With the big match coming up on Saturday, I'm dedicating this week's wine blogs to wines from New Zealand.

I'm hoping to do something similar in the run-up to the Argentina game, though when it comes to Samoa...

I'm kicking off with the Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Noir 2008 (£9.99, Sainsbury's, Tesco, nzhouseofwine, Matthew Clark)

Villa Maria is one of the biggest Kiwi wine producers and the quality is always impressively high — I'm yet to try a bad bottle.

The "private bin" range are their entry level wines, but they are far from basic. The pinot has delightful raspberry and cherry jam aromas, and a clean, fresh juicy palate with just a savoury hint around the edges. Rather nice with roast pork, coq au vin or rabbit.