Wine: 4 Sips for the week

PETER YEALANDS SAUVIGNON BLANC 2012, $18

I love the look on peoples faces when they try this wine - they clearly don't expect a wine poured from a plastic bottle to taste so good. It's intensely herbaceous and bursts with passionfruit, lime blossom and lemon, while in the mouth it's a citrus salsa, cleansing, crisp and lovely. www.yealandsestate.co.nz

GLADSTONE VINEYARD RESERVE SOPHIES CHOICE 2011, $35

Here's a sauvignon blanc that breaks all the rules. Barrel-fermented, barrel-aged and it smells like sage and smoke, riverstones and green nectarines. It's clean, poised, crisp and minerally, with white peach characters on the finish and it's superb with steamed mussels.

www.gladstonevineyard.co.nz

WILLIAM MURDOCH MERLOT MALBEC 2010, $32

1/2Organically produced, this wine is magenta-black, oozing boysenberry, sweet smoke, pepper and all sorts of savoury sensations. The tannins are drying; the finish is dusty, delicious. This is a wine destined for greatness, I'm sure.

www.murdochwines.co.nz

RICHMOND PLAINS NELSON PINOT NOIR 2011, $24

Winemaker Steve Gill has created an organic, biodynamic pinot bursting with wild strawberries, dried herbs and hedgerow fruits. In the mouth it is lush and savoury and has a lovely earthy finish.

www.richmondplains.co.nz