New Zealand Wine Fair at City Winery, May 14th, 2012

The New Zealand Wine Fair at City Winery last week in Manhattan was an eye opening tasting. 

It all began with a great presentation by Paul Grieco; his topic was... can you guess? Riesling! We went through 5 different regions and tasted two rieslings from each-- as you can imagine, the diversity was as brilliant as the wines themselves. 

The seminar was pretty early (if you work in a restaurant "early" is before noon), so most of the attendees were press and trade. The sommeliers were all asleep, and I must amidst the only thing that got me out of bed that early was the promise of a huge riesling flight from all over New Zealand. Nothing beats morning coffee like morning acid!

Paul made some great points- he spoke about his recent trip, partying at Pegasus Bay, but also went into some of the sticky areas of riesling: the perception of sulphides as minerality, using potassium from extra skin contact to offset acidity, the perception of "sweet", RS and acid levels, and the new IRF Riesling Scale.  

Here was the tasting lineup, each one so unique; I italicized my favorites: 

Dry River 2008 (Martinborough)- lemon meringue, white flowers, crazy acid
Te Kairanga 2010 (Martinborough)- funky, petrol, wild
Neudorf 2010 (Nelson)- white florals, earth, pears
Redoubt Hill 2010 (Nelson)- ripe peach, strawberry, rosemary
Villa Maria 2010 (Marlborough)- apple, quince, peach
Forrest The Doctors 2011 (Marlborough)- grapes, lime, sage
Mount Beautiful 2009 (Waipara)- lime skin, roasted coconut, earth
Pegasus Bay "Bel Canto" 2009 (Waipara)- pears, peaches, petrol
Rippon 2009 (Central Otago)- membrillo, apples, pears
Mount Difficulty "Target Gully" 2011 (Central Otago)- peach candies, lemondrops, white flowers
Fromm Spatlese 2010 (Marlborough)- ripe starfruit, pears, grapes
Seifried "Sweet Agnes" 2010 (Nelson)- smelled like strawberry Special K!

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The rieslings were great-- but they weren't the only aromatic varietal that stood out. Time and time again I was blown away by the pinot gris (across the board- from all different producers). Do yourself a favor and pick up some of these next time you are in a wine store. They shouldn't be too difficult to find because pinot gris plantings have dramatically increased in NZ from less than 200 hectares in 2000 to almost 1800 hectares in 2010. Exports have followed this trend. Currently pinot gris accounts for 65% of aromatic white exports from NZ (riesling is at 26%). 

See the photo below for one of the most interesting tables at the tasting. Mt. Beautiful (North Canterbury) had a tablecloth on their tasting table with a detailed map of their vineyard topography and what varietals were planted there. Notably, you see the sauvignon blanc in green, some riesling in blue, pinot noir in pink, and a single vineyard of pinot gris in grey:

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A few other wines that really stood out: 

Lawson's Dry Hills 2010 gewurztraminer 
Giesen 2011 riesling
Mud House 2010 pinot noir
Carrick 2010 pinot gris
Peregrine 2010 riesling
Elephant Hill 2010 chardonnay