May 25th is International Wine Day! If you're a bit like us and enjoy drinking a (responsible!) glass with a good meal, then here are some excellent suggestions from Dish Magazine's Yvonne Lorkin.
White Wine:
Church Road McDonald Series Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2019
$19-$25
This wine is darn delicious and easy to find pretty much everywhere. It was just awarded a GOLD Medal - 5 STAR – best buy rating at our recent Dish Magazine Chardonnay panel. It blew away many wines in the $50+ category. I love the clean jolt of sulphides, almond meal and soft lemon pith alongside great acidity and a lovely lean texture. It unveils a subtle apple and vanilla custard character which blends with baking spices and toasty complexity in the mouth. It’s a finely-tuned firecracker of a wine. Highly perfumed, roasty, toasty, mouthfillingly fruity and ultra-lengthy. Love it!
Available pretty much everywhere.
Red Wine
Mud House The Narrows Marlborough Pinot Noir 2019
$21.99
(Gold Medal 5 star BEST BUY in Dish Magazine)
This is ridiculous value for money. Highly complex, deeply fruity, dark, fulsome and supremely elegant, it boasts an injection of cranberry, pomegranate and vanilla across its firm tannins. It smells so good that it’s hard to wrench the glass away from your nose in order to actually pour it into your mouth! But persevere because it’s absolutely stacked with cherry, blueberry, rosehip tea and buckets of spice. Available online and in wine stores.
Sparkling Wine
Lindauer Special Reserve Brut Cuvee NV
$13-$18
Sufferers of Placomusophobia (the fear of popping Champagne corks – it’s a thing!) might want to look away now because this wine is one of my favourite things. New Zealand produces exceptionally good sparkling wine and this one is an absolute champion. Made by the incomparably talented Jane de Witt (arguably New Zealands most famous sparkling wine maker) this wine (which is made from pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay in the methode traditionnelle – same way as Champagne) is vibrant gold in the glass, biscuit-scented bubbles that, when poured, shows delicacy, citrus-centric flavours, nutty nuances, and yay-inducing yeastiness on the finish. Layers of creaminess and sexy nuttiness define the palate, giving a refined and elegant wine with complex yeast characters. Yum! Oysters? Oh yes!
