A thrilling Kiwi pinot

Snap up this haunting Kiwi red for under twenty quid, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
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2010 Ballochdale, Pinot Noir, Awatere Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand (£17.50, Amps Fine Wines, 01832-273502, www.ampsfinewines.co.uk).

Set up ten years ago to grow premium grapes in the beautiful, cool, Awatere Valley, Ballochdale Estate supplies luminaries such as Jules Taylor, Villa Maria, Astrolabe and Nobilo's Icon label with pinot noir. In 2010 this estate decided to release its own wine made by Emmanuel Bolliger.

I am keen on Marlborough pinot, with its vibrant red tones and crunchy minerality. All too often Martinborough and Central Otago grab the Kiwi pinot headlines, but I am equally excited about Waipara and also Marlborough.

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These wines have tone and urgency about them which makes them thrilling on the palate and lifted on the nose. There is another reason to jump at the chance to buy this inaugural Ballochdale vintage it is remarkably good value for money.

Most top Kiwi pinot slumbers on the wrong side of the £20 barrier. This one, with its haunting, summer pudding aroma and sleek, red-cherry palate is a dead cert at £17.50, so congrats to Philip Amps for sniffing it out. This is another good example, on this page, of the highly skilled independent merchant setting the tone for us avid wine drinkers.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

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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