Wine Orbit is a website featuring reviews of New Zealand wines and wines of the world. It is solely written by Sam Kim unless otherwise stated. Its aim is to provide the wine industry, trade and wine enthusiasts with reviews from a senior wine judge’s perspective. Wines reviewed in Wine Orbit are either submitted by the producer/distributor, or from trade events, including sponsored trips. Wine Orbit is an advertising-free website; instead, it charges submission fee (NZ$34) to each wine entered into formal tastings, as in wine shows and competitions.

About Tasting and Scoring
All wines are tasted blind by Sam Kim in his home office, and the notes are solely written by him unless otherwise stated. Each wine is rated out of 20-points then converted to 100-point and five-star scales – two of the most effective and easy to understand rating systems. Wines are tasted using Riedel Ouverture Magnum and Riedel Ouverture White Wine glasses. Wine Orbit is about highlighting wine excellence, therefore, wines scoring below 81 points (3.5 stars) are not published.

Prices
Prices quoted are supplied by the entrant and are an indication only as they can vary considerably depending on the location, the type of promotion, etc.  All prices are in $NZ.

‘At its best’
This indicates my conservative estimate of the period a wine will be drinking at its best.  It is quite possible the wine will continue to improve beyond the suggested period, or hold at its peak for longer than estimated.

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