The MacDonald family were Maori farmers in the Wairau Bar area. Haysley MacDonald began planting grapes here in 2003, and were a major grower selling to large companies. But since…
Zephyr Wines, Marlborough, New Zealand
I remember meeting Ben Glover years ago (in 2006), when he was working for Brent Marris at Wither Hills. This is where he established his reputation, and later he developed…
Video: harvest at Gabrielskloof 3, making whites
In the third and final video from the 2018 harvest at Gabrielskloof, in South Africa’s Bot River wine region, I look at how white wines are made: Part 2,…
The wines of Gabrielskloof, Bot River, South Africa
Gabrielskloof, where I’ve spent the last 10 days working vintage, is a winery on the up. It’s owned by Bernhard Heyns. In his previous life, Bernhard’s family owned a brick-manufacturing…
Wines of the year, as decided by Instagram (1)
It’s just turned February, and I realise that I’ve not done a wines of the year compilation for 2017. This is a major oversight: such a list is pretty much…
Some nice wines at the Southern Pinot workshop
At each of the dinners at the Southern Pinot workshop in Hanmer, participants are encouraged to bring wines to dinner. This is a fun exercise, because there is no coordination,…
Interesting Marlborough: the Pioneer Block wines from Saint Clair
Back in 1978, in the early days of Marlborough, Neal and Judy Ibbotson planted grapes, and began supplying Montana. Fast forward 16 years and they decided to launch their own…
Burgundy 2016: the full line-up from Drouhin (47 wines)
In late November I popped over to Burgundy for a few days to taste the 2016 vintage in situ. One of the best tastings was at Maison Joseph Drouhin, both…
A vertical of the single-vineyard wines from Giesen, a forward-thinking Marlborough producer
The next stage in my exploration of interesting developments in Marlborough, New Zealand’s key wine region, was visiting Giesen. Giesen are a sizeable producer in Marlborough, but over the last…