One more time about the Thursday lunch with BRW andother friends.

[bigredwines]

I agree with all of WW's post for lunch on thursday. A good time was had by all.Skeeter, you live in one of the most beautiful countries that I have ever visited.NZ was awesome. the many pictures we took do not do it justice.WW is correct ,I did not drink any sw's whilst I was there.I did discover a pinot noir that was spectacular! this wine comes from a small winery just outside of Queenstown and is surrounded by magestic snow capped mountains.The wine is Amisfield and is in the central otago district. the vintage is from 2003.We had dinner one night in Queenstown at the "The bunker". This restaurant had no appeal from the outside ,in fact we had a hard time finding it.Inside it reminded me of a very old English pub. A huge fireplace greats you with 2 couches.The restaurant had a total of 7 small tables surrounding this fireplace. The atmosphere and the food was the best on the trip. This wine paired well with, vinison,salmon and duck.The couple we had dinner with are white zin drinkers.They thourougly enjoyed the RED wine.Sweet blackcherries and plum with a hint of honey.This is a great wine to serve with friends that only drink sw's.Local shop in phoenix found this wine relatively quick after I returned home.$33. by the bottle.Extremely well balanced for being so young, has a light finish.IMHO because of this wines unique and lovely taste,I would rate this a firm 93 for a pinot.I plan to return to NZ some day and would like to spend at least 3 weeks discovering both north and south island and Skeeter, I may even try some sw's but I must say that all the reds I had where wonderful.G'day mates.