Okay, to be fair, we did a significant bit more of the ‘wining’ part than the ‘dining’, but who’s keeping track?
We spent two blissful half-days (Jan 23-24) touring the awesome little region of Marlborough. We visited far more wineries than strictly required and certainly spent more money than allowed for in the budget, but what an experience! Wairau River, Giesen, Hans Herzog, La Veranda (Georges Michel), Staete Landt, C los Henri, Isabel, Highfield, Villa Maria, Rockferry a return visit to Cloudy Bay, Moa (beer tasting! Not for me, though – yuck!) and Nautilus were all on the itinerary. That brings a total of 13 wineries at which I tasted 65 wines. Yikes!
We enjoyed a really personal an informal tasting with Naomi at Giesen, which was a great stop. She took a casual approach to wine that made the process of tasting the wines less stuffy and certainly more interesting. Having been to wineries where the staff seem either entirely disinterested or much too formal, it was a treat to spend a bit of time chatting about wine with her.
The real highlight of the touring had to be the time we spent with the boisterous and welcoming Ruud and Dorien, founders of Staete Landt, and most certainly our visit with Charlie, who is the viticulturalist there. After a great little chat with R&D – complete with travel advice for up the east coast – we were privileged enough to sit down with Charlie, who patiently walked us through each of the 11 (?? I think I lost count at 8, so hoping this number is right) wines in the the estate’s collection. Having a private tasting (the cellar door was actually closed that day, but Rich’s cousin arranged for our visit in advance) was something that I expect will not happen again in my lifetime, so we took full advantage and peppered Charlie with all kinds of questions about State Landt’s wines, viticulture in general and we even got to chatting about travel at one p0int. Having the head viticulturalist at your disposal was such a COOL opportunity; one which we didn’t take lightly, given that they were in the midst of a very busy period.
We rested our heads at a charming little hostel called Watson’s Way, where we played boules, chilled in the hammock, and sprawled out (space!) on the couches prior to heading back to Delores to sleep. Paul saw us off in the morning with chocolate mints – bonus!
Before we knew it, it was time to bid the vines adieu and find somewhere to stay in Picton, in prep for the 8am ferry to Wellington and our meet-up with the Edmondses.eses. (Always seems strange to make that last name plural).
Grateful for: pinot gris, Charlie
