3 Recommendations from Russell

With Mothers day upon us I thought I would treat my mum to a little bit of a wine tasting with dinner on Sunday. She is vegetarian so we had a nice baked gratin barley dish with some lovely creamy mushrooms and some baked spud, squash and spicy beetroot. I thought it would be nice to open up a few totally different types of wines, see what went well with the food (loads of different flavours and textures going on there) and what generally was enjoyed without prior knowledge of what was what.

So we had the Doolhof 2009 Chardonnay, the Mission Estate Riesling and the Mercedes Eguren Sauvignon Blanc.

First up the Chardonnay, this is always my favourite: presenting unoaked Chardonnay to virtually anyone is always a guaranteed success in terms of it being both enjoyed and surprisingly so. The fruits tended towards the exotic and were alive and still quite full. I would imagine a younger version will be even more intense, but for this purpose the softer fruits and the mild acidity alongside some more robust alcohol and body did well for the creamy angle of dinner. (The current vintage of this Chardonnay is 2011).

Next up was the Riesling. Now I can see this wine really taking off if we could all (and I include myself in this) remove the negative musty, old, German connotations that we have surrounding this grape. It is a superb, often dry, flavour packing love machine of a grape and does extremely well out in New Zealand. There are Citrus and peach flavours here in abundance but it is that extra aromatic loveliness that just makes this a stand out. Now, many people refer to Riesling as having a characteristic "petrol" flavour, yes I know what you are thinking, something like "well stuff that I don’t fancy drinking my car!" In reality, in modern Rieslings, especially quality examples from the new world, this character is quite mild I promise. If you concentrate you can sometimes detect the faintest hint of it. More important in this wine is the relatively warm Hawkes Bay climate this wine comes from. For Riesling this is a master stroke as it keeps the acidity in check and the alcohol somehow still stays nice and modest at 11.5%. Can you tell this was my wine of the night, and in fact a god send for the spice within the black pepper lacing much of the dish and the spicy beetroot?

Last up was a Sauvignon Blanc, I sort of picked this one to be a bit mean if I am honest! It is a Castilla Sauvignon and it has had a year or so in the bottle so some of its’ intensity has mellowed out and there is nothing Marlborough-esque left here. In fact the reaction when guessing was "well it is not a Sauvignon Blanc" (at this point I restrained my balls of laughter at the statement coming from some of the world’s most experienced Sauvignon fans). What we have left with this Sauvignon is a delightfully soft and mellow white. An excellent sunshine, lunchtime and enjoy it on its’ own kind of white. If you know and enjoy a typical and modern White Rioja, then this is for you. White Rioja, in the modern unoaked and as delicate as a game of Jenga that has been going for half an hour, is what the Spanish love with lunch or a party evening "on the tiles." Uncomplicated and soft but full of quality and absolutely pleasant. So perfect as a third and final wine that we all enjoyed after eating.


Russell Wallace, General Manager