Bolters from the blue

It may come as a surprise that not every medal-winner has a price to match.

Our world-beating sauvignon blancs flow from Marlborough, our greatest chardonnays from Hawke’s Bay and our finest rieslings from the country’s cool, southern regions. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom, but large, comparative tastings by experienced judges can yield unexpected results.

In a tasting of more than 50 New Zealand rieslings in the latest issue of Cuisine, top place goes to one of the lowest-priced wines, grown in a region commonly believed to be too warm for riesling. With its strong, lemony, limey, slightly toasty flavours, Mission Hawke’s Bay Riesling 2014 ($16.50) is a great buy.

Do cheap wines taste cheap?

Not always, according to Winestate magazine, whose panellists, including legendary winemaker Wolf Blass, late last year awarded the coveted trophy for Best Wine Under $20 from Australia and New Zealand to James Busby Big & Bold Shiraz 2015. Sold exclusively in liquor outlets owned by Coles supermarkets, the major prize winner was on the shelves at A$5.

The most famous of all wine surprises came at the Judgment of Paris, a competition staged in 1976, when the reputation of French wine far exceeded that of upstart producers in the New World. Eleven judges, of whom nine were French, gathered to taste top chardonnays and cabernet sauvignon-based reds from both sides of the Atlantic. In both categories, a wine from California placed first.

Eyebrows were raised at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards in 2012, when Lindauer Rosé NV, often found for $8.99, scooped the trophy for champion sparkling wine. Earlier, Peregrine Sauvignon Blanc 1998, grown in Central Otago, bettered all the Marlborough entrants to snatch the trophy for champion sauvignon blanc at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards 1998.

An even bigger surprise followed when Amor Bendall Limited Edition Gisborne Sauvignon Blanc 2004 won the sauvignon blanc trophy at that year’s Air New Zealand awards.

From a region supposedly too warm for quality sauvignon blanc, it was grown on very high trellises (over 5m), which shaded the vines’ canopies, limited the grapes’ exposure to sunshine and produced the region’s best-ever sauvignon blanc.

At the awards dinner, held in Blenheim, the announcement of the winner of the sauvignon blanc trophy was met with a stunned silence.

Major prize-winner James Busby Big & Bold Shiraz 2015 was on the shelves for A$5.