Wine Purity From New Zealand and Striking Low-Alcohol Gold in the Rheingau: Weekly Tasting Report (Oct 26-Nov 1)

Wine Purity From New Zealand and Striking Low-Alcohol Gold in the Rheingau: Weekly Tasting Report (Oct 26-Nov 1)

Yoshiaki Sato stands in his vineyards in Central Otago. (Photos by JamesSuckling.com)

New Zealand seems a long way from everything, and it is. But there’s a magical feeling walking the vineyards, meeting the winemakers, tasting the wines and breathing the fresh air. It may be the most pristine wine place on earth, and I was there touring vineyards for 10 days last month from Auckland on the North Island to Central Otago in the south.

The vast majority of the top wines in this weekly report come from some of New Zealand’s most breathtaking vineyards and soulful producers, including Rippon, Ata Rangi, Felton Road, Kusuda and Sato. The latter two wineries are run by dedicated, even obsessive, Japanese viticulturists and winemakers who are two of the most amazing human beings I have met in wine during my four-decade career as a wine journalist and critic.

“It was not easy, but if you want to do something in your life you need to take risks,” said Yoshiaki Sato, who with his wife, Kyoko, makes a handful of wines such as pinot noir and gamay from hillside vineyards in New Zealand’s Central Otago. They have been making wine for about a decade and they have been doing all the vineyard work (about five hectares) and cellar work themselves. “If you have something you really want to do, you have to go that way. You can’t keep safe.”

Trending