There's nothing like a bit of stress to get the adrenalins running. The stress that is derived from panic. The panic that comes from running late. It's totally self-inflicted. I really should have logged off the Internet earlier. I'm panicking because I put the notebook down just 2 minutes ago and now I can't find it anywhere. I need my note book. Not just any notebook but this notebook. I eventually find it. It was on the bed underneath the jacket that I nonchalantly tossed on top of it. It goes into the already full handbag crammed with camera, Cassiopeia (which I probably won't use) and tape recorder ready for the big tasting's note taking.

Now another panic sets in. I can't find my watch anywhere. Did I leave it in my sister's car last night? Ring her. "Looking for your watch are you?" she chuckles down the line. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you". I wipe the sweat that has appeared on my forehead and try to subdue the familiar slow-timed drumming that has started in my head.

That means I have to leave right now as I'll have to make a detour on way. Panic number three sets in. Have I got everything? Oh well, I won't know until I miss it.

My sister hears me turn into her driveway and races out with the watch so fortunately I don't have to get out of the car.

Head to husband's work. Find the allocated car park. Running late so leave keys at reception. Race across the road to the bus stop. Phew! Made it. 10 minutes to spare. What was all the fuss about!

Now spend the next half hour staring down the road. Yes, the bus is late. 5 minutes, 10 minutes. Decision time. Should I go to the next bus stop to pick up another service. Why didn't I go there first. I know, because it was due 10 minutes later than the one I am waiting for. Too late. I see the other bus turn around the corner - on time.

What's the time? Perhaps I should hail a taxi. Here's one. Hang on. Is that the bus looming in the distance? Yes. Forget the taxi.

Darn. The bus that passes is not in service. Should have hailed the taxi. Can't call one because I find I've left the cell phone at home.

15 minutes, 20 minutes. Here's another taxi. But here's another bus. It's the 875 running 20 minutes late. I hail it. It stops. "How much to the city?" "$3.30" says the driver.

I find a seat and sit down. Relax, relax, you'll be late to the tasting but it is not the end of the world.

End of the world? It's September 11th. My mind drfits back to the events of the year before. It was the end of the world for some. But it happened on September 12th in our time zone. We woke that morning and the news was non-relenting. In fact there was no other news. The television images were taking us right there. Images of burning buildings. Images of falling buildings. Hard to believe, even fathom, from the living room of a land far away. But it was all too true.

I look out at the harbour. The sky is grey and dull. Travelling over the Harbour Bridge I see the American flag flying alongside the New Zealand flag. They are both at half mast. I look at the city skyline. Imagine if our two biggest buildings went? That would be half of the city. I look at the Sky Tower. It looks like it is at half mast as well. But it always looks like that.

I'm hoping I have a place reserved at the Pinot Noir seminar. I don't want to miss it.

The bus is freezing. The top windows are open further up the bus. That's okay for the person sitting below them but the wind swirls through them and down to the back of the bus. Must remember to sit upfront on the way home (I forget of course). At least the traffic on the Harbour Bridge is flowing freely.

Only 4 hours to taste all the wine, write notes, make sure I taste all the sauvignon blancs, want to look at pinot and syrah as well.

Bus arrives in city. It has started to rain. I don't have an umbrella. Oh well, not far from the bus stop to the hotel where the tasting is being held. That's one of the reasons I caught the bus, it saves the hassle and expense of city parking on a business day and saves getting caught up in commuter traffic on the way home. I don't get too wet.

The Tasting

There's a crowd at the seminar registration desk. "We can fit you into the second pinot seminar at 5.30pm, Mr So-and-so", says the smiling lady with the list to the man at the front of the queue. There are four people before me. Did they get my e-mail booking? I hope so. I don't want go to the late seminar. It's my turn. "Sue Courtney", I say. I try to read the list upside down. She finds my name. "You're in the pinot seminar starting at 2.30pm". Great!

I've got 10 minutes to taste some wines before the seminar starts.

The tasting room is amazing. All the Montana brands and their local and international agencies are represented and many of the winemakers are here.

I want to see Grant Taylor from Gibbston Valley, but he is not at the Gibbston stand. I appease myself with a Gibbston Valley Pinot Gris 2002. This is a lovely rich oily number, sweet ripe fruit, definitely pear flavours in there, a hint of musk and something quite juicy on the finish. I am rushing. Need to slow down.

There are a few new release sauvignon blancs to catch up on. I wander over to taste the Longridge Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2002. This seems like a light style of sauvignon at first but boy, the flavours enrich in the mouth and linger long and fully. There are some nice herbaceous notes as well as some fleshy stonefruit flavours.

I compare it to the Saints Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2002. This is rich and pungent from the outset. A powerful savvie that is full of flavour.

I've only got another minute. No time to move to another stand so I retaste the Longridge Gewurztraminer 2002, my choice as the country's best value Gewurz so far this year - it costs about $15 in retail. I am reassured that this is definitely a wine that pleases my palate. Lovely pungent musky flavours, spicy and a little sweet but with a refreshing crisp finish. "This is the driest of this year's gewurztraminers", says Montana's Gisborne winemaker Steve Voysey. It has 8 grams of residual sugar and is made from a blend of Hawkes Bay (46%), Gisborne (38%) and Marlborough (16%) fruit. Great value for summery drinking.

Time to go to the seminar room.

The Pinot Noir Master Class

Winemakers Patrick Materman of Montana, Grant Taylor of Gibbston Valley and Brent Marris of Wither Hills who is NZ's latest young multi-millionaire (having just sold his company to Lion Nathan who a couple of years ago missed out on the purchase of Montana) are presenting their wines.

I grab a seat in the front row. Tape recorder is at the ready. "What are you doing here? You know all this stuff", says Brent Marris jokingly. Later he asks me for a copy of the tape because some interesting points came out of the seminar. I get him a copy and he promises to provide me with a transcript but it still hasn't arrived. I have to do it myself.

I taste the wines as the winemakers talk.

Montana
Patrick Materman talks about Montana, or Brancott as it is known in North America, and the growth of pinot in the company.

Although Pinot Noir vines have recently been planted in Waipara, about 260 kilometres south of Marlborough, those vines are not yet producing. Pinot Noir is currently taken exlusively from Marlborough and prior to 1996, all the resources were for bubbles. Then in 1996, 600 cases of still red pinot noir were produced from three vineyard blocks on Fairhall Estate. The results were good so Kaituna Estate, just north-west of Renwick, was developed expressly for pinot noir production but they grow sauvignon blanc there too. With the purchase of Corbans in late 2000, Montana was able to incorporate grapes grown on the stony river gravels from the 2001 vintage. A new block is being developed at the southern end of Brancott Estate and on the eastern side of the Estate on a north east facing slope, a terraced pinot noir vineyard has been planted. A small first vintage crop came off these two blocks in 2002.

Patrick explains that the Wairau Valley is only 12km wide. The northern side of the valley, where the Kaituna Estate and Stoneleigh vineyards are, is the wetter side of the valley. Here the vineyards are close to the Wairau River and the soils are mostly composed of glacial derived river gravels. Crossing the valley from north to south, the soils become more clay-rich, with gravel or shingle fans close to the rivers in the tributary river valleys. The clays give more tannin and structure to the wines while the grapes from the river gravels are more fruit driven with sweeter softer tannins.

A map of Marlborough with the vineyard sites referred to in the text.

I'm sniffing the wines and find they both have lovely floral nuances and I visualise the tiny berries from one of Montana's new vineyards that I helped to pick at harvest time (link here).

The Montana Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir 2000 has a hint of lavender joining the savoury aroma together with stewed tamarillo and chocolate. This is a vibrant, lifted wine with good underlying structure, lovely development and flavour, I like the cherry and tamarillo fruit and pretty spice while the oak is integrated and creamy and the chocolate richness comes out on the finish. This wine, that shows more colour development than the 2001, is drinking terrifically well right now.

Montana Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir 2001 is much more perfumed than the 2000 with an exciting spice and musk character - definitely the scent of old English roses - that join the bright cherry fruit. There is more upfront cherry and spice flavour, a richer tannin structure and creamy mellow oak. The finish is delicate yet long. Yes, the tannins are bigger and the colour is more youthful. Patrick explained the variation in the wines is climate derived. The 2000 vintage in Marlborough was a classic season with a long summer and a cool autumn with an extended ripening period, the kind of season that typifies New Zealand wine, the cool nights keeping the acid levels up.

2001 was a hot dry summer and water was trucked in for irrigation. The young vines struggled a little and this shows a little in the wine with its higher harsher tannins. Pinot Noir is an expressive wine that shows its faults so the winemakers managed the ferment to minimise the tannins in the final blend.

I finish the wines as Patrick finishes his talk.

Gibbston Valley
The two Gibbston Valley Central Otago Pinot Noirs are poured. This is the middle wine in the Gibbston Valley tier, with the much lauded Gibbston Valley Reserve above it and the enjoyable quaffer and restaurant favourite, the Gold River label, below it.

A map of Central Otago with the sub regions referred to in the text.

Winemaker Grant Taylor tells us we are truly tasting Central Otago in these wines as they both are an equal blend of grapes sourced from four of the district's sub-regions, these being Gibbston Valley, Wanaka, Bannockburn and Bendigo. The sub-regions differ in soil types, aspect and climate, and climate, especially, is extreme.

The Gibbston Valley and Wanaka sites are cooler while Bannockburn is warmer and the Bendigo site is warmer than anywhere else in the district. "Perhaps it is too warm for Pinot. We are planting Syrah there to see how it does", said Grant.

He reiterates what Patrick said in that Pinot Noir is a sensitive variety. It reacts and can show the character of the soil and the vagaries of the climate in the wine.

The vines for the 2000 vintage experienced cool weather at flowering and consequently the crop was light, yielding 3.5 - 3.75 tonne a hectare. It rained about a month before harvest and there was variability in the ripeness of the grapes and higher sugar levels.

In comparison 2001 was a good season throughout and yields were high. Even with dropping fruit they brought in 7.5 - 8 tonne a hectare. The autumn was long and dry and there was more consistency of ripeness.

The Gibbston Valley Central Otago Pinot Noir 2000 shows more development in colour and aromas of concentrated cherry are supported by subtle oak. "Dry spice, dusty notes", says Grant. I like the earthy nose and the flavours in the mouth that are more cherry than tamarillo. "Coarse and chunky" says Grant but I like the 'chunky' character in this wine. I like the tamarillo and musk characters. "Long drawn out flavours with weight and concentration of fruit and tannins on the finish" says Grant. I agree. It's long and flavoursome with a delicious depth. There are hints of mushrooms on the finish too.

In comparison the Gibbston Valley Central Otago Pinot Noir 2001 is grape garnet in colour in the dim light of the seminar room. There is plenty of lifted spice in the fragrance. And in the mouth it seems much riper. There's lovely violet, rose and musk with classic cherry and plum fruit, which is balanced terrifically to the toasty oak. Grant says it is not as concentrated as the 2000 but he likes the balance of the wine with its ripe fruit, better length and heavy toasted oak. I find it quite delicious.

From left to right: Brent Marris, Grant Taylor and Patrick Materman.

Wither Hills
Patrick Materman gave such a great insight into Marlborough's Wairau Valley and the climatic variations of the vintages we are tasting, so Brent Marris concentrates on telling us specifically about Wither Hills. I am looking forward to hearing of the developments since my visits there in November 2000 and January 2002.

The Wither Hills Vineyard is right up against the Wither Hills range on the southern side of the Wairau valley. It's quite dry here especially on the hills themselves, which are prone to fire in prolonged drought situations. But the vineyard is on the valley floor away from the danger of cigarette-flicking pyromaniacs who tramp the hills.

The vineyard currently comprises 200 acres of grapes on a shingle fan and as the vineyard is traversed from east to west the soil profile changes from the river deposited shingles, to shingles and silt, to a clay-based soil. "This makes it interesting from a winemaking point of view", says Brent.

As far as viticulture is concerned, each shoot is thinned to one bunch, which Brent feels gives uniformity of flavour throughout the vineyard site.

The wines currently show the influence of young vines. As vines get older, perhaps in 4-5 years time, Brent will separate the clay-grown and the shingle-grown grapes to make 2 or 3 individual wines. But right now he is learning so much about his vineyard and everything goes in together. He wants to make wines that are round, soft and voluptuous with subtle tannins and fruit on the mid palate, wines that drink well when young but have the ability to age.

And he is excited about his new winery. "When a winemaker designs a winery and is able to have everything he wants, it's like a small kid with his toys", says Brent.

Brent is making big volumes and doesn't want to compromise on quality at all so imports a team of specialist pinot producers from Oregon to assist at vintage.

The wine matures in a variety of fine-grained French barrels of differing toasty levels for 14 months in total. The maturing wine remains on the malolactic fermentation and yeast lees for 9 to 10 months. He wants the wines to pick up feral funky characters, to develop a velvety silky texture and to emit a beautiful seamlessness and concentration.

"People drink reds with their eyes", says Brent, hence his pinots are a darker colour than Montana's.

The Wither Hills Pinot Noir 2000 is an oaky tarry wine with a colour quite similar though perhaps a little denser than the 2001. Violets and lavender fragrances emerge. There's an army of strawberry, cherry and plum fruits, lots of savoury characters and well supporting delicately spicy oak. It's quite a lifted wine with funky velvety tannins and a hint of cherry chocolate. I think it is nice to taste the lighter strawberry flavours coming through and I just love the seam of citrus that lifts the finish as the flavours linger for ages.

The Wither Hills Pinot Noir 2001 shows more youthful brightness to the colour and overall it is a more delicate wine, or perhaps it just simply has more finesse. It seems less oaky on the nose than the 2000 and lets the perfume of fruit, spice and savoury characters come through and titillate the senses. The lovely fruit profile holds well in the palate to be joined by a violet musky character and reasonably firm chocolatey tannins. It seems hotter than all the other pinots tasted at the seminar and is ready to drink now but I think it will also age well. I mention to Brent my inability to individually discern the fruit characters as I could with the other wines. 'Confused fruit' he says. But after letting the wine sit in the glass for a while I find terrific primary fruit characters of cherry, apple and plums. This is a very ripe wine with terrific spice and savoury notes, emerging chocolate and a lovely nuance of citrus on the finish. In fact, the creamy chocolate characters become more obvious the longer one sips on it.

It was an excellent seminar but the speakers had almost gone over time.

I stay in the seminar room for the Tatachilla Masterclass, a vertical tasting of Tatachilla Shiraz with winemaker Justin McNamee (summarised separately at this link) then I head back to the main tasting room to suss out some of the goodies.

My mouth is full of the flavours of red wine so I continue on that theme. I first go to the Tatachilla stand to retaste the outstanding Tatachilla Foundation Shiraz from the 1999 vintage. I didn't take notes of this well built powerfully rich and flavoursome wine, as I had tasted it before.

Dunleavy Cabernet Merlot 2000 from Waiheke Island has a new label. I tasted the wine on the island 7 months before and I thought it excellent then. It still impresses today. It is perhaps a leaner style than we see from Hawkes Bay, but it has good varietal character.

Te Motu 1999, the top wine from the Dunleavy stable, has a savoury licorice character over quite ripe fruit and a lovely complexity with lots of ripe tannins that do not intrude. Built to last it has good length with a lingering blackcurrant and plum flavours interlaced with spice and creamy cedary oak. I like it very much.

I decide it is time to refresh the palate of tannins and continue one of the tasks I set out to so - tasting the new vintage sauvignon blanc.

Corbans Sauvignon Blanc 2002 is a soft style but I like the flavours that build up to the strong finish. There's a touch of stonefruit as well as apple and a hint of gooseberry. Good value for the price point as it retails around about $11.

Corbans Private Bin Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 1999 has a toasty nose with some complexity and even a hint of a floral character. In the mouth it is smoky with ripe stonefruit flavours. It is chardonnay-like in a way but with more spice and acidity. It does not show any aged characters of asparagus or canned pea at all.

The Church Road Sauvignon Blanc 2002, a blend of Marlborough (57%) and Hawkes Bay fruit, has toasty grassy aromas with hints of passionfruit, citrus and melon. Its rich and full-bodied with a mealy yeasty character too a touch of hokey pokey on the rich, ripe finish.

I retasted the Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc 2002 and the Montana branded wines - the cheaper varietal Montana Sauvignon Blanc 2002 and the Brancott Reserve 2002. My earlier opinion that these are indeed top wines from the vintage, are reaffirmed.

I wandered along the rows, retasting the Wither Hills and Lawson Dry Hills sauvignon blancs as well. They too impressed as they had done before.

Oh, look there's some Champagne. I liked the intriguing nose of the Champagne Deutz Brut Classic, a rich, leesy powerful wine made from a blend of 38% Pinot Noir, 32% Pinot Meunier and 30% Chardonnay. It smells a bit like the golden raisin biscuits that my brother liked when he was young.

Huntaway Marlborough Pinot Gris 2001 has quite an amazingly fragrant and rich aroma. The wine takes a while to unfold in the mouth but when it does it takes on many facets of stone fruit, like white peaches and apricots, and finishes with poached pear. It seems quite sweet but only has 4 grams of residual sugar. I am told the perceived sweetness comes from malolactic fermentation, skin contact, maturation on lees and other winemaking wizardry.

The Danzante Pinot Grigio 2001 from Italy is quite a creamy wine, well balanced with good flavours of pear, a touch of citrus and a ripe fruit finish. It is very clean and would be hard to pick the country if put up against a local wine. The finish is spicy. I like it.

The Pomino Benefizio Chardonnay is rich, toasty and creamy with lots of maloclactic flavours evident along with the fig and melon fruits. Again this Italian number is quite new-worldish in style. It's expensive though and I wonder why.

It's just about time to leave and I decide to finish with a couple of Alsations.

The Domaine Schlumberger Les Abbes Princess Riesling would have been a terrific way to end the tasting. It's dry, spicy and juicy with ripe fruit that gives a perceived sweetness.

But I succumb and taste the Domaine Schlumberger Les Princes Abbes Pinot Gris 1999. It turns out to be a star of a wine with lovely ripe pear flavours that are slightly toffeed. It is full-on wine that is ripe and very flavoursome with a toasty finish. The finish is long and the flavours lasted all the way home.

The stress was worth it, for the decision to take the bus rather than drive was the right one. Now it was raining like crazy and the commuter traffic on exodus from the city was almost at a standstill. Those drivers were no doubt the ones now stressed while I was in relax mode, letting my 'chauffeur' negotiate the slippery roads while my thoughts were of wine and places far distant from the hustle and bustle of Auckland city.

© Sue Courtney
12th January 2003.