Winemaking is still fairly new to New Zealand. Yet after only a couple decades, Kiwi winemakers are already producing wines that are consistently lauded by international experts. In 2002, American wine guru Robert Parker declared a Felton Road 1997 Pinot Noir as one of the top 3 wines in a blind tasting of Burgundy reds. (And this from a man who has been a vocal critic of New Zealand wines…) In April 2003, Wine Spectator rated central Otago as one of the top 5 most exciting New World wine regions. And now the up-and-coming Hawke’s Bay Shiraz is rivaling even the best Australian Shirazes. So what on earth is going on here? Otago is one of the four major wine-producing areas in the country (along with the Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland regions). Many experts attribute the oenological successes of Otago wines to the extreme temperatures experienced by the region. (Strangely, they argue that the frigid winters and blistering summers are actually beneficial to winemaking…)

The selection of seven Kiwi wine brands on an international top 50 list shows why the country's annual export wine sales have quadrupled to more than $1 billion, an industry group says. New Zealand brands Brancott Estate, Oyster Bay, Cloudy Bay, Villa Maria, Babich, Wither Hills, and Nobilo respectively ranked 14th, 17th, 22nd, 31st, 44th, 46th and 48th in the Drinks International journal's "world's most admired wine brands" list. They featured alongside some of the world's best-known brands - among them Spain's Torres, Australia's Penfolds and France's Chateau Margaux - after being selected by a panel of 60 leading international wine experts. NZ Winegrowers global marketing director Chris Yorke said he had never seen such a strong showing in an international selection. "We are a producer of premium wines - and what has been recognised is our brands stand up to the likes of Chateau Margaux, Ridge and DRC [Domaine de la Romanee-Conti] in the global market," he said. "We don't produce $1000 wines, but we also don't produce $5 wines - our market is mainly between the $20 and $50 mark, and we do really well."

Mr Yorke said New Zealand's success on the world wine stage had been gradually building. Overseas, its wine was renowned for its quality, sustainability and diversity. order wine without labels"We started winning competitions 25 or 30 years ago with our sauvignon blanc, and we are now getting recognition for our chardonnay, pinot noir and other red wines. black ink wine priceWe have always focused on the premium end of the market, and I think that's the key thing here." food and wine 10 best new chefsAt the same time, annual export sales had risen from $300 million eight years ago to around $1.2 billion today, with 53 per cent of sales going to China. best recipes for wine tasting

"We see China as a high-end market - it's certainly not a dumping ground - and it's another place for us to establish the New Zealand wine brand as one of the premium brands around the world." best dry wine redIn a blind taste test last year, the Royal Household wine committee chose two New Zealand wines for the Queen's collection. best white wine thai foodThe committee selected 40 cases of Villa Maria Estate's private bin sauvignon blanc and 30 cases of Palliser Estate Wine's Pencarrow sauvignon blanc 2010 for inclusion in Her Majesty's 5000-bottle wine cellar. The top five brands in the Drinks International list were Concha y Toro, Torres, Antinori, Penfolds and Jacob's Creek. 1: Concha y Toro2: Torres3: Antinori4: Penfolds5: Jacob's Creek 14: Brancott Estate17: Oyster Bay22: Cloudy Bay31: Villa Maria44: Babich46: Wither Hills48: Nobilo

Today in Gear: April 28, 2017 Great Slip-On Shoes for Summer The Best Watches to Take into the Backcountry The Right Fixed Blade Knife Your 7 Essential Apps of 2017 Of all things, it was a gold rush that complicated New Zealand’s winemaking journey. Though British transplant and “father of New Zealand wine” James Busby brought vines to the country in the 1830s and and there were Roman Catholic missionary-run wineries by the 1850s, the discovery of gold in the 1860s swept up the attention — and land — of New Zealanders with a fury just as ferocious as the one Americans had experienced 10 years before in California. It took another hundred years before New Zealanders rediscovered that fruit-based treasure, and their winemaking didn’t gain international acclaim until the 1990s. But unlike the search for gold, it doesn’t look like peak wine will hit Kiwis any time soon. The opposite, in fact. New Zealand’s 11 wine regions are growing in popularity;

wine is now one of the country’s top ten exports. Certainly sauvignon blanc, the country’s mainstay wine, is to thank for that. But more exciting for wine drinkers worldwide is the growth of other styles — syrahs, chardonnays, reislings and especially pinot noirs — within vineyards that are focused on biodynamic, renewable growing. These are some of the best the Kiwis have to offer from both the North and South islands. Hawke’s Bay: Taizo Osawa, a Japanese civil engineer who loved wine, decided to travel to America, Australia and New Zealand to choose a place to start his own winery. He ended up at a sheep farm in Hawke’s Bay, on the east side of the North Island, where he planted his first vines in 2006. With the help of Rod McDonald, named New Zealand’s winemaker of the year in 2006, Osawa has established a fine winery with 11 varieties; the most renowned are their pinot noir (cherry, strawberry, brown spices) and chardonnay (bright and creamy). Hawkes Bay: Trinity Hill’s concrete compound-esque design have borne architectural awards, and the winery’s location in the former bed of the Ngaruroro River have borne it great wines.

It’s another of the Hawkes Bay’s biggest names, and packed with wine industry veterans producing a wide range of varietals that show the region’s great range. If you have to choose, go for a chardonnay, cab blend or syrah. Central Otago: Rippon is an unusual vineyard. It’s situated in the southernmost wine growing region in the world, Central Otago, and produces organic wines using biodynamic processes, which rejects chemical fertilizer and pesticides and relies on a holistic understanding of wine agriculture. Central Otago is known for its pinot noir, and Rippon makes some of the best, along with a bright riesling and an osteiner — a refreshing and rare varietal. Central Otago: In the quality of its pinot noir, the Burn Cottage Vineyard is very much like other Central Otago wineries, but its American owners’ heritage in Kansas farming and Colorado bar ownership is not. Nor was its decision to run entirely biodynamic in 1990; nor is its label artwork, which features characters from a Goethe poem and is reminiscent of American craft beer.

The 10-hectare vineyard is situated alongside a 20-hectare farm filled with highland cattle, sheep and an olive grove, all of which lend a hand for fertilizer. Marlborough: Its name comes from New Zealand’s most common sandstone, found aplenty by owners Kevin and Kimberly Judd in the soil of the vineyards where they source their grapes in Marlborough, where 73 percent of the country’s wine is produced. But the stony soil has borne great fruit, in particular the sauvignon blanc that was for so long synonymous with New Zealand wine; they also make a “wild sauvignon” using wild yeast that tastes of “thyme and toasted sesame”. Marlborough: Founder and winemaker John Belsham has what you’d call a resume: he learned wine in Bordeaux, then returned to his native New Zealand and fostered great winemaking (and wine consulting) for years before opening Foxes Island in 1992. What began with a single chardonnay vintage expanded to include the area’s biggest new star, pinot noir, which now takes up 70 percent of the vineyard’s plantings, and a top-rated reisling.

Marlborough: Hans and Therese Herzog were well-established winemakers in their native Switzerland before they decided to make the jump to New Zealand in 1990. Their pinot noir, merlot-cabernet sauvignon and Montepulciano are all rated five stars, which they credit to low-yield, non-interventional winemaking. Drink them in the winery’s Michelin-starred restaurant and bistro during an exorbitant but memorable three- or five-course dinner. Nelson: One of New Zealand’s smallest wine regions is also one of its most beautiful, nestled in the sunny, central north of the South Island. A day of driving gets visitors to most of the region’s best wineries — and Neudorf is a must. Its owners, Tim and Judy Finn, began work on their winery in 1978 and built the first structure (described as an “elegant shed”) by hand in 1980; today they host concerts in the backyard. High points at their cellar door store are the pinot noir (they say it’s on the “European edge” of New Zealand’s pinot’s) and a complex, subtle chardonnay that thrives in the gentle sunshine of the Nelson hills.