Dean Shaw (left) and Jason Bowyer. Huon Hooke
Who said there’s no such thing as good cheap pinot noir?
Tell that to Dean Shaw, who makes the Aldi supermarket brand of Central Otago pinot noir, Kaiora Bay.
There’s a Reserve bottling at AUD $16 and a Winemaker’s Selection at AUD $18, and both punch well above their weight. Both regularly score in the high 80s to low 90s with The Real Review.
Dean Shaw’s most famous client is Sam Neill’s Two Paddocks, whose wines he has been making for most of Two Paddocks’ existence.
Shaw is the winemaker and manager of Cowco, otherwise known as the Central Otago Wine Company, based in Cromwell on the shores of Lake Dunstan.
Shaw estimates 15 to 20% of the wine he makes from Cowco’s annual crush of more than 600 tonnes is for Aldi’s wines.
Dean Shaw’s most famous client is Sam Neill’s Two Paddocks, whose wines he has been making for most of Two Paddocks’ existence. He also makes Domaine-Thomson’s New Zealand wines, since its first vintage in 2003. Two Paddocks has a financial interest in Cowco, and has its wines in their cellar door sales outlet.
But there’s no competitor when it comes to volume: Aldi wins hands down. The exact amount of Kaiora Bay pinot noir Cowco produces for Aldi is not for publication, but Dean Shaw and Jason Bowyer, Aldi’s Sydney-based wine buying director, mentioned that the wine is bottled on demand—meaning it’s not all bottled at the same
This Article was originally published on The Real Review
