Astrolabe Wines

Astrolabe, Discovery Awatere, Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Julian — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:47:40 +0000

Tasted blind, with surprising results, here.

Sucker Punch of the Sauvignons (Blind tasting madness part 5)

Julian — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:06:15 +0000

Sucker Punch of the Sauvignons (Blind tasting madness part 5)

Wine Rambler full committee meeting. Two Sauvignon Blancs nice and cool, ready for the first sip. The tasting would nominally be blind, but it should be a walk in the park to tell them apart. One from New Zealand, Astrolabe's 2008 "Discovery": more explosively, exotically fruity, surely. One from Germany, the 2008 Meersburger Sängerhalde Sauvignon Blanc from Aufricht, the Lake Constance's ambitious star horse: more subdued, but with more depth and minerality, maybe? We knew what we were doing, we had done it before. It would be a pleasant evening with a laid-back broadening of wine horizons.

Glasses rinsed, monkfish and shrimp already in the frying pan, wine ramblers contented and full of calm anticipation. What could possibly go wrong?

Julian Thursday, 01/04/2010

Winery interview: Astrolabe Wines on New Zealand winemaking, Sauvignon Blanc and the Web 2.0 wine world

torsten — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:32:44 +0000

Winery interview: Astrolabe Wines on New Zealand winemaking, Sauvignon Blanc and the Web 2.0 wine world

A little while ago a friend opened a New Zealand fruit explosion for me, a bottle of Astrolabe Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. This was quite unusual as my friend has been a self declared beer drinking proletarian for a long time, so I was curious to taste the wine that got him so excited.

Posting the wine review here on the Wine Rambler led to something else that was unusual: Jason Yank, the general manager of Astrolabe Wines, contacted us – but not so much to applaud or critique the review, but to comment on a detail: my friend had mentioned to me that he saw helicopters used in winemaking in NZ to press down warm air in order to control the ripening of the grapes. However, this was not entirely correct: 'The use of choppers in NZ is purely to help bring down the inversion layer of air', Jason explained, 'during, what would otherwise be, quite catastrophic frost events. Nothing to do with ripening....' Jason also foolishly offered to provide more information, should the Wine Rambler be interested – which of course we are!

torsten Monday, 30/11/2009

Astrolabe Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, 2008

torsten — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:10:26 +0000

Astrolabe Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, 2008

Do you know the proletarian, beer-drinking type who looks down upon wine? I have a good friend who is like this. Or, to be precise, he always pretended to be like this. Over the past few years, previously hidden signs of middle-classiness have emerged though and he even recently started to buy his own wine. A few days ago I was invited to sample his first home cooked roast and a wine he brought back from New Zealand. Now let's see which is the wine with the power to convert would-be working class beer drinkers into wine snobs.

torsten Friday, 28/08/2009