Trying to Cook in NZ

After dropping Dad and Deena off at the Nelson airport (the story of our trip with them will be posted shortly (sorry for the lack of updates recently)), Nina and I headed out of town to the Marlborough sounds and for some wine tasting around Blenheim. We had been looking forward to going back to the sounds after seeing it for a short day a few weeks before. This time we decided to go to Kenepuru sound and camp for a day or two depending on the weather and views. It turned out to be a beautiful area and we stayed for two days. The water there is an amazing dark blue and the hills are covered with tree ferns, nikau palms and other tropical looking plants. It was very relaxing. We just say by the sound and read books and did sudoku puzzles. I didn’t have a care in the world until I drank a very angry and possibly drunk bee that found its way into my can of beer. It stung be twice on my gums and then once on my lip its way out. I guess I am not allergic to bees, that’s good news. After two days on the sound, we headed to Blenheim to taste some wine. We had been looking forward to that since we got to New Zealand and tasting wine with Dad and Deena in the Nelson region got us interested again. First, we drove to Blemheim to look for some more breweries for my collection. It turns out that the big one in my books is now a little one that I have already tasted completely. The second one doesn’t have an address. Nina did manage to find one 330mL bottle of the mysterious Pink Elephant brewery’s Imperious Russin’ Stout. The label told me that it was 11%, should be cellared for three to five years and was bottle 1112 (hand written) and that it cost $8NZ. It is by far the most expensive beer I have had, but it may have been the best. Back to the wine story. We drove to Renwick, where the majority of the good wineries are and started down the back roads. We visited Cloudy Bay, Allan Scott, Hunter’s, Clos Henri, Georges Michelle, Huia and Seresin. By the end of the day, we had had a lot of very acidic Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Chardonnay and some very poor Pinot Gris. Overall though, I was very impressed with their style. The chardonnays generally are very lightly wooded and the Rieslings are off dry to dry. That way you can really taste the grape and not so much of the barrel or sugars. I really liked the way they did that. The pinot noir, however, was pretty bad. The wine was usually quite watery and you could tell that the grapes had been picked very while very immature. I am looking forward to tasting the pinots in the Otago, we got some recommendations for some wineries there from a woman at Georges Michelle. We had a very nice time and plan on stopping there again on our way back to Auckland at the end of our trip.  Stay tuned for an update of our trip down the West Coast…

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