New Zealand wine has become globally recognized. For example, the JamesSuckling.com site has just released their notes for the 760 bottles that they rated in the past year and a half (New Zealand comes alive: Vibrancy, diversity and a Goldilocks vintage). The average quality score was 91.8 (with a median of 92); and one wine scored 100: Kumeu River Chardonnay Kumeu Mate's Vineyard 2020. The report summary notes:
Freshness is something that really stood out in our tastings and ratings of top New Zealand wines ... The wines have an uncanny texture and vibrant flavor profile that combine in a unique way — not only with ripe and transparent fruit character but also with round mouthfeel, brightness and length.
Each year since 2018, The Real Review has presented a ranking of the wineries from New Zealand. The rankings are based on the average scores for all of the wines they have tasted during that year, from each of the wineries. However, it is important to emphasize that only a subset of the wines of New Zealand get tasted in any given year. In this sense, it is entirely possible for a winery to not be ranked in a particular year, even if it has scored highly in other years, simply because insufficient wines were rated that year (the minimum necessary appears to be 2).
Many wine commentators seem to see their job as encouragement, and thus present optimistic wine ratings, for example. The Real Review, on the other hand, prides itself on being much more realistic. In this sense, their wine scores and winery rankings might well be a very good place to start listing top wineries.
As I did for Australia, what I have done is download the winery lists for each of the four years (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). These simply list the wineries in rank order of their wine scores, with a different number of wineries each year. I then pooled the yearly lists for each country, giving me a combined list of 262 wineries for New Zealand, which I will report on here.
From these combined lists I extracted the data for only those wineries that appeared in all four yearly lists, which is 99 (38%) of them. (Number of wineries that appeared three times: 51, appeared twice: 51, appeared once: 61.) These consistent wineries were then given a new rank, within each year, based solely on this subset of the wineries. I then averaged these rankings, thus producing a list showing those wineries that rated consistently well across all fours years.
This final list is included at the bottom of the post.
Bizarrely, if we compare this list with the Wine & Spirits Top 100 Wineries of 2021 (“as determined by their performance in the magazine’s two-step blind-tasting process, and celebrated for their exceptional wines”), then we find no wineries listed at all. Australia and Chile each get three wineries listed, and Chile and South Africa get one each, but New Zealand gets absolutely nothing.
On the other hand, The World’s Best Vineyards is “an annual listing that highlights the very best winery destinations in the world ... [This] provides an insight into the best all-round winery experiences.” From the list below, we find Craggy Range (11th), Felton Road (52), Black Estate (63), Ata Rangi (69), Man O'War Vineyards (79), and Kumeu River (91). Missing from our list is Rippon Vineyards, from Central Otago (15th), which had insufficient wine reviews to be included in the Real Review listing.
Interestingly, if we peruse the regions from which these wineries come, Marlborough accounts for 30% of them, although it produces 75% of New Zealand’s wine. Hawke's Bay comes next, with 18% ow the wineries, followed by Martinborough, with 11%.
Finally, The Real Review does have a list of Top Value Wines of New Zealand. However, this may not do you much good this year, since it has been noted that NZ wine lovers are facing shortages and higher prices, due to a small vintage and massive international demand.
New Zealand’s top wineries, as consistently ranked by The Real Review
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Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 |
Average score 97.5 96.8 96.8 95.5 94.5 93.5 88.5 88.0 85.3 84.5 84.0 84.0 83.5 83.0 83.0 80.3 79.5 79.3 76.8 76.5 71.8 71.5 70.5 69.8 69.3 69.3 68.8 67.8 67.3 66.3 65.8 65.5 65.5 64.5 63.8 62.3 61.8 61.3 61.0 59.3 58.8 58.8 58.5 56.8 56.5 56.0 54.0 53.0 53.0 50.3 50.0 50.0 50.0 48.0 44.3 43.5 41.3 40.3 39.8 39.0 38.0 37.5 37.0 36.5 35.3 33.8 32.3 30.0 29.8 29.5 28.8 28.3 28.3 27.5 26.3 25.3 25.0 24.0 24.0 23.8 23.0 22.0 21.8 21.8 21.3 20.3 20.0 16.8 16.5 16.0 14.3 13.8 12.5 11.5 9.5 9.5 9.3 8.5 7.0 |
Winery Craggy Range Destiny Bay Felton Road Wines Framingham Kusuda Wines Dry River Wines Pegasus Bay Quartz Reef Trinity Hill Elephant Hill Estate Clearview Estate Winery Te Mata Estate Villa Maria Church Road Vidal Estate Greystone Wines Pyramid Valley Vineyards Terra Sancta Smith & Sheth Ata Rangi No 1 Family Estate Blank Canvas Seresin Estate Te Whare Ra Wines Akarua Fromm Winery Esk Valley Giesen Wine Estate Rockburn Wines Astrolabe Wines Kumeu River Man O'War Vineyards Mills Reef Neudorf Clos Henri Misha's Vineyard Stonecroft Margrain Vineyard Dog Point Vineyard Black Estate Palliser Estate Valli Sacred Hill Wines Tantalus Estate Amisfield Chard Farm Saint Clair Family Estate Foxes Island Wines Obsidian Nautilus Estate Escarpment Grasshopper Rock Mondillo Vineyards Forrest Estate Matt Connell Wines Tony Bish Rapaura Springs Domain Road Vineyard Te Awanga Estate Te Motu Soho Wine Co Mudbrick Two Rivers Luna Estate Nga Waka Hunter's Wines Urlar Alpha Domus Coopers Creek Huia Mahi Wines Lawsons Dry Hills Wines Whitehaven Johanneshof Cellars On Giants Shoulders Sam Harrop Wines Jules Taylor Wines Isabel Estate Vineyard Mount Edward Johner Estate The Elder Pinot Wines Borthwick Vineyard Clark Estate Lamont Wines Te Kairanga Estate Yealands Estate Wines Ash Ridge Wines Cable Bay Vineyards Tohu Pask Moutere Hills Wither Hills Zephyr Mission Estate Allan Scott Family Winemakers Two Sisters Vineyard Black Barn Vineyards Mt Beautiful Peregrine Wines |
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