Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend a launch function for Misha’s Vineyard from Central Otago at the Grove restaurant in Auckland.
Four wines were shown, a Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir. Sue (who was also there) already has tasting notes over at the “Wine of the Week” blog or perhaps try the official notes on the website which are very good.
My pick of the wines was the Riesling, which had a superb acid balance (a trait it shared with the rest of the range) and great strength of flavour. I expect good acid balance in any wine, if I praise acid balance it is, exceptionally good.
But, what really impressed me was the professionalism of this operation. The brochure I was given was spectacular. More of the standard you see occasionally from a top Champagne house than small New Zealand winery. This high standard seems to permeate the operation from the time taken for site selection to the variety choices and testing done around labelling and how this relates to particular markets that have been chosen for the wine to go into. Even the website is the second generation.
Although this launch has been replicated in Christchurch and Wellington (and soon to be undertaken in Australia and Japan I’m guessing) there is only a small amount of wine for sale at present as the first parts of the vineyard come on stream. This event is simply about building awareness of the winery for larger volumes yet to come. Not only larger volumes too but I would expect very high quality too given the attention to detail shown. Mark this down as one producer to watch!