Better than the altdorf

Neudorf 2007 Riesling Brightwater (Nelson) – Slightly reduced but still accessible. Mineral-dominated (gravel and sand). Dried Granny Smith apple. High-quality. (3/09)

I'm bringing Spinyback

Waimea “Spinyback” 2007 Riesling (Nelson) – Wet and fun. Slate. Fruit-forward, with slight tropicality. A bit simple, but good, with some potential upside as the wine ages. (3/09)

Star Mania

Te Mania 2007 Pinot Noir “Reserve” (Nelson) – Quite volatile and high-toned, with pinkish-purple fruit, plus a great deal of bite and chew. Spicy. Perhaps a touch woody, but it should integrate if so. (3/09)

Mandela

Woollaston 2006 Pinot Noir (Nelson) – Black fruit with a candied edge, coal at the core, and hints of additional minerality. Coarse and short, but intense while it lasts. Not all that much fun to drink. (3/09)

Why not you?

Waimea “Spinyback” 2007 Pinot Noir (Nelson) – Dirty (in a good way), but the palate is soapy and the finish pure Styrofoam. (3/09)

Sheep

Woollaston 2007 Sauvignon Blanc (Nelson) – Red fruit, black-hearted minerals. Incredible intensity. Very lightly sweet-seeming. Long. Huge. Impressive. One might even say tumescent. (3/09)

Selection bias

Kaimira Estate 2004 Pinot Noir (Nelson) – Bright cranberry with a touch of fennel. It’s like pinot noir juice more than wine, and though it’s a touch screechy, it’s fun and crisp, and undoubtedly benefits from a good chill. Nice enough in its style, though I wouldn’t trot it out for fine dining. (3/05)

Kaimira Estate 2004 “Vintner’s Selection” Pinot Noir (Nelson) – Just bottled, and still tight…maybe even a little bit volatile. There’s mint and other herbs, and then an explosion of full-bodied red berries. This wash of summery fruit is clean and lustrous, while in the background a keening wail of minerality grows. Very, very young at the moment, but seemingly excellent. (3/05)

Brightwater rafting

Kaimira Estate 2004 Riesling (Brightwater) – Almost smoky, with a foundation of quartz, dust, and gravel over which are laid the wine’s varietal aspects: lime rind, Granny Smith apple skin, and a light touch of lemongrass. Intense and ultimately stone-dominated, with a long and drying finish that brings fine balance to the wine’s residual sugar (somewhere in the eight to nine gram range). Quite good. (3/05)

No OaKed

Kaimira Estate 2004 “Unoaked” Chardonnay (Nelson) – Slightly reductive. Pine forest fog, salted lemon-lime, and crisp, raw apple juice that’s especially prominent on the finish. Very salty throughout. Fun, if a little fierce, with great acidic intensity. As unwooded chardonnays go, this is a pretty good one. (3/05)

We, a gris, then?

Kaimira Estate 2004 Pinot Gris (Brightwater) – Pear skin, lemon, and ripe fennel that shades towards anise later on. There’s also grapefruit, apricot, and pear juice. All this produce is presented cleanly and with fine acidic crispness, which helps open a window through which a little underlying minerality can be sensed. 3.5 to 4 grams residual sugar. Very promising, and one of the better pinot gris I’ve tasted on this trip. (3/05)

Brightwater scandal

Kaimira Estate 2004 Gewürztraminer (Brightwater) – Fun. Lychee, nut oil, peach and pear, and dried rose petal – pretty classic – though the nose is a bit hot. Honeysuckle on the finish is aided by six grams of residual sugar. Despite the hint of heat, it’s a fairly elegant and lighter-styled version, and while it’s nice now, I wouldn’t hold it very long. (3/05)

Admiral

Kaimira Estate 2004 Sauvignon Blanc (Nelson) – Slightly reduced, with a layer of dust and (non-TCA) must that somewhat mutes its gooseberry, lime, lemongrass, and grapefruit aromas. There’s a soda water aspect to this wine, as well. Iffy. (3/05)

Green & white

Greenhough 2004 Sauvignon Blanc (Nelson) – Gooseberry, white plum, and perhaps some quartz underneath. Though the wine is quite ripe, it remains clean and crisp, showing its acidity in layers of grapefruit and lemon, which persist through a strong, balanced finish. This is an unusually solid sauvignon, with character too rarely found from the grape in these parts, despite its worldwide fame. (3/05)

Eddy

Greenhough 2004 “Dry” Riesling (Nelson) – A dusty sand road, bordered on two sides with dull, unpolished iron. Balanced (6 grams residual sugar) but overly light, and it flattens on the finish. Kind of tedious. (3/05)

Green nay

Greenhough 2004 Chardonnay (Nelson) – Fig, clove, ripe peach, apricot, white nectarine, and an exotic, almost boisterous aroma of dried, then baked, flowers. Soft, with a lush and luxurious texture on the finish. Not my style, but it’s a very good wine (3/05).

Hough & pough

Greenhough 2004 Pinot Noir (Nelson) – Chewy. Strawberry, walnut, a blend of bitter and milk chocolates, plus waves of spicy cinnamon on the finish. It’s elegant, but closes down rather rapidly. This might be better in a few years, but it’s disappointing now. (3/05)

Rimu vyor hand

Rimu Grove 2002 Pinot Noir (Nelson) – Medium-soft dried cherry, strawberry, and plum. Lightly tannic, with high acidity. The finish is seedy, and re-softens after the brief structural insurrection on the midpalate. (3/05)

Rimu Grove 2004 Pinot Noir (barrel sample) (Nelson) – One year from release. Sweet vanilla, chocolate liqueur, ripe boysenberry, dark cherry, and plum skin. Oh, and mixed nuts. This is a heavy wine showing a lot of wood-influenced fetal fat, but there’s great acidity, and the finish is long and ascending. There’s even a stony undertone. Promising, as long as it handles that oak. (3/05)

Rimu & Zooty

Rimu Grove 2002 Chardonnay (Nelson) – 100% barrel fermented, whole-bunch pressed. Dense with spice (especially cinnamon) and semi-rich. Long and intense, but not showing much fruit at the moment; mostly, what one tastes is what’s been done to the fruit after harvest. It’s showing signs of mellowing, but it’s not there yet, and my belief is that the intensity of the winemaking has overwhelmed the fruit, though certainly not in an obscene fashion. (3/05)

Mandela

Rimu Grove 2004 Pinot Gris (Nelson) – Hot. Ripe pear with a sticky consistency. Long. Balanced in the context of a pinot gris pushed to and slightly beyond its limits, but one wishes for a little more acidity and a lot more precision. I don’t think this will have a long life, but it’s pleasant in the near term. (3/05)

Rimu Grove 2004 Pinot Gris (Nelson) – Take two, this time with dinner. Sweaty and salty, with funky banana oil and rotten pear aromatics. Dried apricot, too. It’s more varietally typical with food, which is welcome, but nonetheless it comes off more like some sort of mediocre, teenaged chardonnay than a true pinot gris. Where’s the fresh, spicy pear? Alternatively, where’s the lightly fruity fennel note? And is there any acidity to be had? I just don’t think this wine is getting it done, and in comparison to the luncheon leftovers of a Peregrine Pinot Gris, it tastes and feels rather clumsy. (3/05)

Andy

Rimu Grove 2003 Pinot Gris “Vendange Tardive” (Nelson) – Pear and burnt caramel. Soft. Balanced between sugar and acidity, but just not very interesting. For too many producers, “late harvest” only means excessive residual sugar, while the wines that actually deserve the label deliver more than elevated brix. (3/05)