Food
White wines
Introduction
Five wines get our maximum 5-star rating. One was an excellent value riesling.
Our tasting found plenty of white wines worthy of a spot at your Christmas table. The tasting list was a mix of summery still whites and – with the festive season in mind – a selection of sparkling wines.
Kiwi wines dominated the tasting: only one was an Aussie.
About our tasting
Consumer tastings differ from industry wine tastings and competitions. We buy our wine from shops just like consumers do – most other tastings and awards use wine submitted by the winemaker or supplier. The wines were grouped according to their variety and tasted “blind”.
The judges are a mix of industry professionals and experienced amateurs. Each judge independently gives the wines a score out of 20, following the international scoring system for wines. The judges also discuss the wine after tasting – still without knowing the wines – and then agree on a final score. Our star ratings are based on this agreed (final) score.
Our panel
Larry McKenna
Director and winemaker for Escarpment Vineyard, Martinborough. Senior Judge at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards. Past Chairperson of the Bragato Wine Awards, the International Cool Climate Wine Show and the International Chardonnay Challenge.
Sue Davies
Wine consultant with 20 years’ experience in the wine industry. Owner of Wine2Trade (a distributor of premium hand-crafted boutique wines). National wine-options champion and Royal Easter Show Wine Awards judge.
Diane Langman
Bachelor of Hospitality Management lecturer at Wellington Institute of Technology. Has more than 20 years’ hospitality industry experience.
Gary Bowering
Passionate wine drinker with an interest in French and “new world” wines.
Huw Kinch
Assistant winemaker for Escarpment Vineyard, Martinborough. Previously worked at Trinity Hill in Hawke’s Bay and McWilliams in Australia.
How to read a wine label
Wine labels are required by law to state:
- name and address of the winemaker or supplier
- volume of wine
- alcohol content
- number of standard drinks.
Unlike food, wine is also required to state the country of origin. If the grapes come from two countries, both must be listed.
If two or more grapes are listed, they must be listed in descending order. If there's more merlot than shiraz in a blend, it must be called "merlot shiraz" rather than the other way around.
Additives and preservatives
You might be surprised to read on your bottle that it "may contain" fish, milk, or egg products. These are used in small quantities to prevent wine going cloudy or to remove bitterness or astringency. They're mostly filtered out before wine is sold but there's always a chance tiny residual amounts will remain. The Food Standards Code requires these additives to be declared on all wine labels, so that people with allergies are forewarned.
And if there's more than 10mg/kg of sulphur dioxide (a preservative) then that must be declared too.
The 85 percent rule
From the 2007 vintage onwards, an "85 percent rule" came into force. This covers claims about grape variety, vintage, and the area where the grapes are grown.
For example, a wine whose label claims it's a single grape variety, single vintage, or from a single area must contain at least 85 percent of that variety, vintage or area. And if a label says the wine is "2007", then at least 85 percent of that wine must be from the 2007 vintage.
Previously there had been only a 75 percent requirement. That means a wine claiming a 2006 vintage only needs to be 75 percent from that year, and a chardonnay from 2006 or earlier only has to have 75 percent chardonnay grapes.
What else is on the label?
There's a lot of other information on the label that can help you be a wine buff.
Vintage
This is the year the grapes were harvested. There may be a certain percentage of grapes from another year, though - see "The 85 percent rule" just above.
Non-vintage
NV wines are blends from more than one year. If there's no date on the label you can be pretty sure it's NV. (Why do winemakers do this? Blending wines from different years allows them to produce consistent wines from one year to the next.)
Medals
You've seen the little gold and silver labels displaying wine-show awards. But the claim must be true for the wine in that particular bottle - and the wine mustn't be different from what was submitted to the show. A medal, however, doesn't mean a wine is necessarily better than a wine without a medal: some winemakers choose not to enter shows and competitions.
The back label
This typically gives information about the winery, vineyard, and how the wine tastes. It may also give tips for food matching. Sometimes it'll tell you whether the wine's for "drinking now" or for "cellaring" - and how long you should cellar it for.
Sweetness scale
Riesling comes in a range of styles from dry to sweet. But when you’re buying a bottle without tasting it, it can be difficult to know exactly what you’ll be getting.
Riesling labels will usually state the “residual sugar” level in grams – and sometimes include the acidity. But it’s the balance between sugar and acidity that determines how “sweet” the wine tastes.
Some producers are making it easier for consumers to know what they’re buying: their labels include the International Riesling Foundation’s “taste profile” scale (see below). This scale ranges from dry to sweet and is an indication of the perceived sweetness (how it tastes) rather than measured sweetness.
This is an excellent innovation – and we’d like to see it more widely used for riesling and other aromatic wines like pinot gris and gewürztraminer. It’s particularly useful when you’re choosing wines to match certain foods. Crisp, dry rieslings pair well with delicate seafood and chicken dishes, while sweeter-styles are a perfect accompaniment to hot or spicy Asian cuisine.