Coopers Creek Allison Marsanne

These guys are renowned for giving any crazy, unusual, unknown grape varieties a crack and nearly always they’re a runaway success with the medal cabinet at Coopers Creek bulging at the seams!

Apparently this is NZ’s first ever release of Marsanne, a variety normally grown in the Rhone Valley in France. Grape growers (come petrol heads) Doug and Delwyn Bell grow the grapes for this wine right here in Gizzy, where it seems to enjoy the warm dry weather.

The guys at Coopers Creek have named it Allison after Doug’s recently restored Allison supercharged V12 engine that he got out of a WW2 Curtiss Kittyhawk (an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft!). We can only assume he’s going to drop it in his mechanical harvester to speed things up come picking season!

In 2021 this was the number one rated wine in Cuisine magazine’s annual “NZ & International Non-Aromatic Whites” category. The judges said “This is thought to be the first marsanne made in New Zealand and it definitely impressed our panel with its smoky church incense character on the nose, mixed with beeswax and apricot kernel. Although a 2015 vintage, the accumulated bottle age adds to the charm and intrigue of this vibrant wine. Rich and luscious on the mid-palate with both nashi and bosc pear flesh characters rounding out this dense, almost crunchy wine.”

Full bodied with ripe peachy stone fruit flavours with a dry finish, this has summer written all over it. Great with vegetarian dishes, fish, scallops, or chicken.