Waiheke Island is the best known and most inhabited island of the Hauraki Gulf, which is a mostly serene stretch of water surrounding Auckland, so imagine our surprise when our store staff ventured north to one of the bumpiest boat rides we could remember. The 40 minute catamaran trip was not smooth sailing, so to speak, when 12 of us from Regional Wines & Spirits and our big sibling, the Hamilton Beer & Wine Company, went to Waiheke. Luckily, upon landing on terra firma, the winery visits were amazing. Our Waiheke Island visit included Passage Rock, Man O’ War and...

Auckland is one of New Zealand's smallest wine regions today (the 8th out of the country's 10 wine producing areas), so it's easy to forget that the seeds of modern Kiwi wine were planted here by Dalmatians. And many of their descendents are still heavily involved in wine production, management, marketing and exports today. On our latest staff education trip, retail staff from both Regional Wines & Spirits and the Hamilton Beer & Wine Company were able to learn first hand about the history and modern winemaking at Babich Wines and Kumeu River Wines. West Auckland is home to both...

Steve Davies is a rare type of winemaker. You know the kind I'm talking about.  He grows all his own grapes, makes all his own wine, matures it in barrel on site (next door to the front door of his house) and markets it all himself. That's no mean feat in a crowded market of high volume, high marketing budget wines which dominate over 80% of wine sales today. Fortunately (in a planned kind of way) Steve has a card up his sleeve, which is pretty hard to compete with. He owns the three hectare vineyard from which  Doctors Flat Bannockburn Pinot...

It’s a dangerous game wine tasting! What do I mean by that? Well, it’s far easier just to drink the stuff - as soon as you engage the cerebral cortex and actually try to taste, things get complicated. Having studied wine here and there and having certainly tasted a fair few over the years, I’ve noticed a few pitfalls, problems and traps that are often quite easy to fall into as soon as one starts taking the whole tasting thing to the next level. When trapped, things can quickly spiral, and before you know it, you’ve got yourself in a...

  Homage from a great vintage 2015 Trinity Homage Special $114.99 (RRP $132.99) If you haven’t tried Homage, you’re probably in good company because quantities are relatively modest of Trinity Hill’s top red, a Syrah first made in 2002 from 100% Syrah grapes grown on the Gimblett Gravels in Hawke’s Bay. This great Syrah was inspired when its founder, winemaker John Hancock, visited Gerard Jaboulet in Tain l’Hermitage in the northern Rhone Valley, France and met Gerard Jaboulet and his father Louis, who produced the great wine, Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle – one of the great reds of the first...