Sunday 11 May 2008

Daniel Schuster, Waipara, New Zealand

Hilda and I were driving down towards Christchurch on our honeymoon when I spotted a sign saying Winery and pointing up a little road to our left. So we went up there and started tasting wines. The person doing the tasting was a lady of indiscriminate age somewhere in her 20s or early 30s. The vineyard was Daniel Schuster.

The wines were done in the traditional order, first white then red from plain to complex.

An unremarkable chardonnay was followed by a riesling. Being German and having tried kiwi rieslings at a wine tasting in Dublin I didn't expect much, but this was lovely! A nice light and fruity wine that seemed dry to me but supposedly has 10g/l of sugar. I never tasted it. Hilda and I agreed that this was a wine that could have been made in Germany and bought a bottle that is still sitting at home. The lady looked very confused at our enthusiasm.

After this auspicious start we tried 3 pinot noirs in order. The plainest one was an honest red that was unpretentious and achieved what it set out to do. This would be a nice wine for a pasta lunch, if you were local. The other two were a lot more expensive, with the top one costing 90 Nz$! And I totally failed to get the point of them. Thin bland wines that had been oaked in a desperate attempt to give them volume, as Hilda pointed out later "houses on stilts". The lady serving must have seen the look of disbelief on my face because she said "now you see why Dan is called the 'godfather of pinot noir'?". Hmm, a godfather is a crimelord, right? So one could be forgiven for thinking that he is the head of the racket that commits crimes against this lovely grape. He was one of the pioneers of pushing the grape further south to my knowledge.

So if you are in New Zealand and want some nice riesling, seek out Dan Schuster. Just stay away from his pinot noir!

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