My first taste of a Coromandel wine was a fruit wine. That was a few years ago. Now there are grapes being grown on the Peninsula and the Mills Reef Reserve Cooks Beach Chardonnay, the first of the variety I've tasted from Coromandel, is a brilliant example of the potential of the region.

There is no doubt about the variety with its appealing soft toasty scents. There's plenty of upfront oak, buttery spice, ripe peach and tropical fruit; it's mouthfilling and warm with a long toasty finish.

A couple of days later the oak had subdued and mealy, pear and pineapple flavours are more pronounced. It is rich and luscious, sweet and balanced, delightful on its own or with food. We had the wine a roast rolled loin of pork. Perfect.

I think it is excellent value for NZ$19.50 ex-vineyard.

The grapes for this wine were harvested in April 2000 and trucked south to the Mills Reef Winery in Tauranga where the wine was fermented in one third new and the rest in one and two year old French oak barriques then aged on lees for nine months.

This new wine-growing region is on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. Here Alex Morcom has planted sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot and merlot on the Shakespeare Cliffs at the northern end of Cooks Beach on the southern shores of Mercury Bay. What a wonderful place to have a vineyard overlooking the bay and the popular holiday destinations of Buffalo and Wharekaro beaches.

I loved the Mills Reef Cooks Beach Sauvignon Blanc 2000 when released late last year. It was full of crisp and vibrant herbaceous sauvignon fruit, while the Mills Reef Cooks Beach Pinot Noir 2000, released early this year, is a light, fruity and slightly sweetish expression of the grape. It is a good under NZ$15 example and was most popular with a couple of students in my wine class.

A merlot was originally planned to be released from the 2001 vintage but Mills Reef report that it was a testing vintage for Coromandel this year with very humid and wet weather over the last eight weeks of ripening. Great work by the viticulturist saved the crop under very trying circumstances. With selective picking (half the crop was left behind) the company are pleased with quality harvested, and look forward to some tasty wines from Cooks Beach.

I'm looking forward to trying future releases from here too.

For further information check out the Mills Reef website, where you can find out about deliveries to the UK, Japan and Hong Kong .