When vintage conditions are very favourable, it is easier to make good wine. Te Mata Estate (Coleraine Vineyard)
This is a follow up to the first instalment which was published to coincide with discussion of The Real Review’s Top Value wines list.
As a reminder to those who read the previous piece a while ago, the aim of this series is to highlight some collecting strategies and provide overviews of wine styles which go into building a cellar of New Zealand wine. The focus will be on more pragmatic and affordable wines, rather than the blue-chip wines like Ata Rangi, Te Mata Coleraine, Bell Hill, Felton Road Block 3, etc, which are absolute must-buys for those who can afford them. For the rest of us, here’s how to stock up a useful, delicious and drinkable cellar while working to a budget.
The aim of this series is to highlight some collecting strategies and provide overviews of wine styles which go into building a cellar of New Zealand wine.
This instalment will look specifically at getting a bit more bang for the buck by understanding the relationship between “good vintages”, “bad vintages” and “second labels”. We established in part one that age-ability is not dictated by price, but rather, by innate traits of the wine such as balance, structure and depth.
When vintage conditions are very favourable, it is easier to make good wine, so the differences in quality at the entry and mid-range are smaller than in more difficult vintages.
This Article was originally published on The Real Review
