At the end of February I jumped at the chance to visit Fine Wine Delivery Company in Auckland, to taste some library releases from the portfolio of Misha's Vineyard of Bendigo, Central Otago. Very belatedly, I have written up my notes I fondly remember (I think) working in the vineyards there over the summer of 2013/14 - tough work on steep sites, but I certainly got a lot fitter! It was great to catch up briefly with Misha Wilkinson and her husband Andy during this very popular event. The walk around event consisted of multiple vintages of 5 different wines, totalling 19 wines. The current vintage To View More >>

17.2.18 I recently tasted two 2013 McLaren Vale Shiraz wines side by side in a miniature "Do You Get What You Pay For?" exercise. I'd managed to source the Gemtree Uncut Shiraz at the bargain price of NZ$19.99 against a usual price of $30 to $32. The bottle was not decanted - I would however recommend doing this both for aeration, and because the wine has thrown some sediment. The wine spends 16 months in French oak barrels froom 225l to 500l in size, with minimal racking and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. There is quite a lot of oomph in this wine; on the nose there is plenty of To View More >>