Marlborough Wine Day Two
Blenheim, New Zealand.

We started the day by visiting the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy owned and financially backed Cloudy Bay winery. Unlike most of the other visits which had complimentary tastings, we were on the hook for $10 each for premium tasting. Marlborough hasn’t completely caught on to the paid tasting concept as most of our tastings were free. The cellar door here, or rather, the gardens around it, were very leafy and surprisingly lush.











There was a nice outdoor patio which was closed due to it being winter. In its place, there was another neat crackling fire in the tasting room. It was another deserted tasting experience with us and one other couple being the only ones here for our one hour stay.











After Cloudy Bay, we headed across the street to Allan Scott family winemakers. It was another small format tasting room but a much more intimate and personalized experience.







We had some great tasting sauvingon blanc, pinot gris and pinot noir. The wine pour host happened to be from france and had been in New Zealand for 3 years. There was also a small lunch place here but we decided to keep to our original plan to dine at Brancott Estate. I would have loved to have had an extra day to come back to dine here since the format looked really appealing.





We went on wards to Whitehaven which was across the street from the MVI hotel. It’s situated in an odd a combination area which also has an artisan store, a restaurant (not run by the winery) and a small tasting room.









We learned of an interesting story of the owner who quite corporate life, went sailing around the world for two years, settled in Marlbourhough and started Whitehaven, then passed away from cancer at 57 years of age. His wife and daughter now run the company and they are among the 6th most popular Sauvingon Blanc in the world. It was quite an impressive leadership story with a sad ending. The logo is that of a maritime theme, thanks to his past life and love of sailing.

We left there and onwards to Brancott Estate. We weren’t exactly here for the wines, which seem a bit mass produced but rather here for the lunch. The Brancott Estate absorbed Montana wines some time ago and has a large corporate facility which was almost over the top compared to some of the small family tasting rooms that we had experienced in the last 2 days. We had to wait about 40 minutes for a table so we had a very leisurely tasting while we waited for lunch.









I had the lamb rump on potato and porcini bake with wilted spinach and chimichurri sauce whereas MrsWT73 had a goat cheese tarlet with sweet potatoes salad. Both were excellent with a great view over the vineyards. MrsWT73 enjoyed another glass of rose.













After Brancott Estate, we headed over to Whiter Hills for the last tasting of the day. There were several off labels here with a good variety of wines available. My palette was pretty off by this point so I left most of the tasting to MrsWT73.















Back to the hotel for a nap. We went and had a light dinner with ham sandwiches and Chicken and Mushroom soup by Wattie’s from the PAK and Save grocery store in our room. It wasn't super glamorous but sometimes the comforts of home are better than another night out on the town.