"new zealand" news and stories

While grape growers in the northern hemisphere are just winding down harvest, the southern hemisphere is six months ahead of us. It seems we should still be drinking our 2005's, 06's, and 07,s, but I've just opened a bottle of the 2008 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, a gorgeously fresh and lively wine from Chile's Casablanca Valley.

Ordinarily I think of Sauvignon Blanc as a summer wine because its bone-dry acidity and grapefruit flavors zing through your palate and refresh a thirsty mouth like no other wine can. But dry, unoaked varietal Sauv Blancs are mostly meant to be drunk young in order to stay fresh--so the younger, the better, and when the southern hemisphere 2008s roll out in the fall, it's best to catch them while you can.

Many producers in New Zealand and Chile use a new harvesting method of picking grapes over a longer period of time at different levels of ripeness, which gives the wine a heady combination of raciness and curves. Pick too soon, and Sauvignon Blanc, already a vegetal varietal, is too green, too grassy. Pick to late, and the wine is flabby and flat instead of full and round. The combination picking results in a multi-dimensional wine that has the best of both worlds: flinty minerality and ripe body.

The weather has been unseasonably warm this month in my neck of the woods, but it's finally starting to cool off. I'm ready to go apple picking and bite into fresh, crisp, tangy apples. I'm making pumpkin soup and roasted squash. I'm dreaming about baked pears stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts and drizzled with Port. And I'm finishing up my light summer Roses and Albarinos and Vinho Verdes and turning to fuller-bodied white wines and light reds that perfectly complement fall foods.

I'm not married, so I spend a lot of time thinking about my wedding cake-to-be. I often thumb through Martha's book on wedding cakes on the floor of Barnes & Noble, and I can't pass a window full of them without gazing longingly. They're just so beautiful.

In all of this fantasizing, it's never occurred to me to think about having a cake made out of something other than cake. Like, for example, cheese. But apparently cheese cakes are becoming trendy in countries like New Zealand -- layers and layers of gorgeous, decorated cheese. Has anyone ever actually witnessed or tasted one of these? Would you consider having one?

A peach farmer in New Zealand has been growing a new variety of peaches for a couple of seasons now. Well, the variety is new to the English speaking world, I guess.

The flatto peach has been growing in China and across Asia for thousands of years. In fact it is supposedly one of the oldest varieties of the fruit. It has a flat bottom and flat top, so it's not round like to variety of peach that I'm used to. The flatto also is said to have a superior flavor and juiciness. That sounds great!

The grower, Kevin Paulin, says he's never had this much interest before. Apparently people have been been seeking him out to ask about his new crop. No word yet if this will reach American markets. The peaches have barely begun appearing in New Zealand stores. It's still pretty new outside of Asia, so it may take a while. Does anyone know about this variety of peach, and if it is available outside of China and New Zealand?

I love onions. I love the look of them, the way they smell when you cook them, and the way they taste. There is one thing about onions I don't like, though. I'm sure that a lot of people will agree with me on this one. I hate the way onions make you tear up when they are cut.

But I heard a great report on All Things Considered the other day about an onion that won't make you cry. The reporter spoke to a New Zealand plant geneticist who's been working on these onions. Collin Eady, from the Crop and Food Research institute, has found a way to block the gene in the onion cells which cause a person to tear up.

That mechanism is a natural defense for the onion. It's caused by the combination of the tearing gene and natural levels of sulfur in the cells of the bulb. Those components are separate in the whole cell, but its blinding power is unleashed when cut.

It will be a while before you'll see them in your local super market. The genetic modification would have to be proven safe for human consumption first. Or Mr. Eady could try and breed that quality into his onions, but that would take at least ten years anyway. Ah well. Stay tuned for some tips on how to avoid the tears when doing battle against those delicious bulbs.

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