Great Wine: Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Gris 2007

Over the past 18 months or so I’ve heard great things about New Zealand Pinot Gris (related to the common Pinot Grigio).  The word was that this was fast becoming the “new” Sauvignon Blanc and was well worth tracking down.  Luckily I was in Waitrose the other day and managed to get my hands on a bottle of Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Gris 2007.

I was lucky enough to visit New Zealand a few years ago and one of the “Cellar Doors” I visited was Villa Maria.  At the time I thought they were a bit too much of a “big name” but I enjoyed their wines and the staff there were very friendly (as was most of New Zealand!).  I’ve grown fond of their Private Bin series over the last few years and always enjoy picking up a Sauvignon Blanc or Gewurztraminer.  I was therefore quite excited (as Mrs ITs Food will testify) when I found the Pinot Gris.

The fantastic Villa Maria website gives us lots of information about the 2007 wine.

Bottle Size: 750ml
Variety: Pinot Gris
Vintage: 2007
Region: East Coast
Vineyard: Various
Country: New Zealand
Alcohol: 14.0%
pH: 3.6
Total Acidity: 5.3g/L
Residual Sugar: 7.5g/L
Sweetness Indicator: Nil
Serving Temperature: Lightly Chilled

VINTAGE
The 2007 vintage in New Zealand was characterised by warm and dry conditions across most of the country. Marlborough was fine with average temperatures across the region for most of vintage. Hawkes Bay and Gisborne in the north island experienced a cool and annoyingly wet summer, however the sun shone in late January and warm, dry conditions extended right into April.

VINEYARDS
The fruit for this wine was grown in the Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and Marlborough winegrowing regions. Vineyards across these three regions with a diversity of soil types ranging from free draining gravely soils to silty clay, are utilised to grow Pinot Gris. To ensure good intensity of flavour, low yields are maintained at approximately 4kg/vine. Routine leaf plucking provides good bunch exposure ensuring ripe clean fruit is achieved.

WINEMAKING
Harvested, crushed and de-stemmed, the fruit was immediately pressed to avoid excess skin contact. The free run juice was naturally settled and then racked clear to begin fermentation. Neutral winemaking yeast strains were used to ferment the wine with regular lees stirring employed for two months to enhance texture. Post fermentation the wine was gently fined, stabilised, filtered and bottled.

WINEMAKER’S COMMENTS
The spicy pear and hints of green apple dominate the aromas. On the palate the wine is soft and rich, with a balanced sweetness and finishes with hints of fresh acidity.

I lightly chilled this wine, treating it like I would a Sauvignon Blanc.  Would this tase like a Pinot Grigio?  Or would it taste nice?

My tasting notes tell me…

Less zingy than a Sauvignon Blanc, softness like a nice Chardonnay.  Nice colour, pale mid yellow. Sharp, fruity, buttery, strong tasting. Maybe 5 stars!?!

This was a very nice wine, a bit more of a fruity kick to it than a Sauvignon Blanc with buttery undertones.  This is the best non-sauvignon blanc I’ve had all year. It rates a 4.5 stars for me but I’m feeling generous so it’s getting rounded up to a fantastic five stars!

Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Gris 2007

Grape: Pinot Gris
Alcohol: 14%
Guide Price: <£10 (<£9 online at Waitrose)
I bought this wine at: Waitrose (In store)
ITs Food Rating: Five stars

Great Wine: Château Musar 1999

I have to tell you that Château Musar is my favourite red wine. I’m lucky enough to have several bottles at home from different years: 1991, 1996 and 1999 (I hear 2000 is now released). Château Musar is ideally drank between about 10-15+ years old. The 1991 is being kept for a special occasion. I hope it’s okay…!

Musar is pretty unique for the fact it’s from Lebanon, not a country you’d immediately link with wine. But, if you think about where Lebanon is (i.e. on the Mediterranean), it’s location is very conducive to wine making.

Viticulture in Lebanon was introduced 6000 years ago by the Phoenicians who traded their wines throughout the Mediterranean and planted the vine in southern Europe….

…The Bible is full of references to the wine of Canaan which is located today in southern Lebanon. According to the bible, the Hebrews had brought home a bunch of grapes so big that it took the strength of two men to carry it.

The reputation of the wine of Canaan was such that Egyptians reported it to be “as abundant as flowing water” and this probably inspired the Romans to choose Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley to build their largest temple ever, and to add, several centuries later, another temple devoted to Bacchus.

Whilst they produce a few different wines the classic Château Musar Red is probably the most famous. As we’ve come to expect their excellent website is full of information about the wine.

It is when the grapes reach optimal maturity, typically between the 5th and the 15th of September, that the harvest begins at Château Musar.

The grapes are handpicked as the sun rises across the Bekaa valley and are then swiftly transferred to the cellar in Ghazir where fermentation takes place followed by maceration lasting 2 to 4 weeks.

During the first year the wine is racked into Bordeaux type barrels made from Nevers oak and where it matures from 12 to 15 months.

Our philosophy of respect for nature and ecology is the reason for which our wines are neither fined nor filtered and receive no chemical additives with the exception of the minimum necessary dose of sulphur.

At the end of the second year blending takes place with the proportions of cabernet sauvignon, carignan and cinsault varying with each vintage, the only deciding factor being taste.

During the third year bottling takes place after which the wine is allowed to rest 3 to 4 years in our cellars before release.

To best appreciate the subtlety and complexity of Château Musar red we suggest decanting between 30 minutes and 2 hours before serving. Our wines, in particular the older vintages, are keen travellers, yet we suggest you leave them to rest 2 to 4 weeks before serving, and all the while decanting with great care.

While Château Musar red is certainly ready to be enjoyed upon release 7 years after vintage, or at the age of discretion, the patient are rewarded as they are exceptional after 15 years of age.

So, my 1999 bottle was on the young side when I tasted it. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive as I’d been looking forward to opening the bottle for a while but was worried about the age. This wine had to live up to my expectations. I think the first bottle I ever tasted was an early 1980’s vintage.

Château Musar is a wonderful smooth rich fruity taste-explosion of a wine, a real “red wine”. I think one of the most telling things about this wine is that even though it is rich and powerful it is also so smooth that even Mrs ITsFood (who is no red wine fan) loves it. The Château Musar website supplies tasting notes for each vintage. The 1999 notes say:

1999: This is the basic palette from which Serge Hochar, no dry academician, creates his blends:

• First, a Cinsault from a single, soil-rich vineyard in Ana: deep core, young Provençal scent; delicious flavour, wonderful richness and flesh. Soft tannins.
• Next, a Cinsault from Ammiq’s very gravelly soil: fragrant, lighter style, more charm.
• Then Carignan from a lighter soil in the Ana district: Deep, velvety; spicy garrigue scent (I was reminded of Corbières in the Languedoc), flavour more aromatic.
• Lastly, Cabernet Sauvignon from Kefraya’s rocky soil: very deep purple; sweet, lovely crisp flavour, excellent tannins and acidity.
• End taste of violets and blackcurrants

Well? I think some key words from the notes above describe the wine perfectly. Soft tannins… Fragrant… Aromatic… Sweet (think fruity)… It was wonderful. Yes I could tell it wasn’t as aged as some of the other bottles I’ve had in the past but it was still excellent. Perfect with food but I love this wine so much I can just as easily carry on drinking it all evening (if there was ever enough!). My tasting notes simply said…

…yummy, spot on…

Well you can’t argue with that! I always had to try to track this down in shops in the past but now it seems it’s more easily sourced. Waitrose tend to stock it, I’ve also seen it in Tesco’s (a while back though) but I bought my latest batch from Sainsbury’s. It tends to come in at around the £14 (~$28) mark but if you wait for one of the special “25%+ off 6 or more bottles” offers you can get the price closer to £10 which is a bargain.

As with all good red wine, decant it well before serving!

If you’ve never tasted Château Musar before I strongly recommend you get a bottle. It’d be a perfect Christmas dinner wine. Robust and powerful but smooth and fruity as well. A real winner, 5 stars.

Château Musar 1999

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Cinsault
Alcohol: 14%
Guide Price: ~£14
I bought this wine at: Sainsbury’s (Instore)
ITs Food Rating: Five stars

Great Wine: Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Well, I’ve already pronounced Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006 the greatest Sauvignon Blanc on the planet; so, what of my “old” favourite, Cloudy Bay?

I managed to get my hands on a couple of bottles through Tesco.com. They had a fantastic deal for 6 New World 2006 Sauvignon Blanc’s for £60 ($120). The case contained 2 bottles each of Cloudy Bay, Villa Maria Cellar Selection and Jackson Estate. Not a bad deal at all. I usually have to spend ~£18 (~$36) a bottle get Cloudy Bay, that’s what makes Highfield such a bargain (~£12/$24)!

In the late 90’s early 00’s you couldn’t go to a decent restaurant without the “king” of New World Sauvignon Blanc’s, Cloudy Bay, on the menu. This was the first wine to really make me go WOW. When my brother introduced me to it in the early 90’s it sparked my love for wine. For that, Cloudy Bay has a very special place in my heart.

As you’d expect Cloudy Bay has a very good website full of all the details you need to know about their 2006 Sauvignon Blanc.

HARVEST BEGAN EARLIER THAN EVER BEFORE WITH AN IDYLLIC SUMMER AND RELATIVELY LOW CROP LOADS DELIVERING RIPE FRUIT WITH INTENSE AROMATICS.

Winemakers Notes
Mouth-watering aromas of passionfruit and lemongrass led with the spiciness of just-picked tomatoes tossed with fresh basil. Many small parcels of fruit, ripened under ideal conditions, bring layers of complexity to the 2006 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. The palate has exceptional richness, with ripe gooseberry flavours and a hint of fresh fennel leading to a powerful, crisp finish.

Technical Notes: Vineyard
Grapes were sourced from estate and grower vineyards located in the Rapaura, Fairhall, Renwick and Brancott sub-regions of the Wairau Valley. Free draining, stony soils typify the Rapaura and Renwick areas whilst Fairhall and Brancott are predominantly aged alluvial loams containing some clay. The majority of fruit was grown on a vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trellis, and the balance on the divided Scott Henry trellis system. In 2006 sauvignon blanc yields averaged 8.4 Tonnes/hectare (3.4 Tonnes/acre).

Technical Notes: Season
The season got off to a relatively warm, frost-free start with budburst occurring almost three weeks earlier than normal. Ideal growing conditions prevailed throughout the spring, but with December came wet and windy weather. The unsettled conditions affected the flowering period, resulting in incomplete berry set and consequently low crop levels. The warmth returned early in the New Year and conditions during the remainder of the summer were idyllic. The combination of an early spring, low crops, and warm sunny weather brought on the ripening and – for the first time ever – harvesting commenced at the end of February. Fruit quality was superb and picking was hurried as all vineyards ripened rapidly, but two dumps of rain in late March slowed things down and put a cloud of apprehension over the vintage. Fine weather with low humidity followed the rain, leaving the fruit unscathed and picking resumed in earnest..

Technical Notes:Harvest
The Sauvignon Blanc harvest began on the 13th of March – the earliest start date on record – under settled conditions, the first fruit coming from the stonier, warmer blocks around the winery. Harvesting continued steadily during the month through the progressively later ripening sites, with the last fruit coming in on the 7th of April. All vineyards were picked at optimum ripeness. Despite the season being average in terms of heat summation, the harvest was completed by the 10th of April … allowing the Cloudy Bay team to experience Easter for the first time without their gumboots on.

Technical Notes:Vinification
The fruit was machine harvested during the cooler night and early morning temperatures and transported directly to the winery. The grapes were de-stemmed and transferred straight to tank presses. Free run and lightly pressed juice was cold settled for 48 hours then racked and inoculated with a neutral yeast strain. The fermentations were carried out in stainless steel tanks; after fermentation the wine remained in contact with yeast lees for around two months, prior to blending in July and subsequent bottling in August. Final wine analysis shows an alcohol of 13.5%, pH of 3.15 and titratable acidity 7.6 g/L

(Better photo than the 2005, no spider poo this time!)

So, as usual let’s see what my wine tasting notes have to say…

…as expected, good, possiby great, classic young SB, lots of citrusy crispness, tastes fresh, dry with nice fruity undertones…

Yes, it was lovely. A big thumbs up for a “new” bottle of Cloudy Bay. But, like most wines, this will change and in a years time will be a completely different wine. Let me explain…

A good Sauvignon Blanc is like a garden. Eh? Well, if you imagine moving into a new house with just a bare patch of ground for a garden. Over the years the garden changes from being fresh and young to being mature and complex. Over the first year (and beyond in better wines) a SB changes from being that fresh zingy wine to being a mature more complex wine.

So, if you’re reading this review with an eye on buying some Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006 then bear in mind this review was written when the wine was still quite young (September 2007). Those zingy citrusy flavours will have matured into something more complex over time. A good Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc will still taste good years later if stored well but it will obviously be a different wine.

I’ve tagged this wine Great Wine (link to Great Wine on our sister blog, ITs Wine, where we archive all our wine reviews). That makes it only the second white wine to be called that, the other is Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006. Which is better? The Highfield, hands down. I prefer the taste/flavour and it’s better value. BUT the Cloudy Bay is an excellent wine and consistantly good quality therfore it deserves 5 stars.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Grape: Sauvignon Blanc
Alcohol: 13.5%
Guide Price: ~£14-18
I bought this wine at: Tesco (Online)
ITs Food Rating: Five stars

Great Wine: Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006

This is the greatest Sauvignon Blanc on the planet today. Here’s my story about how we fell in love…

I was lucky enough to spend a month travelling round Australia and New Zealand a couple of years ago. Being the wine buff that I am my wife “allowed” me to spend a few days in Blenheim (Marlborough, New Zealand), home to great wines and especially Sauvignon Blanc (SB).

I immediately visited the Cloudy Bay vineyard, the producer of probably the most famous SB. I, like many, loved Cloudy Bay SB and always made a point of having a bottle on my wedding anniversary. I was a little disappointed with the vineyard though, quite impersonal (as I’ve mentioned before). Luckily though there were many other Cellar Doors to visit.

We were staying in a cottage on a small vineyard just up the road (Google maps link) which, I must point out, did the most fantastic home made breakfasts in the mornings. (If I find a web link to where we stayed I’ll post it later on.) Like many small vineyards the owner told me he didn’t make his own wine but grew grapes on contract for a larger producer. In this case he grew wine for Highfield Estate. I’d never heard of them before but the owner told me about their great wines, especially their award winning SB.

The next day we spent the day wine tasting and Highfield Estate was top of the list. The Cellar Door (note: award winning Cellar Door) is in a wonderful location (Google maps link) with a tower you can take in the fantastic views from. They even have rooms you can stay in plus the obligatory restaurant, quite a set up! Well, what can I say about the wine. We tasted several which were good but to be honest, the SB blew me away. It was all an SB should be, fruity, dry and packed with flavour. I was in love, goodbye Cloudy Bay, I have found someone else!

Fast-forward to last week when, to my delight, my case of Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006 turned up (early!) from Barrels and Bottles. It was still morning so I threw a bottle (not literally) in the fridge to chill and then tried to concentrate on my work for the day. As things turned out I didn’t drink this until the next day. A mistake…

A SB deserves to be served chilled BUT not too cold. When I first tasted the wine it had been in our fridge for over a day. I tasted it and began to tell my wife how fantastic it was but I was worried. It was nice but a little… bland? I began to worry. What had happened to the best wine in the world (note: authors opinion!)? To take my mind of this nightmare I began to cook. After a while I took another tentative sip. Oh, it tastes better now… Ah!!! Over-chilled SB!!

To my relief a little time out of the fridge brought the wine to life. And what a life! My un-tutored palette can’t possibly do this wine justice. All I can do is list what came to mind when I drank it… Crisp, loads of fruit, zesty/citrus, flavour. Wow, just wow. It’s wonderful…

Like most good websites the Highfield one lists lots of interesting detail about their wine. Their tasting notes for the 2006 SB say:

Meticulous fruit selection and cold fermentation contribute an abundant spectrum of tropical and herbal aromas. Passion fruit, gooseberry and red pepper fragrances spring from the glass. Extended lees contact adds depth, texture and balance to the palate. The finish is long and crisp.

“The 2006 has a very aromatic, fine, fruit lifted nose. Juicy, fresh, lively impact is followed by a crisp, fine mid palate that has some fruit depth as well as a citrus brightness. Finishes fluid, soft and slightly herbal. Smart wine”. Keith Stewart, Truewines 2007.

We even get some Sensory and Technical notes plus food suggestions and cellaring potential:

Sensory Notes
Colour: Pale straw
Aroma: Tropical and herbal
Palate: Invigorating, full bodied and persistent. Finishes dry

Technical Notes
Fermentation: Predominantly stainless steel
Maturation: Four months post ferment lees maturation in tank

Variety: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
Alcohol: 13.5%
Total acidity: 6.6g/l
pH: 3.20
Residual sugar: 1.9g/l
Harvest dates: 20 March 2006 – 11 April 2006
Bottling dates: From October 2006, under screw cap

Cellaring Potential
This wine will be at its best on release (January 2007) and until mid 2008

Food Suggestions
Well suited to fresh shellfish or Mediterranean cuisine.

Well, there you have it. My favourite white wine, probably my favourite wine altogether as well. I do hope you get a chance to try this, especially if you’re one of those people who pays your £18 per bottle for Cloudy Bay each year and would like to try something new. Don’t get me wrong, I still like Cloudy Bay but this year there isn’t any in my wine store, it’s full of Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006. A rating? As if you need to ask! 5 stars.

Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Grape: Sauvignon Blanc
Alcohol: 13.5%
Guide Price: £11.95
I bought this wine at: Barrels and Bottles (Online)
ITs Food Rating: Five stars

Wine Ratings

Quickly following on from my latest wine review is the news that I’ve started the revamp of my reviews. All the wines I review will all be rated on a colour coded (red/white) 5 star scale where 1 star is very bad and 5 stars is great.

So far the revamped scores look like this…

Tempus Two Pewter Merlot 2004

The Lucky Country Shiraz/Cabernet 2004

Cloudy Bay Te Koko 2002

Hardys Stamp Riesling Gewurztraminer 2005

Peter Lehman Barossa Clancy’s 2003

There will be more reviews to come very soon (even though I’m off the booze for a month)!