I attended my first wine trade tasting in Auckland at the end of last week. They’re few and far between compared to the tasting fests in London, where you could attend a tasting every day of the week, if you didn’t actually have a job to do.
I had to invite myself, as I must not be on the radar here in NZ yet.
Te Mata’s tasting compared its 98s with the recently released 08s. They showed us their three top wines: the Bullnose Syrah, Awatea Bordeaux blend and their flagship wine Coleraine – another Bordeaux blend.
As a massive fan of Syrah, the 08 Bullnose really impressed me. It had that beautiful pepper note we have come to love from Hawke’s Bay plus aromas of violets and balsamic. It wasn’t overly weighty and had a really focused mid-palate, moderately fresh acidity and silky ripe tannins. It needs time still but a gold medal winner for me. While I love a sprinkle of black pepper in my Syrah, winemaker Peter Cowley is clearly not so keen. “We used to call it fly spray in the winery but with vine age it’s less overtly peppery. We are probably at the lower end of where you can ripen Syrah. We don’t like too much pepper although the public seem to. They might need a bit of training up in the respect.†Er, excuse me Peter, I love the pepper. Do I need some more training up too?
The ’98 Bullnose was another impressive wine but has developed as far as you would want it to go and needs drinking. It’s no longer on the market so it’s not like you can rush out and buy it anyway. It still had that balsamic note combined with dried fruit, black tea leaf and liquorice. The classy focus was still there but it was gearing up for retirement.
It seems Cabernet/Merlot blends are more appreciated at Te Mata and the 98s are not yet ready to draw their pension, no doubt the Cabernet tannins and acid provide that extra longevity. Both of the 08 wines had pure cassis fruit and showed green bell pepper aromas typical of Cabernet but it wasn’t an unattractive green note that you find in many Chilean Cabernets. Cowley added, “People talk about the green character and that’s part of the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal character. If we wanted to blow all that off, we would go and make wine in the Barossa Valley.â€
Both of these wines are incredibly youthful and have structured powdery tannins. They’re both fleshy in the middle with balanced alcohol and fresh acidity. The Coleraine ain’t cheap at NZ$60-65 with the Awatea a more reasonable $30. It’s great to taste the top-end of the wines and as a journalist I’m very lucky to do that but I look forward to trying their entry level wine, the Woodthorpe range, as a winery should be judged on its cheapest as well as it’s most expensive wines.
