An absolute cracker at an amazing price! We'll be cracking a bottle of... Champagne Charles de Cazanove NV - $34.99 ... so come in and try it with the team at Regional Wines on Wednesday 29th November at our Wine Wednesday informal in store tasting. Pick up a spectacular sparkler for Xmas at a bargain price.

If you’re a sucker for a big buttery Chardonnay, Gisborne was the place to be this Labour Weekend. And not only in Gisborne but on board the W165 – a refurbished train that was built in 1897 and was wheeled out for the weekend to be The Chardonnay Express - over 100 people paid to enjoy eight Big Buttery Chardonnays (let’s call them BBCs) with eight matching morsels of food on a half day ride from downtown in Gisborne out to Muriwai on the coast, crossing the airport runway on the journey (because trains have existed longer than planes, but...

Velvet reds… the making of a great SyrahBy Joelle Thomson, wine programme director, author and writerBest ever is a big claim but when the product in question has evolved as radically as the new 2015 Trinity Hill Homage Syrah has, well, it’s a claim worth investigating. The newest Homage was launched in Hawke’s Bay last month at a tasting of every vintage ever made of this high priced Syrah. I was invited to the tasting. The newest wine from 2015 is the best yet, and next month you can taste it, alongside two others – from 2013 and 2014 –...

2014 Gimblett Gravels 'The Gimblett' The Gimblett” is traditionally made from a blend of grape varieties. The Cabernet family gives structure and fresh aromatics. Merlot gives richness and mid-palate weight with Malbec helping with complexity, density and colour. Gimblett Gravels Tempranillo The wine shows attractive brambly, blackberry-like ripe fruits along with spicy and exotic complexity. The palate is rich and textural with salivating soft tannins. Licorice, chocolate and sarsaparilla flavours linger on the finish. This wine will age extremely well for at least five years but equally can be drunk in its youth. Gimblett Gravels Syrah The 2016 Syrah has...

Wednesday 18 OCT  |  5.30 pm to 7 pm. We’ve got a bit of a thing for a pink drink here at Regional Wines this week andwe’re going to crack open three of them tomorrow night at our new weekly casualtasting, Wine Wednesday, at Regional Wines from 5.30 pm to 7 pm. Our resident wine whizzes will guide you through a trio of pink drinks and explain thedifferences in style and why colour is not an indication of dryness – or otherwise. Speaking of which, rosé – or pink wine – can be made from any red grape and caneven be made by blending red...