Michael Cooper's Buyer’s Guide to New Zealand Wine 2012 - 20th anniversary edition - don't leave home without it!

I have the " annual wine bible" for the years 2000 - 2012  all sitting in a row on my bookshelf and it is interesting to observe how they have grown in size over these years. This is the 20th anniversary edition so quite a milestone. I wish now I had kept my earlier copies from the 90's but I recall putting them in the recycling when shifting house.Oh well....I note that this latest whopper runs to 672 pages compared with 336 pages in the 2000 edition.

Back in 1991 a national vineyard tour could be completed in a month and involved taking in about 100 wineries and tasting around 1000 wines. These days if you tried that you’d be gone forever, trying to visit 700 producers and taste 4,000 wines.

Such are the changes Michael Cooper has observed over the two decades he’s been writing his bestselling Buyer’s Guide. Back in the early nineties Michael might “open a couple of bottles a night at home”, but in 2011 keeping abreast with developments around the country means tasting about 10 wines every day of the year.

 It’s not just Michael’s workload that has changed – New Zealand’s wine industry is dramatically different too.

In 1992 we were producing 41.6 million litres of wine, in 2010 that figure was 190 million litres. Export values have also increased drastically from $34.7 million (1992) to $1.04 billion (2010).

But prices haven’t necessarily kept pace.

“A comparison of Chardonnays in the 1992 and 2011 editions of the Buyer’s Guide shows that most wines have risen in price, but some by much less than you would expect, given the rate of inflation,” says Michael, who goes on to add that some are actually now a lot cheaper.

There have also been remarkable regional shifts in where that wine is coming from. Twenty years ago Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay produced over 60 per cent of the country’s wine. In the 2011 vintage over 75 per cent of New Zealand’s wine flowed from one region – Marlborough.

In this latest edition, published today 14 November, Michael Cooper (photo right - Simon Young) has impressively tasted and rated over 3000 New Zealand wines.I buy my wine from three main sources - favourite vineyards where I am on their mailing lists, Glengarry's and of course the supermarket. Whatever source though I never buy wine without checking Michael Cooper's invaluable annual.It is THE bible.

In his Best Buys of the Year section, always keenly awaited, he has selected as his Best White Wine Buy of the Year - 

Whitehaven Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2011

*****, $17.99–$19.99

Here are his comments:

Whitehaven is better known in the US – where it is distributed by one of its shareholders, global wine giant E & J Gallo – than in New Zealand. But from one vintage to the next, its Sauvignon Blanc is classy, with rich passionfruit/lime flavours, very fresh, pure and well-rounded. The 2011 vintage of this multiple gold-medal and trophy-winning label, released recently, is right on form – and you can buy a bottle for less than $20.

Whitehaven Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (*****) is a classic regional style – mouthfilling, punchy and dry, with crisp, ripe tropical-fruit flavours to the fore, a herbal undercurrent, and lovely poise, delicacy and length. Already very open and expressive, it’s the sort of Sauvignon Blanc that draws you back for a second glass … and a third.

Over the years, the wine has won many top accolades, but for such a high-flier on the show circuit, the wine is produced in very large volumes – well over 100,000 cases. Wine & Spirits rated Whitehaven Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc last year as the third most popular Sauvignon Blanc served by the glass in American restaurants.

Sue White, the company’s co-founder and majority shareholder, believes the key to the wine’s quality is Whitehaven’s access to grapes from 31 vineyards throughout the Marlborough region. ‘Our goal is a wine that reflects the spectrum of flavours achieved in the vineyards and also has a balance of acidity and sweetness to ensure easy drinkability.’

At the winery, the unique flavours in the grapes from each site are retained, by handling each parcel of fruit separately until the final blending. Skin contact is avoided and fermentation is at low temperatures, entirely in stainless steel tanks.

Senior winemaker Sam Smail’s description of the 2011 Sauvignon Blanc is spot on: ‘The palate is full and vibrant. Fresh nettle, gooseberry and tropical-fruit flavours abound and linger on the long, clean-acid finish.’ A dry style (3.5 grams/litre of residual sugar), the wine’s subliminal sweetness is balanced by fresh, mouth-watering acidity.

Whitehaven suggests this Marlborough beauty is best enjoyed young and gently chilled, with summer salads, poultry and shellfish.
On the strength of that recommendation we opened a bottle of this wine to have with our chicken/cobb salad for dinner last night - a perfect match and I will be going back for more.

Cooper observes that there have been remarkable regional shifts in where our wine is coming from over the years he has been compiling his annual guide. Twenty years ago Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay produced over 60 per cent of the country’s wine. In the 2011 vintage over 75 per cent of New Zealand’s wine flowed from one region – Marlborough.

 It perhaps comes as no surprise then, that the Best White Wine Buy of the Year and the Best Red Wine Buy of the Year (Wild South Pinot Noir 2010) both hail from that area.

Thank you Michael, and publishers Hodder Moa, for another most wonderfully comprehensive and up-to-date wine guide. I won't leave home without it!