December 18, 2001 - We had been to Australia and back, nearly broke but spirits unbroken. It was a beautiful summer day and we decided that while continuing our search for orchard work in the bucolic hinterlands of New Zealand's South Island, we would fit in some winery visits. Fate lead us to our next job - Gibbston Valley Winery and Vineyards.
Winery Visit No 2
Peregrine is a new winery, its first wine released in 1998. This was another of the wineries whose wines we featured at Coronet Peak. Its more modest than Chard Farm, housed in a pair of stone structures, an historic wool shed and its 127 years old cookhouse. The woman who works here in the small, cluttered office is friendly and happy to give us tastes.
Peregrine Tasting Notes
First Wine Released in 1998 – Caretakers of Wentworth Estate Vineyards
Pinot Gris 2001 Nose – Mild aroma, herb and spice, Palate – Gewurztraminer-esque spice, dry & crisp mild fruit, vegetal flavors
Pinot Noir Wentworth 1999 Nose – Ripe berries, strawberry, Palate – Dryer than the nose implies, complex and deep with low tannin and acid, a little residual sugar, long length This is 100% Gibbston fruit from a single vineyard.
The Wentworth Estate vines that Peregrine maintains surround the woolshed. They are also the caretakers of the historic structures they occupy, part of the region's history of rugged pioneers. So far, our host remarked, the weather has been kind to their vines, which are quite young, therefore not yet deeply rooted in the alluvial schist they occupy. Peregrine markets a sparkling wine made in limited quantities by a local independent maker, but do not produce their own bubbly as yet.
Winery Visit No 3
Just a little further down SH6 lies the lively, lovely Gibbston Valley Winery, a cluster of buildings in brick (including the new cheesery) with a restaurant patio as its centerpiece. The bar is nice. Gibbston Valley charges $4.00 for a selection of 4 tastes, plus tasting notes, but you get to choose from 8 of their best, including reserves and older vintages.
My mind was barely on tasting when before my eyes Miranda appeared in a uniform. I had just been at the end of asking about the possibility of work there for a month. My sister in fine dining was extolling the place. I told her I happened to be looking for work in a good, serious establishment, and next thing I knew resumes were out and Shehu was chatting with the chef.
We discussed the possibility of staying on long term, because apparently Shehu got a good impression of the place. He discussed with the chef that we were only looking for about 6 weeks of work, but we were filing for residency and willing to stay on if he could be promoted to Sous Chef at some point soon.
From the upcoming book release:
The Life and Times of Love and Vines – The Travel Memoir of Rashida Veronique Serrant DWS
Showing posts with label new world wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new world wine. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wine for a New World
The terms Old World and New World are used quite often in wine-speak. They imply not only a physical location where the grapes are grown and the wine is produced, but they also imply the idea of a style of wine.
The Old World in wine is pretty much Europe and includes places where wine has been made for multiple centuries and is a part of the tradition and lifestyle. The New World is everywhere else, where wine industry is a phenomenon of the last 150-200 years or so, and the culture-at-large still leans toward beer and/or distilled spirits.
As far as style is concerned (you know how I like to think of wine the way I think of people) Old World Wines are quite like that beautiful woman in the long dress who barely looks in your direction and makes you work hard to get her attention. They don’t show all their cards on the first sip, they often age beautifully and improve over the years, and even those entry level wines that aren’t built for aging are still quite coy. New World Wines in general are more gregarious. You might find they remind you of an episode of Girls Gone Wild Spring Break - they are cute and perky and leave very little to the imagination.
The Old World has that kind of opinion about the New World wine consumer, particularly the rapidly growing number of wine drinkers in the United States to whom every wine producer and his grandmother wants to sell some vino. Their very wide sweeping assumption is that we are Coca-Cola Nation - we grew up with lots of sugar, everything we eat slaps you with in-your-face flavor as soon as it hits your palate. They think that’s how we like it. In some cases they even produce a separate wine for export to the US, thinking they have done a good job pleasing our palates.
I submit that there are far too many people drinking wine in America for such a sweeping generalization to be true. I don’t think wine for a new world should all be fruit forward, crowd pleasing grown-up juice. In fact, I offer another curve ball: the same person can be a different kind of wine drinker depending on the scenario - with or without food, alone or with friends or with a love interest, in cold or warm weather - these could all mean different wine needs!
What consumers in the New World DO need in general though is to feel more confident about buying wine. When the Old World of wine is producing something to send out to the damn Yankees, they should think a lot more about packaging that communicates well with the consumer than changing the wine inside to fit some stereotypical new world style. Because satisfaction in wine should come from finding and drinking wines you love, based on what they were meant to be from the start of their lives that vintage, not based on how well they were doctored up to please the lowest common denominator. In that, we will all find satisfaction.
The Old World in wine is pretty much Europe and includes places where wine has been made for multiple centuries and is a part of the tradition and lifestyle. The New World is everywhere else, where wine industry is a phenomenon of the last 150-200 years or so, and the culture-at-large still leans toward beer and/or distilled spirits.
As far as style is concerned (you know how I like to think of wine the way I think of people) Old World Wines are quite like that beautiful woman in the long dress who barely looks in your direction and makes you work hard to get her attention. They don’t show all their cards on the first sip, they often age beautifully and improve over the years, and even those entry level wines that aren’t built for aging are still quite coy. New World Wines in general are more gregarious. You might find they remind you of an episode of Girls Gone Wild Spring Break - they are cute and perky and leave very little to the imagination.
The Old World has that kind of opinion about the New World wine consumer, particularly the rapidly growing number of wine drinkers in the United States to whom every wine producer and his grandmother wants to sell some vino. Their very wide sweeping assumption is that we are Coca-Cola Nation - we grew up with lots of sugar, everything we eat slaps you with in-your-face flavor as soon as it hits your palate. They think that’s how we like it. In some cases they even produce a separate wine for export to the US, thinking they have done a good job pleasing our palates.
I submit that there are far too many people drinking wine in America for such a sweeping generalization to be true. I don’t think wine for a new world should all be fruit forward, crowd pleasing grown-up juice. In fact, I offer another curve ball: the same person can be a different kind of wine drinker depending on the scenario - with or without food, alone or with friends or with a love interest, in cold or warm weather - these could all mean different wine needs!
What consumers in the New World DO need in general though is to feel more confident about buying wine. When the Old World of wine is producing something to send out to the damn Yankees, they should think a lot more about packaging that communicates well with the consumer than changing the wine inside to fit some stereotypical new world style. Because satisfaction in wine should come from finding and drinking wines you love, based on what they were meant to be from the start of their lives that vintage, not based on how well they were doctored up to please the lowest common denominator. In that, we will all find satisfaction.
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