Roving Sommelier is passionate about premium quality New Zealand regional wines. Ben Glover, of Wither Hills fame, is now focusing on matters closer to home and has taken charge of his family winery, Zephyr.

Referring to himself humbly as the janitor, Ben creates wines from their own vineyards in the renowned Marlborough sub-region of Dillon’s Point. The whites especially deserve to be compared with other world class whites rather than merely the best of Marlborough.

The Glover family vineyards, planted in 1985 alongside the meandering Opawa River, have inspired the family’s passion for wine. The vineyard is now very much an aromatic specialist with Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, and Riesling. The viticultural and winemaking philosophy embraces the structural strengths of the vineyard. The wines show classic cool climate precision matched with palate depth and the ability to support texture. Winemaker Ben Glover says “I have always wanted to express the exquisite, refined bouquet, the precise structure and the ‘line’ of these aromatic wines from our farm. Zephyr allows me to do this – winegrowing is a natural expression and extension of what our family and I have done on this property for years and the opportunity to pay them back with homegrown, world-class wines is too good to be true,” says Ben.

This Pinot Gris is from their other family-owned vineyard “Alice Mills” named after Ben’s grandma. The vineyard is a stone’s throw from Grovetown, and it was this area that the Glovers farmed and milked cows for close to five generations before converting to winegrowing and moving to Dillons Point. The Gris off this loamy fertile site was machine harvested for skin contact and then gently pressed before being split 90:10 between tank and barrel – The tank to make sure there is purity of fruit and the 10% (in oak) to provide some textural notes from wild fermentation in very old neutral French oak barriques. The wine rested for three months before being blended and bottled.

Yellow flint like in colour, with aromas of crunchy red apple and aromatic spice, this has pristine poise on the palate of apple crumble/strudel and cinnamon, with plenty of crunch and texture behind it. The 2021 Zephyr Pinot Gris is also a very food-friendly wine, best served chilled with Asian cuisine and spicy foods.