There is something silky about the finest Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.  It is softer and rounder than its Burgundian counterpart, but it still manages that wonderful delicacy which makes the variety produce the most delicious wine. Tony Soter knows a thing or too about winemaking. Originally from Oregon, he made a name for himself down in the Napa founding Etude in the early 1980s and eventually working as a consultant at a variety of places in the valley including Araujo, Neibaum-Coppola and Shafer.

Last week’s New Zealand Wine’s annual trade tasting in London [despite the rugby ball it was held at Lord’s Cricket Ground] provided confirmation of the rude health of the Kiwi wine industry. The figures are fascinating. 80% of New Zealand’s wine is exported, its wines have the highest average retail price on the UK shelves and in terms of Sauvignon Blanc it has a whopping 45% of the market.  That’s simply incredible when you consider that twenty five years ago New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or for that matter the entire wine industry, was hardly on the map. Despite the ubiquity of the grape in the Loire, Bordeaux and universally as a vin de pays varietal, France by comparison has a dismal 5.1% of the Sauvignon market.