What do New Zealand wines taste like? As far as I might be concerned, the consistent idea is a feeling of newness, whether you’re drinking a fresh Sauvignon Blanc or a strong Cabernet Sauvignon mix. The greater part of the grape plantations are never excessively far from the cooling impact of the sea, protecting sharpness in the wines — this splendor leaves you prepared for more after each taste.
New Zealand is what we call ‘another world’ wine district. Old-world wines come from places like France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Whenever you take a gander at bottles from the Old World, you’re bound to see a spot — a country, a locale, or a grape plantation — than a grape assortment on the name. This training comes from a long custom of zeroing in on place as opposed to the grape — and extremely severe guidelines about what you’re permitted to develop where. For instance, when we discuss white wine from Sancerre in France, we realize it is Sauvignon Blanc without saying it. However, in New Zealand, the guidelines are somewhat looser, and the grape name will be upfront. At the point when you purchase a container, you know that something like 85% of the wine is made in the year and from the grape on the name — yet there’s nothing else to it.
The New Zealand wine industry is still at its outset contrasted with a large part of the remainder of the wine world. While plants have been on the island for more than 150 years, for the majority of that time the business was obstructed by a moderation development and phylloxera (a bug that crushed grape plantations all around the world in the nineteenth and twentieth hundreds of years). In any case, over the most recent 15 years, New Zealand’s wine scene has detonated. Plantings of Sauvignon Blanc alone have expanded just about five and a half times starting around 2002.
Since New Zealand is on the southern side of the equator, their gathering happens a half year sooner than it occurs in grape plantations in, say, California. So assuming you’re shopping in September, you might see that they’re now selling the current year’s wines!
Simple Access
It is exceptionally considered normal to observe wines from New Zealand sold with screwcaps, otherwise called Stelvin terminations. As a matter of fact, around 95% of everything New Zealand wine is fixed along these lines. How could a maker avoid plugging? The response is 2,4,6-trichloroanisole or TCA for short. Frequently moved to wine through plug terminations, this compound grant smells and kinds of wet cardboard and smelly storm cellar. Not excessively tantalizing, correct? The screw cap conclusion guarantees that winemakers aren’t in a real sense dumping their diligent effort.
Alongside Australia, New Zealand has been an innovator in the reception of screw covers for wines at all costs. That’s right — even the extravagant stuff from New Zealand will probably not need a wine tool.
Sauvignon Blanc
On the off chance that you’ve had only one wine from New Zealand, it most likely was a Sauvignon Blanc. The grape makes up an amazing 72% of wine creation in New Zealand.
Most Sauvignon Blanc resembles an amicable little dog — erupting from the glass and prepared to play. This isn’t a wine that makes you chase after flavors and smells — they are right up in front, prepared to get taken note of. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has the exemplary herbaceousness of the grape — you could taste a little ringer pepper and jalapeño — joined with the ready natural product: think energy foods grown from the ground grapefruit. These wines are likewise frequently contrasted with gooseberries — little, green organic products that have an eruption of pungency very much like the wine.
While Sauvignon Blanc grapes can be viewed on both of New Zealand’s primary islands, they’re the innovator in Marlborough on the South Island. The area gets a great deal of daylight, yet additionally has a weighty sea impact and exceptionally cool evenings. This assists the wines with offering that ready tropical natural product adjusted by bunches of invigorating sharpness. Searching for a few decent ones to taste? Search out bottles from Dog Point Vineyard and Mohua.
While you’re generally prone to observe New Zealand wines offering the tart, fragrant style of Sauvignon Blanc, a few makers are fanning out. A couple of winemakers are continuing in the strides of those makers in Bordeaux and the Loire (like Didier Dagueneau), maturing or maturing the wines in oak barrels. Need to attempt? Shift focus over to Cloudy Bay’s Te Koko packaging. The wine is aged in oak barrels and afterward, the containers are kept in the basement for quite some time prior to being delivered. While Te Koko has all the new acridity of Sauvignon Blanc, it’s a complex and incredibly finished wine. Instead of the common energy products of the soil fragrance, you’ll get a little delicate apricot, lemon essence, and ginger. Wines like this show that New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc actually has a few stunts at its disposal.
Chardonnay
While Sauvignon Blanc overwhelms the NZ white wine scene, Chardonnay is the really more youthful kin who’s simply holding up to getting taken note of. Numerous Chardonnays from New Zealand show profundity and brilliance likened to White Burgundy. Notwithstanding being another world wine district, the Chardonnays of New Zealand have very little just the same as, say, riper models from California. Most Chardonnays come from Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay, or Gisborne. The sea’s cooling impact here doesn’t permit the natural product flavors in New Zealand’s Chardonnays to get excessively tropical. Indeed, even in more full-bodied styles with checked oak impact, the mouth-watering sharpness will keep you going after your glass. White peach, lemon zing, and matured cheddar flavors make it an ideal food wine. Pondering where to get everything rolling? Search for the Chardonnays from Kumeu River Wines in Auckland.
Pinot Noir
Assuming that you appreciate Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon or California’s Sonoma County, you ought to search out Pinot Noir from New Zealand. There is a colossal social trade inside these districts, truth be told. In view of the substituting seasons, it is exceptionally normal to know about winery understudies going across the Pacific to work on two collections per year. This reaches out to probably truly amazing — Ted Lemon of Sonoma’s acclaimed Littorai additionally causes wine at To consume Cottage in Central Otago, for instance.
Styles shift the nation over, so it’s a piece hard to make speculations, yet most NZ makers attempt to embrace the equilibrium that their environment bears the cost of them. New Zealand pinots don’t have the heaviness of hotter environments, yet they don’t exactly have the gritty mushroom notes of Burgundy by the same token. Most NZ Pinots have a sprinkle of dark cherry or strawberry flavor, supplemented with violet and cloves.
You’ll mostly track down Pinot Noir from Marlborough, Central Otago, and Martinborough, which is on the southern tip of the North Island. While Pinot Noir might be in Sauvignon Blanc’s shadow in Marlborough, makers, for example, Greywacke and Wither Hills actually make models worth searching out.
Focal Otago is an anomaly concerning the environment. The ocean’s impact is less solid around here since grapes are planted further inland and at higher elevations. These wines keep up with NZ’s trademark newness, yet frequently with additional liquor and body than different styles from the additional north. Focal Otago Pinot Noirs will quite often be brilliantly thought and rich. They don’t come modest, however — a container of Central Otago Pinot is probably going to slow down you no less than $30. Rippon, Felton Road, and Mt. Trouble are a couple of Central Otago makers in their prime.
Red Bordeaux Blends
Mixes produced using Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from the North Island around Hawke’s Bay truly sparkle. My top choices come from Gimblett Gravels, a region planted on fine sand and stony rock along the Ngaruroro River. This spot is particularly appropriate for these grapes in light of the fact that the dirt and higher temperature take into account the grapes to get totally ready. Search for Craggy Range’s Te Kahu or Trinity Hill’s The Gimblett: these mixes resemble gymnasts that move easily along the lopsided bars with awesome showcases of solidarity. They are exquisite and new with rich, finished tannins. Assuming you love Cabernet-Merlot mixes from Washington State or South America, you will be doubly prevailed upon by the fragrances of dark cherry, cedar, and clove.
Syrah
Syrah is simply edging into the New Zealand wine game yet it is certainly a grape to watch. Like Merlot and Cabernet, it for the most part adheres to the hotter environments of the North Island where it can mature best. Syrahs from New Zealand offer appetizing dark pepper flavors supplementing delicious plum and violet. While they don’t have the wild, gamey side of Northern Rhone Syrah, these organized wines don’t exactly fit with the sun-kissed style of Australian Shiraz by the same token. Give them a shot for yourself, beginning with wines from Mission Estate Winery — a maker whose set of experiences traces all the way back to 1851.
