Wine

Newcastle Herald

Saturday April 12, 2008

With John Lewis

Kono 2007 Marlborough

Sauvignon Blanc

Elegant isn't a word I can usually attach to sauvignon blanc, but it fits this one from a partnership between a New Zealand Maori-owned wine company and three Maori land trusts.

The wine is lime green with straw tints and has scents of passionfruit and honeysuckle. Crisp, delicate citrus flavour comes through on the front of the palate and the middle palate opens out with spiced gooseberry and capsicum characters. Palate-cleansing slatey acid shows at the finish.

It would be great with steamed mussels, crabcakes or pork and glass noodles stirfry.

It is the first Kono wine released in Australia and is made from grapes grown in vineyards on Maori land in the Marlborough Region's Awatere, Waihopai and Lower Wairau valleys.

The trusts have vineyards at Gisborne on the North Island and in the Nelson and Marlborough regions of the South Island and got together to form the Tohu Wines company, producing the first Kono wine in 1998.

Profits from wine sales are ploughed back into the Maori communities.

Tohu means signature and kono is the native word for a woven basket, traditionally used to carry the produce of the land and sea that sustained the Maori people.

Tohu is the only indigenous wine company in New Zealand and is headed by managing director James Wheeler, who says the venture reflects the Maoris' age-old tradition of acting as guardians of their native land, nurturing it in honour of their ancestors and preserving it for future generations.

"The land owns us," says James, "we're simply the guardians or kaitiaki until the next generation takes over. Our wines are a pure expression of the natural environment and the rich soils entrusted to us by our ancestors."

Tohu vineyards cover more than 160 hectares and are all registered with Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand.

The wines are made by Marlborough winemaker Simon Waghorn, a graduate of South Australia's Roseworthy College and a former chief winemaker at Corbans' Gisborne winery, and the NZ portfolio includes Marlborough sauvignon blanc, unoaked chardonnay and pinot noir and Gisborne unoaked chardonnay.

The Kono 2007 sauvignon blanc distinguished itself last November by winning an elite gold award at the 2007 Air New Zealand Wine Awards. The elite awards go to wines that receive 19 out of a possible 20 points and only 29 of the 1540 entries received the accolade from the 2007 show judges.

Available: in Dan Murphy

and other wine stores

Price: $12

Rating: * * * * 1/2

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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