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4 Stars - Sam Kim - Wine Orbit - February 2011
It's ripe and opulent on the nose displaying tropical fruit, apricot and a touch of honey characters. The palate is ripe and expansive with a fruity mouthfeel and soft sweetness (11.8 g/l) which is nicely balanced by the acidity. At its best: now to 2012. $24.00 Moderate availability. 13% Screw cap. Feb 2011.
4 Stars - Bob Campbell - January 2011
Robust, flavorsome Pinot Gris with a suggestion of sweetness supported by tangy acidity to give a dry-ish finish. Lively wine with energy. The texture is ethereal and pleasantly pure. Good Quince, pear and other stone fruit flavours.
5 Stars - Sue Courtney -Wine of the Week, February 2011
Ohau Gravels Pinot Gris 2010 has floral and spice aromas with apple, pear and pineapple fruit and it's spicy and zesty to the taste with richness and weight to the backbone, bright fruit and a tickle of spritz – or perhaps that's just the exhilarating ginger-like zest. The flavours are mouthwatering, even a suggestion of passionfruit comes through, and while the fruit suggests a little sweetness, the wine seems to finish much drier with its balanced acidity and typical winey savouriness from a small portion of barrel ferment and an extended time on yeast lees. It has 13% alcohol and RRP is $23.95. My rating: 5 stars.
Served chilled, this is the kind of Pinot Gris that makes a superb beverage wine, I'm saying that because it was too fruity as a match for my chicken and mushroom pie. However the winemaker says, "Enjoy with lightly spiced Asian dishes or fresh summer salads with pan-fried scallops, white fish and aioli."
The Ohau Gravels website lists where you can buy this wine – not only in New Zealand but in Australia, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hungary too.
Evidently the Maori word Ohau sounds like "everything is excellent" when heard by Mandarin speakers.
© Sue Courtney 9 Feb 2011
Pure Bronze - Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2010
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4 Stars - Sam Kim - Wine Orbit - February 2011
It's gently fragrant on the nose displaying grapefruit, apple and herbaceous characters. The palate is lively and bright showing good fruit intensity and racy acidity. From just north of the Kapiti Coast, this is a sturdy and firm style Sauvignon with a mouthwatering palate. At its best: now to 2012. $21.00 Moderate available. 12.5% Screw cap. Feb 2011.
4 Stars - Raymond Chan
The fruit for the Ohau Gravels premium wine was selectively hand-picked, cool-fermented in tank, 5% given a wild yeast fermentation in old oak, to 12.5% alc. and 4.5 g/L rs. Brilliant pale straw-yellow in colour, this has a softly full, but elegant nose of capsicums, English gooseberries and a steely, mineral edge. The bouquet has very good intensity. Dry on palate, there is good racy acidity lending a tightness and elegance. The fruit expression has good depth and line through the length of the palate. This should develop and become a little rounder over the next 2 years plus. Drink with all seafood, and Mediterranean and
Asian cuisine.
18.0-/20 Dec 2010 Raymond Chan
Pure Bronze - Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2010
Highly Commended - Sydney International Wine Show 2010
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4 ½ stars and Top 5 Pinot Gris: Cuisine magazine NZ Pinot Gris Tasting – March 2010 issue #139
Brother Cyprian Trophy for Champion Pinot Gris:
Romeo Bragato Wine Awards 2009
Gold medal:
Romeo Bragato Wine Awards 2009
Raymond Chan, Regional Wines, Wellington – November 2009
“Pinot Gris is variety difficult to vinify for character and balance. The Ohau Gravels wine is an outstanding example, and it is a credit to the condition of the fruit and the sensitive winemaking to get it right straight away. Hand-picked fruit, gentle pressing and an inoculated yeast selected solely for Pinot Gris was used; the wine having lees contact until bottling. 14.0% alc with 10.8 g/l residual sugar. Pale straw yellow in colour, this has an excellent bouquet of fresh white stone fruits with florals and spices. The palate is lively and invigorating with an elegant structure, and real depth of fruit intensity. The richness of the tropical fruit and spice flavours add to the apparent sweetness, but this is superbly counterpoised by the good acidity.
Seductive aromas of feijoa, Turkish Delight, apricots and ripe peaches mingle with notes of honeysuckle in this luscious Pinot Gris. It is a well-balanced wine with a soft, rounded palate and gentle acidity.”
Warren Barton, Wine of the Week, Wanganui Chronicle – October 2009
“Ohau Gravels is the first – and only – winery in the country’s newest wine-growing region, at Ohau, just north of the Kapiti Coast. It’s inevitable it will be joined by others, judging from the quality of this wine. And why not? This wine is quite weighty, off-dry with pear, feijoa and honeysuckle aromas and flavours, and decent concentration.”
Sue Courtney, Wine of the Week, November 2009
“A big, rich, concentrated, creamy, almost oily style. It has a powerful presence of gala apples, pear, quince, a hint of honeysuckle, a touch of mandarin and the bitterness of bright, tasty, freshly grated zest to balance the flavours that are just on the dry edge of sweetness. It’s a fragrant spicy wine and tasting it later, after the Sauvignon, nuances of pineapple come through too.”
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Silver medal : NZ International Wine Show 2009
4 ½ stars, Michael Cooper, NZ Listener, June 2010
“Aromatic and vibrant, with intense, clearly herbaceous flavours and racy acidity. It could be straight out of the Awatere Valley.”
4 ½ stars, Jan 2010, Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, www.wineorbit.co.nz
Highly anticipated 2009 Vintage Seminar – USA
Selected as one of 11 NZ Sauvignon Blanc to appear at the ‘Highly anticipated 2009 vintage seminar’ new-release tasting held in New York and Chicago in March.
Raymond Chan, Regional Wines, Wellington – November 2009
“This wine is getting better all the time as it settles in bottle. Pale straw yellow with youthful green hues, the wine possesses an intense nose and palate of passionfruit intertwined with herbs, citrus fruits and minerals. Crisp, dry and refreshing from the racy acidity, the wine is deliciously mouth-watering and tightly bound, showing no broadness or coarseness at all. Its style can be seen to be between that of Marlborough and the Wairarapa. This is a hand-picked selection of the best fruit. Five per cent of the wine was indigenous yeast fermented in seasoned oak barrels for increased texture and complexities, and the resultant wine is 14.0% alc with an imperceptible 3.5 g/l residual sugar.
This classic style displays ripe fruit flavours in harmony with aromas of citrus and sweet gooseberry, laced with minerality. Hints of lime, grapefruit, gooseberry and sweet red capsicum are offset by fresh vibrant acidity and a lingering finish. Pair with grilled salmon and Mediterranean-style vegetables.”
Sue Courtney, Wine of the Week, November 2009
“This is an earthy, flinty, gravely style with an edgy point of difference to the masses of Sauvignon that comes out of the South Island – dare I say it even has a Sancerre-ish quality. Lots of herbaceous nuances, nettles, dandelion, feijoa and apples – apple flavours reminiscent of some of the lovely Sauvignon Blancs that come out of Martinborough. This is a cat-free, sweat-free zone – a beautiful Sauvignon – one that I can (and did) drink more than one glass of. I am very impressed."
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