Grasshopper Rock wins Trans Tasman Pinot 7s
New Zealand has won the Trans Tasman Pinot 7s with Grasshopper Rock and Ata Rangi being placed in the top three Pinots. Grasshopper Rock managing director, Phil Handford says this is great news for Grasshopper Rock and comes on the back of numerous gold medals.
“The Pinot 7s is taken very seriously by the tasters and for Grasshopper Rock to be number one shows our Alexandra Pinot Noir is something special”.
Enthusiastic tasters gathered at the Pinot Shop in Tasmania recently for a stellar tasting of top Tasmanian and New Zealand pinots from the 2009 vintage. The wines were chosen because they had distinguished themselves in some way - trophy and gold medal show success, or significant acclaim (and ratings) from distinguished wine writers.
The wines were tasted in pairs, Tas v NZ, with an attempt to match style and price point as much as possible. Pinot Shop owner Michele Round said “The wines were not tasted blind - tasters were asked to shed their allegiances and pre-conceived notions and simply ask themselves 'Which pinot would I like to cosy up with for the afternoon?' Tasters took their voting extremely seriously and spent considerable time making some very difficult choices”.
Tasters were asked to vote for their 3 favourite pinots and the points were tallied from those choices.
“The win to New Zealand was a little more emphatic than one would have thought, given comments on the day. The huge support for both Grasshopper Rock and Ata Rangi, and solid support for some of the NZers that didn't make the top six, pushed the tally along” Round said.
NEW ZEALAND 94 points and TASMANIA 80 points
The top six wines, as voted on the day, were in order -
1. 09 Grasshopper Rock Pinot 33pts (Central Otago NZ) - that this relative 'unknown' (to many tasters) was preferred over the two wines that followed is a testament to its plush and luxurious aroma and texture, and also to the 'impartiality' shown by a very serious group of tasters.
2. 09 Freycinet Pinot 27pts (East Coast TAS)
3. 09 Ata Rangi Pinot 25pts (Martinborough NZ)
4. 09 Home Hill Pinot 20pts (Huon TAS)
5. 09 Clemens Hill Pinot 16pts (Coal V TAS)
6. 09 Akarua Pinot 12pts (Central Otago NZ)
Unlucky to miss the top six were 09 Rockburn NZ, 09 Peregrine and 09 Tamar Ridge - clustered in a mob behind Akarua.
As well as voting for their 3 favourite wines, tasters were asked to choose their favourite from each of the matched pairs - 8 pairs, including the 'reserves' in total. The popular battle royale was between blue bloods Ata Rangi and Freycinet, with Freycinet finishing only a point ahead. This could easily have gone the other way, given another half hour or half bottle.
Contact:
Phil Handford
Grasshopper Rock
+64 21 853 908
www.grasshopperrock.co.nz
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