Author: Sue Courtney www.wineoftheweek.com  March 2009.

An invitation to lunch at Soul on Auckland's Viaduct Basin was delightfully received. This is one of Auckland's top restaurants in one of the best locations. Sitting on the terrace is the place to be seen.

The occasion was to meet Nina Stocker, the young, pert, pretty winemaker from Catalina Sounds and to try the wines with Soul's delicious food. And yes, the food was delicious, beyond expectations. If you ever get the chance to try the butter poached crayfish ravioli with lemon and apple butter sauce topped with shreds of crispy leeks, you might think you had died and gone to heaven. Better when accompanied with wine - three of the Catalina Sounds wines would fit - the chardonnay in particular, because that was the catalyst for the dish, but also the riesling and the pinot gris on this occasion.

Winemaker Nina (pictured on the left below) is an Aussie import, her first vintage in New Zealand the 2009 - a year that culminated in winning Champion Sauvignon Blanc at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, so it's easy to understand why she is pretty excited about her job. With no previous experience with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, besides drinking it when she lived in Australia, perhaps it was Nina's palate in the blending room, crafting the wine from all the components, that gave this Trophy winning wine the edge?

It's not surprising Nina has a good palate. Her Australian parents lived in Switzerland, near Basel, where Nina was born, and participated in establishing a vineyard at Fluh, on the border near Alsace. On return to Australia, when Nina was 7, they established the Brave Goose Vineyard in Central Victoria. So you could say Nina's palate was attuned from her childhood.

She initially didn't plan to go into winemaking, but after completing her Bachelor's degree at Monash University in Melbourne she decided to undertake a post graduate winemaking degree at the University of Adelaide. She worked in the Yarra Valley for three years and was in Portugal for the northern hemisphere vintage when she heard about the job in New Zealand at Endeavour Vineyards who own the Catalina Sounds, Nanny Goat, Crowded House and Clayfork brands. She applied for it and, obviously, she got it.

Nina is one of two dynamic Aussie personalities on the Endeavour team. The other is the bubbly brand manager, Tracey Shain (pictured on the right), who joined in 2007. So it's not surprising, with these two vibrant Aussies at the helm, to find that Catalina Sounds is a proud supporter of Pink Hope, an Australian organisation that supports young women affected or at a high risk with breast and ovarian cancer.

So to the current wines .....

The pretaster, Catalina Sounds Marlborough Riesling 2007 is made in one of those rare Marlborough dry styles and with three years of age it is rich and piercing, dry and steely with great line and length and hints of kero coming through.

Catalina Sounds Marlborough Pinot Gris 2009 is soft and heady with pear and musk scents. Quite a fat wine, leesy, bready, youthful, perhaps some oak (yes 4%), with good acid drive pulsating through the finish. I thought on its own it needed a little more time. Matched to marinated tuna with ponzu and shitake mushroom, the delicious ponzu kind of overpowered the wine. Better on the day with the butter poached crayfish ravioli.

Catalina Sounds Marlborough Chardonnay 2008 seems like a big, fat, buttery style on first tasting with spicy oak, honey and savoury lees nuances - but there's a pleasing restraint to the wine with citrus characterising the dry, flinty finish. Matched decadently to butter poached crayfish ravioli, as mentioned above.

Catalina Sounds Marlborough Pinot Noir 2008 seems a bit stalky upfront. It is quite savoury with an earthy depth, a vinous rich mid palate and a hint of chocolate on the finish. It seemed very dry without food. Much better when accompanied with spiced duck with maple and sweet potato, grilled haloumi and toasted almonds.

Catalina Sounds Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009 is the Air New Zealand Wine Awards Champion. There's a softness to the wine that I really like. The flavours are beautifully balanced with classic herbaceousness, bright citrus acidity, great length and persistence. Matched to pan fried snapper, skin on, with whipped avocado, confit tomatoes and fried basil. Hmm, sounds like just what I would do to showcase sauvignon blanc, without the avocado and the olive tapenade that was mysteriously on the plate.

Then to clean the palate before heading home, three sorbets - pineapple, raspberry and an intriguing apple and coriander. The last was not sweet and the flavours combined nicely with Catalina Sounds Sauvignon Blanc 2009.

Catalina Sounds wines, along with Nanny Goat and Crowded House, are distributed in New Zealand by Red & White Cellar.

If you are interested in knowing more about Sue Courtenay, then please check out her biog. Parts of this story originally appeared on Sue Courtney's blog .

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