The Main Divide is the name of the Southern Alps and a range of great wines made by the Pegasus Bay winemaking team. These wines consistently over deliver, drink beautifully when young with their rich and opulent house style - and also age surprisingly well, given the modest price they cost.

The Riesling grapes in this wine were picked over several weeks at between 23-25 brix, which creates rich, tasty Riesling. Fermentation was in stainless steel at cool temperatures and the finished wine retains a little carbon dioxide, which accentuates fresh zingy flavours in the wine, which contains 24 grams of residual sugar.

It's a full bodied, opulent style with a crisp finish.

Bold, spicy and beautiful Pinot Noir from the deep south made by Matt Connell and Dom and Ally Mondillo, who founded Mondillo Wines. The couple were the first people to plant grapes in Bendigo, one of the most arid, dry sub regions in Central Otago, the world's southernmost wine region. Bendigo is often the first area in the wider region to harvest grapes each year and Dom Mondillo typically ensures that his grapes are 100% destemmed before fermentation. 

This wine was aged for 10 months in French oak, 25% new, which flatters its elegant red fruit flavours, providing silky flavours and textures. This wine drinks well now and will benefit from bottle age of at least four to five years.  

This wine is made from Mt Maude Vineyard at the base of Mt Maude in Wanaka, a one hectare site planted at 400 metres elevation and where the grapes are grown without irrigation. This family owned site was planted in three Pinot Noir clones 667, 777 and 115. The wine is made without whole clusters in the ferment and with 18 days of maceration by winemakers Sarah Kate and Dan Dineen. 

It tastes silky, structured, sensitively balanced, long and fresh with great depth of secondary savoury earthy spice flavours married with red fruit and complex notes that will definitely develop further over time, evolving positively. All grapes in this wine were hand harvested and the name Kids Block refers to the owners - Dawn and Terry Wilson’s grandchildren. A row of vines was planted for each grandchild, all planted in 2000 and all in different Dijon Pinot Noir clones. 

Central Otago makes famously dry, concentrated styles of Pinot Gris and Te Kano Life Pinot Gris is an excellent example. Flavours of peach and pear flesh out the body with ginger and spicy aromas adding depth. 

The grapes were hand harvested from the Jerome vineyard which has naturally low vigour and sandy soils, which produce smaller than usual grapes with intense flavours, which produce this structured and complex Gris. 

Pinot Gris is the fourth most planted grape in New Zealand with a massive 2,488 hectares nationwide, inching slowly up to Chardonnay’s 3,167 hectares. It’s huge growth from just 157 hectares of Pinot Gris as recently as 2001, but numbers aside, it’s the taste that counts and Greywacke is next level in flavour. 

The grapes in this wine are from the Wrekin Terrace Vineyard in Brancott Valley where they grow on gravel over clay-loam soils, typical of the Southern Valleys in Marlborough. Three clones of Pinot Gris were all hand picked separately at high ripeness levels to provide rich fruity flavours in the finished wine, which was fermented in a combo of old French oak barriques and stainless steel tanks, all with wild yeasts to a finished 14.4% ABV with 10 grams per litre of residual sugar. 

Fresh, full bodied, off dry and intensely concentrated; one for the large glass on a decadent spring evening. 

A small volume, high quality new Chardonnay from Marlborough, which is gaining huge traction with critics, both nationally and globally. 

What the critics say

BOB CAMPBELL MW

“Novum deserves to be on every wine lovers radar” 

JANCIS ROBINSON MW, UK

“Very smart nose fully vindicates my enthusiasm for NZ Chardonnay.

If only all white burgundy smelt this clean and compelling. Crystalline fruit. Good, medium weight of pure fruit that’s already intense but promises much more in the future. Long and complex. No playing around with reduction. A beautiful wine.”

95 Points, Cameron Douglas MS, NZ

"An intriguing almost sensual bouquet of Chardonnay. Aromas of red apple and sweet peach tea, lees spices and white flowers, flint and chalk-like minerality, and a light dusting of fragrant baking spices. Very sophisticated and quite pure on the palate - dry, complex, even and lengthy. A precise palate weight with a youthful acid line, extremely fine wood tannins and fine lees texture. Flavours of white and yellow orchard fruits, wood spices and fine stone-like minerality. A delicious example, modern, youthful, complex and intriguing. Lots to like. Drink now and through 2026." 

TASTING NOTE: A wonderfully pure and balanced Chardonnay that draws you in with inviting aromas of white peach, citrus blossom and hazelnut. The palate reveals depth and structure with ripe citrus flavours, fine minerality and bright acidity leading to a lingering finish. 

STYLE: Delicate elegance underpins this finely textured wine which reflects our commitment to organic winegrowing on our Peregrine Estate vineyards Central Otago. 

FRUIT SOURCE: Organically certified Central Otago Chardonnay - Peregrine Estate Bendigo 47%, 53% Pisa 

FERMENTATION: Barrel fermented in French Oat Puncheons (500L) and Hogsheads (300L) 

WINEMAKING: Organic, hand harvested, 100% whole bunch pressed. Barrel fermented with predominantly indigenous yeast and matured for 10 months in French oak puncheons and hogshead barrels.  Partial malolactic fermentation. 

MATURATION: Matured for 10 months in French oak. Partial malolactic fermentation. 

CELLARING & SERVING: 2 - 8 years, or beyond if well cellared 

ANALYSIS: | pH: 3.30   TA: 6.15   RS: <1g/L      Brix 22.5 – 23.5 Alc: 13.5%

Vegan and Certified Organic

Impressively juicy Cabernet Franc from Hawke's Bay winemaker Jenny Dobson, who has extensive experience making wine from this great grape in Bordeaux, France. She applies her knowledge and winemaking skills of wild yeast, whole bunches in the ferment and foot plunging (her own feet) to coax the best from this full bodied, deep purple Cabernet Franc.

It's named after her aunt Francie and made as a tribute to her. 

Dobson describes this wine has tasting of red roses, spicy raspberries and scented velvet. 

This is Yalumba's premium Viognier offering from their Rare & Fine Collection and shows all the hallmarks of classic Viognier; peach and citrus flavours bundled in an aromatic mouthful with that silky texture that the variety is so well known for. This wine is recognised as a benchmark for new world Viognier due to its stunning quality. 

Blanc de Blancs champagnes are a Chardonnay lover's dream with nougat, vanilla, fresh cream and nutty flavours combining in a smooth textured dry, full bodied bubbly.

It's made from Grand Cru vineyards in the villages of Avize and Ogier in the Côte des Blanc; the Champagne region's epicentre of Chardonnay. 

This high quality sparkling wine is a dry style with 9 grams per litre of residual sugar and it is fresh, soft and rich in style. The wine was disgorged in July 2019. 

This gorgeous smooth fruity red puts Spain's best foot forward every year with its spicy aromas and ripe smooth fruit flavours.