|
Dominion Post Article Saturday 5th April 2003
Ramsay’s Choice
Tahi, a cabernet dominant Bordeaux-style Hawke’s Bay red, might have remained almost completely unknown to all but the aficionado were it not for the news recently that Gordon Ramsay, the bad-tempered but brilliant British chef, has listed the debut 1998 vintage at $360-00 bottle in his three-Michelin-star London restaurant.
In fact, it rang a bell with me , only because Michael Daymond-King, one of the partners in little known Hatton Estate, gave me a bottle after a tasting of Gimblett Gravels wines a couple of years ago.
I remember at the time muttering something about “ needs a bit more time” and consigning it to the cellar, from where it was retrieved and consumed last week.
Jancis Robinson, the eminent British wine writer, who is also a fan for Unison, another of the Gimblett Gravels smaller and lesser–known producers, is absolutely right when she calls this lush, warm, black-fruited beauty one of the liveliest of the many Bordeaux blends now being produced in this Hawke’s Bay sub-region.
Which is, of course, music to the ears of Michael and Colleen Daymond-King and their uncle and aunt, John and Ngarita Rees, who founded Hatton Estate in 1992 with the aim of producing New Zealand’s finest wine.
The 1998 Tahi was the first of the Hatton Estate wines to be released commercially, followed by EC2 an unwooded chardonnay which takes its name from the central London postal district and is already sold out, and a Family Reserve Cabernet, which has yet to be released.
However Tahi, which sells at $70 (good value for a super premium) is still available by mail order from the winery, from a very select group of fine wine outlets (Rumbles in Wellington), and can be found on the wine list at a handful of restaurants among them Copita in Wellington, Saggio di Vino in Christchurch and White at the Hilton in Auckland.
|