Waipara Hills Pinot Noir 2008

Last Friday in Superquinn I picked up a Waipara Hills Southern Cross Pinot Noir Central Otago 2008 - €12-00 reduced from €15-99. This was a Gold Medal winner in the International Wine Challenge 2010. I've been trying to broaden my wine palate in recent months by drinking a lot more white (and even the odd rosé) and also by trying to get into Pinot Noir.

In my, albeit limited, experience you have to pay a tidy sum for good Burgundy, the cheap stuff, like cheap Bordeaux, is simply not worth it. The obvious alternative is to look to the New World. I know there are some excellent Pinots from Oregon, Washington and the cooler regions of California but I never see them over here.

The obvious next stop is New Zealand. The wine at left is from the Central Otago region which seems to be the up and coming place for NZ pinots. In the glass, this wine was much darker than expected; a lot of NZ pinots I've had recently have been very light in colour and delicate, almost weedy to taste. This was more full bodied, still medium to light but with some substance.

There was some nice plummy flavours and Herself got some oak (according to the website this spends 7 months in French Oak), and some gentle spiciness. On the whole this was a nicely balanced and elegant wine. At this price its well worth a punt.

According to Decanter - Wiapara is the new Marlborough, who'd a thunk it?

Second Lastly - I got a couple more of the delicious Pink Elephant Rose in Superquinn - €5 a pop, anticipating a lovely sunny Saturday, looking out the window at the lashing rain makes me realise I should never mess with the weather gods.

Lastly - I'm giving up Beer (not Booze - what am I, crazy?) for the next month as an experiment to see if it has any effect on my ever expanding waistline, so if I'm in bad form you know the reason why.

**Update - I'm back on the beer. It's a long story but basically I'm going to be stressed with work and work related travel for the next while and doing this without the crutch, and in fact, comfort, of a pint is not on the cards at the moment. I hope to return to this worthy goal once things have settled down.