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
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.
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