Pour is a place for two long time friends, and fellow wine nuts, to document their ongoing vinous adventures.

It's a place to celebrate wine (from the cheap to the rarified), to share impressions, complain, exalt, dissect and guzzle. It's also a place to learn and, hopefully, enjoy the company of like-minded people.

Full Pour is Christopher Pratt and Julian Coldrey, with occasional guest contributors.

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