I heard on the grapevine the other day that chardonnay is about to make a comeback after falling from fashion in favour of pinot gris and sauvignon blanc. This is good news as good chardonnay is delicious.
In New Zealand we produce lots of butter, but only standard butter is available in supermarkets. If you want a cultured butter you have to buy imported butter - which is ironic for a major dairying country.
In the beginning, Sue Stark used to nurture her olive trees like babies and would pick up every last olive from the ground. Now, after more than a decade, she and many other Central Otago olive growers are not quite as zealous, but they are still enthusiastic about growing olives and producing oil.
Stock up now if you've grown accustomed to drinking good New Zealand wine at low, low prices, writes Michael Cooper in the 2013 edition of his annual Buyer's Guide to New Zealand wines (Hodder Moa).
From a first audience of nine 11 years ago to 200 concerts a year around the country and seven overseas tours for music lovers, Operatunity has developed a thriving musical company. Charmian Smith talks to one of the directors.
Mike Colombo shows how to make the popular Italian dessert tiramisu.
Pinot noir is at its best when it's not too big or too oaky - or too light and thin. As always,harmony is the key to a good wine.
Few musicians build their own musical instruments, but Alan Edwards has built not only a spinet, but also an organ. Charmian Smith talks to the Dunedin musician.
The irrepressible Annabelle White cajoles and encourages her readers in her latest book, Casual Cooking: Recipes for good times in the kitchen (Penguin).
Pinot gris can be fresh and fruity, overblown and hot with high alcohol or, as with some of the most interesting ones, complex with barrel fermentation and lees ageing.
It's not often a conductor gets off the podium and picks up his instrument to play with the orchestra, but NZSO music director Pietari Inkinen is doing just that. Charmian Smith reports.
With many wines reaching 13% to 14% alcohol, there's a move by some winemakers, admittedly with varying success, to produce wines of around 9% without sacrificing flavour. This is, however, still about twice the alcohol of beer.
Stony ground is lending its character to the wines of Bendigo, writes Charmian Smith.
The Fortune Theatre is about to stage a play that is the fastest selling in British theatre history - a play in which ordinary women go all out to raise funds for charity. Charmian Smith reports.
Central Otago is "God's country when it comes to pinot noir", Australian wine writer James Halliday wrote in Panorama in 2000. At the region's 25th anniversary celebration at the weekend, Charmian Smith asked him if he thinks it still applies.
Al Brown, tireless advocate for fresh regional food, found many New Zealand regional specialties in his television series Get Fresh. Now the book is out, with more stories, information and recipes than in the series. Charmian Smith talks to the Wellington chef.
It's an aged red indeed, my dearMany of us like to believe that wines improve with age although we generally drink them young. Some do get better, some don't, but the ability to develop with age has always been a mark of fine wine. Charmian Smith reports on a remarkable tasting of wines many decades old.
Despite the inclement weather at Labour Day weekend, Alexandra turned on a warm, sunny day for its annual Alexandra basin new-release wine tasting.
Jacopo Pandolfini was in Dunedin recently, showing some members of the trade the Antinori wines at Etrusco.
It might sound rather topsy turvy when Australia wins a trophy for white wine of the show, New Zealand wins the red wine trophy, South Africa wins wine of the show and Australia wins the nation of the show, but that's the result from the annual Five Nations Wine show of selected wines from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Argentina (to be six nations from next year when the United States joins).
