Today, Ian and Jacquie Hoare arrived in Christchurch fresh from a trip to Thailand and accepted our offer of a room for the night. To celebrate, I made a paella Valenciana (or as close to it as I could come) and we opened a few local wines:
NV Quartz Reef "Methode Traditionelle" (Central Otago) n: green apples, minerals p: crisp, fairly rich, fine mousse, fairly dry
Ian said that this wine had a lot of Pinot Noir character, but later confessed that he'd known from the label what to expect. Quite a pleasant wine, but nothing profound.
2009 Wild Earth Pinot Noir (Central Otago) n: dark fruit, spice p: decent acidity, medium body, soft textureI had purchased this wine on the recommendation of a local retailer who thought that it would comport with my tastes in Pinot Noir, and I opened it tonight to see if the winery would be worth visiting with Ian and Jacquie next week. While it was a bit darker complected and bigger than is my wont, it still bears more investigation ;-)
With some cherries after dinner:
2010 Clearwater "Sea View" (Hawke's Bay) n: cherries, stones p: off dry, balancing acidity, slightly tannic, clean finishIan and Jacquie had brought this from their travels up North in NZ and quite a curiosity it proved to be! A late harvest Merlot with residual sugar, it was only moderately sweet and not at all Port-like, but quite good with the cherries and positively brilliant with some dark chocolate. Ian likened it to a vin doux naturelle from Rasteau.
All is all, a very fun night was had of food, wine and great company.
Mark Lipton