Mr Grumpy: Wine & food mis-matching
OPINION: Kingsley Wood, owner of First Glass Wines & Spirits in Takapuna, is a man of habit.
I delivered a lecture on iconic wines at the Bragato conference, having identified the following list of wines which qualify for iconic or cult status.
The first 13 "brands" were prepared by Regional Wines in Wellington while I added the last two names.
I added another couple ...
I explained to the audience that in my view there were two sorts of cult wines:
"Spice Girls" – Where the brand was conceived and managed with cult status in mind. Destiny Bay and Te Mata Coleraine are good examples.
"Nobel Prize" – Where the brand owner is lucky or clever enough to plant a vineyard in a special spot and works hard at making the best wine they can until one day someone taps them on the shoulder and says "congratulations you've won the Nobel prize". Ata Rangi Pinot Noir and Kumeu River Chardonnay are possible examples.
We tasted six of my selected wines and I asked the audience to vote on whether they deserved iconic status, cult status or neither. Here is the result:
Iconic Status
Cult Status
OPINION: Harvest begins, and almost immediately we start to get media enquiries about how the vintage is going and whether it…
OPINION: Rachael Cook is the smiling grape grower on this month’s cover, tending vines on the miniscule, beautiful and dream-driven vineyard…
New Zealand wine enthusiasts have a deepening understanding and growing appreciation of sparkling wine, says Mel Skinner, Chair of Méthode Marlborough…
One of the biggest mistakes wine marketers make is in assuming consumers are as passionate and knowledgeable about wine as…
Taking two sustainability awards at two events on a single evening felt like "true recognition" of the work Lawson's Dry…