New Zealand: Visiting Wineries in Marlborough

We had a fun, relaxing day tasting wine and enjoying the scenery.  Bubbly Grape Wine Tours was a great selection, and Kerry (owner) essentially selects wineries based on preference and drives customers around for the day while sharing local information.  It ended up being the perfect way to fully recover from the Alpine Crossing.

Breakfast at the Olde Mill House B&B was continental, but Diane makes the cappuccinos and has a large assortment of homemade jams for the toast.  Our personal challenge was to try them all in 3 days, and we plenty of time this morning to eat as much as we wanted due to a pick up time around 10.

There are over 100 wineries and 500 vineyards in Marlborough, though only 30 or so have cellar doors (tasting rooms).  Most open at 10 daily and close by 5 in the summer.  We were the last couple picked up for the full day tour and Kerry made some calls for our first visit.

The vineyards lie in a valley, with one mountainside green and the other side very dry.  It provided a neat contrast and helped us better identify where we were in the valley when visiting the various wineries.

Our morning went by very quickly with visits and tastings at Nautilus, Villa Maria, Te Whare Ra (TWR), and Allan Scott for lunch (and a tasting).  The afternoon included two more: Fromm and Bladen.  The Marlborough region is most known for their sauvignon blanc, but their reislings, pinot gris, pinot noir, and gewurstraminer (very sweet) were typically well liked by our group. 

But our two favorite stops of the day were TWR and Bladen, two of the smallest wineries in the region.  The owners are very involved in the day-to-day operations, and they (or their daughter) gave the information during the tastings with a fun and quirky sense of humor.  We ended up with 4 bottles that would hopefully make nice night caps at some of our future destinations on this trip - somehow with none of these being sauvignon blancs.

It was a very enjoyable day and we needed some time to recuperate in the evening before dinner.  We actually went to another winery, Hans Herzog, which is the only one serving dinner.  Guests sit in a picturesque courtyard with water feature watching the sun set over the vines.

Wine fatigued, we got to sleep early.  Tomorrow we'd bike to some wineries in the morning and then head south to hopefully spot sperm whales.