Stockist/Retailer: Luvians

(2026) A pale style with gentle almond touched pear and yellow plum. The palate is dry, fruit slightly lacking, a straw-like character with citrus acidity, but rather dies on the palate - a little weak and little short. Perhaps in picking early and trying to avoid the headier style of Chardonnay they've left this a bit lacking.

(2026) An extra note of creaminess here compared to the Gru-V, touching on apricot and peach, but still mostly cooler apple and citrus. This also has a touch of sweetness. Richer texture than the Gru-V too, but not quite the freshness or agility.

(2026) Bright and focused pear and melon rind, fruity with a tiny but enriching hint of phenolic character. Some sweetness here, but all about juicy pears - like liquidised Comice pears or the juice from canned pears. Very quaffable indeed for all that.

(2026) Twiggy, beetroot and charcoal nose, a touch ashy. The fruit is dry and vegetal, some cherry and then spice, though still that leafy vegetal character. A bit of sweetness, maybe a touch of charry oak to finish. Not really doing it for me.

(2026) Big, ripe cherry-scented red with copious red cherry fruit and spice. Classic apassimento aromas of dried fruit and a touch of vanilla. Succulent fruit on the palate but with a raisined intensity, bright and juicy, long and fresh in the finish with refined tannins and sweetness balanced by crisp acidity.

(2026) Sophisticated, black fruited, with touches of chocolate and cedar. Quite supple and medium bodied on the palate, this has a keen, crisp edge of tannin and acidity, giving this a very modern, clean and fresh appeal. New Georgia in a very good way and with an attractive label too.

(2021) Organically certified, this is Kim Crawford's estate, and the wine is given a 'hands-off' treatment, fermentation stopped at 12.5% abv when the wine was in balance, leaving 5.2g/l or residual sugar. There's a touch of pinky-bronze to the colour here, and a confectionary nose, all icing sugar and raspbery ripple. In the mouth the sweetness pushes through, with a sense of coolness to this, Asian pear and lemon, though for me it lacks the charm of the Pegasus Bay Riesling.

(2021) Organic, this is given a painstaking vinification: different portions fermented in a concrete egg, amphorae, and neutral old French oak barrels, all with wild yeast. Little bit of a deeper colour here, and a very different nose from those made with commercial yeasts. It's a tiny bit reductive/flinty, salt and apple rather than anything green or tropical. In the mouth the texture is an obvious difference too, more creaminess, some oatmeal and nutty apple. There is sweetness here (almost 7g/l of sugar) which frankly I could do without, but it has a tangy, sour lemon finish and that does work quite well so the final impression is the citrus character in a more complex take on Marlborough SB. A point or two off for being just too sweet.

(2021) An organic wine, but unusually, Loveblock use the antioxidant properties of green tea to protect this wine rather than sulphur: every time the juice / wine was exposed to oxygen 5 mg/L of green tea powder was added before the wine was racked to barrels. 6.10g/l of residual sugar. Very unusual on the nose. I guess it is the green tea giving this unusual, herbal, chamomile and, yes, gree tea notes. On the palate a substantial weight and loads of flavour. Again I can detect that unusual tea character, and again too much residual sugar for my palate. In the finish the dry tannin-like and umami quality of the tea against the sweet stone fruits, sugar and sour acid makes for a very unusual wine. Interesting, but personally I wouldn't rush for a second glass.

(2021) Fruit was run over a sorting table straight to the tank, without crushing, and fermentation commenced on its own yeast. Approximately 50% of this wine was aged in oak. Medium-pale garnet colour, not giving a lot on the nose, some plummy fruit comes through, a little briar, quite earthy, maybe just a hint of rose perfume. On the palate quite full, dark-fruited and a touch meaty, the tannin and acid profile here combine to give this a fresh edge, but sweet fruit and fleshy density persist. Medium finish.