Wine-a-Palooza….in New Zealand……
When my friends and I started talking about doing a trip to New Zealand and Australia, we decided that at least some of our trip needed to focus on wine. I work in the wine industry in California, one of my traveling companions works in the industry in Virginia and some of the rest of us just like to drink wine! There was lots of interest in tasting wine among the group and since we would be in some of the major wine areas of the world, we would be remiss if we did not plan to have this tasty experience. At the halfway point in our adventure, I can say that we didn’t quite hit all of the wine regions in New Zealand. But we did make a good dent. And, as we are rounding up our time in New Zealand and heading to Australia, I am happy to report that we have had some extraordinary wines…….and were exposed to some exceptional scenery along the way!
If you know about wine, you will not be surprised to know that we had lots of Pinot Noir and even more Sauvignon Blanc. But, we also had some other things that I, frankly, wasn’t expecting. We had some fantastic cool weather Syrah, some exceptional wines made with Bordeaux varietals such as Cabernet and Merlot and some wonderful Chardonnay in the north island. And, in the south island, we also had some interesting Pinot Gris, which was quite different from what I am used to in my section of California. Here, they seemed to be smoother, less tart and a little more complex. Some of them even had some potential for aging, which is not typical.
For me, though, the most surprising taste sensation that we had was the Reisling. We had several “off-dry” Reislings that I thought were quite unusual. I have tasted Reisling in the Alsace region of France and in the Mosel region of Germany. But, it was years ago and I really didn’t remember the particular characteristics of the varietal. I got a good education here in New Zealand. Reisling has a bit of a nose of “petrol”, or gasoline, which at the front end isn’t that appealing. But, as you taste through, it opens up into something quite different. The Reislings that we tasted had a quality of spicy ginger in the front and then some stone fruit in the mouth and in the finish. The combination of the fruit and spice, along with the “Petrol” nose, was quite a nice pairing. The Reisling was my favorite and most surprising taste treat of all of the sampling we did. The flavors were quite unexpected….and very pleasant.
The other nice surprise was the Sauvignon Blanc. We found this to have much less of the tart grapefruit focused flavor that we are so used to in the United States. We loved this different style. The grapefruit was there, but it was much more subtle, and we found a creaminess that left a lingering finish that we really liked. This seemed especially true in the Marlborough area.
Our “wine-a-palooza” started in the north island in the region of Hawke’s Bay, near Napier, which boasts a bit of a warmer climate. Opposite of the northern hemisphere where temperatures get warmer as you go south, in the southern hemisphere the temperatures get colder. So, the heaviest wines that we tasted were found in the north island. The Pinots were bigger and much more fruity and we were able to try some lovely cool weather Syrah and some blends of warmer weather Bordeaux varietals that were quite nice. We visited Elephant Hill Winery….
….which was near the ocean, and Craggy Range…
…..which was in a more mountainous region. Craggy Range won the prize for the best wines and the nicest tasting experience. This is also where we had the first of several of the tasty Reislings.
After Hawke’s Bay, we wound our way to Wellington and did some tasting in the Martinborough area. Here, we found Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as a sweet Reisling that we all really loved. It tasted like peach pie. Perfect for dessert! Our wineries of choice here were Ata Rangi
…Schubert and Martinborough Wines.
Blenheim was our first stop in the south island. It is famous for its distinctive Sauvignon Blanc. It was here that we got the best education on the wines of New Zealand. We had two prearranged appointments that were set up through industry contacts.
The first was at Clos Henri. Check out this cool tasting room!
The proprietors of this winery come from the Sancerre region of France.
They do Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir….that’s it. And, it’s not likely that they will branch out. They like being able to focus on only a few varietals and they do them very well. Clos Henri does things a little bit differently than the rest of the vitners in New Zealand, which we found interesting.
First, they practice dry farming. This means that they don’t irrigate the plants at all, which makes the vines struggle to stay alive. It also keeps the juice in the grapes from becoming too diluted. They are left with much more intensely flavored juice than that which comes from the grapes that are irrigated. This is the strategy that is used in Sancerre for Sauvignon Blanc.
Clos Henri also plants more vines per hectare than the other vintners in New Zealand do. Then, they focus on trimming back the vines so that there are only a few clusters per vine. In farming wine grapes, the idea is that when there are fewer clusters per vine, there are fewer grapes. So, there is more energy focused on the grapes, creating more intensity in the flavor of the juice. The other New Zealand vintners achieve this by planting fewer vines per hectare. In this case, there are more grapes per vine, but less vines. Theoretically, the energy in the vine is less concentrated in the grapes.
The other set appointment that we had was at Greywacke.
This was the product of some former Cloudy Bay employees that decided to break off on their own. It is a husband and wife team. The husband, Judd, was the former wine maker at Cloudy Bay and the wife, Kimberly…..
worked in hospitality. They don’t have a traditional tasting room, but we had a private tasting in a small house with a pool in front, that served as the tasting room.
We had primarily Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot here. We also had a very nice Gewurztramier. These folks are also doing some things differently. They make a Sauvignon Blanc to meet the expectations of the general public that is quite grapefruit focused and tart. This is what people want and they need to make money, after all. But, this is not what they want to be known for. They were much more interested in producing a Sauvignon Blanc that could be aged. In fact, they poured a 2011 for us that had seen some oak. I loved it! They will be continuing to try this over the next few years to see exactly how long it would hold. My guess is at least 5 more years…..maybe more.
We rounded up our New Zealand tastings in the Otago area near Queenstown.
This area is most famous for its Pinot Noir. Here, we found Pinots that were most similar to those of Burgandy. They were lighter and light cherry in focus….with a little bit less of a tart cherry feel than those of Burgandy. They were also much more earthy in quality than those that we found in the northern areas. We visited Peregrine….
and Chard Farm….
We found things at both places that we really liked. One of the treats of our visit to Chard Farm was the challenging drive up the dirt road to get there and then the spectacular view. It was breathtaking!
At this point, I want to recognize the wives of my tasting buddies who were not interested in tasting wine. They were real troopers in going with us in some cases and staying behind in other cases. My hats off to them!
Our New Zealand wine-a-palooza is over now and we have moved on to Australia, where we will continue our exploration. We are planning to visit the Yarra Valley, McLaren Vale and the Barossa.
I’ll let you know what we find!
Wine-a-palooza forever!
Travel With Betsy 
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