Day 88 - All Day Wine Tour - Good Times!

We were up and waiting by reception, ready for the pick-up at 09:50. We met our driver for the day and then hopped into the modern little mini bus to begin our day. The 5 of us, including the driver, headed over to our first stop of the day – Saint Clair winery where we each sampled 4 of their selection.  After this tasting session and some winey information we got chauffeured a short way down the road to our 2^nd winery of the day – Rock Ferry where we each sampled 7 of their offerings. The two of us had decided to each mark, out of 10, the wines we were trying so that we’d be able to remember which ones, if any, we liked the most.

Before stop 3 we made a small detour to pick up 2 more passengers, who were also from the UK, and then we could go to one of the big boys of the district – Cloudy Bay. It was clear that this place was a big label with the amount of people here. There wasn’t hundreds but enough to form a sort-of queue for the tastings at the bar. The location of Cloudy bay winery, along with all the others, was lovely and enhanced by the continuing good weather. We had a wander around the garden and surrounding vines; taking photos and fantasising about having a winery of our own, whilst inside our tour guide gained us a position at the bar. We all decided to pay the $5 each to sample 5 wines as opposed to the 2 free ones and then it was time to move on again.

Stop 4 of the day was at the Hunter’s winery and this place treated us to a thirst quenching 9 wine samples which were all readily accepted. By this point it was becoming apparent that a bowl of Coco-Pops does nothing to absorb any of the alcohol consumed and the Aussie couple seemed to be agreeing with us that food was required soon.

We then made our way to stop 5 of the day, Wairau River winery, which would also be our lunch stop. We were ready for the grub but whilst that was being prepared we had to go and complete our 5^th wine tasting session where we were treated to 7 of their wines – yikes! Food was then served and it was delicious and well received though we all seemed eager for more, mainly due to the amount of alcohol consumed so far. This was not to be though and we were soon moving on to stop 6 along with an extra 4 passengers who were along for the afternoon tour.

A very short drive brought us to one of the smallest vineyards in the area; the family run Bladen winery. We all were told the story of how this vineyard came to be; involving lots of hard work and money until they finally achieved their dream and can now spend sunny days lounging in their vineyard with a bottle or 2 of wine to while away the hours… when not giving tasting sessions or farming on the land that is. We sampled all 6 of the wines on offer here before it was time to move on to the final stop of the day.

Lastly we had Bouldevines which had much to offer alongside its wine tasting. We sampled 8 of the wines and then proceeded to check out the other little stores in this small complex. There was: fudge tasting, dips, relishes, chutneys, beer samples and much more on offer making this a nice stop to round up the day…

… Though this was not the case and we pulled over at a small chocolate making boutique for our final stop of the tour. More free samples were had here and we managed to refrain from buying tonnes of the sweet stuff.

Throughout the day we got chatting to the other passengers, in particular a couple of young ladies from Melbourne who also enjoyed their wine. We spoke of travelling etc and tried to give them some pointers for the south island which they were planning to do in one week – crazy. They were staying at the same campsite as us and so we decided to go into town together in search of an evening meal. We were dropped off by our lovely tour guide and soon found a suitable place where we sat drinking and chatting for ages before we finally ordered food, and when the food came it was well received; Danny got the steak he’d been waiting all day for and Corrie got a rack of lamb cutlets cooked just to her liking. After devouring the food we talked some more before making the 25 or so minute walk back to the site and going our separate ways. This was a great day and well worth the $75 per person price tag; a much better idea than renting a bike and cycling to the wineries – how anyone can cycle, or want to cycle, after a couple of wine tasting sessions we don’t know.