The Cover Drive is named after the Penola cricket ground on the southern boundary of Coonawarra in South Australia. This famous cricket ground was retired in 1996 and Jim Barry bought the land to plant with grapes. This full bodied, dark and smooth red wine is the result. It's earthy, smooth and has complex flavours of black olives, dried herbs and bold blackcurrant notes. It drinks well when young and can also age for four to five years, evolving interesting savoury notes as it does. 

From the talented hand of John Quarisa using grapes from Coonawarra in South Australia.

Approachable, easy going and versatile, this wine has a nose of fresh, complex cassis and mint fruit flavours with some well integrated vanillin oak. The palate is full bodied with dense ripe cassis fruit flavours balanced with vanillin oak but yet long and smooth. This wine has the flavour, structure and balance to be enjoyed now but can benefit from further cellaring.

Dry, full bodied, iconoclastic Riesling from New Zealand's king of spatlese styles, Mat Donaldson and his winemaking team at Pegasus Bay Winery, which is New Zealand's greatest Riesling producer. 

This wine, Bel Canto, is the queen of the winery's Riesling range. It is bone dry with 5 grams per litre of residual sugar due to high brix (grape sugars) at harvest time and a small percentage of noble rot (also known as botrytis). It drinks well now and can age for the long term; up to and beyond 10 years. 

Extended hang time on the vines has resulted in the intensely ripe, tropical fruit flavours in the grapes which were picked to retain refreshing, high but balanced acidity. The free run juice was fermented slowly at cool temperatures to retain fruit characters and varietal purity. Alcoholic fermentation was left to continue until residual sugar of 5 g/l was achieved. Retention of a little of natural carbon dioxide gives spritz character to add liveliness and accentuate freshness.

A great expression of Gibbston Valley Pinot Noir with earthy aromas and notes of wild thyme, raspberries and red cherries from the dramatic cool climate region. Coal Pit is an elevated hillside vineyard and small production are key ingredients that go into making Coal Pit Tiwha Pinot Noir a wine that stands out from the crowd with its earthy robust style and delicacy; the classic iron fist in a velvet glove.

Coal Pit Pinot Noir is a small scale wine made entirely from estate grown grapes on a sloping hillside vineyard planted on 12 hectares in the Gibbston Valley in Central Otago. The soils here are schist on these warm north facing slopes and the Pinot Noir clones planted are a mix of 115, 10/5, 777 and 5. Some vines here date back to the original plantings in 1994 and remain on their own roots while others are now grafted. The Coal Pit Winery is owned by Rosie Dunphy, who bought the site in 2001 and built a winery onsite in 2007. She named the Tiwha Pinot Noir in tribute to her late father. The Coal Pit winery name pays homage to the early pioneers and gold miners in the region.  

The artwork on the Tiwha label is by Chris Heaphy and the original painting is on the wall inside the winery's tasting room.

Pinot Noir is the jewel in the crown of the evocatively named Mount Beautiful Wines and this producer makes several different styles.

This is the signature wine, made in the highest volumes and from a very different vintage; 2018, which was warmer, more humid and earlier than any other year on record with hand harvesting of the grapes starting 10 days earlier than usual on 21 March. For the 2018 vintage, 100% of the grapes were destemmed and the wine was gently plunged twice daily. This PInot Noir was aged in French oak, 20% new, for 11 months.

It's a ripe, fruit driven Pinot Noir with earthy flavours and represents great value for money.

This Pinot Noir is one of our favourites and comes from Wellington's closest wine region, the Wairarapa; Gladstone, to be precise, where winemaker Karl Johner has what you might call a foot in both camps. The German born winemaker produces wine at his winery in Gladstone in the New Zealand summer. In our winter, he hot foots it back to Germany to work harvest at his winery there.

The wines from both places are classic, elegant expressions of aromatic grape varieties; high points are Pinot Noir, Riesling and Pinot Gris; made in a range of styles.

This Pinot Noir is a dry, medium bodied, earthy and smooth. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. This wine ticks the vegan friendly box.

This is a great red from a small wine producer just outside the village of Clevedon, in the rolling green hills southeast of Auckland. It's an unlikely destination for a top red as there are few other vineyards in the area, which is warm with a maritime climate - the coast can be seen from the vineyard and is about a 10 minute drive away.  

The wines are made solely from estate grown grapes from the four acres on site, which include Merlot, Carmen?re, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. This bunch of classic Bordeaux red grapes inspired founder Judy Fowler to make wines modelled on the great reds of Pomerol and St Emilion in Bordeaux. The first wines were made in 1999 and continue to be produced on site by Judy, her partner Phil Nunweek and winemaker Evert Nijzink.  

"Fresh and flinty aromas of lime, hazelnut and a hint of vanilla. The palate is bright with nettle, white peach, and melon. Flavours of raw almond, wet stone and oyster shell. This is unfiltered wine with small amounts of sediment." Winemakers note.

This is an excellent Chardonnay from North Canterbury. Black Estate is biodynamic and certified organic. This wine is delicate and complex.

Chardonnay that straddles both styles of creamy flavours with crisp fresh appeal. It's dry, medium bodied and refreshing; a great match for roast chicken or any chicken dish and a delicious example of Chardonnay from Marlborough.

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery.

Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

Les Jamelles Clair de Rose is a blend of two red grape varieties, Grenache and Cinsault. The combination creates a clean, dry and refreshing southern French rose with floral and fruity flavours in a rounded, medium bodied style. Cool temperature fermentation in stainless steel tanks retails fruity flavours and is finished in a dry style. 

The grapes in this wine come from two distinctly different areas; the Herault Valley's sloping vineyards where the warm Mediterranean climate provides consistently sunny conditions and outstanding ripeness, along with the Narbonne, where sandier soils provide rich flavours and balance. 

Drink with a classic food match of melon and prosciutto on a sunny day or serve alongside salami and antipasto any time of year as a refreshing aperitif wine. 

* Les Jamelles is owned by winemakers Catherine and Laurent Delaunay, who founded their wine brand in the early 1990s.

Vallformosa, is a family owned operation that has been around for 150 years. 

Appearance: Pale yellow with greenish reflections in the glass

On the Nose: Good aromatic intensity of fruity aromas, including green apple and fresh herbs like fennel welcome the nose. These fruiter elements also combine with notes of white flowers and citrus in the bouquet to offer complexity.

On the Palate: Vallformosa Cava is a bright sparkling wine with fine persistent bubbles. The palate is balanced and dry while soft, resulting in well balanced acidity and a fruity aftertaste.

About Cava...

Cava is one of the great sparkling wine secrets of the world and you could call it poor man's champagne because it's made the same way, only with slightly shorter aging time and therefore a little less complexity on the palate. Still, given that it costs a fraction of the price and has had its secondary fermentation in the same bottle that you buy it in, this really is superb value for money.

It can be made with grapes grown anywhere in Spain. These days, producers are allowed to use Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to make cava but this one is from the traditional Spanish grapes, namely, Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada, each of which combines to create a fruity but dry and lightly yeasty fresh taste. A stunner at the price and an extremely fresh, refreshing dry bubbly. Awesome value for money.

Sessantanni is a full bodied, rich red from the San Marzano region. The palate is very concentrated and juicy, with powerful tannins and complex notes of tobacco and cherry. The finish offers notes of cocoa, toffee and vanilla.

Laurent-Perrier Brut NV is enjoyed for its creamy softness which comes from Chardonnay, the dominant grape in this elegant sparkling wine.

The Laurent-Perrier Champagne house was founded in 1812 and is the main company of the Laurent-Perrier Group, whose other flagship brands include the houses of Salon, De Castellane and Delamotte. Laurent-Perrier Group also acquired Chateau Malakoff in 2004.

This is a great example of Chardonnay without the influence of oak. It remains smooth and full bodied with balance from crisp, fresh, food friendly acidity adding great depth and appeal to the refreshing flavours of green apple note on the nose and palate.

* Chablis is the northernmost wine region in Burgundy, which produces only Chardonnay. The cooler climate gives these wines crispness, acidity and a flintyje ne sais quo. 

Drinks beautifully with great seafood dishes and roast tender chicken.