Marlborough - Wine Country

On the Winery Tour

NZ wines from Marlborough are our favourites, particularly the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir varieties. The small country of NZ is a powerhouse at marketing their wines worldwide. The wine industry in Canada should follow their example. Nearly everyone we’ve met from North America or Europe is familiar with NZ wines and most people don’t even know that Canada produces wines. Did you know that for Canadians it is technically illegal for an individual to transport wines from province to province? Now if anyone can explain that archaic law to my satisfaction, I’ll give them a prize.

Ontario produces some excellent wines, but often we must go directly to the wineries to get much variety and that involves a two hour drive to the Niagara region on a very busy highway. Smaller producers can sell either at the cellar door or through the upmarket Vintages division of the LCBO (liquor licensing board of Ontario), and they must be able to guarantee a certain minimum number of cases. When we go to British Columbia, a province that produces very fine wines, we must enjoy the wines while there because we can rarely purchase the ones we like in our LCBO. So what do we do? We buy a lot of New Zealand wines, because we like them and can get a wider variety of their wines than our favourites from British Columbia. I don’t get it; think of the thousands of miles they must travel! And we are finding that the prices we pay at home for NZ wines aren’t significantly higher than what we pay here. The LCBO taxes on our favourite BC wines add $10 per bottle to a $20 bottle of wine.  So what do we do? We buy NZ wines, and that’s why we are back in Marlborough to discover some new ones.

Because my sister-in-law hails from NZ we’ve been familiar with the wines for a number of years, and every time a new label shows up at Vintages section, we try it. On our last visit we cycled from winery to winery both in Marlborough and in Martinborough. To be fair to Martinborough, we liked the wines when we visited the region but they don’t show up in our stores in Toronto very often.

On this trip we finally got a sunny day, so Pat kindly arranged for us to rent bicycles from colleagues at Stonehaven B and B, and we were off with recommendations for wineries to try in the Renwick area. First we visited Wairau River for lunch figuring that we’d better eat something before drinking very much wine or we really would end up in the ditch, no joke. The winery was a hive of activity with construction workers operating diggers, tractors, and dump trucks and all working at full speed while additional workers clomped on the roof of the tasting room in big boots installing some kind of wiring.  The food was highly recommended and this was one of the few wineries with a full-fledged restaurant, most others if they had food at all offered only platters of cheese or charcuterie, so we did our best to ignore all the noise and confusion. The locals certainly didn’t seem to mind because at noon, already about half the tables were full. We admit we enjoyed excellent meals in spite of the din; I had pizza and Duncan, a blue cheese soufflé, and we enjoyed two glasses of their wine without even sampling them beforehand. I chose the reserve Pinot Noir and Duncan sampled the Pinot Gris; both complemented the food well.

We had stowed our bikes behind a big construction sign that was propped on the winery bike rack. The Stonehaven owners hadn’t supplied bike locks, and we figured this was because there wasn’t much danger of theft.  But we didn’t want to take any chances so we concealed them as best we could. When we finished lunch, we came out to find the sheltering sign gone, and this being NZ, the bikes though fully exposed, were where we had left them.

As I was feeling a little tipsy already from the wine at lunch, we walked the bikes directly across the street to Nautilus Winery which also had a bike rack, where we tasted their bubbly and a Pinot Noir. While enjoying both wines, we talked at length to an employee, a man of South African descent. We tested our theory on why New Zealanders are so friendly and he concurred. He told us he moved because many members of his family had emigrated to NZ, and they all loved both the people and the country.

Mahi Tasting Room

Next we were off to Forrest Vineyard. It was interesting to see this operation, because we’ve enjoyed their wines in Canada for a long time. Then we went to Mahi Vineyard, highly recommended by both B & Bs. We tasted four of their wines and loved them all. The lady there was very welcoming and informative and even offered to take our picture standing behind the selection of wines we’d tasted. We’ll be certain to look out for them at home. Finally we headed off to Te Whare Ra, a small winery, with some unusual wines along with the more conventional ones. There was another group in the cellar door tasting room so we didn’t linger.

Dessert Platter at Georges Michel Winery

After conferring on the best wine of the day, we cycled back to Mahi and purchased two bottles of their Pinot Noir before a final stop at Georges Michel Winery for dessert. The dining room was just closing at 4 p.m., but the kindly proprietor took pity on us and slipped us in, and we were so grateful. We had been saving dessert as our last stop, pedalling as fast as we could. We harbour fond memories of this restaurant from our last visit. The dessert plate with almond cake, chocolate mousse, raspberry sorbet, creme brulee, dessert wine and caramel crunch was excellent as is the view over the vines. We cycled back to Stonehaven with the bikes and took some photos of their lovely back garden before retrieving our rental car.

Beautiful View over the Georges Michel Vineyard

On the way back to Koromiko Homestead, we couldn’t resist stopping at Makana Confections. Pat and Ian have kindly provided us with chocolates from this shop throughout our stay with them; every night after dinner we savour one each, and they are well worth the calories! We remember watching through the observation window as employees boiled caramel in a huge copper kettle. It was only half an hour before closing so they were cleaning up for the day, but a friendly girl instantly proffered samples of their hazelnut crunch and cherry flavoured truffles. They are very astute probably figuring that like us, most people will not leave empty handed.  We couldn’t resist purchasing the crunch along with another Cecily tea towel and greeting card. Cecily is a NZ cartoonist whose clever tea towels, aprons, books and cards are on sale in small shops throughout the country. She is a woman of a certain age and on my wavelength, extolling the vital components of good living where tea, wine and chocolate feature prominently. Cheers to Cecily and to the wines of Marlborough!
http://www.cecily.co.nz/
Click Below for Map: http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Blenheim,+Marlborough,+New+Zealand&hl=en&ll=-41.393294,174.418945&spn=6.313314,14.128418&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=21.721344,56.513672&vpsrc=6&hnear=Blenheim,+Marlborough,+New+Zealand&t=m&z=6