Today, Ian and Jacquie Hoare arrived in Christchurch fresh from a trip
to Thailand and accepted our offer of a room for the night. To
celebrate, I made a paella Valenciana (or as close to it as I could
come) and we opened a few local wines:

NV Quartz Reef "Methode Traditionelle" (Central Otago)
n: green apples, minerals
p: crisp, fairly rich, fine mousse, fairly dry


Ian said that this wine had a lot of Pinot Noir character, but later
confessed that he'd known from the label what to expect. Quite a
pleasant wine, but nothing profound.


2009 Wild Earth Pinot Noir (Central Otago)
n: dark fruit, spice
p: decent acidity, medium body, soft texture

I had purchased this wine on the recommendation of a local retailer who
thought that it would comport with my tastes in Pinot Noir, and I opened
it tonight to see if the winery would be worth visiting with Ian and
Jacquie next week. While it was a bit darker complected and bigger than
is my wont, it still bears more investigation ;-)

With some cherries after dinner:

2010 Clearwater "Sea View" (Hawke's Bay)
n: cherries, stones
p: off dry, balancing acidity, slightly tannic, clean finish

Ian and Jacquie had brought this from their travels up North in NZ and
quite a curiosity it proved to be! A late harvest Merlot with residual
sugar, it was only moderately sweet and not at all Port-like, but quite
good with the cherries and positively brilliant with some dark
chocolate. Ian likened it to a vin doux naturelle from Rasteau.

All is all, a very fun night was had of food, wine and great company.

Mark Lipton