Wine: Vintage statements

2010 Valli Bendigo Vineyard Pinot Noir and 2010 Black Estate Omihi Series Chardonnay.

Wine people don't necessarily need to be funny, clever or articulate - we just want them to make fabulous wine at affordable prices, but here are some memorable quotes from 2012.

• "We like to say in the wine trade that a magnum is the right choice." - Laurent d'Harcourt of Champagne Pol Roger.

• "Wine isn't just fruit juice with alcohol." - Sam Weaver, owner and winemaker of Churton.

• "Never believe a Bordeaux producer when he says this is the vintage of the millennium. What he means is he has a lot of it to sell." - Jean Guillame of Chateau Cos D'Estournel.

• "The reason for my obsession and attraction to riesling is that I love to fight the good fight for the underdog." - Paul Grieco, New York restaurant and bar owner who famously serves only
riesling at his three wine bars during summer.

• "The next decade for fine New Zealand wine is going to be the best ever and it'll show probably more with pinot noir than any other wine." - Craggy Range's Steve Smith, Master of Wine.

• "Winemaking is a new job every vintage, it's Mother Nature who controls the vintage." - Keith Mugford, owner/winemaker at Western Australia's Moss Wood.

• "Every year we send bottles to members of the Churchill family. We have no commercial agreement, we try to be discreet with that ... you're never going to see a newspaper advertisement." - Laurent d'Harcourt on Pol Roger's use of the name "The Sir Winston Churchill".

• "Jesus only ever drank riesling." - Caption on front of T-shirt often worn by Mount Edward winemaker Duncan Forsyth.

RECOMMENDED:

2010 Valli Bendigo Vineyard Pinot Noir - $65
Another splendid wine from Central Otago's Grant Taylor. Excellent drinking now but will reward cellaring for a few more years. This is a big, rich, ripe and juicy wine with good concentration and fine tannins.

2010 Black Estate Omihi Series Chardonnay - $32
From a new range "Omihi Series", which aims to express the brilliance of various soils on the Omihi slopes of Waipara Valley. A single vineyard wine with plenty of punch, beautifully concentrated with a slight hint of butterscotch and oak.