Finding best ‘special occasion’ wines
Sometimes good things come in threes, some other times, they come in fives or sixes – I have recently been fortunate to try several magnificent, ‘prestige’ wines, mainly from New Zealand and one almost mythical beasty from Australia. These wines are all in the $50-plus bracket, all will cellar extremely well (including those that are already nicely aged), and all would make exceptional ‘special occasion’ wines.
Vidal Legacy Chardonnay 2016, from the Lyons, Keltern and Kokako vineyards in Hawke’s Bay, is a wonderfully concentrated yet deliciously restrained wine with impressive savoury, mealy characters and hints of nuts and citrus. It is a wonderful wine that will get better and better with age.
Vidal Legacy Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2013 comes from one of the greatest vintages in Hawke’s Bay history, and is truly phenomenal. Tasted blind by a number of international experts, it recently beat prestigious houses such as Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau Lynch-Bages to win the Champion of the Day. One of the single greatest NZ wines of any ilk I have tried, and destined to be considered a Super-Classic.
Considering the wines of the aforementioned Chateaux are likely to be in the high hundreds and even thousands of dollars per bottle, the $69.99 of this wine make it an astounding bargain.
Kidnapper Cliffs wines pay homage to one of Hawke’s Bay’s most iconic landscapes through classic Hawke’s Bay varieties. Made to cellar, their 2013 Gimblett Gravels Syrah ($69.99) is a rich, taut and smooth wine that is supremely elegant and savoury, with delicious dark fruit.
Gimblett Gravels is an area that is gaining a formidable reputation for enduring, classical wines, and this is wonderful example of a variety that is making the wine world sit up and take notice.
Kidnappers Cliff 2014 Chardonnay ($54.99)is a deliciously European styled wine – flinty, minerally and elegant with impressive length and huge depth of flavour. Whole-bunch pressed and fermented in French oak, it is a toasty, lip-smacking genius of a wine. It went perfectly with pork loin, but I would argue it would go perfectly with anything, including breakfast.
I have previously waxed lyrical about Villa Maria wines, and I amshamelessly going to do the same again. The Villa Maria Library Release 2009 Gimblett Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot ($69.99) is a superb wine in every respect.
Inky-black in colour with piles and piles of rich, succulent, sweet fruit, fine, soft tannins and a vibrant and surprisingly youthful structure that belies its age. Released at eight years old, it is drinking beautifully now but will certainly get even better with additional age.
The Library Release wines are all rare as hen’s teeth, all magnificently aged and all worth hunting down.
Rumour has it, the West Island produces occasionally decent wine as well, so of course I was interested to try the iconic St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet 2012. Typically Coonawarra, it is a deep, dense, ripe and oaky beast of a wine that will potentially cellar for at least another two decades.
If this wine had a voice, it would be gravelly and booming, but still friendly.
At around the $55 mark, it sits easily amongst the top echelon of Australian wines.
-Waikato wine and beer writer Simon Wood grew up in Hamilton and now loves in Te Aroha, email woodonwineandbeer@gmail.com