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TASTING: We are a little late with the tasting again this month – 14th August instead of the 7th. Unfortunately I have another commitment on the 7th so have had to delay proceedings by one week. Hope you can still come along though. We have some good value wines for you to taste this month. As always, this is a free tasting – no fees, no set times. Just turn up any time between 2pm and 6pm. Taste as many or as few of the wines as you like.

 

WHISKY TASTING: Book this date – Friday 13th August, 6.00pm – 7.30pm. Bart Burgers, of Malts of Distinction, will be in store at that time and will be offering samples of single malts from his fine collection. A must attend for all fans of Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Also a no charge event with no set times. Come in any time within the hour and a half timeframe. All most welcome.

 

 

VINTAGE 2010: Looks as though we will have the first 2010 Sauvignon Blanc on the shelves sometime in August. There is stock of a Waipara Sauvignon Blanc already in a certain Hamilton warehouse that I will get my paws on some time in August. If you like the savage attack of brand new, garden-fresh Savvy, keep an eye out for this one. No doubt others will follow on fairly quickly now as the 2009 vintage finishes.

 

2008 REDS: Despite the gloom and doom that surrounded the Hawkes Bay vintage 2008, I have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of some of reds from that same vintage. Syrah in particular has been impressive – not so much for the weight and build of the wines but for the delicacy and fragrance that many of them have displayed. They may well not be long lived wines but then hey, who cares – we can make the same thing again next year. At two years of age, they are delivering an excellent taste experience and are not to be missed.

To counter those comments, some wineries have really limited their 2008 Bordeaux blends. Craggy Range has made a Sophia from 2008 ( I have some in stock) but has not made a Quarry and, if I recall correctly, have not made Le Sol in that year either. This is not always a bad thing. Quite often, if the juice is not quite up to the very top spec, it is put into the next tier down which often improves the quality of that second tier. It’s an ill wind, as they say.

 

WORTH A LOOK: There are a couple of new French wines on the shelves just now – all in the $30 and under price bracket. From Bordeaux we have more Chateau Lauduc 2007 together with some Chateau du Barry 2006. This latter wine has a Medaille d’Or (Gold Medal) from the Concours General Agricole, Paris 2007. From Lussac St Emilion, it is Merlot dominant, showing generous power and complexity but retaining a good degree of elegance. Affordable at $25.00.

I’ve also got a couple of bottles of a White Graves – Chateau Cabannieux, 2007. Essentially a Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend, this has a gently creamy fruit nose with hints of grass and yellow plum. Fresh on the palate, a little bit steely but well composed with a lean precise style. Very clean. $30.00

 

From the Rhone, we have two new lines, both priced below $30.00 ($26.00 and $27.00). Vidal-Fleury Cotes du Rhone 2007 is rated 96/100 by Robert Parker – a high score indeed. It is young yet but still very drinkable according to one of my sources. It is Grenache dominant (65%) with Syrah (20%), Mourvedre (10%) and Carignan (5%). Plenty of life ahead of it yet – can be aged for another decade with confidence.

Then there is the Jean Luc Colombo, Les Abielles 2007 Cotes du Rhone. Jean Luc Colombo is one of a new breed of Rhone winemakers. He jokes that he's a bit of a Rhône outcast since he relies on modern techniques in one of France's most traditional wine regions. That said, he has done a lot to raise the profile of the Rhone product as well as aggressively marketing his own versions. "Les Abeilles" - meaning "bees" in French - is a blend of southern Rhone red grapes from quarter-century old vines. The 2007 blend is 50% grenache, 30% syrah and 20% mourvedre - what is often called a "CdR", a "Rhone blend" or sometimes "GSM".  “In the glass: Deep magenta red. It moves to opaque only about a half-inch in from the edge. On the nose: The aromas are subtle and restrained, yet quite enticing. They are deep, slightly foresty, with overtones of fresh plums. On the palate: Full-front rich plum flavours touch the tip of your tongue and the front of your mouth - almost your teeth. The robe of deep red fruit flavour moves backwards then, along the sides of your mouth. It carries an element of acidity and spiciness, but that is just one component of an overall bolder blend. A bit of older world earthiness also settles in as the tannins cloak things.”  From Spirit of Wine, November 2009.

 

EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME: Much has been made of the ETS – including several novel and somewhat disrespectful interpretations of just what those three letters stand for…(Extra Tax, Suckers!)

Now, I have had a brilliant idea - All wine drinkers should be given carbon credits for every bottle of wine they consume. Why? Well, it’s easy really – the science goes like this:

Every molecule of alcohol carries two atoms of carbon (CH3 CH2 OH is the molecule). So every time we drink a molecule of alcohol, we are sequestering two atoms of carbon in our bodies (I am assuming we actually absorb the alcohol and its carbon passengers). Given that we live an average of about 70 years, we are locking that carbon up for roughly twice as long as a pine tree does – so really, we should get TWICE as many carbon credits as a pine tree, right? Of course it’s right! So do your bit! Drink lots of wine and save the planet! (I think we should be making submissions to those fools in Wellington, shouldn’t we..?)

Incidentally, just removing my clown’s hat for a minute, many wineries are working hard to lower their carbon footprints and several have already achieved carbon zero status – Dry River and Yealands being just two such. My belief is that we will see more and more wineries achieving this status which can only be good for our export markets and for the country as a whole.

To be serious for a moment, my impression of the ETS is that it is just a way for people who can afford it to sop their consciences by paying some money out and continuing to produce emissions on the same old scale. Paying for the right to pollute in fact. I fail to see how this will reduce emissions. But I can see it making a heap of money for certain emissions brokers…funny that. And of course I’m not a cynic – wherever did you get that idea?

 

RANT PART TWO: Continuing on from my last newsletter, I have one more thing to mention. This relates to the previously mentioned “excessive consumption” issue and concerns the “proliferation of outlets” that many others have mentioned.

In recent weeks I have seen two more liquor outlets getting off the ground in our city. I ask myself why it is that we need even yet more outlets again? I am reminded of an art lesson I had in form three when the teacher drew a street scene - purportedly of an old New Zealand town (illustrating perspective). Every second building he drew, he labelled “saloon”. He stated that “in the bad old days, every second building in a New Zealand town was a saloon. Not like nowadays when we are more sensible.”

So what happened to the “more sensible” bit? Have we reverted to the “bad old days”? Because it seems to me that we are back to every second building being a liquor outlet. Which makes the accessibility of the product even easier and excess consumption easier as well.

If we are serious about reducing harm from alcohol, we need to be more careful about who can sell the product and where and when they can sell it. We should not be allowing more and more outlets to open. We should not be allowing heavy discounting at any outlet.

As it is, the more outlets there are, the thinner the spread of expenditure per outlet becomes and this directly affects my own viability – especially since we are not discount orientated.

Maybe I am a Luddite but I cannot approve of what I see happening and I am especially concerned for the welfare of the quality end of the market and its concomitant effects upon the New Zealand wine industry as a whole – which is where a lot of the quality end of the market resides. I would hate to see our wine industry drown in a sea of cheap, discounted RTD’s.

Rant Over. Again.