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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.

FOR THE LOVE OF VIOGNIER

I fell in love with Viognier in the late 90’s when a bottle from Millton Vineyards in Gisborne came my way. The flower shop nose; the plush tropical fruits on the palate and the slippery, lightly oily mouthfeel was unforgettable  and ,twenty years later, Viognier still regularly  features in my year round play list.

Viognier initially made its mark in the Condrieu appellation in France’s northern Rhone Valley but it was an Australian, Robert Hill-Smith from Yalumba, who is credited with saving  Viognier from becoming an oddity and taking  the variety to a wider global audience.  We have a lot to thank him for.  Viognier (pron. vee-YOHN-yay) is a versatile grape that makes excellent wine in its own right but has quite magical properties when blended with other varieties – both red and white.  

Most of our domestic production is centred here in Hawke’s Bay and we are blessed with many producers doing great things with Viognier - Elephant Hill, Te Mata Estate and Petane Station spring to mind. A number of local producers also blend small percentages of Viognier into their Syrah releases; a tiny 2-3% Viognier addition can give Syrah a floral lift  on the nose and a lovely unctuous texture on the palate.

Viognier also adds both tropical fruit flavours and a silky roundness when blended or co-fermented with white wines. I’ll be surprised if we don’t start seeing more Chardonnay Viognier blends in our local market. It seems like a match made in heaven to me.

Yalumba Y Series Viognier  2018 - South Australia
Available from $10.99
This is easily the best value Viognier in the world, and gets my vote as the best quaffing white wine available in the New Zealand market. On the nose it’s all orange blossom and citrus and the palate shows perfectly pitched mouthfeel and tangy dry apricot flavours. It’s a year round constant in our family fridge.

Te Awanga Estate One Off Double Happy Chardonnay Viognier 2018 – Hawkes Bay
Available from $24.99
An exciting release  from Rod McDonald’s hugely successful One Off small batch winemaking project. This wine overlays Chardonnay’s natural mid-palate weight with ethereal flavours of tropical fruits from the Viognier component. This is pretty wine that shows a delightfully rich and juicy texture and underlying power.

Langmeil Hangin’ Snakes Shiraz Viognier 2016 – Barossa, Australia
Available from $29.99
A powerhouse co-fermentation of 96% Shiraz with 4% Viognier. This is a glowing example of how Viognier can add lifted florals on the nose and a lovely glycerol aspect to the palate without undermining the strength and robust nature of Barossa Shiraz. Immediately attractive wine with good mid-term cellaring ability.