The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

Tuesday Jan. 1 2008
New Years Day
Blenheim
Sunny and quite warm

We have a nice sleep in, befitting the late even, and I cook up dinner. What you say? Why are you cooking? Well, the Cottage has a cute little kitchenette, and when you order breakfast they deliver the makings to the room the night before, croissant and chocolate croissant, breads, jams, OJ, and bacon and very farm fresh eggs. Oh, and the Cottage? It has a Nepresso machine. A little incongruous when there is no phone or clock in the room, but quite nice. So I fry me up some bacon and eggs and we have a very nice little breakfast.

We then head off for some wine tasting. Because there is nothing better when one has been drinking a lot to startt drinking again before noon. But a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do. Sadly the bike tour place was closed, though it was such a warm day, it was probably for the best. We start with Cloudy Bay, which is a wine I know well from home. They do not have a large selection, but they have a couple things I am not familiar with – a NV sparkling, Pelorus, which was very nice, drier then the Herzog. They also have a Late Harvest (Botrytris) that was very smooth. And a very pretty space to boot, we had it to ourselves that morning, though they said at other times its packed to the gills.

Next we stopped at a little place called Lawson’s Dry Creek that neither of us had heard of, but since it seems a lot of places are closed, we should go where we can. And what a pleasant surprise, both there unoaked and lightly oaked chardonnay’s are nice, and the rest were pretty good.

Next was Montana, which is a ‘must see’, its (I think) one of the biggest producer’s and the cellar door is suppose to be remarkable. I would agree its remarkable, remarkably bad. The buildings were kitchy, and the wine was awful. Lowest scores of any, my comments ran to ‘wedding wine’ – most definitely not our wedding wine though.

Next was Highfield Estates, with a lovely view, and a more lovely sparkling, tasted very much like a vintage champagne, all toasty. Also nice was yet another lightly oaked chardonny. I suppose I should mention there is a lot of good Reisling too, something you never see imported to the States, but a wide variety and most of it quite drinkable. And of course the Sauvignon Blanc, but it almost seems to easy to like Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough.

Next is Kathy Lynsky Estates, another smaller place with a fabulous Pinot Noir, and an impressive Merlot. I must prefer the riper expression of Merlot you get in Marlborough versus Hawkes Bay. Warm is good. They also have a great Olive Oil.

Next is Fromm, with a good Reisling Spatese, which although quite sweet was balanced with enough acid that it was not cloying. At Gibson Bridge a very very small winery with only 3 wines, there was a great reserve Pinot Gris, another wine they make a fair amount of in Marlborough. At this point we are hitting our limit and try to find lunch, but sadly its after 2, so most every where is closed, but we find a cheese plate at Wairu River, bless them, and enjoyed it thoroughly. But even with the refreshing bite to eat, we were just wined out – there is only such much a palatte can take, and ours were over that point.

We headed back to the Cottage and relaxed before dinner. We had decided to have dinner at Herzog again, you really can’t beat the commute, and, well, we are lazy. We relaxed on the verandah for a bit, then head into dinner. No stretching the meal out for 5 hours this time, for which I was grateful.

Although we had a choice for our meal this time round, we chose pretty much identical meals, veal ravioli with mixed veg to start and rack of lamb for a main. The veal ravioli were quite lovely, they blew all of last nights meal out of the water. The meat was tender and very flavorful. The lamb was quite good, but there was such anticipation, finally New Zealand lamb in New Zealand! It was good, quite good, but it was not as life changing as it was built up to be. I had a cheese platter to finish – the highlight was more of the yummy washed rind brie we had discovered on the North Island, I wish I could remember the name of the producer. So fabulous. We drank a bottle of the Herzog Pinot Noir, which was really impressive. It has a price tag to match, but its a Pinot that can really compete with the best on the world stage, whereas a lot of the Pinots I have tried have been fine or even good but not up there with the best, like the Sauvignon is. I will admit I really like the NZ style of Sauvignon, so I am a bit biased on that. And a nice early night for us.