The Isle of Wine - NZ Herald 8.12.10

Check out the latest review on Man O' War Vineyards & Waiheke Island by Jo Burzynska, NZ Herald, Viva Magazine. Click here to see pictures from the Man O' War Cellar Door Launch day.

Double GOLD for Man O’ War Dreadnought 2008 from Decanter Wine Awards & International Wine Challenge 2010

Dreadnought Syrah, one of Man O’ War’s flagship wines, has received GOLD in two of the world’s most prestigious wine competitions, ‘Decanter Wine Awards’ and the ‘International Wine Challenge’. To add further kudos to this achievement, only 5 New Zealand wineries received Gold in both awards and Man O’ War Dreadnought was the only Waiheke wine to receive Gold in both.

Increasingly competitive, both competitions hit record numbers this year. The International Wine Challenge received submissions from 46 wine producing countries whilst Decanter hit 10,983 entries, sealing its position as the world’s biggest international wine competition, with only 2.8% of wines winning a coveted Gold or Regional Trophy!

Man O’ War’s vineyard manager Matt Allen says, “The whole team is on a real high following the results and its great reward for everyone involved, knowing firsthand the hard yards required for such recognition.

2008 was a truly amazing vintage to be a part of and the awards are further endorsement that wines produced from little old Waiheke can stand proud on a world stage.”

Man O' War launches in Asia & attends Ultimate Parker in Asia event

Man O’ War has been invited to exhibit at the exclusive Ultimate Parker in Asia – an invitation-only event for the world’s best wineries in Singapore, from May 1 to 3.

It’s particularly prestigious because of the star guest, the world’s most influential wine critic, Robert Parker Jr – who is also bringing key critics from The Wine Advocate, which awarded Man O’ War wines very high scores late last year.

Just 100 wineries from around the world have been hand picked to attend the Ultimate Parker in Asia, which involves two days of wine tasting, master classes and a charity dinner hosted by Parker.

“It goes to show that Man O’ War is making a name for itself as a producer of serious fine wine,” says Man O’ War sales and marketing manager Sara Fogarty.

As well as industry tastings, the event is expected to attract between 1500 and 2000 wine enthusiasts from around Asia – an invaluable opportunity to reach a discerning and growing wine market.

Man O’ War will be showcasing its Ironclad Bordeaux Blend 2008, Dreadnought Syrah 2008 and Man O’ War Chardonnay 2008, all of which received very good scores in The Wine Advocate.

This comes just weeks after Man O’ War’s launch in Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia with Rubicon Reserve Wines.

“Asia is a really important market for us,” says Sara Fogarty. “Wine drinkers there are passionate about good wine. We want to show them just how good New Zealand and Waiheke wine can be.”

“Man O’ War is showing that New Zealand is not just a one trick Pinot Noir pony,” says David Coleman of Rubicon Reserve Wines. “The production of super premium Bordeaux blends and world class Syrah makes Man O’ War the perfect bookend for Rubicon Reserve Wines extensive New Zealand portfolio.”

The blue skies of Tokyo

Another airport, another bus, another hotel… but many amazing people! Welcome to the blue skies of Tokyo, after 10 days of haze arriving in Tokyo was a blessing. Kicking around with Christian & Eric (long time supporters of Man O’ War and brilliant brand ambassadors in Japan) we meet some of Japan’s hospitality elite. First up a cheeky little Italian dinner, complete with a bottle of vintage Man O' War Merlot stored lovingly at the Caraggio.

Thursday brought on the NZ Wine show. It was huge! 500 people came through for a trade tasting, many media and sommeliers. Thankfully the gods were looking after me and Yoshito Shichiji to help for the day. His palate was amazing and very quickly he understood what we were all about and helped to tell the Man O’ War story to everyone who came by.
With an hour break we had another 400 consumers come through hosted by Air NZ, they were thirsty for both knowledge & great NZ wine. Many expats (including a few lawyers) enjoyed a touch of home and some good old kiwi slang.

Ready for a beer, Mike from Prophets Rock, John from Vinoptima and I headed to Murase Wine & Cheese

www.wine-murase.com a Mecca for New Zealand wines. Kenichi Murase the owner has fallen in love with NZ and has an extraordinary wine list, many pictures and maps from NZ, including one of Man O’ War! So look out as soon as we have stock landed in Japan.

My remaining time in this amazing city was meeting and tasting with some of Christian & Eric’s friends and restaurant owner clients. Had an amazing tasting with the T.Y. Express group, almost Tokyo’s equivalent of the Nourish Group but much nicer. Shimpei Terada the President, Kazuaki Takanari the Wine Director, and David Chiddo Vice President slurped their way through our range and were particularly impressed with Ironclad, Valhalla & Dreadnought. So we are hoping to have a home on their amazing wine list soon.

We also attended the opening of Factory, a new bakery opened by Sei & Aki Matsuura

www.factory-kudan.com who also own some great restaurants in the heart of Tokyo. My last supper in Tokyo was surrounded by new friends at a brilliant Spanish tapas restaurant, Bikini (yes I did eat some traditional Japanese food) which is part of the Four Seeds group www.four-seeds.co.jp Talking through Man O’ War and planning the next trip (including a cup of tea with David). It is a beautiful city, with charming people and great hospitality!

One must go home, it’s been a great trip and we have met some wonderful people and made so many new friends for Man O’ War. I am looking forward to seeing the team back at HQ, my own bed, cheese on toast, and ‘vegging out’ in front of the TV, plus not having to lug around 7 pieces of luggage! But we will be back and we very much look forward to it.
Sara

The Far East

Arrived to the rain and heat in Hong Kong , amazing smells everywhere for a first timer here, I am pleased to be tall. Such an interesting place. Checked out the local wine retail scene, very impressed with Ponti (www.ponti-fwc.com), Olivers and 360 (www.threesixtyhk.com). We need something like this at home! Very sophisticated wine market here.

Had a great tour around Tsim Sha Tsui and dinner with Vanessa from At Style wine importers in a traditional Chinese restaurant, where I tried ducks feet, cheek of snapper and goose, couldn’t quite brave the chicken feet.
Every night you can see a light & music show from 8pm from Tsim Shar Tsui looking back to Hong Kong Island.

Met some other great wine distributors and Eddie McDougall from the Independent Wine Centre, learnt a lot about this market. Excited about the opportunities for us here. Caught up with Travis & Natasha Brown who are Australians living here both working in hospitality so great to learn more about the market and what is happening here. We went to Lan Kwai Fong the expat hang out. Did I mention anything about the Super 14 Finals... never.

Caught the ferry to Macau, a fascinating place. To me a good combination of Hong Kong and somewhere in the middle of Europe. You can still see the influence of the Portuguese here. We have representation here with TH Fine Wines, www.thfinewines.com. We have had meetings with MGM and the City of Dreams complex, Dreadnought Syrah on the opening list of City of Dreams. It opens next Monday, they complex in the final stages with 6000 staff members in training still. It will be wonderful to see it again open.

Off to see some more complexes today, and then leave on Sunday for Shanghai. Hopefully without losing too much money at any of the Casinos here!
Until the next time. Sara

Duncan's winery update

We have just finished pressing the last of our reds on Monday and the barrels are all stacked away, it’s the last week with all the workers here so we are glorified cleaners at the moment.

I’m ready to finish the Dreadnought this week for bottling at the winery in late June.
The Man O' War Sauvignon Blanc 09 and Man O' War Pinot Gris 09 are finished blends and I will start stabilising them for bottling in the spring.

Exciting times.
Duncan

LIWF 09

Kia Ora from London, England!

The 2009 London International Wine Fair

is over, we had amazing interest in

Man O’ War, the wines and what we

are all about.

Over the course of the 3 days, we scanned over 300 people (hopefully not

brainwashing them), making some amazing new friends and learnt a lot about the markets in UK, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Ireland, South Africa and even Canada. Many were from great retail outlets like Oddbins and Majestic, smaller independents like Thos Peatling Fine Wines and the Wig & Mitre group. We had a great catch up with Sam from Wine Thief, a brilliant online NZ wine store, who placed our first order with Ironclad. To be served at a function at New Zealand house at the end of May. Quite a few hotels came through and some buyers from British Airways, so a great way to meet the full spectrum of every type of establishment selling wine.

We were between Gary & Martin from Babich and Neil who was on the NZ Winegrowers stand showing great wines from Maven, Archangel and Judge Rock, and a great help at introducing Man O’ War to many punters at the show. Thank you Neil (on the left sans hat)!

The Man O’ War Sauvignon Blanc, Valhalla Chardonnay, Man O’ War Merlot Cabernet Franc, Dreadnought Syrah and Ironclad were huge hits! As was the new Man O’ War DVD, so many want to now visit Waiheke Island and New Zealand.

The team at NZ Winegrowers were brilliant, the stand looked amazing and many friends from other ‘large companies’ commented that the New Zealand stand was one of the busiest at the show.

There were some spectacular stands; favourites include McGuigan who had planted vines, who would have thought in the middle of London, England!

This week I am catching up with some potential distributors in UK and Spain, off to Madrid for a day on Wednesday, (so foreign for us Kiwis), and then heading to Hong Kong for the second leg of the trip. It’s been amazing to be in London, England. It astonishes me how far the New Zealand Wine industry has come, when you see 3 bays of New Zealand wine in Harrods. They really do love us over here. Yesterday an article came out that NZ bucks the trend in the UK market and is in growth and at a higher price point! (see blog below)

Until next time,
Sara

Man O' War review in Australian Gourmet Pages May 09

Australian Gourmet Pages Newsletter News & Views May 2009


Man O'War - Wine of New Zealand
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By Franz Scheurer
Captain Cook is responsible for naming the Man O'War station on Waiheke Island (off Auckland), as this is where he cut the tall Kauri trees to be used as masts on his Man O'War sailing ships. The Spencer family planted the first grapes on the Man O'War station some fifteen years ago on the sheltered, and incredibly steep, north facing slopes. Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf is a rugged and beautiful place and the Man O'War farm encompasses an olive grove, a sheep and cattle farm and of course a vineyard and their wines are astonishingly good.

I had the chance to try all of their current releases over the last few days and I'm happy to share my latest 'discovery' with you. One of the points of difference is the fact that they work with a soil type that is unique to Waiheke Island. It is called stony batter clay loam and it contributes largely to the otherwise coastal terroir. This is reflected in their wines and adds an interesting dimension to their texture.

There are two tiers of wines, black labels and white labels. In the black label series there's the Gravestone Sauvignon Blanc, Valhalla Chardonnay, Ironclad Bordeaux Red and the Dreadnought Syrah. In the white label series you find the Man O'War Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Merlot Cabernet and Syrah. Let me tell you right now that every single wine is worth drinking. All of them are above average in quality and well worth seeking out. There are a couple of standouts:

The first outstanding wine is the Man O'War Valhalla Chardonnay 2007 and I'd be happy to compare this with any New World Chardonnay on the market. It is simply fantastic. Hand harvested, whole bunch pressed, cold settled, fermented in old French oak barrels and matured for 10 months. This is a rich, bold Chardonnay, definitely New World, but not oak dominated. It is golden in colour, bottled at a whopping 14.5% a/v but remains an elegant wine. With a grapefruit and honeydew nose, it confirms the citrus aromas on the palate and caresses the entire inside of your mouth with a creamy texture that is immediately alluring. It finishes long and perfectly balanced. Although there is still quite a bit of acidity present it never interferes with the balance of this wine and I expect this to get better for almost a decade.Fantastic wine!

The second outstanding wine is the Man O'War Dreadnought Syrah 2007. The fruit for this wine is harvested from the steepest and hottest vineyard sites, destemmed, open fermented, plunged throughout fermentation and the skins are left even after the fermentation has finished. This is a wine for lovers of 'dark aromas and flavours'. Although red berry fruit is there, this is a savoury, spicy wine with lots of 'forest floor' aromas. It is an 'in your face' wine that is eminently drinkable now but shows all the signs that make a great, aged wine. If you have the patience, leave it for at least a decade and it will reward you with one of the best, integrated and balanced wines I can imagine.

Both the above wines are a must in any wine lovers cellar. They are distributed in Australia, so it is possible to find then. Otherwise contact the winery direct on: +64 9 303 9677 or by e-mailA special thanks for Bronwyn Skuse for introducing me to these wonderful wines. I can't thank you enough!
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