Great New Zealand Wine Tiki Tour coming to Vancouver

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      With the sun starting to make regular appearances, we’re likely in the mood for some fresh and lively wines to suit the season, right? There’s a great opportunity to dive into a whole flurry of wines perfect for this time of year when the Great New Zealand Wine Tiki Tour hits our shores next Thursday (May 4).

      It’s all going down at the fancy-pants Terminal City Club (837 West Hastings Street) starting at 7 p.m. That’s when your $65 ticket opens the door to sampling wines from 29 wineries pouring some of their best stuff. Even if you’re not a fan of Sauvignon Blanc, the country’s flagship wine variety, there’ll be plenty of other wine styles on offer. Some stellar Rieslings, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noirs, and Syrahs are coming out of the country as well.

      With almost 30 wineries in the room, there is going to be a little something for everyone. Here are a few wineries I would be making a beeline toward:

      Astrolabe Wines

      Founded in 1996, Astrolabe’s wines are all about purity of fruit sourced from a trio of subregions in Marlborough: Awatere Valley, Wairau Valley, and the Kekerengu coast. I’ve always found winemaker Simon Waghorn’s bottlings pristine and elegant. You can get a sneak preview of his fare by picking up a bottle of Astrolabe Sauvignon Blanc 2015 for $22.49 at B.C. Liquor Stores.

      Brancott Estate

      These folks were the original producers of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc back in 1975, and Patrick Materman has been at the winemaking helm since 1990. It probably goes without saying that they’re getting the hang of it. While enjoying an encounter with these historical players, make sure to ask them about Sauvignon Gris—an almost-lost white Bordeaux variety they’ve been reviving, offering the citrusy aromatics of Sauvignon Blanc amid the weight and stone-fruit character that Pinot Gris is known to carry.

      Crowded House

      All cards on the table: I’ve never tried a wine from this winery, but I have been a long-time fan of Crowded House, the Australian band led by New Zealander Neil Finn. There’s no actual connection here (the name is in reference to Marlborough being chock-a-block with vineyard properties), nor is there any connection of winemaker Peter Jackson to the dude who directed the Lord of the Rings movies. Their terroir-driven wines are made from various Marlborough sites and their aim is to pick all of their fruit at optimal ripeness and then not get in its way too much in the winery. I’m looking forward to giving ’em a whirl.

      Loveblock Vintners

      Love-block comes to us from Erica and Kim Crawford (yes, that Kim Crawford), and my first opportunity to try its wines was when Erica visited Vancouver a few years back.

      There were a few media and trade in attendance at a dinner she was hosting at Cactus Club in Coal Harbour, and she’s one of those people who is just so amiable and charming the moment you meet her: quick to laugh and generous with her industry knowledge. You can even glean elements of her personality on the Love Block Wine website, where she eschews corporatespeak and overly technical terms, preferring to write in the first person, almost as if she’s having a chat with pals.

      Although Erica and Kim grew the Kim Crawford brand into the powerhouse it is today, after its sale they went back to their roots of small-batch winemaking, creating wines with brilliant concentration from high-alititude vineyards in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley, and down in Central Otago as well. Their Sauvignon Blanc offers waves of muddled lemon, peaches, and quince, while their Pinot Noir explodes with dark-berry fruit, finishing off with a nice, earthy landing. They also get bonus points for having some of the prettiest wine labels out there.

      Spy Valley Wines

      Jan and Bryan Johnson’s Waihopai Valley winery has 130 hectares of plantings, and although they include New Zealand mainstays like Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and Pinot Gris, they also produce varieties we don’t see as often from the country, such as Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Malbec, and even a little olive oil, too. Plenty of single vineyard wines offer a good drilling down into various components of their terroir.

      On top of all of the wineries on hand, the Tiki Tour also features a Pinot Noir tasting station where attendees can taste through a flight of Pinots, each from a different subregion, to illustrate the breadth and stylistic differences brought to the glass from various parts of the islands.

      For more information and tickets, head to the New Zealand Wine website. Hopefully, the weather will be as lively and bright as many of the wines in the room.

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