It would be impossible to sum up my New Zealand wine experience in one post, so I will write several posts over the next month to focus on different topics. I suppose the best way to tell which wines I was most impressed by is to know which wines I actually chose to purchase and bring back to the US with me.
I (mostly) restrained from buying bottles until the very end of my two month trip. Bottles I bought along the way were consumed along the way or given as gifts. In the end, I only brought back reds with me, the main logic being that reds are the wines you cellar and age, and that's what I wanted to do with my purchases. It's harder to get as excited about a white wine, even though I did discover some fantastic ones in the form of off-dry Rieslings and of course Sauvignon Blancs.
Here are the four wines I purchased, and a bit of background as to how I discovered and chose this particular wine:
2007 Mt. Difficulty Pipeclay Terrace Pinot Noir: The bouquet has strong floral notes (dark red roses and lilac according to the vineyard), with dry dirt, earthiness and hints of chocolate. All very impressive flavours for a young Pinot Noir. In fact, I don't think I need to hold on to this one for more than a few years. It will be in the category of ready to drink when I am ready to drink it.
I tasted this wine at
Wine Taste in Queenstown, one of those wine dispenser tasting stores that can be a great substitute for visiting the vineyards themselves. I did taste in Central Otago, but only in the Gibbston Valley area, just outside Queenstown. After looking forward to Central Otago Pinots my entire trip, I was disappointed with the Pinots I had at Gibbston Valley Vineyard, Waitiri Creek, Chard Farm and Amisfield. They were good, but not great. Mt. Difficulty is farther east in the Bannockburn area, where prestigious wineries such as Felton Road and Akarua are based.
Price: $90 NZD in country ($53 USD or 36 GBP equivalent). International distributors
here.
2007 Nautilus Four Barriques Pinot Noir: I first tasted this wine at the 2009 Marlborough Wine Festival in Blenheim at the
Nautilus booth. It was the only wine that day that I purchased a second tasting of and in a full glass size. I thought my enthusiasm for the wine might just be the wine talking until I tasted it again first thing the next morning at the vineyard itself. It was just as good, with raspberry flavours and oak or cedar spice. A terrifically well-balanced wine, it was on my favourites list.
Both events were only halfway through my trip, so I wasn't able to purchase and carry the bottle with me at the time. When I was making my final wine decisions during my last week, this wine still came back to me, so I had my friend, Annette, ship it to me. Oddly enough, she is renting a room in Blenheim from the marketing director of Nautilus, so it was fairly easy for her to procure a bottle and ship it to my hostel in Christchurch only a few days before I left the country.
Price: $60 NZD in country ($35 USD or 24 GBP equivalent). This wine is not distributed outside New Zealand, however Nautilus also makes a very good Sauvignon Blanc and regular Pinot Noir. International distributors
here.
2006 Ata Rangi Celebre: This is a 50% Merlot, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon with excellent white pepper and tobacco reminiscent of Northern Rhone Syrahs. Fruit flavours of dark plum and bright berries round out a fantastic wine to pair with steak or rich sauce pastas.
I drank this wine quite a bit during my stay, first at the vineyard in Martinborough where I purchased a bottle, then later on that night when I shared the bottle with fellow wine travellers, again at dinner with a friend in Queenstown and finally at Wine Tastes, just to confirm my choice. At $32 NZD retail, it is a good value and very enjoyable. See reviews from well-known wine critics
here. I have also enjoyedthe 2007
Ata Rangi's Crimson Pinot Noir.
Price: $32NZD in country ($19 USD or 13 GBP equivalent). International distributors
here.
2004 Alpha Domus "The Navigator": A Bordeaux-style blend from Hawke's Bay on the North Island, the Navigator is well-structured but drinkable now. It contains Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. As published in Hawke's Bay Today Sip of the Week: "It's almost a crime to have this wine shut away in a bottle - there should be enormous open vats of it out in the public spaces for us to all swim around in."
I tried this wine at the vineyard at the 2009 Hawke's Bay Wine Festival, noting that it was excellent (as was the similar "Aviator" although at a $45NZD price tag). I was pleasantly surprised to find it during my last week in the country, and I look forward to opening this in the near future (I don't think I can wait!)
Price: $25 NZD in country ($15 USD or 10 GBP equivalent). International distributors
here.
We opened the bottle on Sunday night, and it was definitely the best of the three bottles we brought (2004 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon and Caymus Conundrum* being the other two). The aromas were black cherry, jammy, and bright berries. It was definitely ready to drink and paired excellently with my mushroom soup starter and my norwegian salmon main. Everyone at the table loved it, and I was glad I had saved it for a semi-special occasion. 
