Sue Courtney's blog of vinous ramblings
wine, food & other vinous topics from New Zealand
May 19th 2008

Coxhead Creek vantage point

Sitting on a patio sipping wine is always nice, but even nicer when you are sipping the wine off your own vineyard from the grapevines right in front of you. I don't think I will ever have my own vineyard, but it is always nice to see the pride in a vineyard owner's eyes when they share a bottle of their wine with you on their patio. That was the case on Saturday when we visited Coxhead Creek Vineyard with vineyard manager Alistair Noakes and met owner Michael Lorimer.

Coxhead Creek is north of slow town Matakana on the way to Leigh. It's at the end of a dusty road with the same name. Michael, who wanted a challenge and something to do in the weekends, first planted a block of syrah on his elevated site that has views across the Hauraki Gulf to Great Barrier in the east and a grand vista of the Omaha Inlet to the south, in 2002. From our vantage point we could see Ti Point Vineyard just across the near valley and The Gabion vineyard at Te Kie Point in the very far distance. The rows of vines, all in the same north-south orientation, look like a discontiguous geological outcrop.

Jan Haslam, the owner of the Ti Point Retreat at the Ti Point Vineyard, spotted his planting endeavours and questioned his sanity. Then she introduced him to her winemaker daughter Tracy, the catalyst for the Ti Point Vineyard plantings. It was a fruitful meeting and Tracy has made the Coxhead Creek wines from the outset with the first vintage in 2004. In fact the quality of the Coxhead Creek syrah encouraged Tracy to plant a block of Syrah at Ti Point.

Michael added another block the following year with more syrah and cabernet franc and these two grapes are blended, at this stage, for the Inlet Red. Like many other tiny vineyards in Matakana, Coxhead Creek uses The Vintry in Matakana for cellar door sales.

Coxhead Creek Inlet Red 2005, an approximate 50/50 blend of Syrah and Cabernet Franc, is a deep crimson coloured red that smells so peppery you would think it was 100% Syrah. Peppery on the initial taste too, and quite savoury with a bitter cherry and plum sweetness and moderately soft yet grippy tannins, it morphs as it travels across the tongue into a wine of Bordeaux character with a touch of tobacco, smoky French oak and dried herbs. An approachable wine with structure and flavour, it has 13.5% alcohol and a screwcap closure. It costs about $25 at The Vintry.

Coxhead Creek Vineyard Reserve Syrah 2005 is a deep crimson colour with reasonably intensity of hue. Fragrant, floral and peppery on the nose and rich and intense in flavour with nice earthy tones to balance the bright cherry and purple fruit that is underpinned by well-balanced acidity. Evolving in the glass it is spicy, salty and zesty with a floral brightness, hints of rose petal and a marmite savouriness, it is soft yet has structure behind it and is subtle in its power and long and succulent in its flavour. It speaks of the place with its slight saltiness, which vineyard manager Alistair attributes to the high salinity of the coastal clay soils. I'd like to try this with a fennel and orange infused creamy pate. With 13.5% alcohol and a screwcap closure, it costs about $36 at The Vintry but it is advertised at Caro's for considerably less.

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