OK, so they don’t speak Spanish in New Zealand…they speak Kiwi English. I know this, but based on my love of Spanish food and my experiences along the coasts of both Spain and Portugal (diff language, I know!) last Summer, they might as well speak that Romantic language, what with the bright, quality wine that they put out with each vintage. Seafood is the phenom pairing for the vast majority of these wines and I’m happy to throw them together on the regular.
Now clearly, I’ve always been a fan of NZ wines, so let’s just get that experiential bias right out in the open. So when I heard that would soon be a winemaker dinner that not only paired some classic NZ winemakers alongside some fervent wine bloggers, but also some extremely tasty Peruvian seafood with said winemakers’ wines…I said [frak] yeah, I’ll come!
I attended this tasty dinner courtesy of Benson Marketing Group. They teamed up with Constellation New Zealand to put together this US road show and I was happy to be a part. The setting was La Mar Cebicheria, at Pier 1 1/2 in the San Francisco Embarcadero. The food at this place is just nuts. I’d been there a couple times before for both wine work and work work: it features a freshly prepared menu of seafood that I haven’t yet found an equal. Damn good food, so I was pumped when I arrived. I met two of the most friendly bear-men you’ll meet when I arrived, winemakers Dave Edmonds and Darryl Wooley of Nobilo Wines (as you can see in the video above, courtesy of Nobilo). The third winemaker, Anthony Walkenhorst from Kim Crawford, was also extremely nice, but seemed more likely to kindly offer up a run through the forest than wrap you in an strong embrace (also a good thing).
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As we tasted through the wines, alongside some slammin’ cebiche chifa, we had a nice walking tour through the various sub-regions, climates and soils of the Marlborough appellation. The well-known Marlborough appellation has a variety of sub-regions that are just now getting their own names out across the US. From the warmer, drier and more alluvial soiled Wahopai, Wairau, and Rapura that help to contribute a more tropical fruit flavor to their wines, to the cooler Awatere Valley, where the wines can pick up those more herbal and citrus characteristics that have made NZ wines a star across much of the wine world these past two decades. It was a fascinating lesson in climate and geology and one that I sorely needed, with my limited understanding of these sub-regions.
The patience of Dave and Darryl (and most likely Anthony if I was able to hear that end of the table) to answer my questions was exceedingly high and rivals only that of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Rogers. This was made even more evident when Dave leaked the fact that he was desperately trying to find a ride to the North Bay (after the last ferry) in order to meet up with with a very old friend that he hadn’t seen in many years, the last time he was stateside. And all of this was going on after I had already been told that these this kind troupe of winegrowers had gleaned only about 10 hours sleep in the last week, during their zip across the states for this vino trip. For this patience, their wines, the education and the delicious food; I thank them!
You can find all of the wines that we tried that night to list in your own WineLog by searching the tag “KiaOra2010.” What are your own experiences with Kiwi wine? Cheers!
Drylands Wines (WineLog):
Drylands Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Color: Delving into golden tones, with clear edges
Nose: Slight savory herbs at first, then tropical fruits and some nice clean slate minerality.
Palate: Softer pink grapefruit in the fore, then that kicks into a zesty, almost spicy fruit composition out to the finish. All of this is complemented by some tropical fruit lurking underneath. Good: NewWorldWK, QPRWK.
Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Kim Crawford Marlborough Spitfire Small Parcel Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Kim Crawford Marlborough Pinot Noir 2009
Monkey Bay Wines: (WineLog):
Monkey Bay Wines Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Nobilo Wines (WineLog):
Nobilo Marlborough Regional Collection Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Color: Medium canary core, clear edges
Nose: Clean, some minerality with medium tropical fruits and good grapefruit.
Palate: Salty, juicy grapefruit and bright zesty tropical fruit, with a long juicy finish featuring crisp acidity: NewWorldWK.
Nobilo Marlborough Icon Collection Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Color: Medium canary clear edges
Nose: Distinct tomato vine here, Great juicy grapefruit as well and clean minerality.
Palate: More complex structure here, with a fuller mouthfeel and better balance with the crisp and clean citrus and that tomato vine finish. Very good: NewWorldWK.
Nobilo Marlborough Icon Pinot Noir 2009
Color: Lighter ruby
Nose: Good savory nose with toast, darker red fruit of rhubarb and then anise in this barrel sample.
Palate: Silky and medium full body, with good acidity showing bright cherry and cranberry fruit alongside that rhubarb and subtle anise. The toast underlays all of this along with some white pepper towards the finish. Good: NewWorldWK.
I attend a large number wine events. That might even be an understatement, to which my fine readers can attest! Thus, I feel that it’s saying something to describe an upcoming wine event as one of my favorite series of wine events, ever. The San Francisco Vintners Market (Twitter, Facebook, WineLog) wine tastings are those exact events: totally fun, onsite wine purchasing available, and of course, fantastic wines to taste in unlimited amounts. And lucky readers, for round 5 (DING) of the #SFVM, I now have a fat discount so you cats can partake!
One reason, besides the many that I just poured out above, that I love these events so much is the number of new wineries that I discover each time we attend. We always get the VIP tickets in order to get access to the Reserve Room, where we taste bottles of wine that most normal humans can never afford (without the event discounts to buy onsite, of course 😉 ). One great discovery that we’ve made has been the small family winery Sciandri Family Vineyards (Twitter, Facebook, WineLog), they of the newly formed Coombsville AVA in southern Napa Valley. Big, but balanced Cabs come out of this producer, as does some big and warm, family hospitality.
All of this doesn’t even include the awesome gourmet bites and sponsors that you can also check out, while swirling some good stuff around in your keepsake logo glass. Lastly, get your learn on and chat with some of the many winemakers that are actually in attendance and pouring their work, a rarity for events of this size. So join us next month, at the next SF Vintners. Enter the code “VINOPANION” for a nifty 50% off of your tickets, or just follow the links below. Cheers!
