Bumper weekend wine guide: NZ’s best organic wines reviewed
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Looking for organic wine? About 11% of our 700-plus wine producers are certified organic for at least part of their output. Chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are all banned, although small amounts of sulphur dioxide can be added as a preservative, to protect the wines’ flavour and freshness.
Do organic wines taste better? The jury is out. A 2016 US study, based on 74,148 reviews of California wines in three top publications, found “agreement among experts that ecocertified wines are of better quality”. But a 2022 analysis of 304 reviews in an influential Spanish wine guide found “expert tasters rate non-organic wines higher”. I’ll keep you posted.
Red
Astrolabe Wrekin Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noir 2020
★★★★★
A classy red that was hand-harvested in the southern valleys and matured in French oak casks (33% new). Deeply coloured, it is powerful, highly concentrated and finely structured, with dense cherry, plum and spice flavours. It is complex, savoury, vigorous and still extremely youthful. Best drinking 2025+. (14% alc/vol) $65
Black Estate Damsteep North Canterbury Pinot Noir 2021
★★★★★
Hand-harvested in the Damsteep Vineyard, planted in 1999 “at the top of the Waipara Valley”, this is a full-coloured, estate-grown red. Matured in seasoned French oak puncheons and barriques, it was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Fragrant and characterful, it has rich, ripe cherry, plum and spice flavours, complex and very savoury, with gentle acidity and a well-structured finish. Full of youthful vigour, it’s well worth cellaring. (13.5% alc/vol) $55
Carrick Organic Bannockburn Central Otago Pinot Noir 2021
★★★★★