Charmian Smith

New Zealand pinot gris seems to be moving away from the simplicity of sweet fruit and high alcohol.

When people ask me what my favourite wine is, I can never give a definitive answer,

Sauvignon blanc should leave your tastebuds dancing, or at least tingling, but unfortunately not all do.

Chardonnay comes in many styles, from simple unoaked wines whose main attractions are their lovely fruit and crisp finish, to full-on wines oozing toasty oak and buttery nuts.

Wine doesn't have to be big and mouthfilling to be good.

Pinot gris is one of the most fashionable white wines these days, perhaps because it doesn't seem to have much character of its own so it doesn't call attention to itself and adapts to a wide variety of food.

Fruit flavours vary from stone fruit such as peaches, or citrus such as lemon or grapefruit, or tropical fruit like golden kiwifruit or pineapple.

Scottish food writer Kathryn Hawkins' book Shop Local Eat Well: Cooking with seasonal produce in New Zealand (New Holland, pbk, $30) was originally published in the United Kingdom, but has been localised by New Zealander Laura Faire.

As I sniffed and tasted these pinot noirs all sorts of things popped into my mind - aromas of raw potato, linseed oil, fresh engine oil, salmon skin, rubber, brown sugar, coffee and toast, as well as spice and berries, plums and cherries, elderberries and the forest floor. What a complex wine pinot noir can be!

Hawkes Bay syrah typically has a peppery edge and brighter, juicier fruit than its Australian counterpart, shiraz.

Anybody who has gone into a Dunedin fish and chip shop will recognise the characters in Two Fish 'n' a Scoop. Charmian Smith talks to the Fortune Theatre team staging the play that looks at an integral part of Kiwi culture and its darker side.

Charlotte Wood's Love & Hunger: Thoughts on the gift of food (Allen and Unwin) is as much a bedtime read or a book to dip into as a cookbook. The Australian novelist and food blogger (www.charlottewood.com.au) has written a delightful series of essays/memoirs/advice/musings about food, each followed by relevant recipes.

Afife Harris, from Lebanon, shows how to make kibbeh batata (potato kibbeh).

Pinot Gris might be a fashionable white variety, but it can be fairly boring.

Sometimes cookbooks get too complicated, but good food doesn't have to be relentlessly contemporary.

Red wines such as merlot, cabernet and their classic blends generally mellow and integrate with a year or so's bottle age as this tasting demonstrated.

Chardonnay ranges from everyday quaffing wine that you don't give much thought to, to complex, textured wines with layers of flavour and lingering finishes that you can sip and savour and delight in.

These days there's a nostalgia for the comfort of traditional home-cooked food so books like The Country Table (Australian Women's Weekly, ACP, hbk, $40) will find a ready appreciation with its old-fashioned recipes and sentimental photographs of gumboots and Driza-bone coats on the porch, misty mornings and cottage gardens with picket fences.