Viognier Has Great Potential
April 6th, 2009
Regular readers will know I see the future of red wine from Hawke’s Bay as being Syrah, rather than the more extensively planted Cabernet Sauvignon (plus blend grapes – Merlot/Cabernet Franc etc).
Could it be the future of white wine in Hawke’s Bay is something other than Chardonnay? A knowledgeable friend who recently had a daughter married at Mission Vineyard in Hawke’s Bay certainly thinks so. He was raving about a Viognier wine he had consumed at the wedding.
Since then I have been drinking nothing but Viognier from Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne to try to reach my own conclusions. Most NZers will have been first exposed to this grape variety from Aust where there are many good wines produced (my current favourite is Zilzie from North West Victoria). The grape is from Condrieu, the Rhone Valley in France, but the new world interpretations of the wine – from Aust, US and NZ are very different and more exciting.
I won’t mention any names but my conclusions are Viognier has great potential both in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne. There are some lovely wines being made. These wines seem more floral than most from Aust and most are displaying a lovely apricot flavour. In most cases these are lovely refreshing wines. I can understand why one went down so well at a summer afternoon wedding.
I do have some hesitation, however. Several of the wines had alcohol levels of 14.5% and were extremely “hot” in the mouth. The alcohol character dominated everything else, which was a great shame. There was a bit of a reduction (sulphur) issue also in a couple of the older wines. I strongly encourage readers to get out there and try our Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne Viognier wines. I enjoyed the experience very much.
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