The wine writer launched his Te Whenua newsletter in October 2023 and has since racked up “monster miles” traveling the country, tasting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and meeting with the makers.
“What did I learn? Many things; one being how much fun and how interesting it is to take the wine road less travelled,” he says. “The welcome I received in the smaller regions – the Gizzys, the Nelsons, the Northlands – was warm and open. Some of Te Whenua’s most intriguing stories over the past year came from these outposts – like the Seifrieds’ Russian sanctions saga, or my encounter with the weirdness of the old Vinoptima site in Gisborne.”
He has learned to “reconfigure” his preconceptions of Pinot, Chardonnay and place in Aotearoa.
“My belief in the Kiwi Chardonnay and Pinot Noir story that’s being written by vignerons all around the country was reconfirmed many times over,” he says. “It’s a story that deserves to be told, that has to be told, and I know I’ll never tire of telling it.”
During the year he added a monthly vertical tasting feature to Te Whenua, “going through a wayback stack of vintages (usually of a single vineyard wine) with winemakers – recalling summers past and the education each of them provided, discussing the particularities of site, revelling in the performance of many of the older wines.”
He also added 117 of the 464 wines tasted to The List. “Unsurprisingly, I think The List for 2024 represents a stunning collection.
To subscribe to Te Whenua go to johnsaker.com
