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Food & WineNovember 25

Turning over a new leaf

Fancy trying something new? Perhaps it’s time to delve into Blanc de Noir.

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Food & WineNovember 18

So many avenues to learn new things about wine

I'll never tire of the fact that in wine you are always learning.

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Food & WineNovember 11

German Pinot tasting makes for fascinating experience

I was recently involved with a very rare tasting of German Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir).

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Food & WineNovember 4

Report offers snapshot of wine industry’s state

The end of September saw the release of the NZ Winegrowers Annual Report, which has a wealth of detail to absorb among its facts, figures and statistics.

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Food & WineOctober 28

Rarer than sauvignon blanc, still enough to go around

Having tasted this line up of Central Otago pinot gris, I then delved into the latest New Zealand Winegrowers annual report to get the ‘‘state of the play’’ of this popular variety.

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Food & WineOctober 21

’Tis the season: roses begging to be opened and enjoyed

Spring. It’s that time of the year that rose really starts coming into its own.

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Food & WineOctober 14

Always popular new release tasting nears

Labour Weekend means only one thing for many wine lovers, and that is the annual Alexandra Basin Winegrowers New Release Tasting at the Clyde Railway Station Reserve on Sunday, October 26

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Food & WineOctober 7

Even mean old Mark scored these wines highly

Mark Henderson savours some classy chardonnays.

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Food & WineSeptember 30

Wine choice following a sense of seasonality

A visit to the farmers’ market is a reminder of seasonality, as the empty spaces of late winter begin to be filled in by vendors bringing the first spring crops to market.

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Food & WineSeptember 23

Ways to reduce uncertainty about dryness of Rieslings

Always a pleasure for me to taste flights of Riesling; one thing I’m mindful of is serving order, from the dryest wines, then gradually ascending sweetness.

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Food & WineSeptember 16

Savouring Pinot Noirs from anywhere but Central

One of my tasting buddies recently returned from Europe and post tasting through this group of wines decided to "blind me" on a couple of Central Pinots.

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Food & WineSeptember 9

Range punching above its weight

Some regular readers have mentioned that they look forward to mentions of wines that don’t break the bank.

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Food & WineSeptember 2

500th anniversary has come and gone

Mark Henderson, along with two buddies, has fallen on his sword to do more than 500 wine tastings for his weekly column since he joined Fresh in 2015.

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Food & WineAugust 26

Drinkability, price impress

The debate during today’s tasting revolved around the scoring process and whether one should be awarding points on a like for like basis.

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Food & WineAugust 19

‘Sense of timing’ key for appreciation of aged wine

Hot on the heels of the Young Viticulturist competition comes the Otago leg of the Tonnellerie de Mercurey Young Winemaker competition which was held at Vinpro in Cromwell at the end of July.

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Food & WineAugust 12

Lighter, low-alcohol wines still pleasing to the palate

It is clear from the sales of the Nolo (No or Low Alcohol) wines that more people are looking to moderate their intake of alcohol.

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Food & WineAugust 5

Central Otago Young Viticulturist winner announced

Every year I bring attention to both the Young Viticulturist and Young Winemaker competitions as these young men and women are the future of our wine industry.

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Food & WineJuly 29

Never any hardship to taste collection of Pinot Noir

If you thought that I have written about Central Pinot only recently, you would be absolutely correct.

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Food & WineJuly 22

Let a little sun spill over with every sip of these beauties

It won’t have escaped your notice that we are in the depths of winter, though on the positive side we are now quite a bit past the shortest day.

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Food & WineJuly 15

Wine a pleasure to embrace rather than dumb down

I’ve recently read a speech given by winery owner Nigel Greening at Pinot Noir NZ 2025, earlier this year in Christchurch.

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Food & WineJuly 8

Breaking out of the box can bring its own rewards

While tasting this Pinot Gris lineup with my colleague Mr Collins, we had considerable discussion about one of the wines: he initially struggled with the style, whereas I was a fan.

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Food & WineJuly 1

Time allows winemakers to further hone their craft

In my view, one of the strengths of the Central Otago wine scene has been the longevity of involvement of so many of its winemakers.

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Food & WineJune 24

NZ chardonnay going from strength to strength

I can’t but help feeling (after tasting these wines amidst a bigger grouping) that Chardonnay in New Zealand is going from strength to strength.

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Food & WineJune 17

Marvellous opportunity to be seduced

Today, a marvellous opportunity awaited in the guise of four sub-regional expressions of pinot noir by Valli and two newcomers from Domaine Thomson.

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