We're on top of the world
BY DEBORAH WALTON AND PETER MORICE
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Wine
Confronted with the choice of a 2005 Chateau Haut-Brion at $1950 per bottle or a Cornerstone 2006 at $60, there's a mind-boggling difference in price – so surely there's an equally pronounced difference in quality.
Not so, the French wine with its extraordinary pedigree has been given a run for its money by some new world wine producers.
Newton Forrest Cornerstone 2006 and Sacred Hill The Helmsman 2006 rated "shoulder to shoulder" with some of Bordeaux's finest first growths (Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Angelus and Chateau Haut-Brion) at a double-blind tasting held at New Zealand House, London.
This tasting was a master class attended by some of the world's most distinguished wine critics including Jancis Robinson, Oz Clarke and Michael Schuster.
Of the 12 wines in the tasting, six were from Bordeaux and six from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay. Cornerstone, a classic Bordeaux blend of cabernet, merlot and malbec, and The Helmsman (cabernet merlot) finished in the top six.
John Forrest of Newton Forrest Estate isn't the only one to think it's amazing that the Cornerstone, at a fraction of the cost of the Bordeaux wines, stands up so well in terms of quality.
Jancis Robinson commented that the Gimblett Gravels wines tasted at this event were closer in comparison to the Bordeaux wines; closer than Bordeaux blends produced by any other wine region in the world today.
Wine drinkers in New Zealand have a great deal to be grateful for. The Cornerstone vineyard is at the junction of Gimblett Rd and State Highway 50, Hawke's Bay, and lies on the abandoned course of the Ngaruroro River.
The riverbed's stones and gravels make the vines struggle to survive and they produce only modest bunches of deeply coloured, intensely flavoured fruit – a sure recipe for success.
As for Cornerstone, at the time of writing it was available in limited supply for $60 from Forrest Estate Wines.
News Flash: This message came in after this column was forwarded for publication – Sacred Hill Helmsman 2007 has just scored a top result in the latest Gimblett Gravels and Bordeaux tasting held in San Francisco.
Harvey Steiman, editor of the Wine Spectator, rated it his top wine with 97 points, beating illustrious and expensive chateaux wines from Bordeaux.
"Any way you look at it, the folks who make wines from merlot and cabernet in New Zealand's Gimblett district proved that they belong on the same table as those big-name Bordeaux chateaux. The Kiwis did it the legitimate way, in a blind tasting against the best," says Steiman. Absolutely brilliant.
Hunter's 07 Winemaker's Selection Kaho Roa Sauvignon Blanc
This is one of the most exciting and interesting sauvignon blancs on the market today. Kaho Roa means "barrel aged" in Maori and that's exactly what this wine underwent in order to taste so marvellous.
A portion of the juice was fermented with an aromatic yeast and a portion with wild yeast. Twenty-five per cent of the wine was fermented in new French medium-toast oak barrels. These wines were then aged on yeast lees for a further eight months with lees stirring.
After completing fermentation half of the stainless steel component was aged in one and two-year-old barrels for seven months.
The other half was kept in stainless steel to deliver freshness in the final blend. The three components were then blended and the result is a wine where the fruit is partnered with some oak – but not dominated by it.
The lovely creamy, toasty aromas and flavours are the result of this process.
Aroma: Some dusty oak, toasted coconut and savoury aromas combine with fragrant white nectarines, and currants. There's some savouriness and richness.
Taste: A wine with a smooth, slightly creamy texture and excellent length of palate. The taste is rich and those tropical, slightly "tinned" fruit and vegetable flavours sit well with some crisper sauvignon notes on the mid-palate.
A hint of citrus crispness remains in the finish while the aftertaste is rich, creamy and slightly savoury. A ripe, complex and rewarding wine with excellent balance – we thoroughly recommend it.
Price: Exceptional value at $23.90.
Wairau River 08 Riesling
Aroma: Lovely flinty mineral notes combine with lemon in this lifted aroma. Given a good swirl some softer mandarin and honeysuckle shows up, but the emphasis is definitely on the flint and citrus.
Taste: A creamy citrus-mineral palate with a lick of sweetness and some lovely tingly acids set the scene. A smoothly textured wine with some kerosene in the aromatics; there's excellent balance between the fruit, acid and ageing characters.
A cracker of a wine with a lovely lingering citrus finish and aftertaste.
Price: Excellent buying at $19.95.
- The Marlborough Express
