New Zealand 2015
Day 11: Wine tasting in Marlborough

Monday morning, I walked the perimeter of the Woodside Heritage Homestead with Flynn and Paddy. They reported no perimeter breaches with the exception of a rabbit, which wasn’t worthy of inclusion in the daily action report.

After breakfast, we headed out to start our visit of the “cellar doors” that we had selected.

Nanette, our host at the Marlborough B&B, works at Yealands Estate so we made that our first stop. It was a little off the path of The Marlborough Wine Trail so we left early so that the 40-minute drive would get us there when they opened.

Peter Yealands is a genius winemaker and forerunner in sustainable farming. At the tasting room before trying the wines, we watched a video on all of Yealands composting, renewable farming, and zero-footprint strategies that he has used in winemaking. Whatever he is doing, it works. Most of the wines that we tried were exceptional. We ended up narrowing our selection to our top five:

  • 2014 Pinot Noir Awatere Valley
  • 2014 S1 Sauvignon Blanc
  • 2015 Yealands Pinot Gris
  • 2014 Yealands Grüner Veltliner
  • 2013 Crossroads Talisman Syrah

Nanette recommended that we visit the vineyard and animals. The vineyard at Yealands hosted miniature “Babydoll” sheep, Kunekune pigs, chickens, and a variety of wild avian visitors. I asked if they had anything that I could feed the chickens and it happened that they kept a bucket of scratch behind the tasting counter for the children. With my bag of scratch, I scampered happily out to the vineyard.

View of Yealands vineyards from the sea cliff

The first sign on the road to the vineyard warned us of the hazards that were to come.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

On the road leading to the cliff overlooking the ocean, we saw some chickens in the vineyard but we figured that they were too far to coax over to us.

At the top, we found an observation point overlooking Clifford Bay. The view overlooking the bay was spectacular.

Cliff overlooking Clifford Bay

Upon returning to the car, we found that the chickens that we had seen in the vineyard down the road had followed us to the cliff and were checking out the car.

Happy Chickens

The trio of hens was accompanied by a huge, white rooster. He didn’t come as close to us as the hens did but he kept a wary, glowing, red eye on us the entire time.

Rooster and his hens

Driving back down the road to the tasting room, we stopped to try to spot one or more of the “Babydoll” miniature sheep. Evidently they were out in the field “mowing” the grass because we never saw them. However, upon return to the car, we found this guy waiting for us to let us know who was boss.


Captured in mid-crow

With the exceptional wines, playing with the animals, and the view from the cliff, our visit to Yealands was the high point of the day. Win.

After making the 40-minute drive back to Blenheim where the rest of the vineyards were, we stopped at Fromm Vineyard, which has been recommended by a couple of reliable sources.

Coralie, a true Marlborough native, was manning the tasting bar. We ended up talking about our children more than actually tasting the wine. Despite the chitchat, we ended up settling on our favorites:

  • 2013 La Strada Syrah
  • 2011 Syrah Fromm Vineyard
  • 2013 Malbec Fromm Vineyard

The Malbec surprised me the most, being one of my favorite grapes that I seldom see outside of Argentina. Win.

Our next stop was to Forrest Vineyards. We had selected Forrest as a candidate because of all of the Forrest wines that were featured on Raupo’s wine list when we first arrived in town. We found four wines that were worthy of taking home. Win.

  • 2014 Forrest Sauvignon Blanc
  • 2011 John Forrest Collection Chardonnay
  • 2013 The Doctors’ St. Laurent
  • 2010 John Forrest Collection Pinot Noir

We had gotten recommendations to have lunch at Rock Ferry, which was one of the vineyards that wasn’t recommended for their wine but was for their restaurant. The food was indeed consistent with the good reviews. While we were there, we also did the wine tasting. Rudy, a Holland transplant who had been a New Zealand native for 37 years, guided our tasting tour. I’m glad that we took the chance to do the tasting because we found at least four of Rock Ferry’s wines that were exceptional. Win.

  • 2014 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (grapefruit and zing – my perfect sauv blanc)
  • 2012 Marlborough Pinot Blanc
  • 2013 Marlborough Pinot Gris
  • 2014 Marlborough Chardonnay

Relaxing in the yard at Rock Ferry after lunch

After lunch, we headed to the next place on the list: Allan Scott Family Winemakers. We had gotten a few recommendations for this place but it was a disappointment. The tasting room was packed upon our arrival and we could barely keep the attention of the tasting bar attendant. Nothing that we tasted was exceptional. Fail.

Afterward we headed to Nautilus, another highly-recommended vineyard. At first, I thought that this was going to be a fail. The tasting room was packed with drunk tourists and we tried the standard fare that was disappointing. Then everything changed: All of the tourists left and we had full attention of Geoff, the lone tasting bar attendant. We tried the top-tier fare, not normally served at the tasting bar, and found three gems that we would not have otherwise discovered. Win.

  • 2014 Nautilus Chardonnay Marlborough
  • 2015 Opawa Sauvignon Blanc (BEST of show so far in all our NZ tasting for sauv blanc)
  • 2012 Nautilus Four Barriques Pinot Noir (most expensive of anything that we tasted but BEST pinot noir in all of our NZ tasting for pinot noir)

With very little time left before cellar doors closed for the day, we tried Seresin Vineyards, another recommendation and frequent appearance on wine lists. Although the documentation listed them as open, they had “appointment only” notices and other indications that we should GO AWAY so away we went. Fail.

Just minutes before closing time, we stopped in a Framingham. A large tour was just clearing out so we had Lauren, the tasting bar host, to ourselves. The winemaker for Framingham specialized in Rieslings and hosted at least five different labels at the bar. I’m not a Riesling fan but two of them were exceptional in their class. We also found a near-perfect sauvignon blanc. Win.

For supper, we gave Raupo another chance (the same place as the disappointing lunch the first day). We had been trying to find a hotel restaurant that a few had recommended to us but it must have been very well concealed because we have not been able to find it. Rapuo was marginally better than our lunch experience. We had chicken ravioli, mussels, some baked, crusted chicken, and lamb.

Day 12: Flight from Blenheim to Napier
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