Fall in love with Matakana's Pinot Gris

2007 Matakana Estate Pinot Gris, Matakana, New Zealand

Matthew Jukes
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published

2007 Matakana Estate Pinot Gris, Matakana, New Zealand (£11.99, Cambridge Wine Merchants, 01223-568991; Oz Wines, 0845-4501261; Wimbledon Wine Cellar, 020-8540 9979; D Byrne & Co, 01200-423152; Taurus Wines, 01483-548484).

I visited the Matakana wine region of New Zealand in 2004 it is two hours north of Auckland, and frankly there is little to see, but I was there to taste one specific wine this one. I fell in love with it in a restaurant in Sydney when I was on tour and I had to see where it came from.

Since then each consecutive vintage at Matakana Estate has pushed their own very high-quality bar even higher. These days, Pinot Gris is exceptionally trendy in New Zealand, but most producers simply get it wrong; either making Italian Grigio wannabes that lack zippiness, or lardy, puppy-fat-loaded, Alsatian Gris styles that groan under high alcohol and headachey fruit. Matakana, thanks to its weather and perhaps a fair slice of fluke seems to have unwittingly nailed this style and I adore this wine.

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The 2007 arrived last week and it is finally sealed with a screwcap, so there is no bottle variation at all. Awesome with Indian food (it is one of the stars on my wine list at Amaya, in Belgravia's Halkin Arcade) and sensational with plain-grilled, very expensive fish, this is a wine that will cement a grin on your chops and make you wonder why you've never had the pleasure before.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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