I just thought I’d stick up a quick note to mark the occasion…

Wow – 10,000 hits! It’s nice to know people are reading my meanderings – and not just my friends and family, I’m pretty certain I don’t know that many people!

I am now just over halfway into my year in the Southern hemisphere, and what a lot I have done in the first 6 months! I have stayed in a mud hut in Africa, gone walkabout in the Australian bush, bungy jumped (twice!) and of course met winemakers and sampled wines in some of the most prestigious wine regions in the world..

Thanks to all of you for dropping by and following my journey, and sticking with me when my writing goes through dry spells.. but I have loads more to write about, what with another 3 months here in New Zealand, and then a couple of months travel through South America on my way back to Wales…

Tonight, to celebrate breaking the 10,000 barrier I am opening a bottle of the newly released Matahiwi Hawkes Bay Unwooded Chardonnay 2007.

I was keen to give this particular wine a try as today I spent the last hour or so of my day packing bottles off to New Zealand’s wine press for review, so I thought I’d get the scoop on them and review it on here! From what I’ve heard, this is the first commercial wine that Virgil, the Assistant winemaker here at Matahiwi has ever made from start to finish, so your reputation is on the line Virgil!

The nose is fresh with some grapefruit citrus and chalky mineral freshness. On the palate, it has rounder fruit than the nose would suggest, with baked apple as well as citrus flavours, leading to more mineral zing on the finish. Very nice, a zesty white ideal as a summer refresher – one to convert a few Sauvignon drinkers back to Chardonnay, proof that Chardonnay doesn’t always need oak.