Nelson's new season wines well received

A first taste of the region's new season's wine was on offer at a Nelson Wineart event held at The Boathouse last night.

Nelson Wineart manager Gisela Purcell said it had been "a good, fun evening" with a lot of wine poured.

Twenty-one Nelson regional wineries offered members of the hospitality industry tastings of their 2009 new releases, as well as "some old favourites", said Ms Purcell. The invitation-only event saw many local restaurateurs attend to decide what to put on their wine list for summer, she said. Golden Hills Estate, Resurgence and Kina Cliffs were three "new and exciting" labels.

The second part of the evening was sold out, with about 160 members of the public paying $35 for an all-you-can-taste evening.

"It was a stormy night but it was great wine-tasting weather," said Ms Purcell.

The next big event was the 2010 Nelson Aromatics Symposium in February, which she said was "quite a big deal".

"It's an international event so it's great to be running it in the Upper Moutere," she said.

"Nelson is becoming really well known for aromatic wine."

Nelson Wineart will also be running a six-week evening wine seminar series in conjunction with Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. The first evening, an introduction to wine tasting, is on October 6.

- © Fairfax NZ News