Surprises from the Bay

Craggy Range winemaker Rod Easthope was up at London’s Penthouse Suite of New Zealand House promoting Gimblett Gravels varietals and astonishing the attending 30 or so UK Masters of Wine, sommeliers, wine buyers and journalists with wines “up there with the best to be found in Bordeaux.” “We’re confident that we’re making good wine,” Easthope says. “But we’re young and curious and need to know where we stand. What better way of benchmarking our wines than a taste-off?” Some of Britain’s finest tasters were there, including Jancis Robinson, Michael Schuster and Oz Clarke, trying to differentiate between New Zealand and French wine. The incomparable but ever-modest Robinson is stumped. “It isn’t obvious to me at all which is which,” Robinson says. “I have tried to guess and have no doubt made a fool of myself.” In the top six, are the 2006 Sacred Hill “Helmsman” at fourth and the 2006 Newton Forrest “Cornerstone” — “at just £15 a bottle for heaven’s sake” — at sixth. “I knew exciting things were happening in Hawke’s Bay, but had no idea how exciting,” murmurs buyer Alun Griffiths of Berrys. “I need to get some on our list fast.”