Viticulturists

After recovering from our seaward experience, we awoke to a beautiful, sunny, windless day in Blenheim. One of the many perks of our accommodation, Antares Homestay, was the free use of their bikes to tour the area (custom made saddles to transport wine included). The conditions could not have been more prime for our cycling experience. After a hardy breakfast and brief visit with a French couple that was sharing our accommodation, we set off to accustom our palates to the wines of the region.

Marlborough is one of several wine growing regions in the country. Known mainly for its white wines such as sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and riesling (favorites of mine), it also produces a decent pinot noir (a boon for my red-favored drinking friend, Leslie). Home to Montana Winery, notable for giving international recognition to New Zealand wines, Marlborough is the country's largest wine-producing area with over 50 wineries. You can imagine how difficult is was to narrow down our selection. Fortunately, our first stop, at Seresin Winery, found us greeted by a women who spent an hour discussing the different wineries of the area and making excellent recommendations, not only for other wineries to try, but also for food and future accommodation on our trip down the East Coast. We paid her in kind by purchasing several bottles of wine and lime-infused olive oil.

Over the next five and a half hours we made our way to six other cellar doors, purchased numerous bottles of wine, and had a brief intermission for lunch at the highest winery in the area, Highfield Estate. Basking in the sun of the afternoon, enjoying a glass of wine to accompany some excellent food, while overlooking the acres of vineyards that seemed to extend into the surrounding mountain ranges in one seamless transition, it was hard to get up and move into the second act of the day. This evidenced when our "brief" intermission turned into an hour and a half break.

I think we both decided that if our trip had ended at this point we would have been happy. Fortunately, there was much more to come...