1:45 PM
So I was in New Zealand for 6 weeks back in 2018 working, but when I'm not working on weekends, I got a chance to explore the country! Which brings me to my trip on the Interislander Ferry to Picton in the South Island and subsequently a field trip to handful of wineries to drink our stresses away. It was great!
In my last post, I mentioned how Wellington, New Zealand is the windiest city on Earth. So let me further explain this with some geography facts.
Wellington sits at the southwestern edge of New Zealand's North Island and is situated on Cook Strait, which separates the North and the South Islands. Winds blowing over New Zealand follow a westerly direction from South America. The winds gather speed as they squeeze through the Cook Strait, forming a "river of wind" averaging 16.6mph. The strongest gust in the North Island was recorded at 154mph in 1952. One of the country's strong winds was recorded atop Mt. Kaukau in Wellington at 202 km/h. (Source: World Atlas)
Why was the above so important, you may ask, well, the Interislander Ferry runs on the Cook Strait. So while on a nice day, like the week I went to Picton the scenary was amazing and it was smooth sailing all the way, on a stormy / windy day, the ferry could be cancelled due to strong winds and crazy waves. I don't recommend going on a Ferry when it's raining horizontally. That's strictly my opinion.
After a 4 hour ferry ride to Picton, we got on a car which we booked overnight online, and was on our way to Blenheim, New Zealand which is part of the Marlborough region.
Marlborough region is probably the only region people outside of New Zealand know where wine exists.
- Fact: 97% of the wines from Marlborough are exported internationally.
- Fact #2: While Kim Crawford are labelled as New Zealand wines in our local beer stores, the brand Kim Crawford was bought out by an American company. So while grapes and wines are still produced there, the quality, as the Kiwis told me, are of the American wines. (I bet you did not know this!)
- Fact #3: wines in Marlborough region may be sold under a different name internationally. So if you like something, check it's the same name / different name, so that you can purchase it in your home country!
Wairau River Winery.
This was the first winery that our driver brought us. Because we went in the winter, only a selected amount of wineries were opened. These usually are wineries where there are restaurants. So here we are, at Wairau River, and that's when our wine tasting began prior to lunch as we waited for our table...For the cost of either $5 or $10 dollars, we got to try 4 different types of wine at this winery:
- 2017 Sauvignon Blanc
- 2017 Rose
- 2017 Pinot Gris
- 2016 Pinot Noir
What I was extremely about during this tasting was the amount they poured in my glass. It was a FULL glass, as if you were dining already. It was really a great deal to try all four of these wines. They were one of the best in 2017, so the quality was top notch! My favourite was the Sauvignon Blanc, which can be purchased at LCBO under the name Riverlore, and the Pinot Gris (which I end up purchasing, because it was not sold in Canada.)
The real deal, however, was the 2016 Reserve Pinot Noir that my coworkers and I had during lunch. It was exquisite. I didn't know reds in New Zealand tasted so good. But I guess none of us will know because they usually only carry whites internationally.
Giesen.
After our extremely successful first stop at Wairau River with a full stomach from lunch and wine, we made our way across the street to the Giesen Winery. The decor of this place looks a little rustic, less modern than the one at Wairau River. But we were hear to taste out wines anyways, so it didn't matter.
What was different about this winery was the options of wine they had compared to Wairau River. We had a pamphlet to choose 6 wines for the cost of $5 NZD.
It was a better deal than Wairau River. So we picked our 6, but told our servers to give it to us without telling us the name, so we can guess which one it was. The wine was mediocre, in our opinion. And the biggest mistake we made was picking a Chardonnay with a price tag of $68. I like Chardonnays usually, but this one is definitely not my style and if I was to recommend any wines not to drink in New Zealand, it would hands down be Chardonnay. Knowing that wines are very subjective, to me it smelled like burnt oil and has a back alley piss smell after taste. It was nauseating.
Saint Clair Family Estate.
The third and final stop in our Marlborough Region was this gem, a family owned winery, Saint Clair Family Estate. After 10 full glasses of wine testing, I was ready to call it a day. But this place was amazing. They were 10 minutes from closed, but the staff there were willing to stay open for us to try out their wines. The decor here was definitely modern, and walking in after a not so pleasant tasting at Gisen, that last wine being a Chardonnay, I was excited to see there was not a lot of Chardonnays they are offering. Awesome start to begin with!
I recall, the price of the wine tasting was again $5 for 4 wines, and I tasted 3 whites and 1 red. Unfortunately, I did not take any more pictures by this point, because we were trying to taste as quickly as possible. But if I remember correctly, they were:
- Saint Clair Pioneer Block 21 Bell Block Sauvignon Blanc 2017
- Saint Clair Barrique Sauvingon Blanc 2016
- Saint Clair Origin Pinot Gris 2017 (I could be wrong)
- Saint Clair Marlborough Origin Pinot Noir 2017
To end off an amazing and a successful wine tour, 14+ glasses of wine later, we made it to the confection store across from Saint Claire Family Estate. The chocolate and sweets were to die for. I highly recommend the dark chocolate (it wasn't too sweet, but bitter enough to know s dark chocolate and not too bitter with the sour taste, if you know what I mean) and the almond taffy milk chocolate that they were just making - it was just amazing!
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