Pinot Noir 2010

This week Wellington has played host to wine writers, dealers and makers from around the world who have all come to attend the Pinot Noir conference on Queen’s Warf. As an after event on Wednesday I ran craft beer tasting with Ager Sectus Wines. The idea was to use the craft beer tasting as a hook to draw in some of the people attending the conference and the wine company hoped they would then try the wines. For me it offered a fantastic opportunity to expose some the best New Zealand craft brewing has to offer to some key players in the wine world.
Guests included TV’s Oz Clarke and the man in charge of promoting New Zealand Wine to the UK David Cox. I had thought I might experience a level of snobbery towards beer that undoubtedly exists in some wine circles but I didn’t. Everyone who attended seemed genuinely interested and many were keen to talk to me about the beers, and taste their way through the range. Oz Clarke was an interesting and good natured chap. I was impressed with his knowledge of the New Zealand craft beer scene and I took the opportunity to tell him that I enjoyed ‘Oz and James Drink to Britain’ but that I thought the scene with Steve Wellington in the cellars at Burton was somewhat ungracious. He blamed it on James May!
The beers I chose to represent New Zealand craft brewing were: Epic Pale Ale, Emersons Pilsner, Croucher Hef, Three Boys Wheat, Golden and Wild Plum, Mussel Inn Captain Cooker, Renaissance Discovery, Renaissance Stonecutter and 8 Wired Hopwired IPA.