Friday, January 29th
Today I attended the New Zealand Cabernet Merlot Forum at the Hawke’s Bay Opera House. It was a super intense day of lectures and tastings. At times it was a little too technical for me with case studies of chemistry, vine ecophysiology and canopy management.
There were about 150 attendees with local New Zealand wine growers, interspersed with distributors, importers and a real who’s who of the international wine press including Simon Tam (who gave a great lecture on the Asian wine market perspective), Oz Clarke and Tim Austin MW. Representatives from South Africa, Australia, the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Holland, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy and Austria were also in attendance.
Featured speakers were, Peter Hurlstone of Montana winery (known as Brancott in the USA with Pernod Ricard) who gave a good introduction to New Zealand wine.
Professor Kees van Leeuwen of Bordeaux University and vineyard manager of Chateau Cheval Blanc presented a fascinating study on the effects of terroir on the Right Bank in St. Emilion followed by a comparative tasting.
Brian Croser of TapaNappa wines in Australia led a discussion on world styles of Cabernet and Merlot. Wine from Ridge Montebello was my favorite.
Other speakers included Dr. Petra King, Warren Gibson of Trinity Hill winery and Nicholas Buck from Te Mata Estate winery.
In the evening we were hosted by the Hawke’s Bay winegrowers association at Sileni winery for a great dinner. I met the crazy winemakers from Man of War in Wahleike Island, a marginal wine growing island off the coast. I also met James Milton who makes one of the most sensational Chenin Blancs in the country, which we have on the wine list at SNOB.
Cheers,
Patrick
