New Zealand All Stars Tasting

The pure fruit really pops out, with fresh sliced strawberries and citrus. It’s medium-bodied with bright acidity and linear tannins. It’s really about the tension and crisp citrus nature to this. Drink now. Screw cap. JAMES SUCKLING

Wonderfully complex and new, there’s no mistaking the layers in the bouquet with aromas of place from minerality to ripe red berry fruits of boysenberry and plum then dark cherry and some raspberry suggestions. The scents of baking spices and smoke from barrel are both sweet and lifted as well as complex. A dry and equally complex wine touches the palate with textures and flavours that reflect the bouquet all at once teasing with polished tannins and medium+ acidity then red fruits and spice. Well made with a lengthy finish. Best drinking from 2025 through 2034. CAM DOUGLAS MW

 

The red cherries, plums and mushrooms come through clearly on the nose. Medium-bodied with creamy tannins that are nicely chewy and juicy at the end. There’s softness with tension here. Drink or hold. Screw cap. (94) JAMES SUCKLING

Taut, elegant pinot noir with a mix of dark cherry, floral/rose petal/violet, savoury/baked earth and spicy oak flavours. From a top Gibbston vineyard. A wine with energy and age-ability. (95) BOB CAMPBELL, The Real Review

STAFF PICKS - NICK CAPEL (SYDNEY)

Always a fan of the wines from Jenn Parr, this delectable drop comes from the North Otago region, Waitaki. Aromas of wild strawberry, pomegranate laced with wild thyme, cedar. The beautiful bouquet is followed on the palate with cardamom, allspice, damson plum, strawberry, and tart cherry. Polished tannins, fine and elegant. Sadly, there's no 2023, so make sure to get your fill! NICK

The 2022 Waitaki Vineyard Pinot Noir is light and fine, both in the glass and aromatically. On the palate, the wine is so fine and littered with crushed shells, river stones and cherry skin. This is fragrant and lithe, pretty and detailed. It is all of these things, but it is not short. It spools through the long finish, like a fishing rod reel in cast. As there will be no 2023 Waitaki Vineyard Pinot Noir, make hay while the sun shines, I say. A beauty. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. (94) ERIN LARKIN, The Wine Advocate

Relatively light pinot noir that's not lacking in power. Supple, savoury wine with cherry, raspberry, violet, fresh herbs and spicy oak flavours. On the greener side of the flavour spectrum but has good energy and impressive length. (94) BOB CAMPBELL, The Real Review

The 2021 La Collina Syrah is floral on the nose, with lavender, rose petals, pomegranate pearls, fresh blood, graphite, black tea and umami/bone broth inflections. In the mouth, the wine is light as a feather, elongated and ethereal, spiced and fine. It flutters over a long, lingering finish that is layered with star anise and clove—layers that settle upon one another, fine as sheets of tissue paper. Be still, heart. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. Due to challenging vintage conditions in 2022 and the disastrous flood in 2023, there was no La Collina made in either vintage. In 20 years, there was no 2003, 2011/2012, 2022/2023. The La Collina Syrah is without a doubt, New Zealand's greatest Syrah, and it is a gift to the wine world. If it is new to you, make it not so. It ages with grace and ease and will only repay careful cellaring with years of joy in the future. Go slow and gentle. Drink 2023-2041 (98) ERIN LARKIN, Wine Advocate

Raspberry, red cherry, apricot stone, jasmine. Medium-bodied, juicy sweet cherry and red fruit, lovely pumice stone tannin, finish is excellent. So delightful. GARY WALSH, www.winefront.com

Intense, firmly structured, fine-grained syrah with cassis, grape stems, spice/anise/cedar, tobacco and dark chocolate. Youthful wine with obvious cellaring potential. An outstanding syrah. BOB CAMPBELL, www.realreview.com

The 2022 Pinot Noir leads with coffee grounds, black cherry, satsuma plum skin, Szechuan peppercorn, pink peppercorns, a hint of raspberry leaf tea and graphite. The wine smells savory while delivering all of these things. In the mouth, it is fine-boned but persistent and behaves in a gentle, splayed sort of manner through the finish. It's a very pretty wine, one that is quiet now, but I feel it will age slowly and elegantly in the cellar. This is a wine to drink now and to perhaps misunderstand in doing so. Or it's a wine to be patient with and reap the benefits after five or so years and beyond. I love the wine here, today, but I'd be cautious to recommend drinking your bottles too early—consider from 2027. ERIN LARKIN, Wine Companion

Herbal, high energy pinot noir with cherry, hedgerow, pepper/spice, and grape stem characters. Youthful wine that would benefit from bottle age. Quite complex with layers of floral, fruit and savoury flavours. BOB CAMPBELL, The Real Review

This is an exercise in power and balance. It's off the 100% organic Om Santi vineyard utilising clones 15 and 95. It has lovely length and mouth-feel, with a really fine line of acidity running through it. The flavours are full and focused, with a core of nectarine, grapefruit, nougat and a tingly, tangy minerality. A very classy chardonnay indeed. (96) AARON BRASHER, The Real Review