CSB - Michael Cooper: Weekly wine chat

Wine guru Michael Cooper joins Hamish McKay to chat a special French-owned winery in Marlborough

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The country, sport, breakfast on gold, and it's time for
the wine guru Michael Cooper and we're heading to Well, Marlborough.
Michael Klaus Honrie French own tell us about this, Well, I.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Suppose what we'd think of as being Hamish the sincerest
form of flattery when you get a French wine producer
who's you know, the family goes back literally centuries in
terms of making excellent sauvignon blanc and pino noirs in
the Loire Valley of France. And then round about twenty
or thirty years ago they thought we want to expand

(00:36):
into the New world, and so in two thousand and
one they bought nearly one hundred hectares near Renwick in
the Wairau Valley Marlborough. Yes, and they created clo on
re ou clo that means sort of like a walled vineyard,
clo on Re. So that's the brand. The wines are

(00:57):
out there. What's fascinating about them is they they're not
typical maulvrasovnon blongs. You know, when you think of a marlvrasovignon,
you think, you know what sort of grassy aromas and
crisp punchy, vibrant flavors, whereas this French take on marlvrasauvignon
brong is quite different and they're quite open about it

(01:18):
that what they want to do is to make a
wine that they describe as being fine wine. And so
to them, it's about when the wine's in your mouth,
it should taste rich and rounded. So they're not into
it like a grassy, crisp wine. They want a full bodied,
rich rounded wine, so quite a different style of sauvignon blanc.

(01:41):
And they make you know, nua.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
As well, and are they achieving that? How are we
getting a rich and rounded because I like the sound
of that for a sad blanc.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, well, so I agree with you, and it is
certainly when you think about why do we like chardonnay.
You know, a good chardonnay typically has a full bodied
character and and the acidity tends to be fairly moderate,
so you get a more rounded feel, unlike say, reason
language tends to be lighter than crisper. So they're sauvignos

(02:12):
at domain at Clo Henry, they tend to use a
bit of oak, which also adds another layer of complexity,
so they're really worth trying for listeners who are looking
for something just a bit different out of Marlborough.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
When you say the walled vineyard, is it a spectacular
location as well?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
It is a very attractive place to visit. They moved
an old church onto the property. When I visited a
few years ago. The church had originally been in the
Arbitrary Valley, which is over the hills from the Wairau Valley,
just a bit south of Blenham. And then so they
moved this old church onto their property and they've got

(02:57):
hillside vineyards. They've got vineyard on the flat. And so
when you visit and you know, go to the salador
and you can taste the wines and buy and so on,
you're going you're actually standing and sitting in this old
church which is extremely atmospheric, and the sauvignyons and pinos
they're ready. They do express a different approach. The most

(03:23):
obvious one to try is the kloon Re Estate sauvignyond Long.
I mean that's the one that's more affordable. It's by
no means cheap. I see it's available. The prices range
from twenty two dollars that's the lowest I've seen it
up to twenty eight. The highest average is about twenty
five dollars. It's certified organic, and they go right across

(03:48):
the estate. They've got k sails, they've got stony soils,
so it's full bodied. It's crisp, it's dry. It's got
right sort of more tropical fruit flavors, so you're not
think when you taste it, not really thinking about you know,
grass and green capsicans and so on. You're thinking more
about fruit flavors like passion, fruit and peach and so on,

(04:08):
a Rifa style. It's got you know, good complexity, it's
got loads of flavor. It's still a bit young. That's
the twenty twenty three, so I would say it'll be
at his best, say this time next year. That's the estate,
Soaviny Old Long. But for listeners who want to see
just what you can achieve, they've got this more top

(04:32):
tier Sauvignondlong. Now, okay, it's thirty nine dollars, but it
still delivers the goods. It is really impressive. It's cloon
Rey Wymonger single vineyard mold for Sony Old Long, and
this one they grow it solely on their clay soils,
not on the stony soils. Fifteen percent of it is

(04:53):
fermented in barrels, and boy, it really sums up what
they're trying to achieve. It's way, it's fleshy, it's sweet, fruited,
it's got notable richness and complexity of flavor. Certified organic
once again, it's already delicious. So that's the one to
go for if you're feeling rich. Chloenre why among a

(05:15):
single vineyard Mulbra seven, twenty twenty three. It really is
a top class, you know, example of what a French
wine maker can achieve in Mulborough.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, thirty nine dollars. That's that's enough. But it's not
sort of off the radar given what appears to be
the quality of this and the experience that you're going
to have because it's a long time since I've had
a sad blong. But I'm going to be hunting this down.
Yeah I do.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
And really I think when you taste it, when you
drink it, you've got to approach it. You've got to
set aside your preconceptions, you know, built up on the
on the more kind of commercial labels and think, hey,
I'm expecting something different here and then say to yourself,
but am I enjoying it? And hopefully you will be Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, that sounds sounds magnificent. And the other, of course,
was the estate version, which is around the twenty two
to the twenty eight dollar mark. That's it, Yeah, fantastic.
Oh well, this is a yeah, a great opportunity for
and organic as well as you said, and the and
and the top tier one. That's that's on the more
clayey soils.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's correct. And the conventional wisdom in Marlborough is that
you get better so off stony soils. But so that's
one of the reasons I find this particular one so fascinating.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, we'll keep an eye out for that. That is
the wine guru there and klauugh Henri out of Marlborough,
French owned the French coming down here to do to
the new world. Fantastic, Michael, thank you very much for
joining us. There we go, Michael Cooper, our wine guru
and the Kloehnri. He sounds so good, doesn't it.