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Over the past few years the New Zealand Consulate in Vancouver
has offered to present some of their fine wines at one of our
tastings. This month we sampled some of the excellent white and
red wines from New Zealand. The Consul General, Ms. Anne Chappaz,
was our honored guest for this event.
 Ms.
Chappaz spoke to us briefly about the geography of New Zealand
and it's wines, and also about some of New Zealand's other exports,
such as the baggage handling system that is used at the Vancouver
International Airport and dish washing machines! Wine was about
8 or 9th place in exports from New Zealand to Canada.
Our speaker for the evening was your President, Mr. Karl Kliparchuk,
as the original speaker, Mr. Bonner was unexpectedly not available.
Karl has been a lover of wine for many years, but had not had
the opportunity to speak at a tasting before, and was up to the
challenge. If some of the descriptions below are a bit terse,
it is because he did not have time to take detailed notes while
he was speaking.
As
New Zealand has been the originator of the Stelvin closure (screw
top cap), we had to check how many bottles at this tasting used
this closure and how many used traditional cork. Half the white
wines had a screw top, and one of the red wines.
Our reception wine was the Babich Riesling. This was a
wonderful wine and rated very highly with our members and guests.
It had a petrol aroma, which older riesling wines exhibit, along
with citrus and stone fruits. It was semi-sweet on the palate
with ligh acidity.
 With
the help of Ms. Chappaz and various people in attendance, Karl
proceeded to discuss each wine.
The first white wine, was the Framingham riesling. It did
not have the pronounced petrol aroma of the Babich riesling, but
it was there in the background. It as well had citrus aroma, which
carried to the palate along with some apple flavour. This wine
also had light acidity. This wine went well with the sweetness
of the duck.
Our next two wines were chardonnay. The first was the Kim Crawford
Unoaked Chardonnay. Kim Crawford is one of the more well known,
and respected, New Zealand wine makers. This wine went through
malolactic fermentation to give this wine a full, roundness in
your mouth. There was a discussion whether a butterscotch flavour
was imparted from this secondary fermentation. This wine had tropical
fruit bouquet and flavours. This was a very elegant wine, and
went well with the salmon, tuna and lamb dishes. The second chardonnay
was the Nga Waka Chardonnay. This chardonnay was lean and
fresh. It spent time in french barrels, but was not overly oaked.
It as well had undergone malolactic fermentation to add a round
mouthfeel to this wine. Overall a nice wine.
 Our
next wine was the Sileni Saignee Rose. I believe this is
the first Rose wine we have tasted at one of our events, but I
hope it is not the last. The Sileni winery has New Zealand Sustainable
Winegrowing certification. For those that are interested, Saignee
is French term for bleeding juice off the red ferments. The bottle's
label did not which grape variety was used to produce this Rose,
but with some research, I've determined that it is Merlot. This
wine had flavours of strawberry, coffee and later chocolate. There
was a bit of tannins, but these lessened as the wine breathed
in the glass. This wine went nicely with the duck.
Our
first red wine was the Seresin Pinot Noir. In New Zealand
most pinot noirs are fermented in stainless steel, followed with
oak aging. The wine had a medium body. The oakiness was quite
pronounced and very tannic at the start of the tasting, but both
lessened as the tasting progressed. Violets showed on the bouquet
of the wine as the oak faded. This wine has undergone a wild ferment
followed by a secondary malolactic fermentation. The lamb dish
went well with this wine.
 The
Matua Pinotage/Cabernet was our next wine. This was the
first Pinotage (blend) that I had tasted from New Zealand. I have
found out that Pinotage has been grown in New Zealand since the
early 1960's, but has not reached the level of popularity as the
other grape varieties such as pinot noir and merlot in New Zealand.
This blend consists of 75% Pinotage and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon.
This is a rich red, although had a short finish. The bouquet had
big tobacco notes. It had plum flavour and little tannins. This
wine also went well with the lamb.
Our last two wines were the Glazebrook Merlot and the Herzog
Merlot/Cabernet blend. The Glazebrook Merlot was a
very intense, fruit driven wine. It had plum, berries and oak
in the bouquet. The plum and berries carried into the flavour
of the wine with a long finish. The tannins were well integrated.
This was a superb wine. The lamb and duck dishes went well with
this wine. The Herzog Merlot/Cabernet was the last wine
for our evening. Although listed as Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon,
there were a few more varietals that made up this blend. The actual
blend was 60% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc,
and 10% Malbec. This wine was not as fruit forward as the Glazebrook.
It was more in the Bordeaux style. Some had indicated that this
wine would get even better with a few more years of aging. There
was oak and restrained fruit aromas. There was red berries and
plum flavours with firm tannins. This wine also went well with
the lamb and duck.
 Tasting
Selection
Our favourite white wines are:
1. Kim Crawford Unoaked Chardonnay 2003
2. Babich Riesling 2002
Our favourite red wines are:
1. Glazebrook Merlot 2002
2. Seresin Pinot Noir 2002
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