The Best Reds
Throughout the year we are lucky enough to sample some incredible wines. It is always the best of these wines that we feature in our pages and while we don’t feature every wine we get sent, we are always overwhelmed at the calibre of wines that keep coming through the M2 doors.
There are, however, a select few that we keep back for our best wine features and so here they are; the best reds in which we selected seven red wines (six from New Zealand and one from Australia) for the list, this is the second of our two part series. All priced at over $100 a bottle, and for very good reasons, in our opinion these are some of the very best wines from the Antipodes that you’ll find on the shelves today…
Pyramid Valley Vineyards, Home Collection, Earth Smoke Pinot Noir 2015 (North Canterbury)
Pyramid Valley Vineyards is dedicated exclusively to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. Inspired by their time in Burgundy, founders Mike and Claudia Elze Weersing set up Pyramid Valley near Waikari in North Canterbury, in 2000. They employ bio-dynamics, no filtration and natural fermentation in their processing This is a truly organic farm having never suffered pesticides or herbicides. The processing of the wine is entirely by hand and foot with no commercial yeasts or finings added. They also call on the lunar cycle to determine harvesting and allow nothing to interrupt the natural cycle.
Without herbicides they have become very familiar (even fond of) the weed population on the farm. It is the fumitory weed (fumus terrae) an Old World plant, with wispy magenta flowers and finely divided greyish leaves resembling smoke and fire rising from the ground, form whence this wine gets its name.
The result of careful handling and avoiding any attempts to interrupt the natural progress from soil to cellar has created one of the most outstanding Pinot Noirs I have tried to date.
Light ruby in colour with lively hues, the wine is brooding with sombre depths and scents of dark berries, rich dark plums and black cherries and violets.Plum and cherry also comes through on the palate melded with savory herb and a long silky finish.
If the whole of Canterbury dedicated their land to making wine like this, we wouldn’t have the issues with our waterways we do now and we would be producing a lot of great wine too – just saying.
The Pyramid Valley vineyard sold recently to Texas Billionaire, Brian Seth. At the same time Seth also bought award winning winery Lowburn Ferry and formed Aotearoa New Zealand Fine Wine Estates. With the owners staying on the help the transition, the aim is to retain individuality and brand identity, while raising the brand profiles on the world stage.
Craggy Range Vineyards, Prestige Collection, Le Sol Syrah 2016 (Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay)
Part of their recently released (June 2017) Prestige Collection. The range also includes the Aroha Marlborough Pinot Noir and the Merlot based Sophia (also from Hawkes Bay’s Gimblett Gravels). Having a reputation for producing some of the countries best reds for quite some years now, it was natural that they should choose to produce a prestige range such as this.
Craggy Range winery, owned by the Peabody family, was first established in 1997 on greenfield underneath Te Mata peak. The gentle sloping stoney soils on the river bank proved perfect for the production of exquisite single vineyard bordeaux style reds.
Le Sol doesn’t in fact come from the homeblock but, like most of our best Syrahs, comes from the celebrated Gimblett Gravels. The name Le Sol (french for ‘the soil’) a nod to the haloed ground from which it was created.
While Craggy Range has had a lot of negative publicity in recent times over a track, created with best intentions, up to the peak (how that could in anyway upset the Maori ancestors more than the dirty great road up the other side baffles me), we shouldn’t forget the massive contribution this winery has made, not only to the local economy, but also to the wine industry as a whole.
The wine is an inky purple red with beguiling, lifted aromatics of violets, clove, boysenberry and savoury herbs. Rich with fruit flavours the palate has intense and deep flavours of ripe blackberry balanced with precise acidity and fine tannins make for lovely liguring finish.
Church Road, Tom, Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 (Gimblet Graves and Bridge Pa Triangle, Hawkes Bay)
Church Road is one of our oldest Vineyards, first established in 1897 on the side of Church Road by Luxembourg native, Bartholomew Steinmetz. It was when Bartholomew returned to Luxembourg in 1920 that 19 year old Tom McDonald, having spent most of his teenage years on the winery, took over. Tom later bought the winery and went on to become one of the pioneers of the winemaking industry, establishing the first commercial bordeaux style reds, the style that is now at the heart of Hawkes Bay wine production.
It is a tribute to the late Tom McDonald (1907 – 1987) that this wine carries his name and signature. The Tom series which includes Syrahs, Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot produced exclusively from outstanding vintages. This Cab Sav Merlot is made predominantly (62%) from Merlot grapes grown in the Gimblett Gravels region and Cab Sav grapes (38%) are from the Redstone vineyard in the Bridge Pa Triangle subregion. The blend is outstanding with the Melot delivering a wonderful rich mid-palate freshness while the firm tannins and structural length of the Cab Sav keep it in check.
The aroma is of rich dark fruit overalid with violet, sandalwood and cedar with subtle notes of vanilla, cacao bring a luxuriousness to the flavour profile. The balance between the merlot and the cab sav delivers a beautifully rounded and seamless feel across the palate and an ethereal quality as these two elements dance harmoniously on the tongue.
