New Zealand wines in Shanghai

Earlier this spring we attended a wine tasting at the Roosevelt Hotel, which featured wines from New Zealand, particularly one Sauvignon Blanc and three Pinot Noir wines. The cost was ¥120 each, which included snacks, the wines, and of course views of the Bund and Pudong Financial center across the river. It's always worthwhile going downtown, and this seemed interesting, so we took the shuttle downtown and walked to the Bund.

We enjoyed the wines (more on those in a minute) enough that we bought some of them and had them delivered. In the process we were able to get samples of all four wines so that we could replicate the wine tasting at home.

Here are the wines:

Omni Hills Limestone Ridge Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand, 2011, 13.6%, ¥130 (about $21.50) omnihills.co.nz

Omni Hills Limestone Ridge Pinot Noir, New Zealand, 2011, 14.4%, ¥200 (about $33) omnihills.co.nz

Miners Daughter Reserve Pinot Noir, North Canterbury, New Zealand, 2011, 14%, ¥268 (about $44)

Pyramid Valley Vineyards, Growers Collection, Cowley Family Vineyard Pinot Noir, 2010, 14%, ¥335 (about $55) Wakari, North Canterbury, New Zealand

The Omni Hills Sauvignon Blanc was a real treat. It was exceptionally well balanced, with the citrus flavors common to Sauvignon Blanc, but with some additional roundness, almost a vanilla hint that made it less acidic and very versatile. I generally like the grapefruit flavors of Sauvignon Blanc, but this wine felt a bit more nuanced, more elegant. It has a long flavor profile, developing in your mouth and then slowly melting away, leaving a suggestion of vanilla, a touch of mineral, and mixed fruit. It has slightly too much alcohol for my preference, but it is well balanced. The only problem is that at 13.6% you have to think about how much you can have! Very nice wine, and very nice as an accompaniment to Chinese food here in Shanghai. We're looking forward to drinking more of this.

Omni Hills was also represented by a very nice, light-bodied Pinot Noir, their Limestone Ridge Pinot at ¥200.  This wine had a delightful, delicate, long flavor profile, with cherry and raspberry flavors. The flavors are so delicate, so nice, and it's a bit of a shame that it doesn't have more body. Pinot Noir can be made in a wide variety of styles, and the full-bodied wines are so good, that they tend to be what many of us look for in Pinot Noir.

(As an aside, a colleague was raving about an Erath (Oregon, Willamette Valley) Pinot Noir he had had that was stunning. He went out and bought several bottles of Erath, only to find that, while good, it wasn't the same full bodied Pinot he had fallen in love with on his first tasting. The fact is, there can be excellent light bodied Pinot and wonderful full bodied Pinot, and if you are expecting one and get the other, it's possible to be disappointed.  Just sayin.)

Miner's Daughter made a very tasty Pinot Noir with a wonderful aroma, a full body, and … then it falls off a cliff. Once in the mouth, the flavor turns acidic and somehow stops. When Dory and I tasted this at the Roosevelt, I didn't even finish the sample pour.  On the other hand, when we held our own wine tasting recently, it ranked higher than the Limestone Ridge Pinot.  So, some of us liked it better than, well, than I did. I wanted to like it but I just found it had a bad finish.

The Pyramid Valley Pinot Noir, in contrast to both the earlier wines, was awesome.  Of course, at more than $50 it certainly ought to be good. And in fact I loved it. It has a full intriguing aroma, a full bodied first taste, and a lingering aftertaste. It was multi layered, with fruit, cherries, and earthy flavors. 

When we had our wine tasting at our house, re-creating (without fireworks, sadly) the original, the results changed a bit. Dory and I still held to our original preferences, but our guests thought the Miners Daughter was very good. So, there you go - personal taste trumps all.

We were happy to find these wines, and very happy to be drinking them in Shanghai. It is available through http://globus-wine.com/.

Bordeaux disappointment in Shanghai

Our second wine tasting in China confirmed what we found last time: it's hard to find good wines at the $26 price point. There are some, but it is difficult. That's the bad news.  The good news?  The quiche was great!

Our latest wine tasting was a bit of a surprise - we had been wanting to do this but kept letting planning get in the way. So on Wednesday we announced that we were going to do a wine tasting and emailed past participants and a few others who had expressed interest. By Friday we had our 8.

Because it was short notice the easiest wine to get around here, by far, is Bordeaux. The French have a firm foothold in the Chinese market. So that's what we were drinking, Bordeaux, priced at up to ¥160 (about $26 USD).

In the US we choose the price point of $20 because we were interested in finding good tasting wines that wouldn't break the bank.  Even everyday wines ought to taste good. So that was our mindset. In China prices are higher and it seemed that we could find a variety of wines at ¥160.

Sadly, these wines were mostly bad. It is as if we were looking for a drinkable wine at $6 instead of $26.  Here is the tally:

Bordeaux, La Buissiére, 2011, 13% ¥unrecorded, wine "D" scores from 4.5-9, average total 6.5/20

Mouton Cadet, Rothschild, 2009, 13.5%, ¥135, wine "C", scores from 1.5-13, average total 7.5/20

Bordeaux, Chateau Dudon, 2009, 13.5%, ¥118, Wine "B", scores from 6-9, average total 8/20 

Bordeaux, l'Union de Producteurs, 2010, 14%, ¥158, Wine "A", scores from 9.5-15, average total 13/20

So, wine "A" was a winner, and pretty closely scored by everyone. We bought it at Carrefour, prompted by a French salesman who told us he drank it at home growing up. And we believed him, but whether true or not it was a good wine.

After finishing our sampling, I brought out a bottle of Cotes du Rhône, Chapoutier, 2010, 14%, ¥158.   Dory had found this and we liked it.  Everyone at our Bordeaux tasting also liked it, better than at least 3 of the four bottles, and certainly competitive with the best Bordeaux.

The reason we do these wine tastings is to have fun but also to learn  about various wines, and one of our guests commented that the Cotes du Rhône was spicier, a really different taste. So I was pretty happy that even though we are not finding affordable everyday wines, we are certainly learning something!