CSB - Michael Cooper - Wine

Our weekly wine chat with the Guru. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the rugby field to the rotary shed. It's the
Country Sport Breakfast with Brian Kelly on Gold Sport.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Time on the show for weekly a wine chat, and
we're catching up with Michael Cooper to talk about a
winery in Masterton, but also a winery in Germany. Michael,
good morning, Good morning Brian.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yes, that does sound sort of paradoxical, doesn't it. But
really Carl Carl Heinz I think is his first name,
but it's been abbreviated to Carl Jonah. He owns well.
He grew up in southwest Germany and he's got a
vineyard there in a winery. But he came to New

(00:55):
Zealand in the late nineties and says I fell in
love with everything country, the people, the climate, the growing conditions.
But he also said I fell in love especially with
the results for p No Noir from Martinborough.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
And so he thought, well, you know, let's make wine
on both sides of the world. He's obviously a tiger
for work because he also when he graduated from Geisenheim
University he studied winemaking. He then went and lived in
England and Kent And for a decade and he helped
to pioneer the emergence of English sparkling wine, and with

(01:34):
global temperature warming, Kent is now sort of seen as
an English version of Champagne. And they're making some really.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Good bubbly I've actually got some friends who own a
vineyard there and I've worked on the vineyard and tried
their wine. It's absolutely lovely. But back to the Jonah
estate now they're based. Were just out of Marsterton.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
That's right south of Marston at Gladstone, and so here
is well If planted and his wife Irene planted the
vineyard there about just over twenty years ago. They planted
mainly pino noir and Sauvignon blanc. But he apparently moves
backwards and forwards between both vineyards several times a year,

(02:16):
keeping his eye on both. And so what's great for
listeners is that you can go to the Jonah website
and I'm not doing an ad for what they're doing.
It is very different and worth being aware of. So
they make very good Wira wrapper wines. But also he
imports to New Zealand the wines that he makes back

(02:38):
in Baden and Germany, and so you can buy those
and taste those as well. So to me, that's a
cheap way of traveling. You know, instead of going to
all the expense and time of flying to Europe, you
can just open the bottle of his pino gree or
pino noir from Germany.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
You would have tried the pen and noir from Biden
in Germany. How does that compare to the pin noir
that he grows, neglects engaged in.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well, that's exactly the key point, Brian, you know, And
that's what we love about wine, the way you can
sort of express its geographic origins and transport us from
one side of the world to the other. And so
if you look at it is gladstone. In fact, my
wine of the week this week is Jonah Estate Wira
wrapper Pino no twenty twenty two. Now it's twenty five dollars, which,

(03:24):
as pino noir goes, is reasonably moderately priced, and yet
it's a really good example of why a wrapper pinot
handpicked from relatively younger vines. It's been barrel aged, it's savory,
it's got very good depth of cherry, pummy, spicy flavors. Now,

(03:46):
if you go the Jonah pino noir, the one that
is available here. You've got to be buying it for
a special occasion. It's the most expensive of the German
wines that he's selling here, and it's the oldest. It's
Carl h Jonah barden Pino no. Art. Twenty sixteen, so
it's what eight years old. It's one hundred dollars, so

(04:07):
it's a special occasion one.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Okay, yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
From mature vines. It's very perfumed, it's very graceful, so
it's if you like weady, powerful sledge hammer reds. It's
not like that. This is all about delicacy and refinement.
It's savory, it's supple, it's got deep sort of flavors
of cherries and spices, nuts, dark chocolate. It's rich, it's

(04:32):
smooth flowing, so it's a really seductive red wine. It
just slips down so beautifully. And it's eight years old.
It's probably drinking at its beast from now.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
On right excellent. And they also do pen agrees out
of the white and.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Upper exactly, and that's well worth checking out. The one
that I would urge listeners to try is the penagree
from German, the Karl h Jonah Barden Penogree twenty nineteen
and if you love peenogree, this beauty is well worth trying.

(05:08):
Twenty nine dollars. It's different to New Zealand pogree, and
by different, I mean that it's it's really vigorous. It's
sort of a lot of New Zealand pinogree can be
just sort of easy drinking, but this has got real
sort of it's got flavors that are really vibrant and searching,

(05:28):
deep sort of citrusy, peachy, gently spicy flavors. It's full
of personality and at twenty nine dollars, okay, it's not cheap,
but it's from the other side of the world and
it's in full stride right now.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Fantastic. And I guess if you're visiting the Wide at
that because it's a lovely wine growing area. I mean
you can pop into the Jona estate and try their wines.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
You can, Brian, I'm looking at their website. I think
the cellar door is open in the second half of
the week, so don't roll up on a Monday or Tuesday.
It's mind standing.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
At least you have an appointment, alrighty, Okay, Michael, great
to chat there's one worth trying, and we'll do it
again next week. Thank you so much. It's totally interesting
listening to Michael Cooper described wines wine reviewers have got
away with words. Paints such a wonderful picture.