Spotlight on… Black Hole Wines
North Canterbury winemaker Gavin Tait is the full time winemaking guru behind these tasty little numbers for the Black Hole brand, an apt name for a winemaking venture because once bitten by the wine bug, many wine lovers feel like they have descended down a black hole of deliciousness - there are so many great wines out there.
So what makes these Black Hole wines stand out from the crowd?
In a word or three: Sense of place. I find North Canterbury wines to over deliver hugely on flavour, body and length of taste, even at modest prices such as these wines. This wine region is just 40 minutes north of Christchurch but is a world away in terms of climate. Hot days enhance the ripening potential of the grapes while cool nights and dry autumns lengthen the growing season, allowing steady slow flavour development. This provides high quality, great tasting raw material to make wines with the X factor, such as these two delicious drops.
4 stars
17.5/20
Tagged as rich and oaky, this North Canterbury Chardonnay rocks another vibe too, namely, crisp, fresh flavours which add balance to the creamy taste in this full bodied, dry white. It is made with grapes grown in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury, one of the country’s driest climates and home to many of the best value wines in New Zealand.
This wine is incredible value for money.
4 stars
17.5/20
2018 Black Hole Pinot Noir
Winemaker Gavin Tait uses hand harvested Pinot Noir grapes to make this ripe and flavoursome, dry and medium bodied wine, which is aged in French oak barrels for a year then bottled unfined and unfiltered. It’s vegan friendly and extremely tasty, offering next level flavour for a crazy low price. An incredibly good value buy.
Joelle Thomson is a wine writer, journalist and author. She’s an avid lover of wine and currently writes for Capital magazine, Good magazine, NZ Winegrower, Drinksbiz, and her own site, www.joellethomson.com.
She also teaches, works in radio, and more, so we've enlisted her help to sniff out our amazing value wines!
