Today was our last wine tour while in New Zealand, around the Marlborough wine district. There was our driver/guide, us, and a couple from north of Manchester, England. We started at 10 am, arrived home at 5 pm, and drank ourselves silly. Well, actually, not quite, but we could have - we just got more discriminating as the day went on. We started off with Villa Maria, then Highfield, then River Farm Wines, followed by Spy Valley Wines. Then we went for lunch, and another tasting, at Wairau River (Dave, of course, had mussel chowder). I accompanied lunch with a flat white - time for coffee, not wine. After lunch we hit four more wineries - Seresin Estate, Gibson Bridge, Mahi and Drylands (part of the group that owns Kim Crawford). We finished up with a stop at a chocolatiers - Makana Confections. It was great to have a chocolate tasting to finish off with! And at Sersin Estate we had an olive oil tasting (it was an organic winery, and part of the organic thing was your vineyard had to be a certain distance from the next vineyard. The road allowance was insufficient, so they ripped out a couple of rows of vines and planted a couple of rows of olive trees.) All in all it was a lovely day. Even though it was raining - rain doesn't interfer with wine tasting! It does interfer with picture taking, so that, combined with a slow internet connection here, means only one photo today.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Last New Zealand Wine Tour
Today was our last wine tour while in New Zealand, around the Marlborough wine district. There was our driver/guide, us, and a couple from north of Manchester, England. We started at 10 am, arrived home at 5 pm, and drank ourselves silly. Well, actually, not quite, but we could have - we just got more discriminating as the day went on. We started off with Villa Maria, then Highfield, then River Farm Wines, followed by Spy Valley Wines. Then we went for lunch, and another tasting, at Wairau River (Dave, of course, had mussel chowder). I accompanied lunch with a flat white - time for coffee, not wine. After lunch we hit four more wineries - Seresin Estate, Gibson Bridge, Mahi and Drylands (part of the group that owns Kim Crawford). We finished up with a stop at a chocolatiers - Makana Confections. It was great to have a chocolate tasting to finish off with! And at Sersin Estate we had an olive oil tasting (it was an organic winery, and part of the organic thing was your vineyard had to be a certain distance from the next vineyard. The road allowance was insufficient, so they ripped out a couple of rows of vines and planted a couple of rows of olive trees.) All in all it was a lovely day. Even though it was raining - rain doesn't interfer with wine tasting! It does interfer with picture taking, so that, combined with a slow internet connection here, means only one photo today.
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3 comments:
Hi! I caught up on your trip this morning while I had my coffee. Sounds like you are really enjoying yourselves. I have a friend from New Zealand who is now living in Vancouver and she is always telling me how amazing it is. Thanks for giving me some insider info and the pictures. Tell Uncle David that I now want mussels for dinner, too! Love, Shauna
I am on Neva's side mussel-wise. Dont hate them just dont love them. I think I might have enjoyed the winery tours more - even if I do "swell" every time I have one glass - seven or eight don't seem to make a significant difference so once Ive made the decision to have a glass of wine I might as well keep on....Lil
shauna - and this time we missed a lot of the scenic spots we saw last time - Bay of Islands, Cape Reinga, 90 Mile Beach, Coramandel peninsula, Queenstown area, Milford Sound, etc. New Zealand is well worth a visit.
Lil - the wine trip yesterday was a "pip" and well worth the swelling!
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