The old label was 25 years old, half the age of the company, although it had been tweaked every couple of years. The new label is slicker but still easily identifiable as Villa Maria's, both for New Zealand and overseas customers.
It was a bit like the old Mercedes he'd had for 25 years, founder Sir George Fistonich said at a lunch for wine writers at the Auckland winery and vineyard cafe recently.
A new one looks different but is still identifiable as a Mercedes. As they are released, the 2013 wines will sport the new label: the first of them is the Villa Maria Private Bin Early Release Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2013 which will be available in a couple of weeks. While some of the components for the main release are not yet finished, this early release is attractive.
It is fresh, vibrant and fragrant with hints of gorseflower and mineral.
About 65% of Villa Maria's production is sauvignon blanc, a large proportion of which is exported.
Close to the airport, the Auckland winery is set in a volcanic crater around the corner from Sir George's original winery, and surrounded by the organic Ihumatao vineyard where they grow gewurztraminer, chardonnay, pinot noir for sparkling wine, and verdelho, a white variety that
A sneak preview of the 2012 single-vineyard verdelho to be released at the end of the year revealed an intense, textural, beautifully balanced wine with hints of quince and nuts.
It went superbly with a smoked tomato consomme with crab and avocado salad prepared by the Vineyard Cafe chef, Rob Baxter.
Unfortunately, the verdelho is rare and will be sold mainly through the cellar door, but it's one of the promising varieties, along with gruner veltliner and arneis, some producers are now exploring.
I was taken with another rare wine, the Cellar Selection Gimblett Gravels Hawkes Bay Grenache 2010, which was fragrant and charming, overflowing with fruit but held in check by a savoury undertone and a firm, long, lively finish. Another great food wine, it was matched with a Szechuan duck breast with butternut, salsify salad and mandarin.
Villa owns several vineyards in the Gimblett Gravels in Hawkes Bay and its reserve and single-vineyard reds are among the best in the country. The recently released 2007 Reserve Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon shows the benefits of cellaring wine from a great vintage.
Wonderfully complex aromas - leather, cigarbox, dark berries, intense fruit are now integrating with the other components. The tannins are still firm and quite powerful, but lively. It may already be six years old but it's still youthful and will continue to develop for another decade or more.
• Charmian Smith visited the Auckland winery as a guest of Villa Maria.
