Whatever, the arrival of the Alpha Domus wines by Tiger Moth plane to Auckland was a memorable occasion for the market debut of the Alpha Domus 2000 vintage reds.

It was the first of August and the most beautiful day following on from the clear, star-studded sky of the evening before. Up on the Albany ridge there was just a wisp of fog hanging over the motorway in the distant valley below.

With the sun shining brightly on this still winter morning it was definitely a "top down day". As I drove I revelled in the clean morning air until I saw the warning signs ahead - 'fog on Harbour Bridge'. It could have been worrying driving topless in the MGF, but this too was wispy fog and the warmth of the sun in the otherwise clear sky was melting its murkiness away.

The trip to the airport was uneventful and I was early. A glass of Alpha Domus Sauvignon Blanc 2002 ($17) was handed to me. It's a pale straw wine with firm, fleshy and lively fruit, lots of juicy green gooseberry and a delicious lingering flavour of banana passionfruit accompanied by smoky cut grass. It's a great expression of the variety and shows that in the right year Hawkes Bay can be a serious contender to Marlborough. What's more, the fresh grassy aromas and juicy herbaceous flavours at just after 10:00 in the morning reminded me why I fell in love with New Zealand sauvignon blanc all those years ago.

I went outside to spit my wine on the grass. The sky was clear blue and the wispy fog was a long way off in the distance, just visible on the perimeter of the Manukau Harbour.

Planes of all sizes were landing from the east and the venue of the corporate jet hangar gave a perfect view of aircraft descents and touchdowns.

More people arrived and the Ham family, owners of the Alpha Domus vineyard, welcomed them. The 'Alpha' of the company name is actually derived from the first letter of each family member's name. A for Antonius, L for Lea, P for Paul, H for Henry and A for Anthony.

Evert Nijzink, the winemaker was there with all the Ham family except Henry, who was the 'Navigator' on the Tiger Moth that was bringing The Navigator and The Aviator wines to Auckland. The 'Aviator' pilot was Don McDonald, a farmer and keen Tiger Moth enthusiast from Waipukurau, south of Hastings.

The pair had started their journey the previous day, taking off from the Bridge Pa airfield adjacent to the Alpha Domus vineyard in Hawkes Bay, to land at Mercer adjacent to the Waikato River, about 40 kilometres south of the airport. They had the most perfect flight over the ranges in the open cockpit plane. But was landing at Mercer such a good idea? For that wispy fog in the distant south turned out to be the edge of the fog blanket that extended over Mercer and beyond. And so the plane was delayed for quite some time.

I was poured a glass of the Alpha Domus AD Chardonnay 2000, bottled but not yet released. This is a very good chardonnay with lovely clean fruit and delicious honey and nutty oak flavours that follow on from the creamy nut aromas. The wine has excellent balance with subtle grilled peach flavours. Evert has obviously spent of lot of time with this wine, as there is a lot of whizzy winemaking influence, it seems to me. After the third mouthful I find the oak quite noticeable but otherwise I like the way everything is integrated and I suspect in the couple of months until release, the oak will settle and let those subtle fruit flavours blossom.

After a while it is decided to open the reds as the plane is still delayed. We start with Alpha Domus 'The Navigator' 2000 ($27), a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and malbec. This is dark purple red with carmine hues and has a very attractive and fragrant aroma with a touch of violet and sweet smoky oak. Richly concentrated with firm velvety tannins and integrated plum and redcurrant fruit, baked berry pie flavours with spices and a touch of chocolate linger on the berry-filled and meaty oak finish. Long in flavour, this will develop really well.

Now to the Wine of the Week; the Alpha Domus AD 'The Aviator' 2000 ($50) has been well worth waiting for. This blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and malbec is red black with pinky red rims, quite different in colour to The Navigator because there is more cabernet sauvignon in The Aviator. Crisp raspberry spices show upfront at first then very lovely rich dark fruit with lots of cassis and plum, sweet leather and hints of black pepper. It is very soft and very smooth with layers of flavour, a beautifully structured wine with a very long length and deliciously satisfying finish. A savoury, smoky, fruity wine with a velvety silk texture. Long, dark and concentrated and as it sits in the glass and warms up, a liquid chocolate aroma wafts out of the glass together with exotic spices. It is just so velvety smooth and delicious. A wine to sip and savour. The hallmark of a great wine is that it is approachable in its youth yet has the ability to age. This is one of those wines.

Finally we get the call - the plane has left. We stand outside the hangar. "First to spot the plane wins a bottle of wine", said Anthony. Someone spotted a bird in the distance. They were looking east. I was looking south. Suddenly this low-flying white craft comes into sight from behind a plane parked on the tarmac. "There it is" I said, pointing to the plane that was quite close now and looked much bigger than I had expected. It made a last minute turn to line up with the runway and soon it was on the ground. It taxied past the Antinov that had bought over the Italian's America's Cup yacht and was due to take off later that afternoon. The biggest aircraft in the world and the one of the smallest aircrafts alongside each other.

The Tiger Moth taxied into the hangar. "What a flight" said Henry. "It was awesome".

The new release wines were taken out of the plane's tiny luggage compartment and with a handshake Henry handed the wines to Clive Weston of the company's distributing agent, Negociants. The wine had taken off and landed.

The bottles that made the historic journey were signed to commemorate the occasion and soon I was handed a bottle of the wine I had won for being first to spot the plane. It was a bottle of Alpha Domus AD The Aviator 2000, with the date and signatures of the Tiger Moth's Aviator and Navigator. A truly special wine in more ways than one.

Read more about Alpha Domus at www.alphadomus.co.nz.

© Sue Courtney