A wine-tasting event featuring international wine writers James Halliday and Elin McCoy - along with seven local scribes - has come up with some interesting results.

Up against six Bordeaux wines - including the Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 2005 and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 2005 - were six Bordeaux-style wines from the Gimblett Gravels area.

These included the Blake Family Vineyard Redd Gravels 2005, the Sacred Hill Helmsman 2005, Mills Reef Elspeth Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 and Trinity Hill The Gimblett 2005.

The locals and the French wines were blind-tasted and we are told the judges found it difficult to distinguish some of the New Zealand wines from the French. 

All who took part in the tasting were impressed with the comparability of the wines.
Four Gimblett Gravels wines were placed in the top six of the tasting, with Blake Family Vineyards Redd Gravels 2005 in the top spot. Organisers of the tasting say this proves that the quality of the Gimblett Gravels Bordeaux blends are on par with their international peers. 

This was a “fascinating tasting, very well run” James Halliday said, (pictured left) admitting that his top wine of the tasting was actually a Gimblett Gravels wine.

Elin McCoy said he was “blown away by a couple of the wines” and was “impressed with the balance of the New Zealand wines”.  
This is the order in which the top six wines were ranked by the panel.

 1. Blake Family Vineyards Redd Gravels 2005

 2. Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 2005

 3. Sacred Hill Helmsman 2005

 4. Mills Reef Elspeth Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

 5. Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 2005 

 6. Trinity Hill The Gimblett 2005

Wines in the tasting line up (with their recommended retail prices in brackets).
 

• Chateau Cos d'Estournel ($400)

• Chateau Haut Brion ($1650)

• Chateau Lafite Rothschild ($2000)

• Chateau L'Eglise Clinet ($1350)

• Chateau Mouton Rothschild ($1650)

• Chateau Troplong Mondot ($600)

• Blake Family Vineyards Redd Gravels ($75)

• Craggy Range Sophia ($50)

• Mills Reef Elspeth Cabernet Sauvignon ($40)

• Newton Forrest Cornerstone ($40)

• Sacred Hill Helmsman ($70)

• Trinity Hill The Gimblett ($30)

Note: The recent wine-tasting was arranged by Scenic Cellars, a large independent wine retailer based in Taupo, and the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers Association.