AceHighWine

After shooting to global prominence on the back of its Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough has slowly been building up its wine repertoire with pinot noir starting to show much promise. Produced by Marlborough’s Seresin Estate, this is one of the region’s most impressive pinots I’ve tasted in recent times. A blend of hand-picked and hand-sorted fruit from three different Marlborough vineyards, this smells funky and feral like the Mucky Duck Bush Band doing a set of James Brown, Meters and Sly and the Family Stone covers. Couple with more than just a smattering of raspberry and black cherry aromas, this is unmistakably pinot. The palate sees the aforementioned band members red-level the intensity as waves of sour cherry and red fruit latch on to palate with the assistance of fine, astringent tannins: the reverb-soaked finish is long-lasting and cause for rapturous applause. It’s all there and it makes you want to drink more and more - and that’s before you factor the nigh-on laughable asking price. Coupled with an excellent sauvignon blanc, MoMo is a relatively new Marlborough brand value-hunting wine drinkers should keep an eye on, possibly two if you can spare them… 18.5 www.seresin.co.nz

Please don’t let the slightlty OTT Dutch Tilt in the above photo put you off this wine, this is incredible gerwurtz that is both highly gluggable yet fascinating to drink in the same mouthful. Tasted blind, the wine’s floral and fragrant honeyed apricot aromas were very Moscato-like and tipped off the rest of the senses to prepare for a wine of massive sweetness, but it turned out to be a surprising false alarm as the viscous, perfectly judged green-gold goodness splashed against the mouth. While I’ve jotted down some descriptors such as mango, spice, pineapple and lychees, the bulk of my tasting notes are a pathetic, blithering mass of sycophantic superlatives like “amazing texture”, “gorgeous texture”, “seductively soft” and even “magical”. The wine finishes with an intense burst of flavour and a lingering sense of succulence that bodes poorly for a bottle lasting too long once opened. Phenomenal gerwurtz and along with the excellent ‘04 Vinoptima offering, this has inspired me to try to find some extra dollars in my meagre wine budget to splurge on a little more Kiwi gerwurtz. 18.5 www.wairauriverwines.com

The mailperson (we at AHW always do our best to be PC) delivered this to the office earlier in the day last Friday and in the wake of a f#@$ed (okay, perhaps not so PC) week at work, was promptly whisked to the lettuce crisper of the fridge in the communal kitchen.

Aromas of tropical fruit and a lovely evocative burst of florals. Good fruit weight and richness complemented by jets of subtle acidity. A dash of green bean character adds some complexity to the forward tropical fruit flavours before slowly fading in a dry, long finish with a tasty shot of grassiness to boot. Nice drink and you get a drop with a fair bit of a character for your money. 17/20 mountriley.co.nz

I think it’s a fair comment to make that over the past 18 months, Marlborough sauvignon blanc has lost some of its lustre, paving the way for sauvignon blanc from other regions - particularly cool climate “hotspots” Pemberton (WA) and the Adelaide Hills (SA) - to nab some market share. Apparently people are getting bored with the overt cat’s pee, cut grass and tropical fruit flavours that Marlborough sauvignon blanc boasts plenty of, but I reckon the truth might be a little closer to this: trendies and wine wankers (former ABC crowd perhaps?) appalled that the cat - namely their their once secret squirrel white wine discovery from across the Tasman - has been let out of the bag are now quick to label as passe (”Sauvignon Blanc? That’s SO 2005/2006.” in your snootiest voice possible) the very wine they were enjoying not so long ago.

That’s fine, let ‘em - when the temperature picks up a little and there’s chilled (and not to mention well-priced) bottles and glasses of Marlborough sauvignon blanc available in bottleshop fridges and restaurant wine lists, I’ll be getting stuck in and drinking in the wonders of flavoursome white during the Summer months. The welcome spell of sunshine and warmth over the weekend offered a great excuse for a dress rehearsal prior to summer as Marie and I enjoyed a bottle of ‘06 Madfish Riesling (as good as ever and full of limey stone fruit flavours) with some lunch and the derby on in the background.