How to submit your wines for review by JB, on the NZ Wine Directory & Social Media.
JB has written in excess of 2,000 ‘consumer focused’ NZ Wine reviews over the last 15 years or so, his reviews shared across social media and archived on the NZ Wine Directory.
He doesn’t give points or stars but hopes to offer his readers / followers some insight into each wine, and provide a link so they may take the opportunity to buy and try on his recommendation.
Wines are reviewed and notes shared on the NZ Wine Directory social media & JB’s personal Facebook page to friends and family. Tasting notes are then archived on the NZ Wine Directory website each month.
JB uses the Gabriel Glass for all his wine tastings and reviews, and notes are based on his experience of each wine: i.e. look, smell, taste and overall impression.
FREE WINE REVIEWS
Please complete a submission form (link below) & return it with your wines, including technical notes for each wine.
JB will provide a ‘hero image’ for each wine reviewed, for social media shares on Instagram (3.1K followers) and Facebook (5.4K followers) and @Threads – Wines are reviewed in order of receipt and notes shared.
Free wine reviews are usually done in order of receipt of the wines.
FEATURED WINE REVIEWS
If you’d like to upgrade to a ‘Featured Wine Review’ on please indicate on the submission form. JB will review up to 6 wines, publish a blog post on the NZ Wine Directory about your winery, vineyard & wines, shared on Facebook & Instagram.
Featured wines are prioritized and reviewed on receipt of wines, ahead of free reviews. A fee of NZ$135.00 +gst applies.
Download and print out a copy of the SUBMISSION FORM. Complete (by hand) and return with the wine samples.
DELIVERY DETAILS:
Please courier samples to the following address. Let JB know when the samples are on the way by emailing tracking information or by message / email.
He will advise you immediately on their safe arrival. If any wines are corked or damaged he’ll will contact you directly about replacements.
An invoice for Featured Wine Reviews will be sent from MYOB on completion of Featured Wine Reviews.
John Bartlett – Wine Reviews
THE NEW ZEALAND WINE DIRECTORY
15 Hamua Place
Waitara 4320
Taranaki, New Zealand
JB’s Wine Background
I’m passionate about New Zealand Wine and my wine knowledge and experience comes from many years of buying, trying & tasting wine.
I review as many New Zealand wines as I can each year and share my ‘consumer focused’ notes and images across social media via Instagram and Facebook
I read about, blog about, share information about, tweet about and just love everything about #NZWINE… I attend as many wine events as I can, visiting cellar doors and events, and even had a few years making it albeit on a small and amateur scale.
I was a member of the Pegasus Amateur Wine Making Club in Christchurch NZ in the 1980s – over a 10 year period I made a wide range of wines out of all sorts of fruit (and other things) and had a great deal of success with the likes of my Dry Apricot, Sparking Kiwi fruit and Feijoa bubbles and later on moved from fruit to actual grape based wines.
I started with Albany Surprise, Black Hamburg and an unknown grape variety brought into New Zealand by my parent’s Croatian neighbors: they made gallons of a rich dark sweet wine every year as they drank it with every meal.
The Wine club quite often would assist with local winemaker’s harvests and we would get a bucket or two of grapes to take home and carefully make into our own wine – Muller Thurgau and Chardonnay from St Helena, sometimes we would be able to get juice from Giesen wines such as Muller Thurgau and Riesling.
The best I ever made was from a trial plot of Pinot Noir at St Helena – Daniel Schuster was growing some there and I managed to get enough grapes to make a one gallon jar full – couple of oak staves, fermented in a plastic bucket, racked into a jar, finished, settled, filtered and then bottled – Glenys and I drank one bottle each year for 6 years… and it wasn’t too shabby either.
As I started to taste more and more New Zealand wines in the late 80’s and into the 90’s I really started to see that others made much better wines than I could ever achieve and after a couple of catastrophic failures (2 x 5 Gal Glass Carboys of infected Elderberry) I gradually gave up on that hobby and developed my new passion for New Zealand Wine.
Since then I have been keeping tasting notes on the wines I have purchased, consumed, tasted and enjoyed at home, wine events, wine clubs and festivals.
I was a member of Cellarmasters (Liquorland) VP of The New Brighton Wine Club, attended tastings at Vino Fino, Liquor King and other wine shops in Christchurch, and at many cellar doors when visiting the wine regions of New Zealand.
After the Christchurch Earthquakes we moved to Blenheim in 2012 and I spent 2 years in fine wine retail at Wino’s Liquor in Blenheim selling premium wines and craft beers, facilitating at wine tasting events etc. I also was privileged to be able to attend many Marlborough wine events / awards and festivals and got to know the wine industry folk of the region really well.
For family reasons we relocated to Taranaki in 2015 where we are based now! Thanks goodness there are a couple of wine clubs here in New Plymouth. Itch Bar, 4th Wall Tasters Club, Known Unknown Wines and the New Plymouth Wine Club.
Cheers, JB