Accolades & Reviews 2004 . . .

All three of Felton Road's Rieslings were selected in the list of eleven "Top Drops".

The 2004 Winery of the Year
Felton Road is a long way from Tipperary, or Burgundy, or just about anywhere else…so what happens if a winery produces both world-class burgundian doppelgangers – Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (and throw in Riesling too) – but is half a globe away? It gets my nod as Winery of the Year.

Here are the three Felton Road wines currently available, imported by Wilson Daniels and handled here by Republic Beverage.

2003 Felton Road Dry Riesling - * * * * 1/2 - good citrus (lemon-lime) aspects, plus the requisite riesling "petrol" twang, although it's not predominant; really nice wine; about $30.

2002 Felton Road Chardonnay - * * * * * - a lively ringer for a top white burgundy, with appealing toasty, smoky nuances, citrusy fruit and just the right amount of oak. Along with New Zealand's Kumeu River Chardonnay (see below), maybe the best chardonnay from the Southern Hemisphere; about $32.

2002 Felton Road Pinot Noir - * * * * * - absolutely first-rate pinot character (beet root, smoked bacon, cinnamon), and with the excellent acidity of a grand cru red burgundy. Not cheap, but who cares? About $40.

I'm a big fan of Felton Road (New Zealand). They are making some tremendous Pinot Noir - Block 5 Otago is one of the best New World Pinot Noirs anywhere."

2003 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay
Light straw with a whisper of green. Fine, limy, gently oak infused nose with a faint touch of meal/nuts. Tense. Fine impact is softly lime-like with a mid palate dash of creamy textured meal that is licked with lime and a hint of mineral. Clean, slightly oaky, dry, fine finish is warm and fresh, with moderate length.

2003 Pinot Noir
Firm red, tinged with cerise. Gorgeously aromatic, cherry fruit nose with mild spice and a gentle wash of mushroom. Evocative, intense, sophisticated. Lush fruit introduction is deliciously, intensely fruit filled with a gush of cherry ripe flavour and creamy, sweet texture. Mid palate depth is excellent, with a bright richness and fine, supple length that is underpinned with sweet fruit characters. Impressive, fine, dazzling wine, it could do with more bass, more texture and substance to be truly outstanding, but a very exciting bottle all the same.

Felton Road Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2003 - Best Import
From Central Otago, NZ, a very rich, complex, in your face style of Chardonnay, smelling of butterscotch, stone fruits and toasty oak. Full of character, with great texture and persistence. Improves with airing and could take some age. Also screw-capped.

Felton Road Pinot Noir 2003
Purply-red. Wild berries and Central Otago herbs on the nose. Slightly woody in the palate. It's spicy and savoury with wonderful fruit concentration, cherry, red berries, red currants, musky/rose petals, lifted finish. It looks like it is going to be very good.

Felton Road Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2003
A medium yellow gold in colour. Nuts, figs and yeasty overtones on the nose. Ripe spicy apricots, figs and citrus with toasty oak in the palate. It's buttery, long and smooth with a full-bodied spicy finish. Apricot flavours linger.

Felton Road Dry Riesling 2003
Very pale in colour. Richly aromatic with floral scents joined by lemon and honey and just a hint of wet wool. Wonderfully crisp and racy in the palate with citrus, apples and ginger on a steely, stony, minerally backbone. The 8grams per litre of residual sugar balances the acidity and adds some sweetness. Very pure with a nice grainy texture, it evolves as it sits in the glass and the finish is long. pH 2.85. 11.0% alc. Blair considers this an 'earlier drinking' wine.

Wine connoisseur, Richard Orders, selects his favourite wines available in Asia.
Across the water, New Zealand is now producing some of the finest pinot noirs outside of Burgundy - indeed while Australia may be shiraz and riesling country, New Zealand is definitely Pinot Noir and Sauvignon. Of those available in Hong Kong, Mount Edward, Palliser Estate and Martinborough are worthy examples with the Felton Estate Block 3 2002 (Watson's Wine Cellar $699) taking the prize of a number recently tasted. This is a delicious young pinot with rich ripe red fruit flavours but with a concentration and structure which is often lacking in new world pinots.

2002 Felton Road Chardonnay Barrel Fermented
Lemon. This wine is just a little more obvious, the fruit and oak not quite so integrated as the top wines - but that is at a critical level. The Felton is still much less oaky than the Referts, for example. Fruit is white peachy and mealy, and the charry oak and citric overtones are amazingly like several of the Girardins. Richness is super, but the alcohol shows a little, just needing to marry up a little more. The acid may be a little higher than the Girardins, but this wine shows yet again the great potential Otago has for world-class chardonnay, a potential lying almost latent and unrecognised. Cellar 3 - 12 years.

2002 Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir, Central Otago, South Island , New Zealand, £25.00 Awesome - as good as Pinot Noir gets outside the Côte d’Or allocations for Felton Road wines normally arrive in early May and then sell out in a matter of days. I have listed all of the suppliers in the UK of these amazing wines, but you’ll have to do a phone around, because the stock is scattered to the four winds and not everyone takes each of the different labels. My advice is to phone up now and register your interest with your local merchant and/or join the Felton Road elist (wines@feltonroad.com) and you will receive a twice-yearly newsletter with details of forthcoming releases.

So, what happened at the tasting? Well, Felton Road didn’t show their full array of wines, so I rang up and ordered the missing ones. Now that I have tasted all of the new vintages I can confirm that this is the single most impressive estate in NZ. And nobody at the moment is closing the gap on their lead. Each and every wine is fantastic (I didn’t score anything less than 18/20) and the best wine of the day, my chosen Block 5 Pinot, got a nice, shiny 19.5! ‘Stupendous’ and ‘awesome’ were two of the words I used in my notes.

This is as good as Pinot gets outside of the Côte d’Or and I would fight even for a single bottle if you get the chance. It is three years or so away from drinking perfectly, but the screwcap will keep it in perfect nick until then and you’ll not have to worry about cork-taint when you open it. What a relief!

2003 Felton Road Dry Riesling, Riesling and Bin 1 Riesling were all outstanding. My pick is the ‘Riesling’, which has a lovely lick of residual sugar tempering the finish and fattening the palate out.

2002 Felton Road Barrel Fermented Chardonnay was dreamy and showed just how much work virtually all other Chardonnay makers have to do to imbue complexity and style into their wines.

2002 Felton Road Pinot Noir, Block 3 Pinot Noir, and even the entry level wine, 2002 Cornish Point Drystone Pinot Noir all looked spectacular.

Block 2 Chardonnay was missing from my delectation, but I suspect it is awesome anyway!

Felton Road is categorically the best estate in the country at the moment. I can’t wait to get out there in November to taste some of those wines that do not make it over to the UK, in order to see if any other wineries are close to this level of sheer perfection.

Run by Englishman Nigel Greening, who splits his time between Surrey and Central Otago, Felton Road is the winery whose wines I take as presents for my favourite winemakers when I visit Burgundy. These wines always, without fail, impress them.

Today's best wineries will be constantly challenged by newcomers: anyone taking status for granted will have a quick and rude awakening. So it is with a degree of hesitation that I single some out for mention. But I will open on firm ground: Felton Road, with Blair Walter as winemaker, has consistently produced pinots with exemplary finesse and length for more than five years. If there is to be a top producer, it has to be Felton Road.

Cellar Door - Felton Road Pinot Noir 2002 ($70) and Felton Road Pinot Noir Block 3 2002 ($95)
Despite the increased competition, Felton Road remains unchallenged as the region’s most consistent and celebrated winery and has turned out three superb pinots in 2002. The ‘basic’ pinot is anything but that, with its wonderful mouthfeel and silky, persistent tannins. The pick of the two single-vineyard wines (there is also a Block 5) is the Block 3 which is even more complex, with dark fruits, spice and some forest-floor notes leading onto the palate which is rich, meaty and structured. This wine will continue to improve for at least the next five years and probably longer.

‘Best New World White’ - Felton Road Chardonnay, New Zealand 2002
Nigel Greening’s barrel-fermented Central Otago Chardonnay got my vote in October’s ‘Mainly Whites’ New Zealand tasting, against strong competition. Brilliant use of oak, marvellous texture and depth of flavour and superb length for drinking over the next 3 years.

‘Cream of the Crop’ - New Zealand Classics:
• Felton Road Riesling
• Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir
• Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir