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A Virtual New Zealand Visit to Villa Maria via Snooth
Virtual Tastings/Chats are a blast, if you’re an action junkie.  The biggest challenge is managing your time for the hour of the chat. We taste, eat, tweet, photograph, and often are chatting on a custom media outside of the usual suspects (Twitter, Facebook, etc…). Tonight, we chatted via Snooth online with Helen Morrison, a winemaker at Villa Maria in New Zealand.  I was very familiar with Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc (Julie is a huge NZ Sauvignon Blanc fan), but I had not tried other Villa Maria wines.  Sounded like fun! I enjoyed some of our Villa Maria favorites and even found a new flame! If you want to take a look at the video chat, you should be able to see it here: Villa Maria Chat on Snooth.

Villa Maria is well known for their Sauvignon Blanc, but they produce a full range of New Zealand wines

All set for a virtual tasting: wines chilled, glasses ready, and food pairings for a wide variety of wines. Phew!

Miscounted on the glasses, had to run inside for one more! Embarassment of riches.

A nice range of very reasonably priced wines, thanks Villa Maria!

OK, it’s carbonated, but it’s still delicious!

I paired the Villa Maris Sauvignon Blanc with a take-out Asian wrap

The rosé was pretty ripe and gave a soft impression. To be perfectly honest, this wasn’t my favorite of the whole bunch.

A nice Chardonnay, and the triple creme brie was a great pairing. On the spectrum, the wine was somewhere between France and California.

Clearly a new world Pinot Noir, this was luscious and rich, but still restrained with good acidity. Very nice wine at a super price-point

This was my surprise pick of the evening. New Zealand is nearly too cold to ripen Merlot and Cabernet, so they end up being on the elegant side. Sexy and elegant simultaneously, nice!

The aftermath of a virtual tasting. Let the clean-up begin!

Disclosure: the wines were provided via Snooth and Villa Maria. All opinions are mine. Villa Maria wines are always well made and most are at a very attractive price point, give a couple of these a try!