Last week I spent in Central Otago attending their annual Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration in order to speak on the first day of the event but most of all to visit dear friends and check in on current release wines. It’s a favorite region of mine that more than anywhere else feels like going home. While there, I posted photos along the way to Instagram . Here’s the collection.
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Aurum M&M 2019 wine – love this, Mathilde and Madeleine, daughters of Lucie and Brooke of Aurum, picked, made, aged, bottled, paint-labeled, and sold their first wine from the 2019 vintage all themselves. Together they cofermented Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Noir to make this fun, delicious, lightly textural, fresh, brightly colored wine. They plan to make another wine together for 2020 too. Love getting to taste this. #centralotago #newzealand #wine @aurumwineslucie @pinotcentral
A post shared by Elaine Chukan Brown (@hawk_wakawaka) on Jan 26, 2020 at 2:08pm PST
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Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir vertical – only Mister Blair Walter would pull a vintage vertical of Pinot Noir for us to discuss vintage conditions, variability, style progression, and age and intentionally exclude his favorite vintages from the selection, while retaining a very good range of interesting vintages. Just one reason why we love him. No distractions! Let’s taste! Great and delicious tasting of Block 3 Pinot: 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011. #centralotago #newzealand #wine @feltonroad @pinotcentral
A post shared by Elaine Chukan Brown (@hawk_wakawaka) on Jan 28, 2020 at 1:25pm PST
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François Millet, Paul Pujol, Brian Allen tasting Pinots from François, Paul and Occidental from Steve Kistler and his daughter Cate in Sonoma – it is hard to explain what this tasting means to me. Over the last several years I have been lucky enough to spend extensive time with François in both Central Otago and Burgundy, with Paul in Central Otago as well as Oregon and Burgundy, and with Steve and his daughter in Sonoma. Meeting with producers I am listening not just for the facts of what they do but also for how they think about the process, what they imagine their relationship to it, what it means for them, and how all these things line up or not in their literal choices. Over time and multiple visits I kept hearing reverberations in the thinking and approach between these three winemakers from three different countries – France, New Zealand, California – and finally timidly went to each of them to talk through the others’ work and see if they would be willing to do tastings of each others’ wines with me. In July of 2019 Steve, Cate, and I tasted wine from François and Paul alongside Occidental wine there in Sonoma with Paul joining by phone. This week we were able to do the reverse bringing Occidental Pinot to Central Otago to taste wines from François and Paul alongside Occidental while I shared all I could on the details of the work and perspective brought by Steve and Cate. We tasted over several hours talking through the vintages, site details, cellar choices, and what we could see in the wines. It is an enormous honor for me to be trusted to represent peoples’ wines in this sort of way and means a lot to have others recognize the linkages I am witnessing and help make connections across the world between people with such otherwise unique perspectives. Enormous thanks to Steve, Cate, François, and Paul for doing this with me and to dear Brian for hosting. #centralotago #sonomawine #newzealand #californiawine #pinotnoir #wine @occidentalwines @catekistler @paulpujol @pinotcentral
A post shared by Elaine Chukan Brown (@hawk_wakawaka) on Jan 29, 2020 at 12:27pm PST
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[…] A Few Days in Central Otago Elaine does another of her Instagram summaries. […]
[…] A Few Days in Central Otago Elaine does another of her Instagram summaries. […]
Great pics! Making me want to go to NZ! Thank you. Keep up the informative pieces. As a somm, I am always up for reading more. If you are ever in Sonoma CA, look me and my wine touring business up! Cheers. https://www.vinesofsonoma.com