Chardonnay – A New Wine Experience

Robert Haynes-Peterson recently wrote a nice piece encouraging wine enthusiasts to revisit Chardonnay and seek out the new modern styles that are emerging from New Zealand and other wine regions.

You can access the full article here.

New Benchmarks for New Zealand Wines

A new benchmark was reached by Craggy Range Winery in Hawkes Bay recently and shows New Zealand wines can run with the best in the world. At least Craggy Range wines, as they had both the courage and confidence to put their wines side by side with some of the best investment class wines from around the world.

Eric Arnold from Forbes magazine was invited (Google will take you to the article) where Craggy Range wines were tasted blind by highly regarded  panels in New York and San Francisco. Pinot noir and a Bordeaux style Merlot both received top praise. A tasting in London had a similar outcome, wines from Craggy Range are on par with the best in the world.

I think this now completes the loop for New Zealand as they are able to produce wines for all categories. All great wine countries and regions  produce wine to meet the needs of the following consumer categories.

• Investment class wines that are on par with the best in the world
• A diverse group of artisan wineries producing stunning boutique wines
• A wide selection of everyday wines found in all  grocery stores and large wine stores
• Bulk wines found in boxes and other alternative eco-friendly packaging

While some will quarrel with my list and suggest New Zealand is all “quality” I prefer to say wines from New Zealand are leaders in quality in all the above categories. I do acknowledge investment class  is a stretch descriptor.