Joe Walsh - One Hit Wonder - but what a goodie!!

1974. I was cleaning the Government Print Office as an after school job in my final year in high school.

I would go in there after the print people had finished for the day and clean up the floors, toilets and offices. Just me in a big empty, spooky print shop - but the saving grace was a huge AM valve radio, pumping out the local roack station top 20.

This was one of the songs I boogied around to: Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way.

Along with Jet by Wings, The Man Who Sold the World by Lulu and Golden Earring's Radar Love.

Te Mata's new Woodthorpe Sauvignon Blanc

Te Mata Estate Woodthorpe Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2009 $NZ19.00

Hawkes Bay icon – Te Mata produces internationally famous labels such as the Coleraine and Awatea Cabernet/ Merlots, Bullnose Syrah, and Elston Chardonnay. Te Mata owns eleven Hawkes Bay vineyards including the relatively new Woodthorpe estate – where this Sauvignon was grown.

While I’m not a fan of the very green and puingent style of Marlborough Savvies, this Hawkes Bay example is much more approachable. Rounded and low in acidity, it has aromas and flavours of melon, pineapple, stonefruit and gooseberry.

Animal behaviourists

Can they pull a habit out of a rat?

Seifried - Nelson's top producer

Austrian born Hermann Seifried and his New Zealand wife Agnes started what is now the Nelson region’s largest producer, back in 1973.

Their three children are also involved – winemakers Heidi and Chris, and marketing manager Anna. The Old Coach Road and Seifried labels are familiar to most NZers, and now they have added a reserve selection of wines under the Seifried Winemakers Collection brand, with prices starting at around $18 and heading up to $35.

Two wines which I sampled recently:

2007 Gewurztraminer - clean flavoured and spicy with off-dry sweetness. Flavours of ginger in syrup, and lychee fruit. A great match for Thai spiced foods - lemon grass, ginger and coriander.

2007 Chardonnay - toasty and peachy, with a crisp acid balance. Lovely wine - will get even better.

Hello, Halo - Sacred Hill's New brand launched

Top producing Hawkes Bay winery Sacred Hill has just launched another brand in its successful stable - the Halo range, retailing for about $26 a bottle, with fruit sourced from their own Hawkes Bay and Marlborough vineyards.

Winemaker Tony Bish has had great success with his Sacred Hill Deerstalkers Syrah 2007 and Sacred Hill Riflemans Chardonnay 2007.

The Halo 2008 Syrah is a soft rich red wine with black pepper aromas and flavours of black cherry, spice and liquorice.

Halo 2008 Pinot Gris is a very drinkable fruity white, with apple/pear and Nashi flavours with a clean, crisp finish.

These are both quite young wines, which will get even better over the next few years, but are drinking very nicely right now.

Sticky Moments - Pegasus Bay Noble Riesling Encore 2008

Dessert wines AKA Stickies are unfortunately rejected by a lot of wine drinkers, just because they are sweet. That’s a pity, as suitably aged dessert wines can be the perfect partner to a citrus pudding, liver pâté, or strong cheeses like Cheddars and Blues.

In NZ most Stickies usually are made from Riesling, Semillon or Sauvignon Blanc. They fall into two main categories: Botrytised or Noble wines – where a beneficial mould called Botrytis (Noble Rot) has affected the grapes, and natural sugars are intensified by the action of tiny mould organism filaments which suck out water content.

Late Harvest wines – here the grapes are left for an extended period on the vine where they ripen even further and start to shrivel like sultanas.
Because of the preservative quality of high sugar levels in the wine, and despite low alcohol, these wines reward cellaring for ten years or longer.

Now, to Pegasus Bay 'Encore' Noble Riesling 2008

Friends had us over for dinner on Saturday, and Lizzie (mine hostess) cooked a fab beef curry from scratch, with all the accompaniments like fresh pineapple, banana in coconut, plus poppadoms and naan bread. Always hard to match curries with wine, but some hearty reds stood up quite nicely.

Then to dessert - my partner Annie bought some chocolate meringues, popped them in tall glasses and added fresh whipped cream and strawberries. I opened a bottle of the new release Pegasus Bay 'Encore' Noble Riesling 2008. Normally I prefer a cheese board with sweet wines, but in this case, the intense fresh rasiny sweetness and a lively citrus acid balance worked really nicely in partnership with desssert. The Peg Bay sweetie was probably opened a bit young - this wine will develop and gain complexityfor 6 years plus.

Two Paddocks - Sam Neill's winery

Two Paddocks is actor Sam Neill’s winery – a venture begun in 1993 in Gibbston, Central Otago with a modest 5 acres of Pinot Noir. Sam’s mate Roger Donaldson put vines in at the same time – hence the name. Donaldson and Neill worked together on the movie Sleeping Dogs back in the 1970s.

Further land has been acquired and now the label has over 70 acres planted in various Pinot Noir clones, plus a small amount of Riesling and a lavender farm.

I did manage to acquire a bottle of the 2007 vintage Pinot recently, through someone who knows someone who knows Sam… and it’s a very nice wine. Flavours of black cherry and black Doris plum, with medium tannins and savoury spicy notes.

Their website is also a treat – self-deprecating humour from Mr. Neill himself and a good read. Check out his Dances with Orangutans video on Sam’s TP Blog page.