Wineries and Wellington

Aristophanes
Oct 27, 2017
4 min read

"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever."

Hawke's Bay is known as the 'fruit bowl of New Zealand', and orchards jostle for position with vegetable gardens, pasture and vines in this south-eastern area of the South Island. Set in a triangle of towns; Napier, Hastings and Havelock North, the area has an average annual temperature of 20C and is a holiday destination for many seeking dining experiences along with the wide offering of wines, cycling and surfing. Whilst the viniculture lacks a signature variety against Malborough's Sauvignon Blanc or the Pinot Noirs of Central Otago, they do produce lots of grapes very well.

Napier itself is a centre of art deco architecture, the town being extensively rebuilt after a devastating earthquake in 1931 and many of these colourful buildings survive and prosper with a celebratory art deco weekend held very February.

We visit a number of fine wineries around the area and continue to load the car with more and more weight, collecting a magnitude of bottles along the way. Noteworthy are Mission, the oldest wine producer in NZ; vines planted by Catholic Marist missionaries in 1851 and Craggy Range down along the coast.

The hills behind Craggy Range were spectacular and .... craggy.

So, after two days of bacchanalian excess, we head south again, driving the 300-odd kilometres down the scenic SH2 to arrive at the capital, Wellington, for an overnight prior to leaving the North Island. Apologies to any Aucklanders reading this, but we rated Wellington well above the northern sister city as a stop-off.

A bit of a whistle-stop, but we still had time to photo-check the Parliament Building, the beehive;

...before wandering around the city centre,

... hitting bars in groovy Cuba Street,

.... and stumbling by chance upon one of NZ's most respected craft breweries, The Garage Project (after Ground Up Brewing, obviously)

Wellington hosts the National Museum, Te Papa Tongawera, a must-see for any visitor here. Sadly, we were very short of time and a couple of hours just does not do justice to this amazing treasure. We did take advantage of experiencing the fabulous and current exhibition remembering the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915, a moving and poignant tribute to man's inhumanity to fellow man.

Supersized replicas of combatants bring the horrors of the disastrous landing towering above visitors. It's well worth visiting the exhibition link here:

http://www.gallipoli.tepapa.govt.nz

And then, it's a farewell to the North and hello ferry trip back to the Picton Sounds.

Malborough wine region runs between the towns of Renwick and Blenheim with a famed 'Golden Mile' of cellar doors. Probably best known for the Sauvignon Blanc varieties, Malborough produces around 80% of all NZ wines. Our fav experiences were in the smaller, independent wineries, where interesting alternatives to the Big White - chardonnay, pinot gris, blanc de blanc, Riesling, Gewürztaminer and, as a first for me, Orange wine (made from white grapes processed like red wines, so unlike most whites they're fermented with their skins on, giving them the structural grip of a red, combined with the fruits and aromatic characters of a white.)

The region first began to grow wine grapes in the 1970s, growing into a billion-dollar industry over 40 years. And there seem to have been some entrepreneurial spirits out there too - Eddie Hunter (of Hunter wines), a boy from Belfast - one of Europe's premier vinicultural centres - bought some land after running an Irish Bar in Christchurch, and "gave it a go". His 6' high trellises fronting the estate was designed to attract visitors, who could see the grapes above those of his competitors and come in for a tasting. Unfortunately, these were Cab Sauvignon variety; the region too cold to allow the grapes to ripen, so they are used to make jam!

Greg & Sue White, who sailed into Malborough Sound to shelter from a storm in the yacht they had been traversing the South Pacific. Stayed to help a friend plant new vines and decided to give it a go for themselves in founding Whitehaven.

And the Giesen Brothers, two stonemasons by trade, who thought the South Island would be a good venture. Contacting the third brother, Marcel, back in Germany, he was encouraged to take a degree in winemaking, thence to come out with proper expertise.

Cloudy Bay - probably the UK's most prodigious NZ wine, but for us the winery was rather 'professional' and sterile in atmosphere.

Fromm. Thank you, Kelly, out of Padstow, for the wine tour and some delicious top-drawer wines for us to try (and Guy Mannering, for the introduction).

No. 1 Winery. Proper methode champanoise tradionelle. Posh lady and chandeliers.

Whitehaven. Getting right on to the swing of it and doing important reading glasses research.

Our gaffe for two nights - Malborough Vintners Suites - view from the patio. Not surprisingly, there's some vines out there. And not surprisingly, we sampled the finished product over dinner.

St Clair. Overall, our favourite cellar of the tour. Great selection of wines at a very reasonable cost. And they also allowed me in with that surf hoody.