Waiheke Island, New Zealand

It's been an ambition of mine to take my MG sports car to every wine region in New Zealand.

The idea of taking the car to Waiheke was to drive

some 'off the beaten track roads' with like-minded

people in the MG car club and to combine both my

pleasures, we'd stop at a vineyard for lunch.

The original itinerary has us driving the loop road to

visit Fort Stony Batter on the eastern end of the island,

Passage Rock Wines for lunch and Wild on Waiheke

for a spot of beer tasting. Then there would be free

time to explore the western end of the island at leisure

until the ferry trip back to the mainland. I was also

keen to wander around Oneroa Village. It's such a

cutesy village but I was always admiring it from the

window of a bus.

Then just a couple of days before the trip I had an email from Matt Allen, the vineyard

manager at Man O' War Vineyards. "I've heard you are coming to the island. Would you like

to taste our wines?".

Would I? Absolutely.

It wasn't out of my way at all, in fact the Stony Batter fortifications are within the 4500 acre

Man O' War Farm, which, as well as sheep and cattle has vineyards here, there and

everywhere and olive groves. So we made a deal. I'd stop and taste the wines while the others

crawled through tunnels and dark places, something I didn't want to do any way. They would

also get to drive their sports cars within the farm, right to the Stony Batter fortifications,

rather than having to walk the kilometre or so from the locked gate. A win-win for everyone.

A wine-wine for me.

Just a couple of hundred metres inside the gate is Man O' War Vineyards new office and

workers' accommodation block. The spacious lounge and dining area, was perfect for our

wine tasting. The large windows on the northern side gave glimpses of the road through flax

and other native bushes, where an occasional hiker would pass by, with views to the Hauraki

Gulf beyond. The western window was flanked by a

hillside olive grove and looking down the corridor to the

south, through a glass door, was Ponui Island separated

today from Waiheke Island by a belt of shimmering

turquoise blue. On Ponui is another 1500 acres of Man o'

War Farms, including a 15-acre Pinot Gris vineyard.

Winemaker Matt Lay had also taken time out on a Labour

Weekend Sunday to join the tasting. I met Matt three

the brand was known as Stony Batter. They changed the branding from Stony Batter to Man

O' War not long after that visit. While Stony Batter is a geographical feature on the farm,

Man O' War is actually the name of the farm and so the label more represents what is

happening on the whole property, including Ponui. Back in 2005 I learnt there were 72

individual vineyard sites on the property, of varying size, grape variety, soils type, slope and

aspect. Now there are 96. It certainly makes Man O' War Vineyards the largest producer by

far, on the island.

The wines are outstanding. I have praise for them all - the vibrant but textural Ponui Island

Pinot Gris 2008 (tank sample), the weighty textural Sauvignon Blancs, the rich mouthfilling

Chardonnays, the Cabernet-based reds and the spicy Syrahs. Apart from the Pinot Gris, there

were two of everything - the white label wines that come from mostly younger vines and the

black label 'super premium' wines that take the best fruit from the older vines with

winemaking enhancing the stylistic complexity.

But there was one wine that particularly stood out. It was as good as any

blend of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Cabernet Franc, 10% Malbec and

2% Petit Verdot.

Like a black cherry in colour, opaque and shiny with a crimson edge to the

hue that led into the most gorgeous, deep, sumptuous, concentrated aroma. It

is the kind of wine that offers the utmost appeal and enjoyment from the

aroma alone - the kind of wine you can keep on smelling, inhaling the

sensuousness that comes from within. You can smell the oak barrels, the

savoury complexities and the winey fruit scents.

Deep, rich and savoury in flavour with leather, spice, tobacco, cigar,

concentrated cherry, cassis and boysenberry, some floral violet-like notes

evolving, beautiful oak complexity and mouth-coating, but not teeth-coating

tannins, it is concentrated and powerful with a finish that goes on, and on,

and on. The fruit sweetness was balanced perfectly by the savouriness. I

couldn't believe how good this wine was. Just simply delicious.

The Matts gave me the remainder of the bottle to take home and tonight we had it with food -

a simple pan-grilled, medium rare, scotch fillet steak. A perfect combination that further

enhances the fruit sweetness of the wine, perhaps bringing some chocolate into play.

This is outstanding wine and at $48 a bottle, it is a bargain price in the realm of the nation's

top quality reds. I'd like to see it in a blind tasting with other big names, including those from

Waiheke and Clevedon as well as Hawkes Bay. In my opinion, this will definitely do well. I

rate it five stars, gold medal standard. Evidently Bob Campbell rated this 94 when tasted in as

a tank sample and it's since been awarded 96 in Gourmet Traveller Wine. Neal Martin rated it

93 when he was in New Zealand tasting for Wine Advocate. It was one of his most highly

rated Cabernet-based reds.

buy*. Unfortunately the website is still in a state of construction although it does have a

contact form if you want to find out more. The wine is available in all Waiheke outlets and

with Eurowine as New Zealand distributor, it's also available in some fine wine stores and

restaurants as well. Another contact for Man O' War is telephone. That is (09) 950 3285 - free

calling from Auckland.