vitalsigns
6116
Sunday night wine and dinner
Starting with the wine: Mount Maude Kid's Block 2015, hand carried home from the beautiful South Island of New Zealand.
This was a wonderful wine, full of pinot fruit and lovely on the palate. So good that I drank 2/3rds of the bottle while my wife drank only 1/3 (lucky me!). We usually don't finish the whole bottle, but there was no way this one would last the evening. The wine was still very primary, and delicately sweet and smooth on the palate but with nice balance--never flabby.
This winery is a friend-of-the-family winery, and my father-in-law, now long retired and living 1/2 the year in NZ, spends many days tending the hillside vines as a labor of love. We've had many nice dinners there, and the Maude wines are high quality and nice value. They produce a range of wines, but are most known for their pinots, of course, and chardonnays. Central Otago in New Zealand produces some excellent fruit-forward but still somewhat Burgundian pinots, and the Maude wines are some of the nicest.
14% alcohol...a decent amount for a good pinot. Too much, and the alcohol is too overbearing for the delicate pinot fruit.
This wine still had nice structure and easily 3-5 more years (at least) until maturity, but it is drinking so nicely now. It will be a challenge to stay hands-off as I think I have a few bottles more.
A Mount Maude hillside vineyard. Looking forward to getting back there once travel in the age of COVID is again reasonably available.
And dinner. It tasted better than it looks. Braised lamb with spinach and white beans, and roasted asparagus. A nice pairing with a good pinot noir.
Sunday night wine and dinner
Starting with the wine: Mount Maude Kid's Block 2015, hand carried home from the beautiful South Island of New Zealand. This was a wonderful wine, full of pinot fruit and lovely on the palate. So good that I drank 2/3rds of the bottle while my wife drank ...
Yes,the Central Otago pinots
are very fruit driven and flavoursome---accessible relatively early. Never had this label,but not surprised at your enjoyment of its quality.
Limited production, so most are sold entirely in NZ.
You might have had the Felton Road wines, probably NZ's most well-regarded pinots. Their block wines, single-vineyard Block 3 and Block 5 wines in particular, are terrific, drink well young but have excellent aging potential, and have that wonderful inter...
Central Otago Pinots are a hidden gem of this world.
Did the wine trail there exactly a decade ago and was blown away by the local wine. Not exactly cheap, so it makes sense that it's not feasible to import it to Europe or US...hence the rest of the world is not very familiar with those... I remember Amisfi...
Very nice. I've tasted at Amisfield, but not eaten at the restaurant. Will have to do so next time.
The nicer Central Otago wines are not inexpensive, but compared to, say, French Burgundies, they are a genuine bargain (which is to say, it's all relative!).
