Food & Wine

Collective nouns are a funny thing. Whoever thought up a parliament of owls or a knot of toads, for example?

The annual grape harvest has recently come to a close in Central Otago. I think that most viticulturists and growers would admit this year has been a challenging and complicated one with a sunny...

Roughly an hour's drive south east of the Italian city of Torino lies the wine region of Barolo. Eleven villages (including Barolo itself) make up the region; producing predominantly red wines...

Historically, it was not uncommon for farmers to plant a hodgepodge of varieties in a vineyard.

Some of the readership may be aware that I usually do my wine tastings on a Monday morning as it is good to taste the wines when you, and your palate are fresh, and with sufficient time in hand to...

The highly respected Drinks International magazine compiles an annual list of the 50 most admired wine brands in the world, surveying more than 200 key wine industry professionals, including...

It is no secret that I am rather fond of riesling, so as I sat down to this collection with Messrs Collins and McLaren I was certainly looking forward to what lay ahead.

I must admit that Mr Collins and I went into this tasting with some "emotional baggage'', though we always remain open-minded.

This was a fascinating tasting for Mr Collins, Mr McLaren and me as it was a compelling example of the benefits of giving wines some time to "breathe''.

Amongst the plethora of new grapes beginning to spread over our vinous landscape is the white grape Gruner Veltliner.

Aussies Shiraz. I cut my vinous milk teeth on wines like this.

Recent figures released by New Zealand Winegrowers show that in 2016 the US (the world's largest market for wine) imported $US400 million ($NZ571 million) of our wine, making NZ the third-largest...

The language we speak is constantly evolving as new words and terminology are adopted into usage, yet at times, facets of our daily lives have evolved faster than language. ''Corkage'' may be a...

Beaujolais (the wine and the region in France) is on my mind as I plan to visit the area this year, roughly half an hour's drive northeast of the city of Lyon, Beaujolais: produced from the red...

Magnificent pairings whet the appetite of wine lovers. Highly regarded, but contrasting vintages can lead to friendly debate as to which is the ''better'' year.

I was delighted to receive the Gimblett Gravels Selection to review, as were my two tasting colleagues Messers Collins and McLaren.

This collection of wines showed the diversity in the marketplace today, covering a range of price points from the user friendly $20 (and quite probably lower on promo) to $30, $40 and above.

I've mentioned before in this column that rose is now very much a year-round tipple, yet that premise may have been tested by our rather dismal summer.