New-zealand/north-island/northland">Northland, as its name suggests, is New Zealand's northernmost wine-producing region, around four hours' drive northwest of the country's largest city, Auckland. Most of the Northland region's wineries are situated on the east coast, particularly around the Bay of Islands and the Karikari Pensinula, with another cluster on the west coast near Kaitaia.
The region's red wines are mostly produced from Syrah, Pinotage">Pinotage and the Hybrid variety Chambourcin. Chardonnay leads the way for white wine grape varieties; Pinot Gris, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc are among the other varieties cultivated here.
Although Northland's contribution to the New Zealand wine industry is minuscule (in 2013, the region crushed 130 metric tonnes of grapes, compared to Marlborough's 250,000), it is important historically. The first vines were planted in the Bay of Islands in 1819, a Full 30 years before missionaries began planting in the Hawkes Bay. The founding father of viticulture in the Antipodes, James Busby, had a Vineyard at his house at Waitangi before going on to establish the Hunter Valley wine region in Australia. This Waitangi property is also where New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, was signed in 1840.
In the late 1800s, kauri-gum diggers from Croatia began to move into the area in search of fortune, bringing winemaking traditions from their homeland. While viticulture in the region has never been viable on a large scale, Northland's boutique wine industry is growing fast, with the Northland Wine Growers Association (formed in 2007) boasting a membership of more than 50.
Northland's sub-tropical Climate is unique in New Zealand. Warm, humid summers and rainy winters are challenging for growers, who must employ careful vineyard techniques to avoid mildew and rot.
Pinot noir is a grape variety that originated in France (Burgundy). It produces a variety of grape specially used for wine making. It is rare to find this grape to eat on our tables. This variety of grape is characterized by small bunches, and small grapes. Pinot noir can be found in many vineyards: Burgundy, Alsace, Jura, South-West, Languedoc & Roussillon, Cognac, Bordeaux, Savoie & Bugey, Loire Valley, Champagne, Armagnac, Lorraine, Beaujolais, Rhône Valley, Provence & Corsica.
white wines from the region of North Island go well with generally quite well with dishes of shellfish, vegetarian or goat cheese such as recipes of mussels carbonara, quiche lorraine or pizza.
On the nose in the region of North Island often reveals types of flavors of butterscotch, floral or earth and sometimes also flavors of microbio, vegetal or oak. In the mouth in the region of North Island is a powerful with a nice freshness.
By 1965, the vineyards of Condrieu had largely been abandoned – phylloxera and two world wars had decimated the place and its people. There were just 8ha of vines remaining on these granite slopes. If it weren’t for the hard work of a few steadfast vignerons, the appellation might have disappeared entirely, reclaimed by the forest. Thankfully, Condrieu survived and has since flourished – but great appellations have been lost before. We know this because some have recently been rediscovered. In f ...
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Cofounded by Xavier Garambois, the former vice-president of EU retail at Amazon, Winechain.co is set to go live by the end of this year with its first ‘wiNeFT’ offering – its term for a fine wine linked to a non-fungible token (NFT). There has been a growing amount of innovation around NFTs in the wine world, from limited-edition winery offers to the ways in which blockchain technology could provide a digital guarantee of ownership history. Winechain said its goal is ‘to build dy ...
