We’re standing in a vineyard in New Zealand gingerly holding our glasses of wine up to our noses.
“It’s smoky, and it smells like a forest floor, kind of leafy,” says Steve, the vineyard owner.
There are a few stifled giggles among the party of tourists gathered together in the sunny Muirlea Rise Vineyard in Martinborough.
Its autumn and the leaves of the vines behind us are a truly spectacular colour-gold, russet, crimson and amber.
We raise the glasses to our lips, take a tiny sip, and as advised we swirl it around our mouths. I note one Irish tourist turning to his girlfriend, sniggering at the notion that any wine could possibly taste of ‘forest floor’.
The Europeans though are taking it more seriously, sniffing cautiously, delicately taking sips and turning to eachother and oohing and aahing.
Wine tasting is an art and apparently for us beginners and mere mortals among us it takes time to develop a ‘palate’. Steve told us wines can taste of so many different flavours. How sometimes you can even taste unusual flavours like blueberries, almonds, olives, cloves and cigars in some wines. You can detect smoky, spicy, woody and fruity tastes. The flavours can become as elaborate as the writer of the tasting notes on the bottle, it appears.
Our day tour with Tranzit Coach Tours took us to four different wineries in Martinborough, a wine region that is a stone’s throw away from the capital Wellington.
Martinborough is situated in the region of Wairarapa, which means ‘the land of glistening waters’ in the Maori language. Martinborough is slowly building up a reputation as the boutique winery capital of New Zealand. Most of the wine here is produced in family owned vineyards who produce small yields from a few acres of vines. The mountains surrounding the region protect the vines from the harsh elements and the mild autumns are the key to providing the right balance of warm days and cool nights for the grapes to mature.
The free draining gravel soil and silt loam also helps with the concentration, texture and depth of the vintage, the experts tell me.
We visited four wineries in total. At the first one-Alana Estate-we were brought into the shop section of the winery, which is referred to as the Cellar Door.
We were invited to try five different wines, and an assistant poured a tiny amount into each of our glasses.
It was all very brusque and businesslike. We were then brought to the village for an antipasti lunch at The Village Caffe. The food was creatively presented and tasted fabulous but the portions were tiny.
We ate little selections of Caesar salad, smoked salmon, salami and roasted vegetables. The meal was served with an orange dip. I asked the waiter-a teenage Kiwi boy with blonde hair swept upwards with gel, as is the fashion among New Zealand young men-what it was and he did not know. He came back a few minutes later to tell me it was a pumpkin dip.
We got little cakes for dessert, a few button sized ones to share between us, which was disappointing. We were given two generous ‘tastings’ of wine with the lunch. While the food was well tasty, the meal was not very filling. In the afternoon, we visited the aforementioned Muirlea Rise winery, where Steve gave us an informative talk on his produce and guided us through tasting the wine. He showed us barrels, vines, some winemaking equipment and we tasted some grapes straight off the vines.
Tirohana Estate was the best place we visited as it had the most beautiful setting and we got to sit down in a nice terrace area and taste the wine, as opposed to standing up, which was what we did in all the others.
The owner told us Martinborough has 1% of the country’s wine market, and New Zealand had a 1% share of the world’s wine market.
“This is a boutique winery region and that is what makes Martinborough unique,” he said. The cellar door, as the wine shops are called in this part of the world, was a charming building in the style of a traditional homestead, and the setting was spectacular. The owner told us recent visitors to the vineyard included John Cleese and the Prime Minister of Sweden.
Inside was a tiny museum of wine memorabilia and items that were used during the making of the film The Piano, the famous New Zealand movie starring Holly Hunter.
The vine fields stretched out in neat lines like soldiers, under the blue tinged mountains. And the sky, as is the way in New Zealand, was clear and translucent. When the sun shines it is very bright, much brighter than any sunny day here in Ireland. The low-lying fluffy clouds were clearly visible, illuminated almost in the brightness. It was at this location the Irish in our group of 20 uncorked one of the wine bottles they purchased and began enjoying it. They had had enough sipping- the time had come to enjoy a full glass or two!
The last winery to visit was Te Kairanga. There we tasted up to 10 wines served to us by a grumpy middle-aged man.
After hanging around for way too long, we were bussed back to the café again, and we could either have tea and cheese or a full glass of wine but no cheese. I chose the wine- a full glass at last! And some of my companions who choose the cheese had to return it, saying it tasted odd.
We were then given time to wander around the village, which was before the wine boom a non-descript farming town but now has gourmet food and wine shops.
We were driven back in our minibus to the local village of Featherston where we had to wait for 30 minutes for the train to bring us back into Wellington.
It was a pleasant day out, and a great experience to be able to taste so many different kinds of wines: Cabarnet Merlot, Cabarnet Franc, Chardonnay, Malbec and Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir to name but a few, in addition to a selection of sweet wines.
If you are a connoisseur, then you would certainly enjoy it. It was a relaxing, easy-going kind of outing. However there was too much waiting around for my liking and the day was too long. We did not return to Wellington until well after 6. For me personally, I had hoped to see more of the vineyards themselves or get more guidance on the tasting. For two of the wineries there was no staff member to explain anything or show us round. That was disappointing.
The tour was more about getting tourists to spend as much money on wine as possible than giving an informative tour.
It was interesting though to see how New Zealanders are choosing to embrace wine production on their own terms-not by going huge and importing bottles by the million, but quietly crafting away wine and toiling the same as any other farming occupation.
I do not recommend this tour, but I do recommend a visit to the area- on your own steam and in your own time.
Many of the wineries actually are very close together. At least 10 are accessible on foot and a dozen more are within easy reach by car or bicycle.
It is popular to hire a car in New Zealand and this would be the best way of getting to Martinborough. And if you have money to spend on wine, this is the place to go!
Martinborough is 18km southeast of Featherston, which is around an hours train journey from Wellington. Generally the wineries open 10am to 4pm, but in the off-season and weekdays the hours can be shorter.
http://www.winesfrommartinborough.com/
http://www.tranzit.co.nz/
“It’s smoky, and it smells like a forest floor, kind of leafy,” says Steve, the vineyard owner.
There are a few stifled giggles among the party of tourists gathered together in the sunny Muirlea Rise Vineyard in Martinborough.
Its autumn and the leaves of the vines behind us are a truly spectacular colour-gold, russet, crimson and amber.
We raise the glasses to our lips, take a tiny sip, and as advised we swirl it around our mouths. I note one Irish tourist turning to his girlfriend, sniggering at the notion that any wine could possibly taste of ‘forest floor’.
The Europeans though are taking it more seriously, sniffing cautiously, delicately taking sips and turning to eachother and oohing and aahing.
Wine tasting is an art and apparently for us beginners and mere mortals among us it takes time to develop a ‘palate’. Steve told us wines can taste of so many different flavours. How sometimes you can even taste unusual flavours like blueberries, almonds, olives, cloves and cigars in some wines. You can detect smoky, spicy, woody and fruity tastes. The flavours can become as elaborate as the writer of the tasting notes on the bottle, it appears.
Our day tour with Tranzit Coach Tours took us to four different wineries in Martinborough, a wine region that is a stone’s throw away from the capital Wellington.
Martinborough is situated in the region of Wairarapa, which means ‘the land of glistening waters’ in the Maori language. Martinborough is slowly building up a reputation as the boutique winery capital of New Zealand. Most of the wine here is produced in family owned vineyards who produce small yields from a few acres of vines. The mountains surrounding the region protect the vines from the harsh elements and the mild autumns are the key to providing the right balance of warm days and cool nights for the grapes to mature.
The free draining gravel soil and silt loam also helps with the concentration, texture and depth of the vintage, the experts tell me.
We visited four wineries in total. At the first one-Alana Estate-we were brought into the shop section of the winery, which is referred to as the Cellar Door.
We were invited to try five different wines, and an assistant poured a tiny amount into each of our glasses.
It was all very brusque and businesslike. We were then brought to the village for an antipasti lunch at The Village Caffe. The food was creatively presented and tasted fabulous but the portions were tiny.
We ate little selections of Caesar salad, smoked salmon, salami and roasted vegetables. The meal was served with an orange dip. I asked the waiter-a teenage Kiwi boy with blonde hair swept upwards with gel, as is the fashion among New Zealand young men-what it was and he did not know. He came back a few minutes later to tell me it was a pumpkin dip.
We got little cakes for dessert, a few button sized ones to share between us, which was disappointing. We were given two generous ‘tastings’ of wine with the lunch. While the food was well tasty, the meal was not very filling. In the afternoon, we visited the aforementioned Muirlea Rise winery, where Steve gave us an informative talk on his produce and guided us through tasting the wine. He showed us barrels, vines, some winemaking equipment and we tasted some grapes straight off the vines.
Tirohana Estate was the best place we visited as it had the most beautiful setting and we got to sit down in a nice terrace area and taste the wine, as opposed to standing up, which was what we did in all the others.
The owner told us Martinborough has 1% of the country’s wine market, and New Zealand had a 1% share of the world’s wine market.
“This is a boutique winery region and that is what makes Martinborough unique,” he said. The cellar door, as the wine shops are called in this part of the world, was a charming building in the style of a traditional homestead, and the setting was spectacular. The owner told us recent visitors to the vineyard included John Cleese and the Prime Minister of Sweden.
Inside was a tiny museum of wine memorabilia and items that were used during the making of the film The Piano, the famous New Zealand movie starring Holly Hunter.
The vine fields stretched out in neat lines like soldiers, under the blue tinged mountains. And the sky, as is the way in New Zealand, was clear and translucent. When the sun shines it is very bright, much brighter than any sunny day here in Ireland. The low-lying fluffy clouds were clearly visible, illuminated almost in the brightness. It was at this location the Irish in our group of 20 uncorked one of the wine bottles they purchased and began enjoying it. They had had enough sipping- the time had come to enjoy a full glass or two!
The last winery to visit was Te Kairanga. There we tasted up to 10 wines served to us by a grumpy middle-aged man.
After hanging around for way too long, we were bussed back to the café again, and we could either have tea and cheese or a full glass of wine but no cheese. I chose the wine- a full glass at last! And some of my companions who choose the cheese had to return it, saying it tasted odd.
We were then given time to wander around the village, which was before the wine boom a non-descript farming town but now has gourmet food and wine shops.
We were driven back in our minibus to the local village of Featherston where we had to wait for 30 minutes for the train to bring us back into Wellington.
It was a pleasant day out, and a great experience to be able to taste so many different kinds of wines: Cabarnet Merlot, Cabarnet Franc, Chardonnay, Malbec and Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir to name but a few, in addition to a selection of sweet wines.
If you are a connoisseur, then you would certainly enjoy it. It was a relaxing, easy-going kind of outing. However there was too much waiting around for my liking and the day was too long. We did not return to Wellington until well after 6. For me personally, I had hoped to see more of the vineyards themselves or get more guidance on the tasting. For two of the wineries there was no staff member to explain anything or show us round. That was disappointing.
The tour was more about getting tourists to spend as much money on wine as possible than giving an informative tour.
It was interesting though to see how New Zealanders are choosing to embrace wine production on their own terms-not by going huge and importing bottles by the million, but quietly crafting away wine and toiling the same as any other farming occupation.
I do not recommend this tour, but I do recommend a visit to the area- on your own steam and in your own time.
Many of the wineries actually are very close together. At least 10 are accessible on foot and a dozen more are within easy reach by car or bicycle.
It is popular to hire a car in New Zealand and this would be the best way of getting to Martinborough. And if you have money to spend on wine, this is the place to go!
Martinborough is 18km southeast of Featherston, which is around an hours train journey from Wellington. Generally the wineries open 10am to 4pm, but in the off-season and weekdays the hours can be shorter.
http://www.winesfrommartinborough.com/
http://www.tranzit.co.nz/
