Highfield Awards & Accolades
Blue Gold medal, Sydney International Wine Competition 2010
Trophy - Champion Export Wine, Royal Easter Show Wine Awards 2009
Gold medal, Royal Easter Show Wine Awards 2009
Highfield Pinot Noir 2007
91 points, Wine Advocate, September 2009
Gold medal, San Francisco Wine Awards 2009
4 ½ stars, Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide to New Zealand Wine 2010
Gold medal, Royal Easter Show Wine Awards 2009
94 points, 5 stars, Gourmet Traveller WINE Aug/Sep 2009
5 stars, Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide to New Zealand Wine 2009
94 points, 5 stars, BobsWineReviews.com. Bob Campbell, April 2009
Highfield Riesling 2009
Gold medal, Royal Easter Show Wine Awards, 2009
Highfield Sauvignon Blanc Reviews
After offering an understated first impression the 2009 builds to reveal an array of red capsicum, stone fruit and aromatic herbal flavours. It's a wine of finesse but significant power. Bone-dry and excellent food wine. 92 points, 4 stars Gourmet Traveller WINE February/March 2010
The 2009 Highfield Sauvignon Blanc is ripe and sweet-scented, the attractive nose displays passionfruit, feijoa and subtle herbaceous characters on the nose. It's succulent and mouthwatering on the palate with a rounded mouthfeel and refreshing acidity. The wine flows so well through the palate. 93 points, 5 stars Sam Kim, Wine Orbit Jan 2010
92 Points. Wine 100, September 2009. Nick Stock
Tart and juicy, with a lively feel to the lime and passion fruit flavors, lingering gently on the finish. Drink now. 15,000 cases made. 89 points. Wine Spectator
Typically a very classy wine – scented and harmonious, with rich, limey fruit flavours and excellent depth. The 2007 vintage (5 Stars) has a scented bouquet of passionfruits and herbs, with a hint of ‘armpit’, leading into a fleshy , very fresh and concentrated wine with crisp, lively acidity, distinctly tropical-fruit flavours, and a finely balanced (3.6 grams/litre of residual sugar), lasting finish. . Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide to
The 2008 is fresh, bright and very youthful wine with good fruit purity. Grassy, gooseberry Sauvignon Blanc in a delicately aromatic style. The wine has good weight with assertive acidity promoting a drying finish. 85 Points, 4 stars. www.bobswinereviews.com 2008, Bob Campbell
Pale straw in colour. The 2006 has a very aromatic, fine, fruit lifted nose. Juicy, fresh, lively impact is followed by a crisp, fine mid palate that has some fruit depth as well as a citrus brightness. Finishes fluid, soft and slightly herbal. Smart wine. Truewines 2007, Keith Stewart
The trophy for the best export wine at the Royal Easter Show went to the Highfield Sauvignon Blanc 2005, with a spotlessly clean bouquet, gently tropical palate and excellent balance and length. It is sauvignon for all seasons, with enough varietal fruit to satisfy the classicists, yet not so much as to frighten the horses. The Australian, James Halliday
The 2005 Highfield Sauvignon Blanc is moderately concentrated with weight and herbal flavours that fall into the riper end of the spectrum – lemongrass and red capsicum. Vibrant, high-toned sauvignon blanc in a strongly varietal style. Gourmet Traveller Magazine, Bob Campbell
Polished, focused and poised on a razor edge of lively acidity, this delivers oak-framed berry and spice flavours with pizzazz. Finishes harmoniously. Drink now through to 2015. 90 points. Wine Spectator
The 2006 vintage has secondary developed spice and earth aromas. Soft, gentle palate, juicy tannins, wonderful harmony. Decanter Magazine September 2008, Pierre Mansour
Sweet barrel spices. Quite toasty. A high toast note. Somewhat beetroot like. A little bit of heat. Even a touch of apple acetate. It seemed to be red plum. The mouth was dry, even shortish. Red plum, beetroot sort of finish but fairly short. A fun nose but less so in the mouth. It was more heat than flesh with this particular dish.
It showed more on the palate than on the nose. It was very attractive and fragrant on the palate with some complexity. It worked very well with the duck. It cleansed the palate well and accentuated certain flavours.
Excellent fruit, subtle oak. Medium colour. It is a bit lean on the palate. It has high acidity but the acidity lifts the match with the food. It’s clean and long.
Hints of smoky bacon and red berries. On the palate, soft, rounded with fresh acidity giving the wine that invigorating finish. The food matches well with the wine.
The 2005 is dense, oaky and quite developed wine with power and complexity. Plenty of weight with an almost chewy texture. Ripe soft tannins. A mellow wine with no rough edges. 86/100 www.taste.co.nz, Bob Campbell
Showed an excellent brick red colour. A nose of rose petals and red fruits with complex barnyard characters. The palate was slightly thin and weedy but with food it gained complexity. The thinness of the palate remained evident despite the quality of the food.
This wine had a lot of heavy dark oak toast which dominated the nose initially. However it had some good concentration of fruits, juicy red fruit characters and very fine tannins. It was clearly a well made wine. Just a touch too much oak for my liking. However the oak tannins proved to be quite effective in taking out the duck fat in this dish. A good match and I rated it up for that reason.,
2005. There’s only one pinot that I thought was looking bright and nice and fruity and forward… Highfield Estate, well that’s the one I went for. I just thought it was nice cherry fruit, you know you can get into it. You know, I’m all for putting wines on the shelf that people can drink Wine Marlborough Tasting March 2007, Mathew Jukes
The 2005 is medium brick red, strawberry jam, and cloves. Cloves for me is a descriptive that denotes a barrel characteristic that is usually derived from fairly heavy toast and I really like it in combination with strawberry jam! Strawberry and cloves for me is just that sweetest spot in the middle of strawberry fruit being light and black cherry being very dark. Yeah, the Highfield I really thought it medium brick red, strawberry jam, cloves, great fruit by mouth, great tannin structure and the tannins were medium which, that’s what tannin structures should be.
Wine Marlborough Tasting March 2007, Douglas Adams
The 2005 is deep, dark chocolate red. Richly plum/cherry nose with mellow spice and a touch of fungi. Immediate fruit on impact is cherryish with hints of raspberry. Sleek, suave feeling from the first, the mid palate is fluid and juicy, with tender fruit flavour right through. Mild tannins and a gentle, fruit soaked finish are very satisfying. Very hedonistic. Truewines 2007, Keith Stewart
Elstree Cuvée Brut Reviews
The 2005 vintage from Highfield is a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, hand-picked and disgorged after three years on yeast lees. Pale straw-coloured, it’s a concentrated, complex wine with crisp, biscuity, yeasty, nutty flavours, showing excellent intensity and vigour, and a basically dry finish, 4 ½ stars. Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide to
The Elstree Cuvee Brut 2005 is for real celebrations – while it doesn’t taste exactly like Champagne, it’s as good as if not better than wines two or three times the price. It is deliciously rich, and is
“A Chardonnay dominant blend with Pinot Noir that's spent at least three years on the yeast lees. An oxidative style with strong aldehydic, bready, yeasty aromas. The Pinot Noir component asserts itself giving richness, weight and a hint of chocolate box character. A complex and stylish wine that will appeal to lovers of this style although I find it a touch too aldehydic.” 89 Points, 4 Stars. www.bobswinereviews.com 2008, Bob Campbell
“Light gold with a hearty mousse. The 2003 has a lovely, fine, aromatic nose of fruit laced wine biscuits with a flicker of yeast. Warm and interesting. The taste has slight appley characters on impact with a waft of yeast and a lively bubble. Mid palate has good mousse creaminess and some ripe chardonnay flavours with a warm splash of yeast. Finish is long and warm feeling, with lingering creamy nut flavours and a debonair lightness tinged with citrus”. Truewines July 2007, Keith Stewart
Delicate sparkler with lovely fine yeast autolysis character. I picked it as a chardonnay-dominant wine but it’s an equal blend with pinot noir. Impressive with a Champagne-like fineness and power. 93 points. Gourmet Traveller WINE June/July 2007, Bob Campbell
This is a distinguished wine from Highfield and typically one of the most Champagne-like
“Only a few
Highfield Chardonnay Reviews
A consistently classy wine. The 2008 vintage, fully French oak-fermented, has a fragrant, youthful bouquet, citrusy and biscuity. Mouthfilling, it’s a rich, elegant wine, tightly structured, with grapefruit-like flavours, slightly nutty, mealy and buttery, and a dry, minerally finish. It should be long-lived. 4 ½ stars, Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide to New
A consistently classy wine. The 2006 vintage (4 Stars) is mouthfilling and youthful, with a complex bouquet and subtle, delicate, harmonious flavours, crisp, slightly minerally and tight. The 2007 (5 Stars) is even better and already quite expressive. Barrel-fermented and lees-aged, it is weighty and rich, with a creamy, youthful bouquet, concentrated, sweet-fruit flavours, finely integrated oak and lovely texture. Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide to
The 2006 is an elegant wine with typical
The 2006 is a charcoal-suit Chardonnay; measured, lean, a little austere. But wait…it has on a colourful Italian silk necktie – a juicy, zesty, citrus-and-meal seam that lifts the mid-palate. Cuisine Magazine May 2008
The 2006 has yellow wildflower and grapefruit highlights over a nutty, mealy aromatic base of rolled oats and caramel. Hazelnut, lime cordial and dandelion oil notes feature in a surprisingly light front, quickly overtaken by flavoursome grapefruit tones, which wax noticeably as the wine progresses. Fantastic with a roast snapper, scallops, or even hard cheese, this is a well balanced food wine with a long, savoury tail. Truewines 2008, David Stewart
One of the earlier wineries to be established in Marlborough (1989), Highfield has been a quiet achiever producing high standard wines right ac
Highfield 2004; I like the nose on this. I wrote down complex bouquet and once again, youthful colour, tight controlled, strong grapefruit characters, good delicacy and balanced oak, so I was quite impressed by this. This wine to me was one of the best wines of the flight, good complexity.
The 2004 is light gold in colour. The Lovely nose is firm and fluid, with a dash of popcorn and lime blossom. Fresh, precise impact with a lime sprite giving it a fresh manner, without undermining the rich feel and flavour. Mid palate has excellent flavour density and creamy, nutty, mealy textures and flavour. Always fine and tense, it finishes slightly shy, but dry and tidy. Smart wine. Truewines 2007 Keith Stewart
A consistently classy wine. The 2004 vintage (4 stars) was fermented and lees aged for 10 months in French (95%) and American (5%) oak barriques, and given a full, softening malolactic fermentation. Toast and butterscotch aromas lead into a rich, full-bodied palate with good acid spine and excellent depth of ripe, slightly honeyed, peach flavours. Michael Cooper’s Buyer’s Guide to
A consistently classy wine. The 2003 vintage is pale straw, with a slightly biscuity bouquet. Tight and minerally, it shows good richness, with finely poised, citrusy, peachy flavours, integrated toasty oak and mouthfilling body. It’s an immaculate wine, developing gracefully. 4 ½ stars. Michael Cooper’s Buyers Guide to
The 2002 Chardonnay is maturing very gracefully. This is a rich, complex wine. Lighy yellow, it has concentrated, citrusy, slightly toasty flavours woven with fresh acidity and an invitingly fragrant bouquet. Cuisine Magazine, Michael Cooper
Big fine wine with abundant fruit and nice texture, it is strongly oak influenced. Tuatoru Renga status (Rising full-bodied) The Great Wines of
Highfield Riesling Reviews
The 2007 vintage is subtle and tight on the nose, showing lime zest and flinty mineral characters with a hint of earthy notes. The palate is subtly sweet (34g/l) with fine texture and biting acidity. The wine is well weighted and lengthy even though it’s not as harmonious as top examples. At its best: now to 2011. 83 points, 3.5 stars. Wine Orbit, Sam Kim, July 2009
Full of drink-young charm, the 2007 vintage (4 Stars) is an immaculate, single-vineyard wine, hand-picked and stop-fermented in a distinctly medium style (34 grams/litre of residual sugar). Pale lemon/green, it is light-bodied (11 per cent alcohol), with rich, delicate lemon/lime flavours, moderate acidity and great harmony. A top buy. Buyer’s Guide to New Zealand Wines 2009, Michael Cooper
The 2007 is a lovely wine with a floral, slightly perfumed and fruit tinged nose. Forceful, fresh, pure fruit impact has immediate juicy sweetness and a fresh edge of crisp acidity. Mid palate is suave and fresh, its sweeter depths harmonised with acid freshness. It lingers nicely at the end.
Truewines 2008, Keith Stewart
4 ½ stars. The Highfield Riesling 2006 has fresh, strong lemon/lime flavours with impressive delicacy and purity. Vivacious and slightly minerally, with a hint of passionfruit and abundant sweetness (36 grams/litre of residual sugar), giving great drink-young appeal. Winestate Magazine July / August 2007, Michael Cooper
The 2006 has a fine fragrant/floral nose with elements of minerals and lime. Very fine, pure impact is all about fruit, fresh and succulent. Mid palate has more succulent fruit in depth and nicely balanced with clean acid and sweetness. Light and dry at the finish, but deliciously maintained in its fruit flavoured vein. Stylish wine, pure and delicate, with a sustained finish. Truewines May 2007, Keith Stewart
The 2001 has a fabulous nose. Is elegant and fine, with moments of toast and lime juice as well as some delicate dried flower touches. Pure impact has a fine, deep intensity of fruit flavour layered with gentle toast notes. Mid palate is a complex of delicate flavours overlayed by fruit purity and a pervasive delicacy. Riddled with lime all the way to a sustained finish that is bright with flavour and cristalline citrus notes. Truewines May 2007, Keith Stewart
Pure fruit on the nose is usually moderated with a dab of minerality, and the palate is lime crisp and long. Tuatoru Kakara status (Reserve aromatic). The Great Wines of
