Our thanks to Hennie and Celia Bosman for visiting on Tuesday night and sharing their newfound experiences since buying and developing the Sandihurst Winery out
West Melton way. It was a very friendly, relaxed and informative tasting with a selection of lovely Canterbury wines tried by all.
We also really appreciated the generous discounts on the night for members and for the 2 bottles of the 2004 Riesling as a prize for our raffle - especially appreciated by those that won them, heh heh!!!
Hennie and Celia emigrated from South Africa in 2004 and and purchased Sandihurst in 2005 as a going concern - their focus and passion is for developing aromatics, such as Pinot Gris, Gewurztaminer and especially Rieslings of which we tasted two tonight -Hennie even hinted that they may be pulling their Chardonnay out and planting another German variety (varietal name escapes me).
We started with a 2006 Chardonnay (Waipara) followed by the 2006 Pinot Gris (Canterbury) both of which were both very well made clean and fruit driven wines. Chardonnay was unoaked but a little lees aging and malolactic fermentation gave it the buttery mouth feel sometimes lacking in unoaked chardoannays. The Pinot Gris was balanced and just off-dry with aromas of pear / quince and also had a creamy palate with hints of spice - nice food wine…
The 2006 Riesling (Canterbury) and the 2004 Riesling (Canterbury) were quite different wines, the ‘06 being off dry with a little lees aging to enhance the mouth feel - a shy wine but with age should develop beautifully. On the other hand the ‘04 was immediately all kerosene and honey in the nose and well integrated acid and citrus fruit flavours - a fine food wine…
To finish we tasted the the 2006 Pinot Noir (40% Waipara / 60% Canterbury fruit) what can I say -
Deep ruby colour with dark fruits, plum and berry in the nose hints of mint and liquorice. generous mouth feel with plenty of berry and spice. The oak well integrated with drying tannins towards the wine’s persistent finish. Hennie reckons another 5 years and this will be a stunner…
For those who missed this evening, there are detailed tasting notes on the wines on the Sandihurst Wesbsite at http://www.sandihurstwines.co.nz/ourwines.html along with information about the winemaker, Kirk Bray, the Canterbury region and lots of other interesting things.
Hope you all enjoyed the evening as we did - and thanks to those that helped with the clean up - the committee really appreciates that after all it is YOUR CLUB.
Cheers, JB (Blogmeister)
