Great Kiwi Pinots

by Charles Lea
Email received from exceptionally nice customer yesterday, and headed "Great Kiwi Pinot Noirs from you!": "I thought you might be glad to know that two of your Pinots showed very well at an informal wine tasting dinner last night of an informal group of good friends and serious wine buffs. The theme was Kiwi Pinots and all wines were tasted blind. I put the Gladstone 2007 first and that set the tone and the benchmark. The Rippon ’05 I put at the end and it was a great finale. The others tasted were, in their order, Dry River ’06 (not great at all), Rockburn ’03 (good and mature, more Burgundian) and Ata Rangi ’07 ( good but rather overshadowed by the Rippon that followed).  When I told the gang the price of the Gladstone, the couple who brought Dry River were a wee bit sheepish!
 
All in all, well done to you and your team: L & S made the evening!"