Spotlight on... Wither Hills Wines

Spotlight on… Wither Hills Wines By Joelle Thomson Wither Hills Winery is named after the beautiful arid backdrop to Marlborough, the Wither Hills, which in turn are named after an early New Zealand pioneer, the Honourable Charles Bigg Wither. He was farmer in the 1840s who did a brief stint in Parliament, hence the name The Honourable. This winery has grown from modest to large in size and in the volume of its wines, which include all the box tickers of highly sought after, tasty and well priced Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc through to interesting quirky and experimental wines. The winemaking team here are equally as passionate about making their Chardonnay a creamy crowd pleaser as they are about making their top quality Pinot Noirs exceptional in taste. This week’s line up offers exceptional value for money from this iconic Marlborough winery, which is, incidentally, a stunningly serene place to go for lunch and a wine tasting next time you’re in Marlborough. 17.5/20 4 stars 2018 Wither Hills Marlborough Chardonnay Fresh, dry and full bodied. This wine is full of character with its citrus, creamy and spicy flavour notes all intermingling in a complex, well priced Chardonnay from our country’s biggest wine region. It massively over delivers on the price from the well known Wither Hills Winery. 16.5/20 3.5 stars 2019 Wither Hills Marlborough Pinot Gris Wither Hills Pinot Gris is an off dry, light bodied, super fresh young white wine made for drinking now, lightly chilled in a medium sized glass, which will allow its aromatic flavours to shine through. Good value buying at this price. 17.5/20 4 stars 2019 Wither Hills Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc One of the country’s most famous Sauvignon Blancs and a wine with a vivacious personality driven by refreshing acidity, which adds zest, length and freshness to every sip. Great value for money and very good quality wine. This is also from a great vintage; 2019 was a stunning year for wine quality in Marlborough. 16.5/20 3.5 stars 2017 Wither Hills Marlborough Pinot Noir Hand harvested grapes from Benmorven and Taylor River vineyards make up the majority of the grapes in this wine. All grapes were hand harvested and kept separate in the winemaking process to provide the best understanding of how to blend the finished wine. Each separate ferment was matured for 14 months in French oak barriques, followed by blending, fining and filtering at bottling.This is a tasty red from Marlborough and history suggests it can age well for up to eight to nine years. Joelle Thomson is a wine writer, journalist and author. She’s an avid lover of wine and currently writes for Capital magazine, Good magazine, NZ Winegrower, Drinksbiz, and her own site, www.joellethomson.com. She also teaches, works in radio, and more, so we've enlisted her help to sniff out our amazing value wines!