A winner in so many ways from its dry, full bodied, zing to its outstanding freshness - this wine is released regularly as a freshly disgorged bottle of bubbles that pays homage to both Maori language with its lovely name; MiruMiru is Maori for bubbles, and also to French winemaking tradition. This blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier is made the same way as champagne. It spends 12 to 18 months on yeast lees and is freshly disgorged to retain its complexity and zing.  

Hunter's MiruMiru won top prize for New Zealand wines at the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships for the third year in a row in 2023.

This is an outstanding new addition to the much loved Esk Valley stable and it successfully straddles the big buttery Chardonnay style with all the subtleties that wine fans adore about the Chardonnay grape too - namely, its crisp, freshness. 

It is part of the new Esk Valley Artisanal Collection wines, which were launched this year and this one is made from clone 95 vines in Hawke’s Bay. The grapes were fermented in French oak with wild yeasts, which gives this wine its rich and nutty flavours, its seductive savoury notes and its full body.

The finished wine went through 50% malolactic fermentation with lees stirring to accentuate and lift the big flavours in this big wine.

Albariño is a classic Galician white grape variety from north western Spain, which thrives in New Zealand and tastes of fabulous aromatic lemon zest with green olive and freshly picked apple aromas. Forrest Estate winemaker Beth Forrest first encountered it in Spain and was smitten immediately. This led to Albarino being brought into New Zealand by Riversun Nurseries in Gisborne and, eventually, to growing in Marlborough where Beth and her famous winemaking father, John, Forrest, both love it and produce this fabulous dry white wine.

This wine shows all the classical Albariño elements with a New Zealand touch of vibrant acidity, white peach, pear, apricots and quince, with an orange zest undertone.

VINEYARD AND FARMING
Planted in 2002, Doctors Flat is a single 3-hectare vineyard in Bannockburn. The schist subsoil was ground off the Cairnmuir Mountains by glacial ice and deposited here about 480,000 years ago. The glacial action and millennia of weathering have
generated an abundance of clay and fine silt in the vineyard gravel. We know soil texture drives wine texture and this vineyard produces Pinot Noir with density, fine tannin and great texture. We farm organically to help grow and sustain soil biology.
In turn the soil microlife harvest and transport nutrient and minerals to the vine. It’s this connection between vineyard and vine that gives Doctors Flat Pinot Noir its character and sense of place.

WINEMAKING
The winemaking is a simple programme of small open tanks, close attention, minimal inputs and a very light hand in the extraction process with only three punch downs. In 2021 20% of the fruit went directly to tank as whole bunches. Fermentation occurred spontaneously and after 21 to 24 days on skins the wine was drained to French oak barrels (22% new). Malolactic was delayed until spring and SO2 not added until late summer. After a full 12 months in barrel the wine was racked to tank for a second winter, then bottled 20 months after harvest.

Dry, savoury and earthy style of Pinot Noir with delicacy and power from grapes grown on Craggy Range's windswept and beautiful Te Muna Road vineyard, 9 kilometres east of the Martinborough village. 

Hand picked grapes from the Te Muna Vineyard were fermented in a combination of French oak cuves and open top stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts. The finished wine was matured in French oak barriques, 22% new, for 10 months. No fining but a coarse filtration results in a satisfyingly savoury dry Pinot with tension and backbone. A stunner now and for the cellar. 

This is a wine that punches way above it'w weight. It's made by Hawke’s Bay Wine Co's Sophie Harris, with fruit from vineyards in Te Awanga and the Gimblett Gravels. These two sites complement each other beautifully with the cooler coastal Te Awanga offering keen acidity and floral to balance the riper flavours off the gravels.

Rich ripe and succulent, offering dark red and black fruits, superb acidity and real length.

Light in body, colour and full of fruity fruity flavours in an off dry style; made entirely from 

Martinborough Pinot Noir grapes were lightly pressed into service in a quest to make this lively, light bodied rose, which benefits from the crisp acidity of the Pinot grape, which adds freshness to and length to its fruity flavours. 

Palliser Estate is the first winery on the way into the small town of Martinborough. It's one of the biggest wineries in one of this country's smallest wine regions, the Wairarapa and it makes a wide range of wines, including this incredibly popular rose, made 100% from Pinot Noir grapes grown on the Pencarrow and Pinnacles vineyards.

The grapes were lightly crushed for a pale colour then gently pressed and fermented to dryness at less than 5 grams of residual sugar per litre, which is the technical definition of a dry wine.

Drink lightly chilled. 

Amisfield Winery is based in Pisa while its beautiful cellar door shop and restaurant overlook Lake Hayes, just outside of Queenstown.

This winery makes a more diverse range of whites than most in Central Otago and the Pinot Gris is a light bodied, refreshing expression of this white grape from a cool climate. Spice, fresh fruit and a long finish all make this an extremely good quality Pinot Gris.

Stone Paddock Cabernet Franc is an outstanding red made by Paritua, one of Hawke's Bay's top producers of reds modelled on the best of Bordeaux. This gorgeous ripe Cabernet Franc is full of fragrant red fruity aromas and flavours of redcurrants, raspberries and spice, held together with supple tannins which dance across the mid palate of this wine. 

It's made from grapes planted on free draining red metal soils of the Paritua vineyard, an organically farmed single vineyard in the Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District of Hawke’s Bay. Vines here are managed with an open canopy to provide good airflow and exposure to sunlight, which aids ripening for this classic Bordeaux red grape variety. 

The wine was matured in seasoned French oak for 12 months followed by blending, fining and filtering just prior to bottling.

If you have ever wondered why an actor you’ve always admired seems to be perpetually cast in supporting roles and never lands the lead, it will be easy to relate to Cabernet Franc. One could argue that this seductive classic red could lord it over both Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It is a parent of both of these better known grape varieties, but Franc tends to hang around the edges, adding its personality when needed with colour, depth and spice but rarely vying to be star. And yet, when it is allowed to shine, here is a grape and a wine to adore.

Koparepare Sauvignon Blanc represents Marlborough's most popular wine; it's fresh, it's crisp and it's a great match for seafood. Speaking of which, $1 from every bottle of Koparepare wine goes towards LegaSea, a not for profit organisation set up by the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council in 2012 to raise awareness of the marine environment and inspire public support.

The name Koparepare is Maori for gift. 

Whitehaven Wines was founded by Greg and Sue White in 1994 after they sailed into the Marlborough Sounds to shelter from a storm in the early 1990s and fell for the natural beauty of the region and the haven it provided. So they decided to take the next natural step - set up a winery back on dry land, naming it, naturally enough, Whitehaven.

This is one of New Zealand's most popular white wines made 100% from our most planted red grape, Pinot Noir. It's a dry, fresh and medium bodied white made from hand picked Pinot Noir grapes grown at Wooing Tree's home block vineyard in Cromwell, Central Otago. Minimal skin contact and stainless steel fermentation retains freshness and a light zesty flavour and character. 

This compact and convenient little half bottle contains Astrolabe Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, one of New Zealand's great classic dry whites. 

Winemaker Simon Waghorn brings grapes together from three sub regions of Marlborough to make this dry, full bodied style of Sauvignon Blanc. Vineyards in the Wairau Valley, Awatere Valley and Kekerengu Coast (the most southern of Marlborough's vineyards) all combine to make this succulent dry wine with its ripe flavours of tropical fruit balanced by green notes. 

All grapes are machine harvested at night or in the cool parts of the day to preserve the purity and intensity of flavours. WInemaker Simon Waghorn blends to suit what he thinks is Astrolabe’s style, which reflects what he has learnt as a winemaker and drinker over the years. This means he aims to create a Sauvignon that tastes dry, expressive and elegantly balanced with flavours of passionfruit, blackcurrant leaf and gooseberry. 

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

Fromm Winery produces low alcohol wines similar to German Rieslings from the Mosel/Saar/Ruwer region. These sweet wines have an amazing balance between acid and sugar. While they have high residual sugar, they never seem cloyingly sweet, and have alcohols as low as 7-8%.

This German style Marlborough Riesling offers bright green apple, citrus and mineral notes. The texture is oily and rich, with juicy, bright acidity bringing balance.

Barrel fermentation adds a noticeably delicious depth of flavour to this zingy, dry and refreshing Chenin Blanc from one of those who know the grape like the back of their proverbial winemaking hand - Simon Waghorn. He is an ardent fan of Chenin and gives it all the bells and allows its own personality to shine in this wine. 

Grapes were grown on the sunny, north facing Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough with partial barrel ferment to add body while wild yeasts add savoury flavour notes. 

This is a deliciously complex Chenin at an extremely affordable price with flavours of green apples, liquid honey and notes of dried grass, which make it feel like a hot sunny day with a cool crisp dry white. 

This wine drinks beautifully now and can certainly age for up to a decade, potentially longer. Longevity is one of the hallmarks of the Chenin Blanc grape variety and the wines made from it.

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

Inspired by Beaujolais, made in Hawke's Bay and all about expressing Gamay's soft red berry flavours with lifted floral aromas and a smooth, medium body. Carbonic maceration was used for 47% of the wine and it enhances the fruit and floral aromas. The remaining 53% received a traditional, warm, red wine fermentation. The resulting wines completed their malolactic fermentation and were matured for seven weeks in seasoned French oak barrels, before blending and bottling.

Vineyards

In 1995, Te Mata Estate introduced to New Zealand a superior selection of Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc, the grape variety of the best wines of France’s Beaujolais region. Estate Vineyards Gamay Noir 2020 is a single vineyard wine from Te Mata Estate’s Woodthorpe Terraces vineyard, harvested on 3 and 12 March 2020.

Woodthorpe vineyard is located on elevated, north facing terraces in Hawke’s Bay Tutaekuri River valley. Between 1863 and 1914 it was home to the annual Woodthorpe races.