Reviews

Glovers 1997 Chardonnay

Appearance: Clear bright straw colour. Colour very youthful for a 7yr old Chardonnay.

Nose: Nose very Chablis like. Lemon, grapefruit, citrus aromas - quite lifted - also a lot of melon characters - combining with some chalky, slatey, mineral characters. Nose also nutty - even marzipan characters. Nose lifted and youthful. Also lots of honey.

Palate: Full, rich and round mouthfeel. Lemon, lime citrus characters carry to palate. Great mid palate weight. Lovely acidity gives length and structure. Nutty marzipan characters carry and carry. Wine has great length. Wine will get better and better.

Nose has heaps of honeydew melon aromas.
Marvellous palate. Rich. Honey characters. Chalky acidity holds/supports the wine.

Glovers Nelson Pinot Noir 2000

Appearance: Bright youthful red colour.

Nose: Very varietal nose. Lifted cherry, rhubarb and licorice characters. Lots of clove and spice. Also varietal beetroot and tamarillo.

Palate: Nose carries to palate. Cherry, licorice and clove characters on palate. Good assertive tannins provide structure.

Very youthful tannins. Excellent quality for lower priced Pinot Noir. High priced structure at lower price point!! Normally second label Pinot from the New World is atrocious and is TOTALLY void of structure (thus rendering it undrinkable) and would not compete against second rate Beaujolais. Not this wine!!!

Glovers 2000 Back Block Pinot Noir

Appearance: Bright red / ruby colour. Red hue. Quite youthful.

Nose: Very intense nose, very varietal. Cherry, rhubarb and spice. Very traditional Glovers nose. Very, very intense. Quite closed but an overriding sensation of enormity.

Palate: Absolutely huge palate. Power packed. An awful lot of intensity and power packed into a tight frame. Tannins present are not massive and clumsy but are very fine and entirely appropriate for such very rich fruit.Without the tannins this wine would be all over you. Tannins are providing restraint and balance.

Sour cherry and licorice flavours on palate. Quite amazing weight and structure. Incredible length...palate just keeps on going. Very very clever and subtle use of new oak. Very sweet rich fruit on mid palate. Wine all about weight, intensity and structure at this early stage. The best Pinot Noir yet produced at Glovers? This is what you pay $250 for a Grand Cru for.

Glovers 1999 Nelson Cabernet Sauvignon

Appearance: Bright red. Red hue.

Nose: Lifted cherries spice and violet. Also some red currant characters. No green characters evident at all.

Palate: Light to medium bodied style. Nice structure. Easy to drink food style with nice acidity and gentle tannin.

Good early drinking "luncheon claret". Two cases for my gents club please.

Glovers 1997 Moutere Sauvignon Blanc

Appearance: Bright clear straw. Very youthful. Great colour for a 5 yr old savvy.

Nose: Nose has pungent blackcurrants. An albino Ribena quality. Very sweet fruit. Unbelievably youthful. Awesome nose. Heaps of sweet cassis. Not a hint of the dreaded greens - and not tropical either !! Very intense varietal Sauvignon from a very good year and more importantly a very very good vineyard (without SHADE).

Palate: Nose carries to palate - sweet fruit, blackcurrants and redcurrants. Palate is marvellous. Wine has enormous length. Just goes on and on. Lovely finish to palate...currants just keep on going. Acid still kicking on supporting all that sweet fruit. Mid palate very rich. Palate is superb.

I haven't seen this wine for a few years now but it was the best Sauvignon Blanc I have ever tasted. Today it still is. Better than Didier Dageauneau's "Pur Sang" and "Silex". Forget about local new world styles of cafe-set savvy, this is a world style savvy demanding seafood or Motueka trout!!!.By-pass Marlborough's "triffid" vineyards and go to Sancerre and Pouilly Fume for a competitor to this beast.

Glovers 2000 Moutere Cabernet Sauvignon

Appearance: Deep dark red colour. Youthful purple hue.

Nose: Intense varietal currants nose. Very Glovers nose. Redcurrants, blackcurrants, blackberry and lovely lifted violets. Also plenty of Bordeaux like cedarwood. Very very Cabernet. Nose very intense and rich.

Palate: Palate is intense. Rich fruit in mid palate. Lovely weight. Excellent fine tannins kick in and provide great length. Very youthful, fine wine. Palate is long and seamless. Fruit very sweet and ripe...fruit just seamlessly flows into powdery tannins. Tannins very silky..very fine. Quite Margaux like....very elegant. Very suave Cab. A cross between '90 and '91. Certainly up there with the top Caps that Glovers have produced. 2nd glass tobacco, blackberry black currants on nose.

Glover Moutere Pinot Noir

Vertical Tasting October 1999 - Peter Saunders, well-known Auckland wine writer ("A Guide to New Zealand Wine")

The somewhat legendary idiosyncratic winemaking style of David Glover is perhaps underlined by his Car number plate which reads TANNIN. David of course would have none of this; the tannin he believes gives his wines longevity. .He does not use heaps of oak but likes his reds to survive and improve. They have , and reflect each vintage.

Pinot Noir may be his first love, his flagship. From his first vintage 1989, there has been development through a decade with some experimentation and evolution. From 1994 the front and back sections of the vineyard have been kept separate, a style variation David feels must relate largely to the sloping nature of one, while the other is more even. Soil and sunshine are of course constant within that difference.

1991: Just a little colour fade and a little flatness on the middle palate; mellow, pleasant, holding quite well, more a good aged red than a great Pinot.

1992: Still quite generous in the fruit, smooth, even through the palate and quite distinctively Pinot Noir. Very much alive and good drinking.

1993: Some lovely fruit, generous, almost rich in style, alive and quite elegant yet a little Glover tannin reminds us of its origins!

1994 Front Block: Warm style, medium weight, gentle and subtle, almost soft yet well –spined and sturdy as well. Holding well as a red.

1994 plain label (back block): Some similarity to the Front Block but a touch more savoury, more blatant and less elegant but equally appealing. Holding well.

1995 Front Block: "A vintage from hell" says David, one of the few years in Moutere to have rain over vintage. The 1995 structure is perfect though, balanced , harmonious, but the fruit doesn’t have the same robust potency we know from this label. Pleasant, alive but noticeably more humble

1995 Back Block: A bit sweeter than the Front Block this year, a simple wine, alive holding, but allowing the strength of the other vintages to shine brighter.

1996 Front Block: Pencil shavings and bolshy tannin, a complex Pinot Noir character has evolved but the tannin is winning for now. Another year needed.

1996 Back Block: A little tawny colour. Quite a classy wine with some finesse; balanced, firm and holding well. Fruit seems ready and the tannin not so in-the face as the Front Block.

1997 Front Block: Firm but gentle style, perhaps misleading the amount of fruit behind it, it’s a little dumb, transient, developing and the tannin winning for now although it is pleasant. David thinks this is amongst his best Pinot Noir vintages and we can respect that; he has been right about his wines before. Those with confidence will taste latent fruit, power yet to emerge in perhaps two or three years.

1997 Back Block: Sturdy, anxious style, still needing time like it’s Front Block sister this year. Youth shows in the fruit, gentle, not big statement yet but still clearly unfolding. There’s the tannin to carry it, spread it through palate when the time is right in another year or two.