Blenheim 11-12th May

More wine. Fine wine. Cheap fine wine. Well perhaps. The promise and lure of tasting wine from an area made famous by two brands –Oyster Bay and Cloudy Bay – of white wine, we were looking forward to finding smaller independent vineyard cellar doors. On the route in, we were almost out of fuel- the red light just about to come on when we found the first petrol station after almost 100kms on the coast road which flanks the north eastern line- hugging it tightly as you pass crayfish vans and crashing waves. The pace was sedate, but none of the other traffic seemed to be particularly hurried either for a change. Stopping at the petrol station the freshly baked sausage role begged attention so it had to be bought. It was truly outstanding, lamb mince with pork wrapped in homemade pastry- the mince was more like a burger in size, and it was less than $5NZ!!! Fully fuelled up, the car hose finally stopped too, and we paid a wopping 100$ NZ for our full tank of 58 litres.. 2 litres left when we arrived, close call!

Not too much further down the windy road we found the first winery sign and decided to follow it down and found a very new building surrounded by vines well kept and multicoloured- lighter than those in the Otago region- still green where there were leaves! The winery was called Yealands, and belongs to a Peter Yealand apparently. Very keen on environmentally friendly production methods, his key sales points apart from the very nice wine was his full commitment to organic and natural production methods. Amusingly, they were looking at baby doll sheep to graze around the vines and keep the lawns low as guinea pigs hadn't been allowed in by the government. What are baby doll sheep? I'm assuming some kind of mini sheep that can't reach the grapes. We were provided a tasting with four others by a very outgoing and knowledgeable wino who ignored some of the others when they asked him to hurry up without even skipping a beat of his presentation. In fact, I'm pretty sure he slowed down after that. The winery is apparently the largest contiguous vineland in the southern hemisphere- well over 1000 ha under production. Keep an eye out for Yealands in the UK, it was quite nice!

Onwards we drove, through some other vineyards- literally we had a mini detour and rallied around one as we couldn't find their cellar door and then took a wrong turn- luckily they are all so well maintained it turned into a lot of fun driving. The Handbrake may have been applied more than once. From there we drove towards Blenheim town and found the large wineries, Montana which Jen knows well. It was gigantic… and frankly ok, but not the best wine we tasted. The staff were as ever helpful and friendly, but we managed to leave without buying anything and headed onto two more wineries, one small and outstanding with a very chatty owner once he warmed up (Lawsons Hills); the other, well mass market but they did serve great nibbles (Wither Hill). (MT)