7 Wines You Need To Try This Weekend (But Not All At Once)

Well, what a year that was! 2020 kept us on our toes and we needed a big glass of wine more than ever. But we made it to 2021, hooray! What should you be drinking to start the New Year off on the right foot? Summer is the season for hanging out around the BBQ with a couple of well-made cocktails, some fine fizz and a few generous, juicy reds and I’ve found just the ones you’re looking for.

Liquorette Cocktail Kits,

Commercial Bay, Auckland $35.00

Liquorette serves up delicious pizza and cocktails from its eye catching counter on Level 2 in Commercial Bay in Auckland CBD, but did you know you can take the cocktails with you? Choose from their wonderful Classic, Custom or Signature ranges and be your own bartender at home this summer, Tom Cruise ain’t got nothing on you!

Champagne Bollinger Rosé

NV Ay RRP $130.00

Pinot Noir dominant with 62% of the blend, with Chardonnay and Meunier and 5% red wine added to produce a rosé wine. Cellared for more than twice the legal requirement of the appellation.
Rose gold in colour with bold and powerful aromas of sweet spices, toasted bread, red berries, and ripe red apple. This is a big, heavy style of rosé champagne, on the rounded palate you find roasted peach, black cherry, raspberry, and heavy autolytic characters which are closely followed by cleansing acidity and a long weighty finish.

Yalumba Samuel’s Collection Shiraz

Cabernet 2017 Barossa
RRP $24.99

The Samuel’s collection, named after Yalumba’s founder Samuel Smith, is a group of wines that showcase the grape varieties grown in South Australia. This Shiraz Cabernet blend, a style made famous by Australian winemakers, is made with a combination of hand and machine harvested grapes, wild and inoculated yeasts and aged in French, American and Hungarian oak.
Deep ruby in colour with delicious aromas of ripe plum, sweet blackberries, dark cherry, and smokey oak with underlying red fruit notes. The silky, generous palate is dark fruit driven with fine tannins and a splash of acidity bringing everything together. Drink with roasted meats, lasagne or charcuterie.

Huia Brut Rosé 2017

Marlborough RRP $504.0

I’m obsessed with the Kate Sylvester designed label! Made from hand harvested Certified Organic Pinot Noir grapes with minimal skin contact to extract the perfect colour and flavour profile. Vegan friendly.

The prettiest blush pink colour you ever did see. Gorgeous, complex aromas of red apple, strawberry, and raspberry, with floral notes and touches of lightly toasted bread. The palate is filled with summer berries, raspberry, cherry, and cranberry with a creamy texture and persistent, lively bubbles.

Quartz Reef Vintage 2015 Blanc de Blancs

Central Otago RRP $79.00

Certified Organic and Biodynamic sparkling wine from the Bendigo subregion of Central Otago. Made from 100% Chardonnay and the beautiful packaging is environmentally friendly.
Delicious aromas of stone fruit, apple, and freshly baked brioche are carried to the surface by fine, delicate bubbles. A beautifully dry, crisp sparkling wine with flavours of citrus, white peach and short pastry with a long, lingering mineral finish. Perfect as an aperitif with freshly shucked oysters or with summer seafood dishes.

Champagne Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée

Tours-sur-Marne NV RRP $89.90

Chardonnay dominant, with Pinot Noir and Meunier rounding out the rest of the blend. The La Cuvée is aged for four years before disgorgement takes place to ensure a balanced finished wine.
A pale gold colour with stunning aromas of baked apple, mandarin and grapefruit with baked bread and honeysuckle. The palate is round and soft with white stone fruit, apple and brioche flavours balanced with high acidity and petite, but unrelenting bubbles. This wine can take you through the whole meal, perfect with antipasti, grilled fish or chicken dishes.

Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Tempranillo 2019

Hawke’s Bay RRP $39.99

The world famous Gimblett Gravels is a small sub region of Hawke’s Bay known for its stoney soil type and the first class wines produced from the vines planted there. Handpicked grapes were destemmed and plunged daily during fermentation, the wine has extended skin contact to extract the desired colour and flavour profiles. It is then aged in a combination of French and American oak barrels to develop depth and complexity in the finished wine.

Bold fruit aromas on the nose, blackberry, blackcurrant, plum and seductive spices with hints of cocoa. Red and dark fruits are found on the supple palate and joined by dusty tannins and a long, lingering finish. Perfect with barbecued meats and vegetables this summer.