Recent examples:


 Chardonnay 2004
Michael Cooper Buyer’s Guide - 4 stars

Chardonnay 2003
Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2004 - Bronze Medal
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2005 - 4 stars
Cuisine Top Ten Chardonnays, July 2005 - 4 stars
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2006 - 4 stars

Chardonnay 2001
International Wine Challenge 2004 - Bronze Medal
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2005 - 4 stars


Chardonnay 2000
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge - Bronze
La Revue du Vin de France, November 2003 - Four Stars
Cuisine & Vins de France, Sept/October 2005


Chardonnay 1999
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 2001 - Bronze
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 2003 - Silver


Chardonnay 1998
Cuisine 2000 - Four stars
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 2000 - Bronze
The Penguin Good NZ Wine Guide - 4 glasses


Chardonnay 1996
Air New Zealand Wine Awards 1997 - Bronze
International Wine & Spirit Competition 1998 - Silver
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 1999 - Bronze


Sauvignon Blanc 2006
International Wine Challenge – Silver

Sauvignon Blanc 2005
International Wine Challenge 2006 – Silver

Sauvignon Blanc 2004
NZ Cuisine Magazine November 2004 - 4 stars
Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2004 - Bronze Medal
Royal Easter Show 2005 - Bronze Medal
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2005 - 4 stars
Top 20, Oz Clarke's 2006 Wine Buyers Guide
International Wine Challenge - Bronze Medal
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2006 - 4 stars
Lianhe Zaobao Wine Review Challenge 2006 - Bronze

Sauvignon Blanc 2003
Decanter September 2004 - 4 stars
Lianhe Zaobao Wine Review Challenge 2004 - Bronze Medal


Sauvignon Blanc 2000
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 2001 - Bronze


Sauvignon Blanc 1999
Cuisine 2000 - Three stars
Air New Zealand Wine Awards 1999  - Bronze
Liquorland Top 100 1999 - Bronze
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 2000 - Bronze
The Penguin Good NZ Wine Guide - 4 glasses


Riesling 2005
Air New Zealand 2005 - Bronze Medal
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2006 - 3 stars


Riesling 2004
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2005 - 4 stars

Riesling 2003
Wine International Magazine - 90 points
International Wine & Spirit Competition – Bronze


Riesling 2002
2005 International Wine & Spirit Competition - Bronze Medal
International Wine Challenge - Silver Medal

Riesling 2000
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge - Bronze
La Revue du Vin de France, November 2003 - Four Stars


Riesling 1999
Cuisine 2000 - Four stars
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 2001 - Silver
Cuisine Magazine - July 2001 - four stars, 90 points


Riesling 1998
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 1999 - Bronze

Riesling 1997
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 1998 - Silver


Pinot Noir 2004
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2006 - 3 stars

Pinot Noir 2003
Royal Easter Show 2005 - Bronze Medal
Michael Cooper Wine Guide 2005 - 4 stars
International Wine Challenge - Bronze Medal


Pinot Noir 2001
Decanter July 2004, recommended

Pinot Noir 2000
Wine Magazine – September 2002 - 88 points
Le guide Fleurus des Vins d'Ailleurs - un coup de Coeur


Pinot Noir 1999
Cuisine 2001 - 4 stars

Pinot Noir 1998
Liquorland Top 100 1999 - Gold
Cuisine 2000 - Five stars
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 1999 - Silver
The Penguin Good NZ Wine Guide - 5 glasses

Ram Paddock Red 1999
Wine International July 2004, 5 years' on tasting, 90 points

Ram Paddock Red 1998
Le guide Fleurus des Vins d'Ailleurs - three stars
Revue Vinicole Internationale June 2005 – article


Ram Paddock Red 1996
Air New Zealand Wine Awards 1997 - Silver
Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge 1999 - Bronze




Waipara West Pinot Noir 2000, Nouvelle-Zélande
“Un excellent vin de gibier, fumé, épicé et complexe, mais frais.”
Challenges No 207, 11 Septembre 2003

Waipara West Riesling 2000
“Waipara Blanc. Ce riesling apparaît bien typé aromatiquement, et se caractérise par une très belle attaque. Direct et sobre, il est à la fois frais et minéral en bouche. Et surtout ferme et sec.”
La Revue du Vin de France
Novembre 2003


Waipara West Chardonnay 2000
“Blanc. Un vin d'inspiration sérieusement bouguignonne. Ferme et minéral. Il possède une immense fraicheur et une longueur tout à fait remarquable. Parfaitement équilibré. Ce Chardonnay met littérallement l'eau à la bouche.”
La Revue du Vin de France
Novembre 2003


Waipara West Cabernet Franc, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot 1998
Canterbury region
“Région de Canterbury. Un assemblage à la bordelaise pour ce vin aux senteurs puissantes de résine et de cèdre, bouche élégante, vive, finale fruits confits.”
Le Point 04 July 2003 No1604

"Funky and iconoclastic in a rock'n'roll sort of way"                         
                               
Michael Palij MW, Decanter, May 2003


Les Meilleures Cuvees disponibles en France

WAIPARA WEST – Lutte raisonnee, vendanges manuelles, vinifications a la parcelled sont les bases. Le Pinot 2003 est un beau vin au fruit equilibre. Ram Paddock 1999, assemblage bordelaise, est plus sudiste.
La Revue du Vin de France
13 Septembre 2006



OZ CLARKE'S WINE BUYING GUIDE 2002
published by Little Brown @ £9.99

My 2002 Top Dozen

1999 Riesling, Waipara West
Riesling in all its naked glory, dry, aggressive, with bone dry apple peel fruit and lemon zest attack - even the honey seems strangely gaunt and dry.  Impressive, severe now, it will get richer and more honeyed over the next few years.

Magnificent Misfits
1999 Cabernet Franc, Waipara West

Waipara is sunny but it's cool, and the Cabernet Franc grape from cool Bordeaux may find it an ideal spot to ripen.  Certainly this gentle strawberry-flavoured red flecked with a hint of sage perfume bodes well.


OZ CLARKE'S WINE BUYING GUIDE 2003
published by
Time Warner Books UK @ £5.00

Best Buys – Runners Up
2000 Riesling , Waipara West

Waipara is one of the undiscovered gems of New Zealand's South Island and Riesling from here has a unique, challenging style.As bone dry as wine can get, taunting you not to like it. But I cannot resist it , because behind the cold exterior, the lean, taut texture, there's a fabulous flavour of lemon zest, crisp apple, the smokiness of tar and finally an inviting soft centre of honey, bread and cream.


OZ CLARKE'S WINE BUYING GUIDE 2005
published by Time Warner / Webster Books


2001 Waipara West Pinot Noir
Waipara West never flatters to deceive; they make almost arrogantly austere wines. But the ‘hauteur' of this wine doesn't mean it has no fruit – there's positively intense strawberry and cream fruit and even some chocolate richness, but at the same time you feel that you are licking the very stones of the vineyard.
 

2001 Riesling , Waipara West
This must be New Zealand's driest, most challenging Riesling, so any of you who see Riesling as a challenge in austerity, a sort of North Face of the Eiger white wine experience, well, get your crampons on and your ice pick sharpened, because this is marvellously taut wine, almost spritzy fresh, as zingy and sharp as piano wire dipped in lime – but right at the end there's just the slightest suggestion of honeybread and custard.


OZ CLARKE'S WINE BUYING GUIDE 2006
published by Little, Brown Book Group

2004 Sauvignon Blanc
For those of us who appreciate tangy, green-scented dry whites, here’s a New Zealand example. Classic kiwi Sauvignon – lashings of gooseberry, nettle, capsicum and lime fruit syrup and high acidity producing a wine that seems both rich and bone dry at the same time.



OZ CLARKE'S WINE BUYING GUIDE 2007
published by Time Warner Books

Oz's Top Wines £7-£10
2004 Chardonnay, Two Terrace, Waipara West,
Waipara, New Zealand

This comes from a superb, out-of-the-way vineyard in South Island, New Zealand. It’s rich and round, deep and soft with a lovely sense of beeswax and lanolin, earth and a wild, funky, savage quality I keep saying is pheromonal without ever quite working out why - that’s pheromones for you - and a final ancient autumn flavour of quince and medlars. Wines like this make Chardonnay interesting again.