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HEARTY RED WINES

Robustly flavoured slow cooked meals and hearty red wines are always an irresistible combination at this time of year. We eat a lot of slow food in our house. I love when the kitchen is filled with the smell of braising meats and vegetables and I know the resulting dishes will have layers of mellow complexity that only comes with extended time in the oven.

I like my wines with layers of complexity too. I want new flavours to reveal themselves as I take each mouthful and I want those flavours to fill my mouth and linger for a while  as good wines should. 

One thing I always do is decant my red wines – even the everyday ones. This simple one minute process gives the wine plenty of contact to the air and it is virtually guaranteed to improve the wine - rounding out the palate and making it softer and more fulsome in the mouth. You don’t need an expensive decanter; any glass or ceramic jug will do and you can pour the wine back into the bottle before your serve the wine if you wish. Special or older bottles of wine should be decanted just before you are ready to serve them. Young wines seem to benefit from being decanted an hour or so earlier.  

Here is a selection of some great value red wines – each with a slow food suggestion.

Mount Erin Merlot Cabernet Franc 2016 – Hawkes Bay
Available from 18.99
This is a perfectly pitched example of middleweight Hawkes Bay merlot dominant red from Redmetal winemaker Grant Edmonds. Soft and mellow in the glass it shows good structure from the cabernet franc and has Edmond’s signature balance across the palate. It is begging to be enjoyed with chicken braised with tomatoes, olives and lemon.

Lavau Cotes du Rhone 2017 – Rhone Valley, France
Available from $16.99 
I always say that Cotes du Rhone is the perfect French red for Kiwi palates, combining the weighty ‘Pinot Noir–esque’ flavours of grenache with the more savoury and drier flavours of syrah. The 2017 Lavau is grenache dominant, velvet smooth and simply loaded with soft, spicy dark fruits. It’s juicy and moreish and a perfect partner for slow cooked lamb with star anise.

Contrade Puglia Primitivo IGT 2017 – Salento, Italy
Available from $15.99
This is a lovely example of middleweight primitivo. It’s quite plush for Italian red in this price band with flavours in the black fruit and plum spectrum. Primitivo’s signature spiciness is on show but this wine is all about supple easy drinking – with soft tannin structure and a gentle lick of creamy acidity on the finish. I’d match this with braised beef cheeks with a hint of chilli.

Organically Good

After quietly simmering away in the background, organic winemaking in New Zealand is now on the move. Approximately ten percent of New Zealand wineries are now organically certified and all indicators point to that number rising sharply in the next few years as more and more producers undertake the organic conversion process.

It’s pleasing to see and, slowly, the public is coming along for the ride. Personally, I am excited to witness this change in perception but it has to be said that organic winemaking has been a mixed bag over the years. While many long term organic producers have done a superb job with their organic portfolios, there have also been plenty of wine crimes released under the organic masthead.

Thankfully those days are now largely behind us but there will still be consumers who feel that by buying organic wine they will be sacrificing flavour in the interests of ecological good. The sooner that mind set dies away the better.

Organic New Zealand producers are a proud lot and tend to reference their organic  status whenever the opportunity arises. Interestingly, many old world wineries who produce  their wines organically do not mention their organic practises on their labels or in their marketing drives. I look forward to the day where organic winemaking is so common place here that our domestic producers no longer feel the need to push the ecological message.

 Millton Crazy by Nature Sirius White 2018 - Gisborne
Available from $19.99
Funky blended white wine from one of New Zealand’s preeminent organic wineries.  The 2018 is driven predominantly by Chardonnay with smaller percentages of Viognier and Marsanne adding  slippery, textural mouthfeel and an array of tropical fruits. This is delightful wine; supple and immediately attractive. A great match with seafood or simply brilliant with the clean flavours of Japanese cuisine. 

Little X ‘Upper Moutere’  Organic Nelson Pinot Noir 2015 - Nelson 
Available from $19.99
Punchy Nelson wine vinted by Tim Adams – a man who understands how to put real flavour in the bottle. Sourced from a single Moutere vineyard, this is fulsome  Pinot that is firmly in the dark berry spectrum. Some whole bunch fermentation has added some complexity but the old school robust flavours of full bodied Nelson Pinot Noir remain the star of the show. 

El Picoteo Organic Monastrell Syrah 2016 – Spain
Available from $17.99
A very attractive, silky smooth blend from the Piqueras winery  in Almansa, in south-east Spain. Monastrell brings an array of dark, juicy choco-berry flavours to the party while the Syrah component adds some  mid palate drive and more serious, drier notes to the finish. This is the consummate ‘pleasure wine ‘ – a softly seductive release with very wide appeal.