Keeping up with the Jones's
Claudine Earley
AS the rain lashes our fair capital, I wish I was on sunny Waiheke Island, where the wine flows freely and the views are breathtaking.
Robyn and Nicholas Jones, a couple of Auckland accountants, had similar thoughts when they bought a chunk of land on the island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf in 1992. Mudbrick Vineyard started with a dream, which was eaten in the early days by neighbours’ errant cows. They have managed to shoo off the beasts, and their vines are producing award-winning wines.
Mudbrick Reserve Chardonnay 2008 ($42) picked up gold medals at last year’s Bragato and Air New Zealand Wine Awards. It’s in my top five chardonnays of all time. Somehow this wine manages to be pure and grubby at the same time. Diligent use of oak results in a bouquet of dirty burnt butter popcorn, which is cleaned up by aromas of perfumed stonefruit. It tastes of butterscotch and nectarines with a clean mineral hit at the end.
Mudbrick recently released its inaugural flagship wine from the same successful 2008 vintage. They call it Velvet because of its rich velvety tannins, the result of a secret blend which I’m guessing contains merlot, cab sav and syrah.
There’s a great deal of pleasure to be had from sniffing this wine. It reminds me of an evening around the brazier: dried hedge-wood, tobacco and medicinal herbs predominate, then comes a sweet vanilla layer combined with cassis like yummy boiled lollies, with a final whiff of lamb chops. Only 1450 numbered bottles were produced. This is a very special occasion wine, weighing in at $105 per bottle.
Wine of the week: Try Mills Reef Reserve Merlot Malbec 2008 ($22). Flavoursome smoky plum balanced by smooth tannins.
Robyn and Nicholas Jones, a couple of Auckland accountants, had similar thoughts when they bought a chunk of land on the island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf in 1992. Mudbrick Vineyard started with a dream, which was eaten in the early days by neighbours’ errant cows. They have managed to shoo off the beasts, and their vines are producing award-winning wines.
Mudbrick Reserve Chardonnay 2008 ($42) picked up gold medals at last year’s Bragato and Air New Zealand Wine Awards. It’s in my top five chardonnays of all time. Somehow this wine manages to be pure and grubby at the same time. Diligent use of oak results in a bouquet of dirty burnt butter popcorn, which is cleaned up by aromas of perfumed stonefruit. It tastes of butterscotch and nectarines with a clean mineral hit at the end.
Mudbrick recently released its inaugural flagship wine from the same successful 2008 vintage. They call it Velvet because of its rich velvety tannins, the result of a secret blend which I’m guessing contains merlot, cab sav and syrah.
There’s a great deal of pleasure to be had from sniffing this wine. It reminds me of an evening around the brazier: dried hedge-wood, tobacco and medicinal herbs predominate, then comes a sweet vanilla layer combined with cassis like yummy boiled lollies, with a final whiff of lamb chops. Only 1450 numbered bottles were produced. This is a very special occasion wine, weighing in at $105 per bottle.
Wine of the week: Try Mills Reef Reserve Merlot Malbec 2008 ($22). Flavoursome smoky plum balanced by smooth tannins.
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