Kowhai Point Sparkling Pinot Gris 2008 (Marlborough, NZ)
13.5%, Cork
Source: Sample

Right so here is an oddity for you – a sparkling Marlborough Pinot Gris. As was pointed out on twitter, it certainly ticks all the boxes for ‘market potential’, though marketability and quality are often somewhat distant bedfellows. This has been made with some reasonably serious base wine though, even if it’s arguably too ripe for serious sparkling. 

It certainly smells ripe and varietal, with a nose of Golden Circle Fruit Salad – all peachy honeyed goodness. It’s a juicy, sweet fruited and open nose of simple grape characters. The palate generous, round and sherbey with passionfruit and pineapple Pinot Gris varietal fruit that sits quite nicely through the middle, but all falls away through the finish. It all ends, dry and rather short with average length.

All in all this is tastes exactly of what it is – a serious dry Pinot Gris with bubbles. But a serious sparkling Pinot Gris it ain’t. 16/87