New Zealand - Three Splendid Wines !

One wine region that notoriously escapes our attention is New Zealand. A fascinating assembly of Polynesian islands contrasts primordial glaciers and volcanoes with modern cities and farms. Here ancient indigenous traditions of the Maori people mix with the buttoned-up Britishness introduced to this far-off land when the Empire declared it a crown colony in 1840. Though the first vineyards were planted in 1819 by Reverend Samuel Marsden in the Northland area of the North Island, only in recent decades have the region’s wines achieved critical mass. Over the last decade significant improvements in the quality of the wines have been achieved. In 1998, viticulturist Steve Smith and Australian businessman Terry Peabody founded Craggy Range Winery which is producing single-vineyard wines in the Hawkes Bay region. Smith, the winery's viticulture director, defined certain blocks where particular varietals could best exploit the conditions. The early vintages of Craggy Range were made from sourced grapes, only with the 2002 vintage was Smith’s belief that the property had the potential to yield wines of an exquisite character finally vindicated. The overall exceptional quality of the vintage inspired Smith and his team to release three single-parcel wines as their Prestige Collection, which garnered very high praise from Robert M. Parker and Michael Broadbent, and its 2002 Les Beaux Cailloux Chardonnay was named one of 2005’s best international white wines.

The Prestige Collection, which is only made in superb vintages, reappears with the release of the 2004 cuvee. The 2004 Les Beaux Cailloux Chardonnay comes from the stoniest section of the Gimblett Gravels Vineyard, where Smith has planted several Dijon clones, and represents a magnificently textured wine that managed to avoid the excessive fruitiness of many other New World whites in favor of a more restrained composition that balances granite minerality with intense citrus and light peach.

The 2004 Le Sol Syrah was the last to be harvested in that year, and the berries, when picked, were shrunken and very intense in flavor. The result is a Syrah rather Rhône-like in style: The blackberry fruit does not overpower the subtler, smoky strain of black licorice, which lingers long before giving way to a peppery finale.

The third wine in the Prestige Collection, the 2004 Sophia, is a powerful and richly textured Merlot blend, which Robert Parker declared “could easily be mistaken for a Cheval Blanc”. This wine is a sultry mélange of black fruit and delicate spice that coats the palate enticingly.

To celebrate this remarkable trio of New Zealand's premuim wines, Craggy Range has created a Prestige Collection Gift Box available in the US exclusively through Park Avenue Liquor. Each handcrafted, solid cherry box is embossed in copper with the Craggy Range logo and contains two bottles each of 2004 Les Beaux Cailloux Chardonnay, 2004 Le Sol Syrah, and 2004 Sophia Merlot. Production of these collector’s boxes is limited to 200 and available on a first-come, first-served basis. This is a great gift for any collector or wine aficionado but also a great venue to just start to explore great wines from New Zealand, a wine region that cannot be ignored any longer. These boxes are not exessivly expensive and go for a few hundert bucks. It averages out to about $60 per bottle which is ok. In any event, make an effort to try wines from New Zealand. You will be suprised what you find!

Craggy Range Prestige Collection Gift Box available at Park Avenue Liquor
212.685.2442