We started the day by going into Taupo and having breakfast on an outdoor patio overlooking Lake Taupo, with Mounts Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro, dormant volcanos, clearly visible on the south of the lake. After breakfast we set off, direction Napier.
The drive was entirely along State Highway (SH) 1, from the middle of the island to the coast, in a somewhat east and southerly direction. For the most part SH 1 is one of the wider roads we had so far encountered, wide two lanes, and three lanes with the overtaking lane alternating from side to side, and in places was 4 lanes for a good many kilometres. We were thus able to make good time, which was a good thing, as we had a fixed departure time in early afternoon for our pre-booked wine tour. The scenery along the way was a series of hill, even mountain ranges, with the road sweeping through broad passes. As we neared the coast of Hawke Bay on the South Pacific Ocean the hill sides became populated with vine yards, and as we drove through the coastal plain into Napier it was obvious that this was wine territory.
We easily found the Napier i-Site, the departure point for our wine tour. Not so easily found was on-street parking. It was Sunday, and downtown Napier (or the CBD, Central Business District as we are learning to call town centres) was crowed with cars and pedestrians, presumably left over from the previous night’s concert at Mission Wines. We eventually did get parked, not too sure if it was legal for us to remain there for most of the afternoon, but willing to take the chance. Then a short walk to the i-Site, which is beautifully located right on the waterfront, which itself is a promenade with flower beds and sculptures. After finding out that our tour would leave from directly in front, we waited, and waited, and phoned (using the thankfully now functioning cell phone) the contact number we had. That got us the assurance that our vehicle should be there any minute, and a description of what we were looking for. Twenty minutes later I phoned again, and got the assurance that our pick-up was indeed coming, but there were some “issues.” Eventually, more than an hour after the scheduled time, our vehicle from Odyssey Food and Wine Tours, a smallish van, did arrive, with two other couples on board, and the very pleasant young driver explained that he’d had a series of pick-ups at hotels, and at each of them there had been no-shows, but that he’d had to make inquires and wait for some time at each one. He blamed it all on the no-showing individuals having celebrated too much at the previous night’s concert; we now learned the attraction had been a number of Motown bands, and also that the concert was as much about drinking as music. And indeed, he had one more pick-up to make, which turned out to be another no-show, and then we were off, to Mission Estate Wines, as it happened.
Mission Estate is one of the large New Zealand wine producers, and, as we learned, one of the few that are able to ship the minimum 20,000+ cases of a particular wine annually for them to be imported into Ontario. The property we were taken to was the original mission house of some French priests sent as missionaries to Hawke Bay (why French priests to an English colony?), who in 1851 began growing grapes to produce sacramental wine, and then table wine, and effectively were the beginnings of the New Zealand wine industry. A note on the name of the wine growing region; geographically the body of water, a bay of the South Pacific Ocean, is Hawke Bay, but when used to describe wine, it appears to be, consistently, Hawke’s Bay.
The “tasting room” was a very large, almost baronial hall, with a large bar and several bartenders pouring sampling flights of about 6 wines, and willing to talk at great length about the characteristics of their product. Mission, as perhaps befits a more than 150 year estate, produces fairly traditional wine styles, very reminiscent of European “old world” wines. I might add that the tasting samples were of generous quantities, 1 - 1 ½ ounces, and since we weren’t driving, using the available “spitting” buckets seemed unnecessary. We were able to have a quick walk around the (present) mission house, which still has a “seminary” feel to it, despite the obvious wealth that went into its construction (wine-making by religious has a long tradition, and seemingly has nowhere been unprofitable). The chapel is now used as a formal dining room, and there are several other rooms of various sizes available for dining, and, on this day, perhaps to handle the concert crowd, large tents were set up on the lawn for dining al fresco.
We also learned that the Mission Concert is an annual event, now in its 18th year, and is always on the 2nd Saturday of February, which should have been known to our “down-under” expert, or at least communicated to us, with possibly a re-arrangement of our schedule to avoid the rush on hotels.
Then off in the van to our next stop, this one further into the country than Mission Estates, and at the other end of the scale from Mission, Moana Park Wines.
Moana Park is a family operation, producing no more than a six to eight different wines under their own label, but growing grapes on contract for larger wineries in the area. All together, they ship only 20 to 30 thousand cases a year, almost exclusively to New Zealand’s premium hotels and restaurants, and are thus well under the radar of LCBO, Ontario’s wine retailing monopoly. The wine makers, and mostly the only workers are three brothers, all with wine-making degrees, who are trying to be innovative and develop wines that are uniquely New Zealand. One of them sat with us for the tasting, and gave us his own commentary on the wines. He had also worked in Ontario, in some of the Niagara wineries, sort of apprenticing himself, and he well understood the politics of wine in Ontario, where even the wines that are sold through the Vintages program have to have enough quantities to give some economies of scale, especially when shipped from effectively as far away from Ontario as you can get.
The wines at Moana Park were very different from those of Mission, The reds were crisper, fresher, with very little “barrel” flavour, and yet substantial enough to stand up to highly flavoured food. The whites avoided what we think of as New Zealand whites, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, in various styles, and instead concentrated on Riesling and Viognier. The latter is a wine we had not heard of; it is a varietal that was thought to be old-fashioned, but has come back into vogue in Europe, and New Zealand. It produces a Riesling-like wine, crisp, fruity tending towards citrus, without the excessively floral overtones that Riesling can exhibit (from my own tasting experience, a very creditable alternative to Mueller-Thurgau - a Riesling-Sylvaner cross - which a lot of German whites now are). The Moana Park brothers were experimenting with this varietal, as apparently were other New Zealand wine makers, but no one was producing enough of it to think of exporting, especially to Ontario. For the time being, local consumption only.
As a treat, we were given a sampling of Moana Park 10 Year Old Tawny Port. Our winemaker sampling guide explained that this had been an experiment, almost a dare - let’s see if we can make a decent new world port, that most traditional of old world wine. They had made only three barrels, and were now down to their last, and selling it at NZ$50 per bottle, about Cdn$38.50. That would be on the high side for tawny port in Ontario, but this one would be worth it - think of drinking liquified Christmas cake - nutty, candied fruit flavour, orange, lemon, hints of rum and cognac. One can only hope that someone “down-under” will produce something like it in large enough quantities to ship our way.
Our next stop was Ngatarawa, an older winery, the result of a “getting together” of several older winemakers, shipping under several labels; Ngatarawa, Alwyn, Glazebrook, Silks, & Stables; each covering a particular quality level and price points. This is a large operation by Hawke’s Bay standards, but not large enough to be seen in Ontario. The wines were what we were learning to expect from New Zealand; definitely a new-world style, with concentration on bringing out the inherent flavours of the grape and the terroir (the local soil), and not relying too much on barrelling. Again, the tasting samples were generous, and the explanations of what we were sampling exhaustive.
Then, off to our final stop, Vidal Wineries (the name is that of the founder, not the grape varietal). Here we were served a food tasting menu, paired with wines. The food was excellent, and the pairings complimented the flavours. I find it difficult to evaluate wines when combined with food, as it is the combination that one tastes, but I would say that the wines, again, were typical of new-world, rather than old-world, wine making, and of the universally high quality that we had experienced so far, both on this tour, and in restaurants with lunch and dinner previously. And, the facility itself was spectacular, decorated with old barrels, and yet very modern. And, thus concluded the wine tour.
During our drive we had explained to our driver/guide our dilemma of being booked into a hotel in Gisborne for that night, and having been warned about the distance and the dangers of the road. He was quite concerned that we not drive to Gisborne, telling us that as a professional driver he would think seriously about driving that route at night, and especially after having spent the afternoon tasting wine. He effectively insisted that he would drop the other couples off at their hotels, and then would drive us around to hotels that might have vacancies to find us a booking.
There is something to be said for taking advise, especially if it comes from several people. So we agreed. After driving around we booked at a Napier Best Western, for not much more than Cdn$100, which, given the circumstances, seemed a bargain. Our driver/guide then took us back to our car, but suggested that, given our wine sampling, and given the severity of drinking and driving laws in New Zealand, with much lower limits than in Canada, we walk around the seafront and town for a while before going off to our hotel. We took his advice, first calling the hotel we were booked into in Gisborne, who were most apologetic, explaining that they could not issue a refund, as the booking we had was final and it was now after 6 p.m., and me explaining that we would take the issue up with our “down-under” experts, but, if a traveller showed up looking for a room and they were full, we would not be showing up. I have very little expectation that our travel agency will do anything abut this glitch.
We did walk around Napier for a while; a very pretty seafront, and a very pretty town, then drove to our hotel, which was actually just a few hundred metres from our parked car, settled in, had supper in the hotel restaurant, and went down for the night, congratulating ourselves on our wisdom of getting into a bed, rather than being an hour and a half up a coastal road, in the dark, with another hour and a half to go.
February 15, 2010
Off to Martinborough, after breakfast.
A long, and in places tedious drive, all inland, about twice the distance we had covered the previous day from Taupo to Napier, which was long enough. We again congratulated ourselves on the decision not to go up to Gisborne, as that would have added another three hours to an all day drive. We basically blasted on, stopping only to stretch our legs every couple of hours, and occasionally to take photos in a particularly scenic area. On the drive, we saw the only wind-farm so far, about a dozen wind turbines on a high hill range. (Which raises the question: as an island nation, where does New Zealand find its energy; this was the only renewable energy source that we have seen so far, and we were told by our hosts in Rotorua that there is not much geothermal energy use or research happening, even thought that would seem a natural.)
We also stopped in Mangatainoka for a stop at the Tui Brewery (a Kiwi institution) famous for its “cheeky” advertising (and pretty good beer), all of it of one pattern; picture of attractive woman, in minimal clothing, “
And then, on to Martinborough, a small town (village?) in the middle of a southern North Island wine growing region. We checked into the Pepper’s Martinborough Hotel (Pepper’s is an Oz and NZ chain that turns historic properties into upscale hotels) which was a frontier-style hotel, and adjoining cottages; we were in one of the cottages. After moving in our luggage we set out to explore the town, which turned out to be simple. We were on the main square; to the north was the town park, to the south was the main street (actually the main block), to the east was a large grocery and general store, and to the west was the post office. We explored the main block; which had only one craft store open, with very high quality and very high priced artists’ creation. On the other side was the only other attraction, a wine cooperative store that sold the products of 20 or so local vineyards. Oh, and a cheese shop.
So we checked out the wine store first. Very civilized; every product they sold was available for tasting. So we tasted, and having learned to appreciate Viognier, tasted their considerable supply of that varietal, eventually settling on a bottle that we thought we’d like to explore further, and purchased. While doing so, I noticed a table on the wall, listing the shipping prices per case to various parts of the world, neither Ontario nor Canada being listed. But the table suggested if your location was not listed, to enquire, so I did. Canada, I said. Where in Canada, she (the very knowledgeable about wine young woman behind the counter) asked. Ontario, I answered. Forget it, she said.
What followed was a lesson in the economics of selling wine in Ontario from abroad, with a certain amount of bitterness thrown in. The wines we were looking at sold at about NZ$ 20 - 25 per bottle (Cdn$ 15 -18 and change). Any reasonable number of cases that we would buy would not get us a discount. Then you add the cost of shipping from New Zealand to Canada, which would have to be by air (or by temperature-controlled container if by sea - you don’t want wine to freeze), which would be $5 - 10 per bottle. Then Canada Revenue piles on, and charges import duties and excise taxes on the price plus shipping, forwards the whole thing to Ontario, which adds its own taxes, the LCBO then adds their more than 100% markup and surcharge for not being from Ontario, and then whatever the price now is gets the bottle deposit added, and then charged HST. The price per bottle, as delivered to you, the private importer, is more than double what you paid at the vineyard. And, as the young woman said, good as the wine is, it’s not worth the amount it would cost you in Canada. Pity - government policy governed by Puritan notions of alcohol being sinful, hence taxable in the extreme, and just plain opportunism for money grabs, prevents some really good quality product from ever being seen here.
So, we did what sensible people would do. We took our bottle of wine, hit the store and bought cheese and crackers, and enjoyed a pleasant hour on the patio outside our cottage. Then, went off to explore the dining possibilities, which turned out to be the very formal (and nearly empty) dining room of our hotel, or, the public bar of the same. We opted for the latter; ordered at the counter, found a table, and enjoyed amazing lamb (chops and burger) with excellent sides. And, the people watching was great; locals being themselves.
And, of to bed, for the drive to Wellington, with a side trip to the Cook Strait coast.
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