New Zealand: Marlborough is the Place for Wine

 

Sauvignon blanc grapes on the vine at Saint Clair.

The next time you're in a wine shop, look at the New Zealand sauvignon blanc section. Odds are that most or even all of them will be from Marlborough, the northeast corner of New Zealand's South Island, which produces 85 percent of New Zealand's wine exports.

Jane and I enjoy visiting wine regions around the world, so we planned three nights in Belnheim, Marlborogh's main town, to give ourselves two full days for exploration. The area has more than 150 wineries and two or three dozen cellar doors, as tasting rooms are called here. We flew from Wellington on Sounds Air over Cook Strait, which separates the North and South Islands. We had planned to take the 3.5-hour ferry,  but I had stupidly not realized that even walk-on passengers need reservations. And of the four ferries, two were out of commission. Fortunately, Jane hopped on line and got us air tickets and Hertz arranged for us to pick up our car at the airport in Blenheim instead of the ferry terminal in Picton.  All's well that ends well.

We booked a tour of four celler doors with Na Clachen Wine Tours.  Its van picked us up at our hotel and took us and and seven other tourists to Saint Clair, Hunter's Wines, Rock Ferry and  Gibson Bridge cellar doors.  We drove ourselves to SpyValley, Lawson's Dry Hills and Allan Scott.  Allan Scott was the only place that had customer-operated dispensers.  I especially liked family-owned Spy Valley, not only because it's a brand we were already familiar with but because its wines seeemed even better when consumed in a beautiful room overlooking the vineyards that they came from.  Then again, cellar doors usually are congenial and within sight of vineyards. Spy Valley and Allan Scott are among the many Marlborough wineries that export to the U.S. but I think you have to cross the Pacific to try the others that we visited here. There's one website that pulls together a wealth of information about this viticultural area.

While we enjoyed our winery visits, they were all outside the downtown area of Blenheim, where we stayed three nights at the very pleasant 14th Lane Urban Hotel.  Blenheim itself has little for visitors to do other than winery visits, so one morning we drove to lunch in nearby Picton, which is where the ferries land. and which is much more focused on tourists. We also both got haircuts in Blenheim.    We did have one notably good dinner in Blenheim, practically just across the street from our hotel, at  Frank's Oyster Bar, and one notably unsatisfying dinner at nearby Scotch, where we "trusted the team" to select ridiculously small plates for us to share. Other diners, who may have chosen  their own dishes, seemed to be enjoying their meals.

Here are some snaphots:

We boarded our Sounds Air Cessna Caravan on the tarmac at the Wellington airport.

Our pilot counted to make sure everyone was aboard.

A cellar door hostess at Saint Clair Family Estate.

Gibson Bridge Vineyard's Julie Simmonds pours wine at her tiny tasting room. She and her 
husband, Howard, are spending their golden years doing what they love at their 
very small vineyard. Or, as Julie says, what Howard loves. Nevertheless, she seems
enthusiastic as she pours very good pinot gris, chardonnay and gewurtztraminer and
other wines for our group. A surprising offering here is a dessert wine, a botrytis
 pinot gris.. Gibson Bridge is probably the only wine producer in Marlborough
that does not make  a sauvignon blanc. 

Spy Valley's pinot noir and its sauvignon blanc
are usually considered among the best of 
New Zealand wines.

I took a photo of the menu at Scotch Wine Bar
in Blenheim because I wanted to look up some
of the terms. Kamo kamo, for example, turns out
to be a type of squash. 

A ferry from Wellington glides into the harbnor at Picton.

Picton's waterfront.

Lunchtime in Picton involves figuring out how to grab the right table.

Pinot noir grapes at Spy Valley.