The object of the day trip was a vertical tasting of St Nesbit (that since I had my sober driver along would hopefully end as a horizontal). To spice up proceedings I decided to assume the identity of Warren D'Affitness, a mechanic from Sandringham who would become increasingly boisterous as he sampled more wines.
Puriri Hills was closed so we went to Twilight on the advice of a smattering of road signs. Joy Peart at the cellar door was friendly and alarmingly frank and her corgi Johnny is built for comfort not for speed.
Her wines of note are a merlot-dominant Bordeaux blend called Sunset with nice grippy tannins and well-integrated oak (Warren, true to form, got notes of burnt rubber and leather upholstery); and an oaked pinot gris which impresses for its novelty rather than its quality – the oak shouts over the pinot gris and what it has to say is rather coarse. We eventually bought a chenin blanc we hadn't tasted on Joy's say so and headed for Whitford.
We made an unscheduled stop at Turanga Creek when Warren saw the cellar door at the last minute and pulled up the handbrake. The Turanga wines were excellent too, especially the Late Harvest Viognier, which finally answers the question of where babies come from. Warren was starting to get into his work now and enquired about the various horsepowers and gear ratios of the vineyard tractors before acquiescing to his driver's narrowing eyes.
Next it was off to the holy grail of South Auckland wine, St Nesbit in Karaka. This vineyard is not open to the public, but as Sam, the owner's son, takes his car to Warren's garage, we were able to score an invite. Tony Molloy grows a mixture of merlot, cab franc, cab sauv and petit verdot to make his cult wine. The reason we were here was because we'd heard the 07, 08 and 09 vintages were outrageously outstanding to put it mildly. And that they were. The 07 is due for bottling this weekend but the American Oak barrels had worked their magic. Even Warren was impressed, saying it was like "a Ferrari 348 GTS crossed with a Rolls Royce." None of us had tasted either of those vehicles so we had to resort to standing there grinning with wine-stained teeth.
The St Nesbit 2002 is available now from Glengarry, Accent on Wine or online.
