Wine of the Week (New Zealand)

Wine of the Week is the work of New Zealander Sue Courtney. The title is misleading as in fact this is one of the best resources on the Web for info on the wines, regions and wine people of New Zealand. Sue does indeed have a Wine of the Week, but the site's real strength is as a source of information, tasting notes and articles on all wine things New Zealand. There are a host of absorbing and well written articles from Courtney, who is wine columnist for the local Rodney Times. There are masses of wine and restaurant reviews, dozens of in-depth profiles featuring key figures in the New Zealand wine scene and many fascinating pieces gathered under the headings of Wine News and Wine Stories. This is a site with far more to it than many in terms of interest and readability, and the style is friendly, not too technical and full of obvious enthusiasm.

Courtney does her research and knows her stuff. The opinions expressed are entirely her own, and are therefore subjective, but this is a site that can be relied upon.

The homepage of the site has links to all the most current features clustered around a central image, and a navigation bar at the foot of the page linking to the site's main sub-sections. It is slightly confusing at first that on visiting any other page the navigation panel jumps to the left hand edge of the screen, but once you realise that it makes for easy navigation as it is applied consistently.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Wine of the Week Each of Courtney's choices comes complete with a photograph of the bottle label, background information and a full and entertaining tasting note. The ratio of New Zealand wines is high, though wines from other areas do feature occasionally. At the foot of the current Wine of the Week is a link to the archives where you will find past title holders going back to November 1998 which makes for a very valuable resource.

Personality of the Week is a slight misnomer as these profiles are actually added less frequently, perhaps once per month. Once again, a link at the bottom of the current profile takes you into the archives. These pieces are fascinating, each one a human story illustrated with photographs. Here are genuinely interesting tales of New Zealand wine folk: makers, merchants and amateur enthusiasts with something to say. You can read interviews with everyone from internationally acclaimed Australian guru James Halliday, to not so internationally acclaimed sales manager Maree Buscke from Gisborne, whose passion for wine earns her a place.

Wine Stories This is a collection of Courtney's wine columns in the Rodney Times. There's the best part of 100 full articles here, on general wine subjects ranging from ‘Rosé Wine — a pleasant change for summer quaffing' to ‘Vineyard Dreaming — A suggestion of how to start your own.' Once again, a lot of the material is centred on New Zealand, but not exclusively so.

News A regularly updated look at major or just interesting wine news, particularly pertaining to New Zealand. Typical would be a report in the Independent newspaper which listed three Kiwi wines in a Top 50 of the year, or news of the devastating storms that ravaged the Australian crop in February of this year.

OTHER FEATURES

There are local restaurant reviews, a selection of wine links, both to other Wine of the Week sites around the world and to New Zealand resources, and Read of the Week book and magazine recommendations.