What they were drinking

The only reason for grouping these wines together is that they constitue the wines I sold the other night.

I was pleased to sell the Clos Marguerite Sauvignon Blanc 2007, finally, to an English lady who was unsure about drinking Nu Zillund Sav as she normally drank French Sancerre. Apparently the last time she tried Cloudy Bay Sauvignon it got relegated to the cooking wine cupboard and recommending something was further complicated by her request for something "very dry and clean". Given that many of the Sauvignons on our list are the new New Zealand style including partial or full oak (which I quite enjoy) it was becoming difficult to see a way to satisfy her desires. Also, I had never actually tried the Clos Marguerite and was basing my suggestion on half remebered back labels and newspaper tasting notes. Luckily this wine was bang on.

Lemons and subtle tropical fruit on the nose with a background of lovely clean minerality. On the palate this is freshly green, racy and clean. Really tasting the stones of the Awatere along with capsicum. Snappy yet delicate and definitely not shouty.

The next wine was another client ordering conundrum. After telling me that he liked "fruity, weighty" styles of Pinot and my suggesting Central Otago as a suitable region and more specifically some of the fruity and weighty styles therein he threw a curve ball and insisted on the Valli Banockburn Pinot Noir 2003, not, in my estimation, a good choice for his tastes.... Not surprisingly he did not finish the bottle. I'm almost certain he was disappointed. But what can I do if people won't take a little advice?

The nose gives up Autumn plums and thyme and is fragrantly herbaceous with a smoky bacon aspect in the background. However, the palate is pleasant but not distinguished (I prefer the 'Gibbston' fruit Valli) and at 5 years old the fruit is falling away to a dilute tasting finish.

The other Pinot I sold was more successful. The Nuedorf 'Tom's Block' Pinot Noir 2006 is a wine I sell with confidence knowing that it brings the drums at a fraction of the price that most of our guests are prepared to pay. Sometimes it's nice to give rich people a bargain (even if they don't need one).

Red and bramble-berries and mocha chocolate nose preceed an aromatic damson plum and fig-sweet palate. The aromatics play with teasing hints of chocolate to make this a really rewarding mouthful. The palate is quite forward and the length only medium but not really a problem as the wine is so attractive. Flirtatious with summer berries and cinnamon spice that stay refreshing due to a lush green note that is unlike the dried herbs apparent in Central Otago Pinot Noir and more like the blackcurrant leaf of Sauvignon Blanc.

Lastly, there was a request for a 'dry' white wine. A request made so often and yet so confusing as very little on the white wine list has more than 3 grams residual sugar. A request made for so many reasons and mostly nothing to do with lack of sugar in a wine. It seems to mean, "a wine I will like" and this obviously varies wildly and is not predicated on things the sommelier can know. Thankfully the English gentleman in question qualified his wishes to include Chenin Blanc rather than the Chardonnay. And in doing so gave me a direction that brought him the Esk Valley Chenin Blanc 2006.

Apples. Soft red apples in a lovely 'dry' and weighty mouthfeel. A waxy palate with great acid to support the fullness. Fat yet fresh. A hip-hop star of a wine.

And funnily enough at 4.6 grams per litre residual sugar a sweeter wine than he was drinking initially but without the full malolactic of the Te Awa Chardonnay 2005. Funny. No?

Little Pinot Rant

After spending a few days showing another lush around the wineries in the Hawke's Bay I've discovered that drinking and tasting are mutually exclusive. Everything began tasting of its separate components. Hence I could taste acid, tannin and the carpentry of the wine but not the fruit. All of the delightful parts of the wine disappearing, flashing in and out of existence and preventing me from getting a sense of the wine. Certainly my notes from over the last few days are scratchy.

Had a nice wee line up of quite disimilar Pinot Noir from three different regions. Palate fatigue was intense but here goes....

La Strada Pinot Noir 2004 was a nice lively ruby in the glass and was giving up dry baking spices, red cherry and rhubarb followed dusty herbs. This is a fairly high acid style without the dense fruit of some New Zealand Pinot but none the worse for that. A touch herbal on the palate, floral and sinewy. The fact that we impressed a collector of Clos de Vougeot with this wine the other day speaks volumes about it's fine structure. I'm not suggesting that it's in the same league but I had an interesting discussion with this guest debating the 'problems' with New World Pinot Noir for the Burgundy afficianado. The crux of the issue being that New Zealand Pinot starts big and tends to unravel in the glass whereas his favourite (famous and expensive) tipple only whispers its name and then builds to a cacophony. It was nice to change his pre-conceptions and serve him something like the La Strada.

The Rippon Pinot Noir 2005 is another New Zealand Pinot that eschews the overly dense style. I like it and I guess there is something of a pattern emerging in that I'm much more fond of Pinot Noir you can read a book through. Not insipid just feminine, seductive and alluring Pinot Noir, as it should be..... And so to this wine. It's had 16 months in barrel and is not filtered or fined which gives the wine a slightly wild aspect. For all that the nose shows great varietal depth and harmony with cranberry and black cherry surrounded by dried flowers and basil. The oak lends some lovely cinnamon and perhaps a touch of licorice.

And all these flavours are so different from the Dry River Pinot Noir 2005 which swings the pendulum almost to the other end of the spectrum. Now I realise that with only a couple of years in the bottle this wine is something of a baby but right now it's not pushing my buttons. I'm sure it will and I'm sure the kiwi Bacchus would strike me down for daring to type that I didn't find Dry River to be perfection in a bottle but..

Actually I might put off making notes on this for another day before that bolt of lightening hits....