The foods we enjoyed with our wine:
- Smoked Salmon-olive oil toast, cream cheese
- Togarashi Spiced Albacore Tuna-sweet Soya
- Vegetable Brushetta-shaved parmesan
- Mushroom Bol au Vent-bacon, fresh thyme
- Fresh Shucked Oysters-ponzu, lemon grass

Tonight, we tried a wonderful cross-section of wines from New Zealand. We began the evening with a fresh sparkling wine from Brancott, the Lindauer Brut. John Schreiner was a great speaker, regaling us with travel stories through wine country in New Zealand. Both entertaining and informative, John gave those in attendance a sense of the past, present and future with regards to the wine industry in New Zealand. We explored the many parallels between the British Columbia and New Zealand wine industries and wines alike.

Our reception wine was the non-vintage Brancott Lindauer Brut. It is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, resulting in a fresh, medium bodied bubble with flavours of green apple, lime and a light yeasty finish.

The Staete Landt Sauvignon Blanc 2004 was our first white wine. It was clean, with fresh acidity and flavours of melon, apple, grass, and hints of mineral. It had a long finish with a lush mouthfeel. Our next wine was the Stoneleigh Riesling 2004. It was wonderfully German in style with notes of petrol, apple, hints of raisin and kiwi and finishing dry with a fresh acidity. The Spy Valley Pinot Gris 2004 was medium bodied with a wonderful, slightly oily texture and showed peach, lime and green apple notes.

The Kim Crawford Pansy Rose 2004 was our only blush wine. It is specifically marketed to the Gay community. This rose expressed itself freshly on the palate with flavours of wild strawberry, Bing cherry, backed by a lightly spicy finish with moderate acidity. Tasty!

Our next two wines were Pinot Noir. The Martinborough Te Tera Pinot Noir 2003 was expressive on the nose and showy on the palate with notes of cherry, strawberry and hay. There were soft integrated tannins and acidity giving a wonderful structure to this wine. The other pinot noir was the Seresin Pinot Noir 2003. It was tight up front with spicy, leathery and earthy flavours backed by subtle cherry notes. It had a medium body with noticeable tannins. We re-tried this wine at the end of the night and it opened up showing great red berry fruit and subtle earth. Decant it!

The Matua Hawke's Bay Cabernet/Merlot 2002 had flavours of bell pepper, cherry, hints of blackberry and eucalyptus. A lighter style wine with soft acidity and moderate tannin. Our final wine was the Matariki Quintology 2000. It is a blend of Cabernet, Merlot, Cab Franc, Syrah and Malbec. Good tannin structure and balance gave way to cherry, smoke, dark berry and licorice notes. It was silky on the palate with a long finish.

Tasting Selection

Our favourite white wines were:
1) Staete Landt Sauvignon Blanc
2) Stoneleigh Riesling

Our favourite red wines were:
1) Matariki Quintology
2) Martinborough Te Tera Pinot Noir

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