Extreme sports and "Lord of the Rings" the movie are the two things that come readily to mind when one talks about New Zealand today. But for wine lovers across the world, New Zealand has a completely different meaning. It generally evokes the thought of wines with lashings of ripe tropical fruit, especially guava, as well as herbaceous and gooseberry aromas the unmistakable tastes of Sauvignon Blanc, or more specifically New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. These flavours are mostly because of the country's cool climate.

It's a long narrow country, but its vineyards are concentrated mostly around three regions, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay and Marlborough, with a number of boutique style wineries clustered around Auckland (particularly Waiheke Island), Nelson, Canterbury and Central Otago.

It was not until the 1980's that New Zealand wines drew the attention of the world with what is now a classic cult wine: Cloudy Bay. It was snapped up as it appeared on wine menus in Hong Kong restaurants during the early 1990s. This success was followed swiftly by the growing popularity of a wide range of wines from other New Zealand estates such as Esk Valley, Vidal, Villa Maria and Grove Mill. Since then several other wine growing regions in other countries have tried to emulate the New Zealand style without much success.

I first visited the New Zealand wineries in 1995 to see the potential of their winemakers and I was impressed not only by the quality of the wines, but also by the laid back attitude of the winemakers. They make it all seem such fun. More than a decade later, many of these wineries have made great strides in quality and sophistication to give other wines a run for their money. And many a new winery has joined every year.

The New Zealanders were good at white wines right from their early days, but their red wines, too, were catching the fancy of the drinking public. One prime example of just how fast and sure that happened is Goldwater Estate in Waiheke Island. The little island, which is just a 35-minute ferry ride from Auckland, had only 13 wineries a decade ago. Kim and Jeanette Goldwater set it up as the Goldwater holiday home, with wine making as a hobby, in 1982. But demand soon made them turn that hobby into a full-fledged business.

Encouraged by family and friends, they decided to take their wine production a step further and entered the commercial market. In 1991, (in what some people saw as an ambitious move) they took their wines to the Intervin International Wine Competition in New York and won a Gold Medal. Many producers considered the 1994 jury at the International Wine Challenge in London to be one of the toughest to impress, but Goldwater emerged with the Silver Award. And the rest as they say is history.

After winning more medals and awards at many other prestigious events for both red and white wines, Goldwater today is firmly placed as a serious producer of some of the best red Bordeaux-style wines. The reds are a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Goldwater has the distinction of producing the most expensive New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc ever sold, with a six-litre bottle fetching about NZ$14,000 at an auction in Houston, Texas, last year.

It has made such a success of the Goldwaters' "retirement" venture that this year the couple sold their estate to the New Zealand Wine Fund for NZ$10 million.This is an interesting time to buy last year's production so you can compare them with future wines from this house under the new ownership.

Back in 1995, I was also most fortunate to come across Pinot Noir being produced for the first time in Waipara. About 50 minutes' drive north of Christchurch, Waipara is ideal for Pinot Noir because of its cool climate.

We are seeing more and more exceptional Pinot Noir coming out of New Zealand intense fruit, especially raspberry and medium-ripe cherries with a hint of sweet oak. In Hong Kong, it's worth checking out wines from the estates of Kim Crawford and Craggy Range.

A recent wine tasting hosted by the New Zealand Wine and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel had a wide range of very palatable wines from about 100 wineries on show. They included a handful from one estate worth looking out for on your travels: Mt Difficulty Wines from Central Otago. Its wines have more than a hint of classic Burgundy full bodied, powerful, and elegant.