But are we drinking our NZ wines too young? Is a tart, tannic scarlet-coloured upstart young red what you really want to drink with your rack of lamb? Have the Europeans learned over the centuries something that we haven't fully caught up with yet - that great red wines should be carefully aged and matured to be at their best?

Here's what broadly happens when a wine is cellared or aged: European wines traditionally have higher acid, lower sugar (typical alcohol 13%), relatively low fruitiness and therefore high longevity, because high acid and tannin levels increase the longevity of wine. Many new world wines are lower acid, high sugar (alcohol 14.5+%), high fruitiness and possibly lower longevity. So where does NZ sit, and of more particular interest for this article, where do the Waiheke wines sit?

Experience with cabernet blend varieties shows that Waiheke wines do benefit from moderate ageing for up to 10 years or more, as its climate does approximate in some ways to Bordeaux, as opposed to hotter regions such as the Barossa and Napa Valleys. So the Waiheke red wines when young are quite "European" in structure - full of tannins and acid, requiring time for development.

Conclusion - start ageing your Obsidian and Weeping Sands reds - you will be rewarded with greater flavour development, softer palate texture and more complex aromas. This rule applies for screwcap as well as cork finished bottles. Start with a case and work your way through it over the years. It’s fun, and rewarding! 

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Mark Easter weekend in your diary to visit Obsidian Vineyard and help us celebrate - "Viva El Vino" - the launch of the keenly anticipated 2011 Obsidian Viognier and Weeping Sands Tempranillo.

Our good friends from La Crepe Maison, who grace the Ostend Market each weekend tempting our tastebuds with delicous crepes, will be offering savoury and sweet crepes matched with our wines as well as some spanish tapas.

2010 was a fabulous vintage. The exceptionally hot and dry summer has allowed the fruits to mature to perfection and create a rich, complex and well-balanced Chardonnay.

We have already had great reviews on this wine… and winemaker Michael Wood has produced only 150 cases of this carefully crafted wine.

★★★★½ (4 ½ Stars)

“The 2010 is also stylish, with strong, ripe, citrusy, peachy, slightly nutty flavours, showing good complexity. Rich and subtle, it's well worth cellaring.”

Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper’s Wine Buyers Guide 2012

★★★★½ (4 ½ Stars)

“It's beautifully ripe and fragrant on the nose displaying pineapple, peach and citrus characters with subtle vanillin oak notes. The palate is juicy and smooth with creamy texture and well balanced acidity leading to an expansive finish. Generous and opulent while remaining pristine and poised. At its best 2015.”

Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Dec. 2012

According to Kelly, the quality of the 2008 Obsidian Syrah can be calibrated on the scale of the best St Joseph and Hermitage syrahs and Obsidian is among the finest syrahs made on Waiheke Island.

Obsidian Syrah 2008 (18.5+/20 points)

"Ruby, carmine and velvet; fractionally the deepest wine in the tasting. The bouquet on this wine is pinpoint syrah taken to the optimal stage of ripeness, where soft wallflower florals are clearly retained and classical cassis berry is just grading into dark plum. The palate is textbook syrah, the berry definition of cassis and a hint of blueberry is clear..........This is a great syrah and for Waiheke Island the absolute benchmark wine so far, because it's completely free of Brett- a joy! Cellar 5-15 years"

Obsidian Syrah 2009 (18+/20 points)

"Ruby, carmine, and velvet; much the same depth as the 2008.....On the palate, the idea grows, the entire riper end of the ripening spectrum from deepest cassis, blueberry, bottled Black Doris plum, and even a hint of boysenberry being tastable. This wine has only just been bottled and was offered as a preview for interest. I'm sure that once it has settled down, it will speak much more elegantly at release mid 2011. Cellar 5-15 years, maybe more."

Weeping Sands Syrah 2009

"On the palate, the berry richness is excellent, there being less oak than the Obsidian Reserve version - and perhaps a thought of jamminess.....It is a delicate balance in a warm season, keeping New Zealand's Syrah on the right side of the line and not straying into shiraz territory. Cellar 3-10 years"

Geoff Kelly, The World Of Fine Wine, Issue 34, 2011

Entry to the walk is at one of the three wineries:

The Hay Paddock - entry and parking at  451B Seaview Road

Miro – entry and parking at 3 Brown Road, off Seaview Road

Obsidian – entry and parking at 22 Te Makiri Road, off Seaview Road

Details of the walk

• Season: The walk is open throughout the summer from Labour weekend until Easter
• Hours open: from 11.30am until 3.30pm daily
• Signs: are placed at the three entry points to the walk. Follow the white markers to stay on the trail.
• Dress: wear comfortable walking clothing. Footwear should be sturdy shoes or boots – not dress shoes or sandals. A hat and suncream are suggested on sunny days.
• Timing –  the walk can be completed in 30 minutes, but you should allow up to 2 hours to complete the walk and taste wines at the 3 wineries. Allow additional time for lunch - available at Casita Miro – bookings are advised  0-9-372 7854

You must respect the land and surrounds as you will be on private property throughout the trail – do not stray from the marked pathway. Vineyards are working farm environments, and you are asked to respect grapevines, plants, machinery and netting. Listen and watch out for tractors, sprayers, mowers, farm bikes or any other vehicles.

Disclaimer– the vineyards inform any participant in this walk that they do so entirely at their own risk and the vineyards accept no responsibility for any injury which may occur along the walkway.

Purchasing of wine your wine can be purchased and consolidated amongst the 3 vineyards. We will package it all together for you and ship it to your home or office address. Payment should be made for each wine as you purchase along the way; simply notify the cellar staff of your previous purchases at the final stop. Any combination of bottles is acceptable.

Onetangi Beach – walk to a world class beach in 15 minutes. From Seaview road turn into  7^th Avenue. There are two cafes along the beach, “The Beach Front” & “Charlie Farleys”. The Fullers ferry bus stops along The Strand.

Onetangi Road – by following the directional arrow on the map to “Te Motu” and “Stonyridge” you can extend your vineyard walk, and connect through to Onetangi Road, where there is a Fullers bus stop and Hopper bus stop.

Michael Cooper in his latest Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines 2012 had this to say... 4 1/2 Stars "An excellent debut, the 2010 vintage was estate-grown at Onetangi, blended with Cabernet Sauvignon (10 per cent) and matured for 10 months in seasoned American oak casks. Boldly coloured, it is rich and savoury, with fresh, well-ripened plum, starwberry and spice aromas and flavours, hints of blackcurrant and dark chocolate, and impressive density. Best drinking 2013+. "

Raymond Chan reviewed the wine in September 2011 giving it 18/20 points..."Very full, dark, deep ruby-red with purple hues to the colour. This has a deep, vibrant and sweetly ripe red berry bouquet with savoury plum notes, well-infused with sweet American oak vanilla-like aromas. Full-bodied, this is lush and juicy, the sweet and savoury red berry and plum flavours harmoniously interwoven with the American oak. The wine has fresh, lively acidity and prominent grainy tannins that result in a solid, structured texture and grip. Fruit and oak sweetness somewhat alleviate the robustness. Flavoursome and fully textured with Spanish oaking style to serve with hearty Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine over the next 5-7+ years. 26 Dozen made."

In New Zealand's world of wine there are a handful of stars that have an international reputation, a number that hover beneath the radar of critical acclaim, and then there's the rest who do a fine job but have yet to establish themselves as major players.

That reliable, unflashy but always dependable "lock of ages" Brad Thorn is a perfect example of someone who you'd always love to have in your team because he just gets on with it and does the business. He may not be top-of-mind, but then he was always too busy doing the often-unseen work in the engine room.

Waiheke Island's Obsidian Vineyard is one of the Brad Thorns of our wine industry. Solid and dependable, with the ability to surprise but usually quite happy with a "no bugles, no drums" approach to the art of producing fine wine.

The quiet, gentlemanly Lindsay Spilman spearheads this enterprise and is a close neighbour to Waiheke's prestigious Onetangi Stonyridge vineyard and exciting new syrah specialists, The Hay Paddock.

Spilman need not fear, his portfolio of wines has been garnering a loyal following and numerous awards since 1997 and Obsidian's reputation lends significant weight to the rise of Waiheke's reputation as a serious producer of premium wines.

Spilman's interest in wine was developed while studying at university and moonlighting as a wine waiter. Overseas travel whetted his appetite and he was greatly influenced by some of the world's prestigious wine regions, especially Bordeaux and Tuscany.

The flagship Obsidian Bordeaux blend is a personal favourite and will certainly reward careful cellaring. There's a smart northern Rhone-style syrah and aromatic chardonnay with small volumes of tempranillo thrown in for good measure. Weeping Sands is the second label and some real bargains are to be found here; the Montepulciano has a loyal enthusiastic following, look for more Bordeaux blends and a lovely standalone merlot, a pinot gris and a sure-to-please-over-summer, merlot-based rosé.

2010 Obsidian Chardonnay, $35-36 
Nothing timid about this wine, it has a no-holds-barred style with heaps of character. Hazelnut, peach and brioche flavours leap out of the glass and the palate is rich and full with loads of texture and weight. A clean, lingering citrus finish.

2010 Weeping Sands, $35
Montepulciano A touch of Tuscany thousands of kilometres from Italy, this wine has lovely flavours of ripe plums, mixed herbs and lashings of oak with rich textured tannins. Fleshy and fulsome, it would be great with pasta and red meat.

By John Hawkesby, Canvas Magazine, NZ Herald, 20 November 2011

In just five brief years, the weathered clay soils of Obsidian’s amphitheatre-like hills have embraced Montepulciano with great distinction; yet another trophy was awarded at the New Zealand International Wine Show 2011 at Saturday’s gala award night (Sept 03, 2011) for Weeping Sands Montepulciano 2010.

The international reds and other red varieties category included a huge range of imported red wines including Spanish tempranillos, monastrell and garnachas, Italian chianti, montepulciano d’abruzzo, sangiovese and primitivo, many Australian varietals including durif, petit verdot, grenache, malbec, mourvedre, GSM and other blends. The competition was intense; the victory was sweet!

This continues the outstanding record of Weeping Sands Montepulciano to three trophies*, four gold medals** and three silver medals*** from just the first five vintages.

Weeping Sands was one of the first Montepulcianos to be released from the upper North Island region; there is still only a scarce amount of montepulciano produced in New Zealand, mainly confined to the warmer North Island growing regions.

The wine has tons of personality and Italian style. “A lovely savoury and fragrant wine with a deep colour, a succulent richness, concentrated purple fruit, fine tannins, hints of violets and a persistent creamy oak finish” to quote the tasting notes written by wine writer Sue Courtney in the awards booklet.

Made by the talented winemaker Michael Wood from Obsidian Vineyard, the grapes are harvested late in the season from three discrete hillside blocks at the home vineyard. From 3,500 hillside vines, each one is hand pruned and tended over the growing season and limited to a small crop by post-veraison fruit thinning. The fruit is picked very late as magnificent large bunches and vinified as for a classic bordeaux style red, including ten months elevage in mainly seasoned oak before bottling.

Tasting this montepulciano is a thrill for any wine lover. From the mighty 2010 vintage, when Waiheke grapes achieved unprecedented ripeness (15% vol), It has terrific power and aromatics, yet retains a fine wine balance and food matching capability, with many Italian food matches possible.

300 doz. produced - contact us for further information >>

Director and co-founder of the Spiegelau International Wine Competition, Belinda Jackson, had this to say about the trophy winning Weeping Sands syrah 2010:

“It’s an absolute baby, but it is totally delicious. It is rich and full bodied. It’s powerful but it’s also very elegant. It’s got this amazing velvety texture, and it’s packed with this dark spicy plum fruit and a fair bit of tannin. Fantastic to enjoy now, or put a few bottles away for time to come.”

National Radio “Afternoons” with Jim Mora on Friday July 8 2011

The first syrah made on Waiheke was grown only 12 years ago, yet in a few short years the grape has become a favourite with consumers and is now contributing to world-wide acclaim as NZ’s most exciting red varietal.

“Kiwi syrah...one of the world’s greatest undiscovered wine styles, responsible for some of New Zealand’s top reds.”

Tim Atkin, The World of Fine Wine, issue 31, 2011

Within the Waiheke Winegrowers Association (WWA), 19 of the 24 grower members have planted syrah, the noble red grape which originated from the Northern Rhone Valley in Eastern France. Syrah has not only arrived, it is truly gathering attention in the New Zealand red wine landscape.

When he began work on Waiheke on his return from Australia in 2002, winemaker Michael Wood was already a syrah devotee. “I loved Australian shiraz for its full colour, intense flavour and aromatics. My interest was developed further when I became involved with the Waiheke syrah wines of Passage Rock, and then leaped at the opportunity to develop my own styles at Obsidian vineyard from 2006” said Michael. “The 2010 season was nearly perfect for most growers on the island. We feature the blending of a small amount (2.5%) of viognier, a white grape, during fermentation. This small dash adds aromatics to the wine and intriguingly deepens and sets the colour”.

In addition to Weeping Sands syrah, there is a limited release and more expensive reserve-style bottled under the label “Obsidian Syrah” from the same Onetangi estate.

The Weeping Sands red wine range includes a cabernet blend, merlot, montepulciano, rose, and syrah.

Contact us to find out more about Weeping Sands wines >>