May 3, 2007 - Poking around in New Zealand
I'll just admit it right now - I don't really know much about New Zealand - save for the Cloudy Bay, Oyster Bay, Kemeu River, Montana and a handful of others. Definitely good, competent wines but not really stuff that gets your's truly excited... Until I ended up going through Central Otago on vacation. Central Otago is situated on the "South Island" - for those who don't know, New Zealand is actually divided into North and South Islands. Central Otago - is dry and cool.... perfect for Pinot Noir Burgheads, at least that is what is mostly planted here (>80%). I'll cut to the chase, the promise was Pinot and most producers here make small amounts and the price is not exactly cheap. Many are good competent renditions of Pinot Noir (other's not quite so) but not something that makes my heart skip a beat. I have been told to give some of the special reserve bottlings a try. That will be done but frankly they are not easy to get a hold of and definitel