Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hawks Nest Wines of NZ: Hawks Nest Wines of NZ

Hello to our readers after a two weeks haitus. We were traveling via China and England back to the states for the holiday season. We just got back to Nashville and are back in the swing (almost!!!). The good news for our readers is that I new 05 wine is all rested at the Lipman Brothers warehouse and ready for release this next week. You can now go into Tennesse retail stores and ask for it by name. That is Hawks Nest Orchard Block Red NZ wine. It is not out in stores yet but will be there within the next 10 days we are told. Do ask for it at your favorite store now!!!

We have several tasting events lined up this next few weeks so try to attend to try our new wine. There is a tasting at Bistro 215 in Green Hills on Dec 6th so call 3853636 for reservations as it is only $10 for the tasting event. Hope to see you there.

I wanted to give a little update on my research on coraks versis screw caps for closure of the wine. Clorks of course are the classic closure for bottled wine but corks are scarse and can lead to spoilage due to bottle veriations so called oxidisation or cork taint called corked wine. About 2-6% of bottle wines with corks go bad so this has led to problems over the years. Now we have to advent of screwcaps. They are hated by may especially in the "old world"wineries. New world wines have embraced the screwcap-especially in Australia and New Zealand. It is estimated that 90% of Kiwi wines sold in NZ are sealed with screw caps. For wines to be consumed soon after purchase (95% of all wines I am told) the screw cap is perfect as it allows storage with minimal oxidation of partial bottles and certainly easy to open and store. No one has yet come up with the wine pouring term of "screwed" but I can see that bubbling up in the near feature. So, the next time you get a bottle of wine that has a screw cap don't assume it is bonk. It just means the wine makers are trying to be cost effective and to present their wine for early consumption. Just learn to make a popping sound with your mouth as you open the bottle just out of your guests vision and all will be well.

With all that said you will note that we have used a fine quality real cork for our new wine? Why? Because we hope some of you will put it away in your cellars for a few years to age and for that and for tradition we chose to go with the old cork standby. Now, if we offer a white wine, we will go with a screw cap!!! But I digress!!!

More later.

DR JIm back in Tennessee