Michael Cooper’s 'best buy' red and white New Zealand wines

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Wine expert Michael Cooper has once again completed his mammoth task of tasting and rating more than 3000 New Zealand wines.

Out of these, he has chosen a best-buy red and white wine, based on quality and price, from the five-star selections in his 590-page 2016 buyers’ guide. – Editor

Best White Wine Buy of the Year
Starborough Family Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015***** $20

A five-star wine at a three-star price, this is benchmark stuff, hard to resist in its youth. Highly aromatic, it is mouthfilling, with fresh, penetrating melon, lime and slight capsicum flavours, showing very impressive delicacy and vibrancy, and a dry, lasting finish. Yet this impressive wine is widely available at $20 and when sold on promotion at $16.99, it’s an absolute “steal.”      

When I first tasted this wine in September, I jotted down: “Awatere Valley style – with style.”  In fact, it was estate-grown in three vineyards, of which two are located in the Awatere Valley but the third lies over the hills, closer to Blenheim, in the Wairau Valley.

The quality of the latest release is no fluke – almost all the vintages I’ve tasted since 2008 have deserved a four-star rating or higher.  The 2014 vintage won gold medals at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, Royal Easter Show Wine Awards and the Bragato Wine Awards, where it also scooped the trophy for champion Sauvignon Blanc.

Named after a sheep run founded in the Awatere Valley in 1849, Starborough Wines is owned by Bill and Lynette Jones and their sons, Andrew and James. The Jones family has farmed in Marlborough since 1865.  James manages the company’s vineyards and marketing, while the wines are made by David Clouston, who also grew up in the region and has his own highly regarded label, Two Rivers of Marlborough.

Starborough Family Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 was bottled early and was crafted to be enjoyed young, while it is aromatic, vibrant and tangy.  Enjoy it this summer, as an irresistible, bargain-priced partner to poultry, salads and seafood.

Availability: James Jones tells NBR there are ample stocks at premium independent wine retailers and some New World, Fresh Choice and Pak'nSave stores. 

Best Red Wine Buy of the Year
Church Road McDonald Series Hawke's Bay Merlot 2013 ***** $26.95

Powerful, lush and overflowing with ripe plum, spice, coffee and dark chocolate flavours, this bargain-priced red is an exciting and memorable mouthful. It has already won several major accolades, is widely available and can be found at less than $25.     

I first tasted and reviewed it in July, for Winestate’s annual tasting of Hawke's Bay wines: “Dark, fragrant, powerful wine with dense, ripe, plummy, spicy flavours, a hint of coffee, and lovely softness and richness.  Praised by all judges, this is a five-star red at a four-star price.”

Since then, it has scooped a gold medal at the New Zealand International Wine Show 2015, where it also won two trophies – champion Merlot and champion New Zealand Bordeaux Red Wine (a category that includes Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, together with blends of these traditional Bordeaux varieties).

Chris Scott, senior winemaker at Church Road, believes the exceptionally dry, but not blazingly hot, growing season in 2013 gave “the vintage of a lifetime.  You could not have got more perfect growing weather than that.”

The grapes for the McDonald Series Merlot were mostly hand-harvested, from vines cultivated in low-vigour gravel soils. The juice was fermented in French oak cuves (vats) and 70 year-old concrete fermenters, and then the wine was barrel-matured for the unusually long period of 21 months.  
     
Church Road recommends cellaring the 2013 vintage for up to five years but this deliciously rich, ripe, smooth red could flourish for a lot longer. Enjoy it with hearty red meat dishes.
Availability: Church Road is owned by the country’s largest producer, Pernod Ricard Winemakers NZ and its products are in all licensed supermarkets and liquor stores

Other shortlisted best buy wines
Whites:
Esk Valley Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2014 ***** $20
Summerhouse Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 ****1/2 $19
Peter Yealands Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 **** $16
Vidal Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 **** $16

Rosé
Mahi Marlborough Rosé 2015 ***** $20

Reds
Esk Valley Gimblett Gravels Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec 2014 ***** $20
Villa Maria Cellar Selection Hawke's Bay Syrah 2013 ***** $25
Omihi Hills Limestone Ridge Pinot Noir 2014 **** $20
Thornbury Hawke's Bay Merlot **** $16

© Michael Cooper's New Zealand Wines 2016 is published by Upstart Press, RRP $40

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