The Tasting Room

Moteo Terroire Reserve Merot 2002

2008-06-03T01:59:00.000-07:00

Moteo Terroire Reserve Merot 2002

I brought this awhile back and have had it in my room waiting to drink for sometime. My sister invited us over for dinner so I though why not take it along and see how the wine is. Upon opening I was a little concerned as the cork started to spin in the bottle while the corkscrew was only halfway in.

But my concern was without reason as with the first taste it was confirmed that the wine was amazing. It was very soft and smooth, a dark dark red black with warmth and savoury flavours that accompanied a dry peppery after taste. The smell was fresh and fruity. Plenty of tannins in the bottle too.

If I can find another bottle it would be interesting to see what its like in another few years as she tasted like there was still plenty of life in it.

Ginger Beer

2008-05-20T02:54:00.000-07:00

I've got a illness currently so havn't been drinking all that much wine. One thing I have been tearing into however has been, hot lemon, honey and ginger drinks. Which got me wondering, could we make our own ginger beer. A quick check of google and yes we could.

We put down a first batch using what we had around the house, ie bread yeast and a few lemons plus the fresh ginger. 48 hours later we gave it a try and it was great really fizzy and refreshing. So we've gone out to buy brewing yeast and have just put down a second batch with a look to make it alcoholic this time.

The recipie for reference is:
per litre

3/4 shot of ginger juice ( found by grating then squeezing the ginger)
juice of 1 or 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp yeast
warm water

out next step is to start brewing in larger quanttities and get ourselves an enterprise

2007 Cono Sur Pinot Noir

2008-05-10T02:33:00.000-07:00

2007 Cono Sur Pinot Noir

This wine is straight out of Chile, a product of huge volumes and so relaible wines from vintage to vintage. The back of the bottle says that it is from the southern tip of Chile between the mountains and the ocean.

It has a great pinky red crimson colour and smells fruity and floral. Unlike our NZ Pinots it is less full bodied and is much less earthy. The younger age will also encurrage the frirty lightly sweet flavours which are present.

It punches above its weight, costing only $15 and could beat many of New Zealands lower price mass produced Pinots. Will buy again to have around the house for everyday drinking. It went well with carpet cleaning yesterday, even managed to not spill any on the freshly cleaned floors

2005 Domaine la Bastide - Plenitude

2008-05-02T01:03:00.000-07:00

This was a random buy awhile ago. I was looking for something new and stumbled upon this, from memory it cost about $20. Its a French blend of Pinot Noir, Syrah and Merlot but judging by the taste it's primarily Pinot.

After opening the cork I gave the bottle a bit of a sniff, it didn't really have much smell initially so tentativly I poured a tasting glass, it was a light red in colour with a touch of brown, the smell was definitly an earthy damp pinot.

Upon tasting I was stunned, it was great a nice silky pinot but with the touch of spice coming from the syrah, i guess the merlot helps with the smoothness. Its got a dry taste with some earthy dried savoury flavours. My flatmate said it had a flavour of moldy citrus fruits as you stomp on them, very descriptive but I definitely enjoyed it even if she didn't.

Its nice and smooth by itself to just sit down and enjoy.

2006 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz

2008-05-01T02:22:00.000-07:00

2006 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz

I've been doing quite a lot of work lately and felt like I needed a night off. So after arriving home late and started eating dinner I decided it needed a wine to go with it. Enter the wolf blass shiraz, I chose this because its a great wine for everyday drinking, well made and modestly priced at about $16 less on special. I've had many other yellow labels before and never been disappointed.

The 2006 vintage is nothing spectacular but still represents great value, it was nice and smooth with good tannins with a dry tobacco and fruit smell. The taste was of pepper and savoury herbs with a touch of red fruit. The flavours were balanced meanind that it doesn't dominate and can be quietly enjoyed. The taste of ripe plums lingers afterwards and draws you in for another mouthfull. It paired very well with our pumpkin cannelloni and would do with most winter dishes provided they're not too fully flavoured themselves.

A good wine to have at home just in case and for warming up with on a cold night like this one.

2004 Gibbston Valley Pinot Noir

2008-04-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

While this Gibbston Valley Pinot usually retails for about $50, its for sale as a cleanskin for more like $30, but still maintains the origional Gibbston Valley neckband which is a bit of a giveaway. Its a classic Central Otago winery and this pinot is really good.

I've got a few of these so decided to open one and see how they're going. Its also a cold day and a nice red would be good and warming. While matching it to spaghetti cheese buns probably wasn't the best idea, it was all we had to cook.

It has a great colour of crisp crimson red, showing its four years age as it goes just slightly clear at the edges.

The smell if of a deep forrest floor with ripe cherry tomatos and small red berry fruit. The taste is subtle and balanced with dry herbs and earthy cherry flavours with a good acid balance and spice.

2005 Wolf Blass Gold Label Cab. Sav, Cab. Franc, Merlot

2008-04-24T04:46:00.000-07:00

Opened this on a night at the end of the term where we had nothing to do and plenty of time to relax. I'd heard bad things about this wine, someone had said to me;

"The Cabernets?, nah its got nothing on the Gold Label Shiraz"

I decided the time was neigh to try it and see what all the fuss was about. And boy were they wrong. (unless the shiraz is amazing)

Opened it up and decanted it to open the flavours up. It smelt great with smooth vanilla, boysenberry and a hint of aniseed.
It tasted really good, nice and silky like a berry sponge that had spent the night in the fridge with some hints of chocolate without being sweet. Finished with a slight dryness but not overly so.
It was a perfect wine for the night, great for relaxing on a cold night on the couch.

Now all I need to do is get some more to put away for a year or two.

2007 Shingle Peak Pinot Gris

2008-04-24T04:32:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile since we drunk this and it might have been after another bottle of something else but no matter, i'll give it a write up.

Luckily I have another bottle of it around to provide the photo, tho its common enough without the need for photo graphic evidence.

I had picked this up on a huge special at Woolworths for only $11 but I'd say it normally sells for closer to $18 $20

It was great tasting, very fresh crisp and clean. With a real melon and stonefruit flavour. Easy to drink without food and a cool night.

2007 Neudorf Moutere Riesling

2008-04-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend some of my family were down so we headed out to dinner at Chow a local trendy asian restaurant. It is often hard to match wine to asian food, but we settled on a Riesling due to its dry characters.

After tasting a few on the menu to find the driest we settled on the

2007 Neudorf Moutere Riesling
Resonably priced at something like $45-50, presumably in a shop for ~$25.

Due to the circumstances there's no accompanying photo, unless I fing one on the internet to upload.

It was great, had a nice smell of minerals and citrus fruits. Tasted of Apricots, passionfruit and has a steely finish. very dry and with a great sharpness.

Mouthwatering

2005 Hardy's Nottage Hill shiraz

2008-04-22T20:58:00.001-07:00

I got this as a cheap wine to drink at a party with several people. The point was to find something non-offensive and easy to drink.
Unfortunately it was neither.

It was far too sweet, the first mouthful was of vinegar and brandy, its only a few years old so this was surprising. Following mouthfuls were of a very sweet fruit taste, fortunately it finished with no after taste at all.

In a word, Rubbish

2004 Barossa Valley Reserve Shiraz [Cleanskin]

2008-04-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

Naked Cellar 2004 Barossa Valley Reserve Shiraz

The reason of the webite is to remove the need for me to put these write ups in a book, so over the next few days I'll upload summarys I have previously written.

ie: I'm not drinking all these at once.

One of the benefits of living very close to a liquor store is the convenience of popping down whenever the need arises. As I walked home one sunny afternoon I noticed the bottle store was having a sale on cleanskins so I looked at a few and decided on this one, it was $10 down from $14 and had the comment, "Wow what a deal" How could I resist that??

I got home and let my flatmate know what I'd just got my hands on. We tore into its screwcap and poured a few glasses. It was fantastic, prompting many calls of "Im going and buying a case of this tomorrow.

smelt of vanilla, plum chocolate and berry spice

Tasted like cake with boysenberries without being sweet, and maintaining a nice savory pepper and richness.

A complete bargain and a repeat purchase.

2006 Kahurangi unwooed Chardonnay

2008-04-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

I don't usually like chardonnay, I find it is often over oaked and tastes too buttery. But a few weeks ago a local wine shop was running a oaked vs unoaked challenge with 2 of the Kahurangi chardonnays so I gave it a shot:

2006 Kahurangi Oaked Chardonnay;

smelt almost smokey with a kind of bonfire smoke and ash taste to it which worked well giving a smooth smokey fruit taste.
However it was still too oaky and buttery for me so I grabbed a bottle of the
Unoaked Chardy

In doing so I resitsted the buy 2 bottles for $30 offer which I am usually a sucker for but the oaked version just wasn't doing it for me. The individual price was about $17.

2006 Kahurangi Unwooded Chardonnay;

The title unwooded got me wondering, "they dont usually use wood other than oak...do they?" I asked. But they don't its just a title

The smell is nice and fruity like creamy smooth apricots and melons. Tastes sharp, dry and is easy to drink but finished a little short. There was no lingering flavour to think about. It becomes a little dull after a glass or two so I didn't finish it and its still in the fridge.

Probably a good buy for an antipasto or with friends who like Chardonnay

My Blog

2008-04-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to start this blog about my exploits in tasting and drinking wine because keeping a book in some type of order was looking to be far too difficult. I have no doubt the blog will begin to be populated with not just review but also the occasional rant.

Due to the nature of my being a student most of the wine will cost less than $25 and most of it will be from New Zealand. I'll even try to upload a photo of each to complete the reading experience.

Feel free to leave comments although I've no idea if anyone will actually be reading it.