Wine Talk with Graham Watson | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Gewurztraminer wines go particularly well with Asian and Middle Eastern food. I recently went with friends to the popular BYO restaurant Chopsticks, on the corner of Clyde and Ilam Rds.

Two of the wines brought were gewurztraminers from France's Alsace region. The wines were from Albert Mann and Bott-Geyl, two highly respected producers whose wines are imported into New Zealand.

These were both excellent wines showing the concentrated spicy characters that one looks for in these types of wines. Many great gewurztraminers are produced in Alsace but interestingly, Alsatian winemakers consider that riesling is their premium variety.

I certainly prefer their gewuztraminers, finding that often the rieslings are too dry. Alsace also produces very good muscats, pinot blancs and pinot gris as well as some interesting pinot noirs.

There are small plantings of gewurztraminer in New Zealand. It is generally a shy bearing variety but there have been some excellent examples produced here.

I have described previously the superb Stonecroft Hawkes Bay Gewurztraminer 2002 and the Air New Zealand Wine Awards trophy winning Villa Maria Reserve Gewurztraminer 2004.

The gold medal-winning Johanneshof Gewurztraminer 2004 is also reputed to be very good. I have recently tried a few other currently available wines.

The Crossroads East Coast Destination Series Gewurztraminer 2004 is an easy drinking wine with some spicy characters and hints of lychees.

The Framingham Marlborough Gewurztraminer 2004 has an attractive spicy bouquet and very good palate weight.

The Spy Valley Marlborough Gewurztraminer 2004 has very good spicy characters and fruit concentration. This wine won a bronze medal at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards but our group of tasters all felt that the wine we tried was of silver medal quality.

The final wine in the line-up of recent releases we tried was the Spanish Torres Vina Esmeralda 2003, a blend of muscat and gewurztraminer. This was quite different stylistically. It had a delicate rose petal bouquet and appealing palate structure. Serve it chilled over the summer months.

n Karikari Estate (formerly Carrington Estate) in Northland is New Zealand's northernmost vineyard. Vines were first planted on this American-owned development in 1998, with the first vintage being in 2003.

Currently 41ha of mainly French grape varieties have been planted. A state-of-the-art winery was completed in 2004.

In June 2004 Ben Dugdale, who had previously worked at Coopers Creek, Dry River and Matakana Estate was appointed chief winemaker. Also, winemaker Kim Crawford acts as a consultant. I recently tried the Karikari Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2003 which has toasty vanillin oak characters and is a substantial wine.

Some red wines from Karikari Estate will be reviewed in subsequent articles. Karikari Estate is the sister company to the Carrington Resort which has luxury lodge and villa accommodations and a golf course.

Another stylistically different chardonnay tried recently was the Vidal Hawkes Bay Unwooded Chardonnay 2004. This is an easy-drinking, well-balanced, fruit-driven wine which won a gold medal at the 2004 Air New Zealand Wine Awards.

Finally, the Nederburg Western Cape Chardonnay 2003 is a full-bodied food wine. It has quite complex characters for such an inexpensive wine.