From plastic to posh

CHEERS: Barton on Wine

JIM TANNOCK

INNOVATOR: Marlborough winery owner Peter Yealands has started bottling his sauvignon blanc wine in plastic bottles.

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With all the attention focused at this time of the year on the Air New Zealand Wine Awards it is easy to overlook some of the others things that are going on within the industry: the announcement this week that wine bottled in plastic is about to hit the market, for instance.

Okay.

Maybe it doesn't quite fit the image that wine has created for itself, or that those of us with an interest in wine have for our favourite tipple. But it was inevitable.

And if Peter Yealands, had not announced last week that Yealands Estate will lead the way in New Zealand, then someone else would have.

And it would probably have been TW (for Tietjen Witters) a small producer in Gisborne which is also about to introduce plastic bottles, but for a more specific purpose than the innovative Marlborough winery which aims to become the most sustainable in the world.

Growers cum producers Paul Tietjen and Geordie Witters have been planning for some time to bottle their very drinkable TW chardonnay viognier and a merlot in plastic for the Rhythm and Vines Festival in Gisborne at the end of December.

And for any other event where the use of plastic bottles makes good sense, they say.

Which, for starters means (based on last year's figures) organisers of the annual music festival having to clear up and dispose of 360kg of recycleable plastic bottles as opposed to 4.5 tonnes of glass when it's all over. Yealands, which is more concerned with taking sustainable wine production to new levels, makes a similar point; that the bottles it is using for its Full Circle sauvignon blanc, are 89 per cent lighter.

But it also points out that they also generate 54 per cent less green house gas emissions and use 19 per cent less energy to produce than traditional 750ml glass bottles.

So as well as providing a convenient alternative for those wanting a lightweight bottle they will also provide a new option for wine drinkers with a conscience,

The Circle range will sell for $16.99 a bottle, while the the price of the TW wines, will be determined by the organisers of the events at which they are used.

The other big news is the release of a couple of wines aimed at the very opposite end of the market winelovers with a bit jingle in their pocket and a taste to matchboth of them from Pernod Ricard.

The first, a vintage prestige cuvee methode traditionelle from Deutz, in Marlborough, was eventually to be expected from the 20-odd year association between the French champagne producer and what used to be Montana.

But the other does come as something of a surprise a chardonnay under a label that celebrates Tom McDonald, the man known as the father of red wine in New Zealand. Not so well known, however, is the part he played in producing some of our first good quality chardonnay.

The Deutz 2005 prestige cuvee, which brings the number of bubblies in the range to four, is a blend of 65 percent chardonnay and pinot noir and the Old World influence is clear the nuts, the biscuits and the bready characters meld beautifully with, ripe Marlborough citrus and pip fruit to produce a smooth and sophisticated wine. Made in limited quantities it sells at $39.99.

Church Road's 2006 Tom Chardonnay is worth the wait as well. The result of 12 years experimentation with various Old and New World winemaking techniques its a wine worthy of what is one of the country's most prestigious labels.

This is about complexity, power and texture, and about that stonefruit and the squeeze of citrus that is the unmistakable signature of Hawke's Bay. Only 170 cases were made and it retails for $69.

- © Fairfax NZ News