Wine

Blackenbrook celebrates ten years

Blackenbrook celebrates ten years

Black­en­brook vine­yard recently cel­eb­rated its tenth birth­day. As vine­yards go, it is pretty young — not even a teen­ager yet. Don’t let its youth con­fuse you though. Its wines would […]

A gift for Martinborough’s angels

A gift for Martinborough’s angels

The cen­tur­ies-old expres­sion ‘the angels’ share’ refers to the small amount of wine that evap­or­ates through por­ous oak bar­rels dur­ing the age­ing pro­cess. My own exper­i­ence of angels is that […]

Changes of scenery proves fruitful

When Gary and Val­ley Neale came back from work­ing over­seas in the early 1990s, they returned to Nel­son, the town where they’d met, and con­sidered wheth­er to try grow­ing grapes […]

Aperitivi

Aperitivi

Sum­mer chil­lax­ing presents a whole new oppor­tun­ity for vin­ous appre­ci­ation. Wheth­er you are out and about in the Big Smoke or stretched out on the back lawn, here­with are my […]

Beards and Rosé

If you have spent any time in the hip­ster bars and cafés of Wel­ling­ton recently, you will no doubt have come to the same con­clu­sion I have: Wel­ling­ton is fast […]

Fresh Toast

Fresh Toast

There has been a buzz in Mar­tin­bor­ough over the last few years. An injec­tion of energy, coupled with a desire to be part of the Mar­tin­bor­ough scene, is present in […]

Wines to drink your mortgage away

Wines to drink your mortgage away

Just recently it was time to refin­ance the mort­gage. After run­ning through some num­bers with my mort­gage broker, he star­ted express­ing con­cern over my cur­rent fin­an­cial plan of tak­ing 25 […]

Hand in Hand

Hand in Hand

Why does wine go so well with food? Wine is essen­tially an acid, which cleanses the pal­ate. More import­antly, wine provides an array of aromas, fla­vours and tex­tures that, when […]

Hollywood Pinot Blanc

Hollywood Pinot Blanc

In recent years, Wel­ling­ton has become known as a mag­net for film­mak­ing tal­ent from all over the world, but it was wine-mak­ing that brought two Hol­ly­wood pro­du­cers to Marl­bor­ough to […]