NZ scored 303 medals in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2025. This included a coveted Best in Show for Craggy Range's Pinot Noir Martinborough 2024.

Church Road was awarded 2 Golds for a 2023 McDonald Series Chardonnay, and a 1 Single Vineyard Redstone 2021, which at $120 a bottle, must be New Zealand's most expensive Merlot. It also won 7 silvers for 2 Syrahs, a Malbec, 2 Cabernet Sauvignons, another Merlot and a Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot blend.

Trinity Hill was awarded 5 silvers, all from Gimblett Gravels. Of these MW Bob Campbell gave 96/100 to its 2021 Gimblett Gravels "The Gimblett "and said "This is seriously, seriously good", and I agree, especially given the price.

Te Mata won a silver for a Chardonnay.

Measured by medals, per 1000 hectares of vineyard, New Zealand's 303 medals, from 3.6 million hectolitres of wine, was second best in the world to Greece.

We tasted some of these medal winners as reported in earlier blogs. It is pleasing and something of a relief to see my modest commentary is consistent with the Decanter judges' opinions.

By way of update, Redmetal has released a 2024 Cabernet Franc, an amazing single varietal for only $30 a bottle. It is the first wine off young vines so watch how good it might become as the vines age. Grant says of his wine that it has the structure to develop well for a couple of years in the bottle,and ability to mature for 5-8 years. Look for dark berryfruit and black currant flavours with new oak and plenty of tannins. It is already drinking well,and we will have to hide a few to get the predicted benefits.

As to tastings, Bernard and I finally made it out to Craggy Range on 3 July when for $50 each Michael presented 6 wines including a 2015 Sophia (yum but $180 a bottle).

I tried the Reds, and one White, a Gravels Chardonnay, as I am not much of a white wine drinker. This Chardonnay was nice, but I prefer the coastal flavours found at Clearview, which is where we get the wines for our House of Pania Bnb from. Apart from Sophia the Reds I tasted included a 2022 Syrah from the Gravels, and a 2024 Pinot Noir from Te Puna which was very nice and quite dark for a Pinot, reflecting, Michael said, "a very good late summer".

Bernard was quite positive about the Whites generally, although he could not speak to the Sauvignon because he does not like it. Of interest was a 2025 Rose from grapes picked in early April, so only three months from grape to bottle! Worth a try we thought, as did the other members of our group. They came from Australia, Brazil, and from Ivrea in Piedmont Italy (3).

Everyone made interesting contributions to the discussion about the wines,and their own experiences and tastes from France, Italy (varieties grown in Piedmont I knew nothing about) and Australia. This included a friendly argument I had with the young Australian woman who was talking up Tasmania and I was politely but ignorantly dismissive. That's right Tasmania!

Later I did some research and, eat my words, discovered that there are 200 wineries in Tassie making cool climate wines, especially sparkling and Pinot Noir, from only 1289 acres. To put that in perspective, the Gravels is over 800 hectares by itself, let alone the Bridge Pa Triangle, the Havelock vineyards and those on the coast.

To my surprise, ahem, a wine from Tasmania was awarded a Platinum medal in the Decanter Awards. Look out for a 2023 Bay of Fires Pinot Noir. Fair enough, I think I would have lost the argument!

After the tasting, we missed out on the tour of the winery because there was building work underway, so we headed to the cellar door and bought some wine. Bernard purchased some Riesling and two other bottles, and I decided on two 2022 Te Kahus plus a 2021. Our $50 tasting fee was credited to the cost, so in my case, 3 very good wines for under $100.

Michael was very good at his job. He related well to a mixed group, and had good experience to fall back on when comparing wines, from Martinborough, the South Island, Australia, and France. He was refreshingly honest and forthright in saying of a wine we tasted that it was not to his liking if that was so. We were able to add to his South Island knowledge by referring him to McArthur Ridge Winery near Alexandra. It won platinum for its 2023 Southern Tor Pinot Noir in the Decanter Awards and I will try that next week when Jeannie and I are down that way.

The tasting took place in a spacious upstairs room in the winery building. The views out to the eastern faces of Te Mata Peak were spectacular.

We and our wives had visited Craggy Range for lunch in the restaurant building the previous week. $65 a head for a limited choice 3-course meal. Excellent.

Craggy Range is a world-rated venue. Fantastic location and architecture. A must-visit for tourists and wine lovers alike. But remember to take credit cards to match!