Originally posted on December 26, 2014, by cruisingrunner
I never thought much of New Zealand wine at home. In my California-centric repertoire I had only thrown back the occasional Chardonnay from the Hawke’s Bay region, and I would have told you it was crap. However, I’m starting to learn that there’s a lot more to New Zealand wine than what makes it to the grocery store shelf in the U.S., and I’m liking what I’m finding so far. A couple days ago a few girl friends and I headed out for an afternoon of fun and wine tasting to a group of wineries located near the town of Kerikeri in Northern New Zealand. The day was an overall win, even though it poured down rain on us a few times. The friendships forged and strengthened that day were the real highlights, but the wine and the winetasting experience are worth sharing as well.
The wine region — The most famous wine region in New Zealand is Marlborough, which is the northern most part of the south island. That region is known for superb aromatic Sauvignon Blancs, but that’s not where we are. We are in the far north of the north island, in the wine region known appropriately as Northland. In the wine region section of my Lonely Planet guidebook, it’s not even listed, but it is an honest to god wine region even if the wineries are small time operations and few overall. This happens to be where the first grape vines were ever planted in New Zealand even if Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough are now far overshadowing. I think the biggest challenge to wine growing in this area is the humidity from the closeness to the sea. The far north of the north island is a narrow peninsula with no point further than 50 km from the ocean. However, the growers here love their product and are committed to turning out quality wine, even if in low volume. As far as the most prominent grapes, according to http://www.nzwine.com/regions/northland…
“In terms of wines styles, the regions tropical Chardonnays, popular Pinot Gris and vibrant Viogniers are leading the white wine growth, whilst red wines include spicy Syrahs, stylish Cabernet / Merlot blends, peppery Pinotages and complex Chambourcin.”
Two grapes I personally hadn’t heard of before then were Pinotage and Chambourcin. But that day I got an education. Pinotage is a South African grape that is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut, but I hadn’t heard of Cinsaut before either. Chambourcin is a French grape that was traditionally used as a blending grape due to its strong tanins, but now they are making wines with it outright, and it makes a great smooth drinking table wine.
We visited a total of 5 wineries, and even though they were all in close proximity 5 wineries meant no fewer than 5 u-turns as we navigated around an unfamiliar area in the pouring rain while driving on the left side of the road. I was the driver and everyone took turns being my passenger seat navigator. I never knew where I was going, so this was no trivial responsibility.
The wine tasting crew — We were a party of five 1) Camille (s/v Iguana) cruises aboard an Island Packet with her husband Jack, Tim’s spear-fishing boyfriend, 2) Briana (s/v Tusitala) currently single handing, impressive 3) Sarah (s/v Field Trip) on a fellow kid boat with a 9 and 7 year old, 4) Julie (s/v Nirvana) also on a fellow kid boat and also the only one of the five of us that actually had sailing experience before embarking on the cruising journey, and 5) Me.
Cottle Hill Winery http://www.cottlehill.co.nz — Compared with wine tasting in central and northern California, Cottle Hill was like a breath of fresh air. The tasting room was small and we were welcomed warmly by the owner Barbara for our tasting. It turns out Barbara and her husband are former cruisers from San Diego. They arrived in New Zealand in 1992 and decided to stay, and they founded Cottle Hill a few years later. I had called the previous day to inquire if we needed a reservation, because I had no idea how busy they would get, especially since we are now officially in the busy tourist season. When we walked in she almost immediately asked if we were the ones who had called the day before. Barbara, the owner, had been the one to take my call, and she had remembered it. That was the kind of small town place this was, and I loved it.
It was fun to taste wine with the people who have decided what grapes to plant and hear about what they like and how some grapes fair better than others. The star of the wine tasting with the rest of my group ended up being the Tawny Port. Not being a port person myself I was more of an observer of than a participant in this bit of wine love. But I enjoyed most of the wines and ended up buying a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of Chambourcin. Tim and I had the Chambourcin on Christmas Eve with our pizza dinner, and it was a pretty good pairing.
The tasting was $5 for 5 wines, but it was waved if you bought a bottle, which all five of us did. They also have stamp cards where if you buy 12 bottles you get the 13th bottle free. Briana already had a partially filled out stamp card and we all put our purchases on it, so she ended up getting her free bottle that day, yay.
Marsden Estate Winery http://www.marsdenestate.co.nz — This was more like wine tasting back home. It was a larger venue with a restaurant attached, and we were far removed from any conversation with anyone with any decision making influence in the wine making process. Our pourer was a girl home for summer from university and when we asked her what Pinotage was, she had no idea and had to go ask. But the wine was very good. The tasting was $7 for tasting as many wines as you want, well, except for the Chardonnay. It is their signature wine and they don’t have a huge stock, so it’s not part of the tasting. It was as if they were teasing me. The wines were nice, and I especially like the Sauvignon Blanc with hints of bell peppers, which Camille called without looking at the tasting notes I’m pretty sure. After our tasting we decided to have a seat on the covered patio to share an antipasto plate and a glass of that Chardonnay. They were kind enough to split the glass of wine into 5 separate glasses, and I’m pretty sure we enjoyed a generous pour. The creamy blue cheese on the antipasto platter was extremely enjoyable, but the wine, the Black Rocks Chardonnay, was absolutely heavenly. It was my kind of wine. I could have been drinking a Chardonnay back in California. Nice and rich and oaky and buttery. At NZ$37 per bottle it wasn’t cheap, but I still walked out with one and enjoyed the entire thing on Christmas Day.
Ake Ake Vineyard akeakevineyard.co.nz — We pulled up to the tasting room at 4:31 and found it closed, even though it said it was open until 5. The sign on the door said to honk your horn if no one was there, but instead we rang the bell at the door and no one came. So, we moved on, but stay tuned, we’ll be back.
Kainui Road Vineyard — While still sitting in the parking lot of Ake Ake we phoned Kainui to see if they were still open and they were so we were off. Now this place was small and personal. The five of us barely all fit in the tasting room. But there was nice deck outside overlooking the vineyard which would have been a fine place to sit and relax except for the drizzly conditions of the day. We were greeted by the owner and he was nice even if not too enthusiastic. This is his retirement project and he seems to make wine for his own enjoyment as much as anyone else’s. He makes only a few thousand bottles each year, and his signature wine is a Tempranillo. He also had a very unique Rose. Now, Rose is not typically my kind of wine, but this was made from the Tempranillo grape which is not typical for a Rose and it was drier and had more depth than the usual run of the mill Rose. The owner, his name continues to escape me, is also a sailor who expressed interest in the cruising lifestyle we are all entrenched in, so our conversation meandered back and forth from wine to boats to passage making. I walked out of there with a bottle of Tempranillo and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. I just couldn’t pull the trigger on a Rose.
Fat Pig Winery — This is where our afternoon came to a screeching halt, in a good way. This was the only tasting room listed to be open after 5pm, so we had intentionally saved it until last. I had called the previous day just to make sure they were, in fact, open until 7, and through that phone call I found out that they would be having a poetry reading from 5-7. Sounded like it could be interesting, so we went for it. We pulled up around 5:30, and Sarah observed that it felt like we were walking into a family barbecue. It was a small affair, maybe 15 people seated listening to a woman reciting some poetry. We were ushered to our seats and served the first wine in our tasting while we enjoyed the show. The woman reciting the poetry was captivating. Regrettably, I didn’t write down her name or buy her book of poetry, but her poems were about self-discovery and self-strength and they were riveting. I was on the edge of my seat. I think that the key to enjoying poetry is to listen to it read by such a moving narrator. I wouldn’t have expected the poetry reading to be my thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. At the break we went up and talked to the lady who had poured our wine, and she immediately asked if we had been the one to call the day before. Then she shared with us that they had planned this poetry reading awhile back and did some minimal publicizing but they weren’t sure if anyone would show up given the rain and all, so all of the other people there were family members, so they were so glad we came. I absolutely ate that up. I felt like this was one of those totally random unexpected amazing experiences and I was so glad to have stumbled upon it. They served snacks, including flat bread pizza and potato chips. We also learned that the Fat Pig brand name is being phased out. The Byrne family is leasing the vineyards and bottling their own wine and they are the ones running the tasting room now and they are the ones having this poetry reading. She poured our tastings out of unlabeled bottles, and she explained that they had some issues with getting their labels on, so now they are applying them manually by hand, so they don’t bother for the wines in the tasting room, but of course she knows which wine is which.
We sat back down for the rest of the poetry reading, and the poet did a “duet” with her husband that had rhythm as well as lyrical depth. But after that they opened it up to the audience for open mic night, and it would have been spectacular if one of us had something to share. But we came totally unprepared. The only thing that popped into my mind was the Harriet, Sweet Harriet poem from So I Married and Axe Murderer, but I couldn’t even remember the words and I couldn’t have pulled it off even if I could remember them. Luckily, a couple of the family members stepped up. First was Gladys. Eighty year old Gladys. She prefaced her poem by saying that most of her poems are about her family and her kids, but this one is about her. It was a not too deep but poignant poem about her life lessons and what’s really important in life. At least 3/5 of our gang was in tears. (I think Julie and I are the hard hearted ones.) After that a barrel chested man read his poem which was an ode to the 2013 grape harvest, which apparently was a great one. Then, no one else volunteered, so Gladys came back for an encore. This time she really rocked it. It was a poem dedicated to her daughter and her husband and the entire poem was about sailing as a metaphor for embarking on the adventure of marriage. Again, 3/5 of our gang was in tears, and when she was done Camille and Sarah conspired to get a copy of that poem from Gladys. Camille must have drawn the short straw because she went over to Gladys and did a superb job explaining how we are all on boats and how we loved her poem and would really like a copy. Gladys was easy and let her take a photo of the poem for us all to have.
Sarah got a chance to talk with Gladys a bit outside the tasting room door and as I walked by I picked up on Sarah’s sign language that she wanted me to take a picture. I felt like the paparrazi, but Gladys either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Shortly afterwards, I found myself talking with Gladys and she was telling me how great it is to see us here with “… all kinds. That’s what New Zealand is all about.” I choked back my laughter and later told Camille, who is Filipino-American, how she earned us diversity points with the star poet. That was such an old lady thing to notice the only dark skinned person in the room and then an even more old lady thing to mention it. But I believe that her positiveness about it was genuine all the same. Endearing or annoying? Definitely endearing.
I walked out of there with two bottles of wine, but it was more out of wanting to repay them for the experience than any great love of the wine. One of the bottles was a Chardonnay I hadn’t even tasted.
We made a rushed exit out of Fat Pig, because I had reached Ake Ake on the phone and made a quick reservation for dinner. I got a little crazy about being on time for the reservation, and I’m pretty sure Briana deferred going to the bathroom to appease me.
Ake Ake Vineyard (again) — We made it just in time for the dinner reservation and we were seated by our waiter, whom Sarah recognized. After asking him about it, turns out he also works at the sporting goods store where they bought their tent. Kudos to him, working two jobs. Dinner was a slow, relaxed affair, including a bottle of Chambourcin that was actually a much higher quality than those we had previously tasted. The closest thing to a nice California Cabernet we’ve had all day. Since we had missed the tasting hours I asked if I could still have a small taste of the Chardonnay, and they happily obliged. The Chardonnay was mediocre, which may have made the Chambourcin I drank immediately following that much better. I had duck for dinner. I had originally had my eye on the filet, but Camille made a strong case for having something you wouldn’t be likely to cook on your own, so the duck it was. It was tender and flavorful and I was happy for my choice. We ended the night with a shared slice of blueberry cheesecake and while everyone else finished their Chambourcin, I enjoyed a cup of espresso. I was driving after all. I passed on buying a bottle of the Chardonnay and walked out with the Chambourcin instead. That one is still in the bilge, I mean wine cellar, waiting for the next special occasion.
When it was time to leave it was pouring rain. I mean pouring. And I completely underestimated how stressful it would be driving in the dark in the rain on a winding road while driving on the left side. I was tense the whole way. But also let me clarify that I tasted a lot of wine that day, but I didn’t really drink that much. I was selective in my tasting and I rarely finished a taste letting the other girls be my pour bucket instead. And during that drive home I was glad I wasn’t walking a fine line. Like I said, I was tense the whole way.
When we got back to the marina it was still pouring down so we waited in the van until it let up enough to make it down to the end of the dock to s/v Iguana, where Sarah’s dinghy was also waiting for us. Camille didn’t have her key to the dock gate, so I asked her if she wanted me to text Jack to come down and let us in, but she said no since she could crawl under the fence. Later, I saw the fence she had crawled under and I was floored. She basically had to shimmy on her belly on the wet cement to get through. Why oh why didn’t I go with her to watch!
The night ended with a dry dinghy ride for me because I was the first drop off, but everyone else got soaked. I thought of them while I was dry and snuggled up and could hear the rain pelting the roof of Exodus. This was a phenomenal group of women I had the pleasure of hanging out with that day and I’m so glad we had that day together. I ended up with eight bottles of wine that I am so excited about, but I am equally excited about the friendships… … … OK, I just can’t do it. I spewed enough sappiness into this blog post already. You get the idea.
-D.
Gresham Family Exodus 