Ripe quince, white pear and nectarine flavours combine in this totally dry, medium bodied Pinot Gris from Central Otago, which is beautifully well suited to producing tasty and dry Pinot Gris, as this newcomer shows. It tastes crisp, refreshing and lightly spicy with flavours of white pears and red apples. It is part of the new Dicey Wine brand is the brainchild of the well experienced Dicey brothers, Matt and James, whose parents were among the pioneers of viticulture and winemaking in Bannockburn, Central Otago, when they co-founded Mt Difficulty Wines.

Residual sugar is less than one gram per litre and alcohol is 14.5%.

The family owned Beach House Wines turns out an impressive range of wines, including this super refreshing rose, which is made in a dry style with minimal skin contact to provide a pale colour, which is currently the trend in international roses. 

This is a fresh, dry, fruit driven red with a crisp finish. Great for a summer day or a winter's afternoon. 

Churton Estate's Natural State Pied de Cuve is made by second generation winemakers, Ben and Jack Weaver, who use grapes from the Loin Vineyard, which is family owned and farmed using biodynamic principles. This Sauvignon Blanc was whole bunch pressed into old oak puncheons and fermented with wild yeasts which were cultured from the vineyard. It was aged for a year on yeast lees and bottled without fining or filtration, so it is vegan friendly. A small addition of SO2 was added at bottling to retain freshness. 

Churton Estate founder and winemaker Sam Weaver cut his teeth on the classic wines of the world while working in fine wine retail in the United Kingdom. He and his wife Mandy Weaver then moved to New Zealand and set about creating one of this country's most focussed small wineries; a brand that does live up to the dream of creating 100% estate grown grapes, 100% certified organic production and 100% bottled on site, nearly all of the wines without fining or filtration. All the grapes are hand picked and natural yeasts ferment the vast majority of wines they make. These qualitative decisions impact every step of their winemaking in a positive fashion, providing exceptional quality grapes which in turn express themselves in outstanding wines.

The Natural State wines are the brainchild of second generation family winemakers, Ben and Jack Weaver.

Dry and deliciously good Kiwi roses don't get this good very often. If you notice Whitehaven Rose is paler pink than previously, it is and this wine also happens to be the driest style ever made, with under one gram of residual sugar per litre. It's made from earlier picked Pinot Noir grapes to retain fresh acidity. Minimum skin contact time provides a pale colour a lively red fruit flavours with a long finish.

The story of Whitehaven Wines

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.

This wine has aromas of cassis, ripe dark cherries, toasted spices, and savoury notes. The mid-palate shows fruit sweetness, while generous but fine-grained tannins contribute to a lingering elegant finish.

Vineyard 

Nautilus Clay Hills Vineyard is located on the ridge that divides the Brancott and Omaka Valleys within the Southern Valleys sub-region of Marlborough. The vineyard is divided into 6 discrete blocks with different aspects and slopes and an elevation between 100 and 130 m. Normally picked midway through the Pinot Noir harvest window this vineyard has rapidly become the cornerstone block for Nautilus Pinot Noir where the clay-based soils contribute a silken texture and fine-grained tannins. The vines are trained to a VSP trellis system with a mixture of cane and spur pruning, with a target yield of 1.5 - 2.0 kg per vine.

Showing a gentle blush of colour, this Rose is both charming and pretty, yet still offers great structure and drive. With initial hints of watermelon and pink rosebud florals the nose then opens to reveal wild strawberries and cream. The palate is crisp and vibrant with delicate red fruits, an elegant dry palate and juicy fruit acidity that leaves the month revived and thirsty for more. Certified organic. - Fromm

Beautiful bright black cherries are captured in a structured full bodied Pinot Noir with delicacy and light notes of earth, spice and summer berries. This is the best Whitehaven Pinot Noir yet, made mostly from grapes grown in Marlborough's Southern Valley sub-region.  A stunner and incredibly good value for money. 

This wine drinks beautifully now (in 2024) and will certainly age well for at least five years. 

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.

Commercial description

A Tantalus is a small wooden cabinet that contains two or three decanters of precious wine, for which there is a lock and key.  The Tantalus prevents unauthorised people from opening the cabinet and drinking its contents, while allowing the bottles? beauty to be on display. With a key to the Tantalus wines, one obtains access to the secrets of the treasures held within. All of the Tantalus reserve wines have names referring to the origins of Tantalus... An Ecluse allows boats to pass through bodies of water at differing levels. Unlock the Ecluse and let your glass take you on the most amazing journey.

Made up of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec, the Ecluse pours a deep garnet with a bright carmine ring. This Cabernet blend elegantly displays pure fruit notes of wild berries and black plum. A hint of pennyroyal underpinned by aromas of violets, cedar, sweet tobacco and saddle leather support the fine grain tannins, slowly unlocking the secrets within, this wine displays tremendous structure and sustained length.

A fantastic wine, that elevates slow roasted lamb shoulder with fresh mint topping, Flank steak and tamarind stir-fry, Porcini mushroom risotto, Old fashioned beef stew, Grilled rib steak on vine shoots barbecue

Luta 2022 Chardonnay from Echo vineyard in Weka Road, made from Clones 15, 95 & Mendoza grown in Moutere Clay soils.

The Grapes were whole bunch pressed & aged in 500L 5-7 year old oak puncheons on the lees for 10 months.

Lemon rind, Brioche & Yoghurt on the nose.

Lemon rind fruit up front into brioche & Oats on the midpalate then a delicate minerality into the finish.

A very elegant wine with great texture.

A floral Chardonnay that displays lanolin, flintiness and stone fruit aromas on the nose. The palate is creamily textured and full bodied with ripe nectarine-like fruit, underlying notes of toasted cashew nuts, sourdough bread and cinnamon quills - ending with a clean and crisp finish and a lovely persistent and savoury toastiness.

Deliciously spicy, aromatic red fruit are captured in this silky Pinot Noir from Astrolabe Wines, which is a blend of grapes from four Marlborough sub regions, the Brancott and Waihopai, the Awatere and Kekerengu on the southern coast of the broader region. 

The grapes in this wine were fermented with wild yeasts in open top vats, including a portion of whole bunches to provide structure and add complexity to the pristine red fruit flavours in this wine. Wild yeasts and hot ferments are followed by aging in old French oak barrels where the wine gains its smooth mouthfeel and savoury flavours.

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. 

Rich ripe boysenberry, cherry stone, tar, and spice aromas saturate the nose. The palate is awash with ripe red fruits and punchy velvety tannins. This Montepulciano is not for the faint hearted but will excite anyone that’s into big reds. This wine has a long life ahead of it and will certainly be worth cellaring into the coming decades.