Wine lovers tell all

Four Christchurch wine lovers talk about the most special bottle of wine in their collections.

Wine judge and author Jo Burzynska

"I started buying wines when I was running a central London wine shop about 15 years ago. I had a product allowance, which instead of spending on everyday wines I would save up to buy something special.

I have a fairly modest collection by most collectors' standards, as I don't really consider myself a collector. I'm more of a wine lover with a cellar to ensure I always have interesting and older wines on hand to drink.

I have quite a lot of European wines. I'm a big fan of rieslings from Germany, Alsace and Austria, which can be wonderful with age, as well as red and white burgundy, wines from the Rhone and Champagne. I also have a growing number of New Zealand wines now that these are starting to show some benefit from a bit of cellaring: mainly pinot noir and bordeaux blends, some riesling and syrah and a little chardonnay.

Asking a wine lover to name their favourite wine is akin to asking a parent which child is their favourite! However, if I had to choose a bottle that represented my cellar and what excites me about wine at present, it would be the Domaine Marcel Deiss Grasberg 2007 from Alsace.

It symbolises what I love and what intrigues me about wine. Its entire focus is on place; the unique site where its grapes are grown, rather than the grape varieties themselves. This is why Deiss quite radically harvests and ferments different varieties from its top vineyards together. It's from a very good vintage and it's also made biodynamically - a philosophy of natural winegrowing that's been embraced by a growing number of my favourite producers in recent years. It really seems to strengthen the connection between the land, grapes and winegrower and make for more site-expressive and exciting wines.

Although many of my wines are sourced from further afield, or bought on my travels, I actually bought this here in Christchurch, from Decant, which brings in some stunning European wines. Its price isn't what makes this bottle prized. At about $90, it's not that expensive in fine wine terms. Alsace is the source of some great bargains, unlike other regions such as Bordeaux, whose ridiculous prices now make its wine only affordable to the super rich or as investments that may sadly never be drunk.

Like all the wines in my cellar, I'm very much looking forward to enjoying this myself! The anticipation of what joys a bottle has to offer is all part of the pleasure of laying wines down. Sharing it with people whom I value and who value good wine would be an occasion in itself.

If I had to pick a wine that represents me, I'd like to think I am

an elegant and minerally riesling or a delicate pinot noir. More fitting perhaps would be a wine that's a little more flamboyant - perhaps a more opulent barrel-fermented chardonnay - but make that a burgundy, which is stopped from being excessive by reining in the richness with a stylish line of acidity!"

Jo Burzynska will talk about matching wine with music as a guest speaker at the Wine and Food Festival at Hagley Park on December 3.

Avenues wine reviewer Garth Gallaway

"I started collecting wine about 15 years ago and have about 500 bottles. I drink a reasonable amount of European wine, but have tended to collect wines from New Zealand and Australia in the cellar, as I have a reasonable knowledge of these wines and enjoy seeing them develop.

For me, the joy of having a cellar is the fact that you can drink wines that have truly developed. We recently had some friends around; I had been in the cellar that day and spotted a Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon from 1996. I cooked a large ribeye on the barbecue and the wine was superb.

I am a great believer in drinking wine according to my mood, not the occasion. Many years ago, I was given a beautiful magnum of Moët; I waited so long for the 'right' occasion that by the time I popped the cork, the wine was off!

I enjoy musing over what wines we may drink over a weekend and it's always a treat to go down to the cellar, see what's there and commence the selection process. I'll often cook something to suit the wine we are going to drink, rather than vice versa

My special bottle of wine is one I bought in Australia. For some reason, Lisa and I thought travelling to Sydney would be a good idea when our first-born, Finbar, was four months old; he woke every day at 4am. We were having coffee at a favourite café in Five Way Fusion and I was reading wine reviews in the Sydney Morning Herald. The reviewer was asked which wine he would like to drink in 10 years time. He chose the Bowen Estate Coonawarra Estate Shiraz 1999.

The question really appealed to me and the thought of enjoying the wine with Lisa when Finbar was 10 was enticing. I found a wine store around the corner and bought three bottles. I've recently read a review of the wine and it appears to be drinking beautifully, so the time to drink it is coming up.

I'll simply choose a bog-standard Saturday night at home with the family and smile at the fruition of a lovely idea, a gorgeous wife, three adorable children and an aging Labrador called Bacchus (born the same year the wine was released).

The reason that the wine is special to me is not because it is valuable (it's not), but because I always intended drinking it when Finbar reached 10, as he has now done. While the wine has lain in the cellar, much has happened in our lives. Drinking it will be a good time to reflect.

You've asked me if I were a wine, what I would be. I suspect that how I would see myself and how others would see me may be very different. I'd like to think of vintage champagne or one of the great burgundies, but I suspect some might say a particularly acidic sauvignon blanc is more appropriate!"

Garth Gallaway will talk about New Zealand's obsession with sauvignon blanc at the wine festival.

Winemaker Lynnette Hudson

"We [with Pegasus Bay co-winemaker husband Matt Donaldson] have been collecting wine for about 25 years and have about 8000 bottles. Our cellar consists mainly of white and red burgundy, which is my particular favourite. We also have many German and Austrian rieslings, especially from the Mosel, Rheingau, Nahe, Rheinhessen and Pfalz. Recently, we have purchased many Grosses Gewachs - a new dry style of rieslings from Germany.

Our ultimate bottle of wine is a Domaine de la Romanée Conti Echezeaux 1996 Imperial, which is six litres. This wine is very special because it is from one of the best domaines of Burgundy - Romanée-Conti - as well as from a great vineyard and from a great year with high natural acidity levels, giving the wines great longevity. A large-bottle format also slows down the evolution of a wine. Hence, we are saving this bottle for a very special occasion.

This bottle was offered for sale by Paul Mitchell from The Wine Importer [Auckland]. The cost was reasonably high, as well as too large for two people to drink. Therefore, we organised a group of winemakers to share the cost. It is a rare occasion for most winemakers to taste, let alone drink, these great wines. When the opportunity arose, a solution had to be found to enable us to buy the bottle. It is worth maybe $10,000.

It was bought so we could taste this wonderful wine from such a prestigious producer and be inspired on how to improve our own winemaking. We all look forward to opening this bottle.

Our plan is to have an amazing dinner where we organise a talented chef to cook traditional foods of Burgundy, such as duck, truffles and other exotic mushrooms. It has been specified that the only other wines allowed at this dinner have to be great wines bottled in magnums (1.5 litres) or bigger.  It will be a huge night.

We would never sell this bottle, because these wines have become harder and harder to buy. Demand from Asia, especially, has caused high price increases in wines from top domaines. Also, this wine is owned by five couples and, therefore, all 10 people would have to agree upon its sale. 

This wonderful bottle is encased in its original wooden case in our locked, insulated cellar. We were very, very lucky that not a single bottle was broken during the earthquakes.

If somebody accidentally broke the bottle, I would want to kill them. This is a hugely expensive wine to buy, but it is also very hard to replace.  Therefore, the utmost of care is needed always.

If I had to choose a wine to describe myself, it would be a great red burgundy. My slightly hard exterior would resemble the tight linear structure of the wine, which has slightly drying tannins. These wines have power and force, yet are balanced by voluptuous fruit. The power and force is akin to my somewhat aggressive, firm personality, but I hope I am balanced by rounded juicy fruit, which corresponds to my heart of gold, if you can get to the centre." 

Wine seller Rex Ormandy

"I've been involved with wine for the past 25 years, but because I work with wine every day, I haven't become a collector of many wines for long-term cellaring. My focus is usually on what is currently available in the marketplace. I look back at some of the wines I have sold and think I'd love to have them in my own cellar now. C'est la vie.

I have about 300 bottles at home, plus a wine shop [Vino Fino in Durham St]! It is an eclectic mix of predominantly red wines from New Zealand and around the world. I managed to get rid of the wines past their 'drink-by' date a few years ago and, as a consequence, I have only a handful of white wines and these are virtually all rieslings.

I'm not one of those collectors who buys the same label year after year. It is more about what takes my fancy and what I think might be interesting, so it is mainly single bottles, rather than cases. My tastes have changed and I definitely have more pinot noir these days, although I don't tend to leave these to age for too long.

My ultimate bottle is a 1982 Chateau Margaux, a first-growth bordeaux from France. When I was working for Wilson Neill in the 1980s, we had an incredible range of top European wines. When Wilson Neill was taken over by Liquorland, many of these wines were sold at below cost. Even though I had no money (with a young family and all that), I managed to purchase a few bottles of very good wine without my wife noticing the dent in the savings account. This is the last of them.

It is special simply because it is regarded as one of the great wines. 

Wine is really only worth what someone will pay for it, but well-cellared examples of this wine fetch $2000 to $3000.

Would I ever sell it? I'm a retailer at heart, so yes, probably ... maybe, if someone really wanted this particular wine. I don't tend to get too emotionally attached to wines, otherwise I'd have a shop full of 'treasures' I couldn't part with. I've seen a few wine retailers fall into this trap.

Would I drink the bottle? Of course, probably at a dinner where similar bottles are shared. Wine is for drinking and I'm not keeping it for any significant occasion. If someone accidentally broke the bottle, I'd probably try to lick it off the floor!

My bottles at home fared well during the earthquakes. Only two broke, but they weren't actually in the cellar. The shop was a totally different story, with thousands of broken and damaged bottles everywhere, including some treasures in the cellar and wine cabinet.

If I had to describe myself as a wine, it would be like my ultimate bottle  - mature, but with plenty of life ahead, good structure (certainly not lean and thin!), complex and reasonably serious, with plenty of depth of character."