2074 days ago

New Zealand Wines!

New Zealand School of Food & Wine

The Certificate in NZ Wine runs over 4 sessions and is followed by an Advanced programme of another 4 sessions.

This week we have enjoyed tasting and learning about innovative estates such as Burn Cottage from Central Otago, Heron’s Flight who make an exceptional Sangiovese in Matakana. Always a pleasure to taste the wines of Hans and Therese Herzog and we savoured the Mistral, a blend of 60% Viognier, 20% Marsanne and 20% Roussanne.

Te Mata’s Cape Crest showcases Hawkes Bay barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc and is interesting to compare with Sancerre from Henri Bourgeois also the owner of Clos Henri. Pegasus Bay’s Finale is New Zealand best example of a Sauternes style with deliciously ripe Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.

Learning about New Zealand’s wine geography and tasting some special wines along the way is always rewarding.

The wines that were tasted were -
- Hans Herzog Estate, Mistral 2016
- Burn Cottage Vineyard, Pinot Noir 2016
- Te Mata Estate Winery, Caupe Crest Sauvignon Blanc 2017
- Heron's Flight Vineyard - Matakana, Amphora Sangiovese 2016
- Pegasus Bay Winery, Finale 2017
- Henri Bourgeois Sancerre, 2018 (Clos Henri Vineyard)

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More messages from your neighbours
1 hour ago

BLOCKHOUSE BAY COMMUNITY MARKET THIS SATURDAY MORNING!

Angela from Blockhouse Bay

1st MARKET BACK FOR 2O26! WE'RE BACK AND WILL BE AT GREENBAY COMMUNITY CENTRE BEHIND NEW WORLD OR ON BARRON RD OFF VARDON RD AS BHB CENTRE IS HAVING AN UPGRADE. CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU THERE!

9 days ago

Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???

Markus from Green Bay

“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.

On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.

[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.

Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.

Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”

Full article: www.theguardian.com...


If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.