We woke up at Bronte to a spring storm. In case I hadn’t mentioned it before, seasons in New Zealand are opposite of what they are in the States. While we are autumn heading into winter in the US, New Zealand is spring heading into summer. The rain was just a drizzle and the smell of the garden was enough to make a perpetually angry person drop character.

Although Neudorf’s schedule stated that they would be closed, our host at the Bronte checked and confirmed that they were open. We had ordered two varieties of Neudorf’s wines at dinner the night before and found them to be close to exceptional. Also, our host at the Bronte highlighted Neudorf as the best of the list of recommended vineyards in the area.

After breakfast at the “homestead”, we headed out and confirmed that Neudorf was indeed open.

Maria, a Venezuelan transplant, was manning the tasting bar. Of those that we tried, we found the 2013 “Tom’s Block” Pinot Noir, the 2014 “Maggie’s Block” Pinot Gris, and the 2014 Neudorf Chardonnay to be outstanding. Win.

From there, we motored north to Highway 6 on our 143 km trip to Marlborough.

Upon arrival in town, our GPS took us straight through some kind of off-road racing competition. The roadway was blocked, presumably to avoid injuring local motorists and race participants, but they paused the race and let us pass. Evidently I had forgotten to instruct our GPS to avoid unpaved roads and hazardous motorsports.

Upon arrival at the Marlborough Bed & Breakfast, we met with Steve, the owner, and Flynn and Patty, Steve’s security force. Flynn is a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Patty is a Black Labrador.

We headed in to town and had lunch at a place called Raupo where we had an anticlimactic lunch. The trip was worth it because the wine list confirmed what we had already found out about which of the many vineyards in town had the best wine.

Afterward, tasting rooms were nearly closed for the day but we managed to find two that were still open.

We stopped at Drylands because they handled Kim Crawford’s brand, which was the first reason that I wanted to visit New Zealand. We met with Haley at the tasting bar who was a New Mexico transplant. We tried several of Kim Crawford’s “special” wines that aren’t available in the States and I found the 2014 Kim Crawford “Spitfire” Sauvignon Blanc to be exceptional. Evidently, The Blenheim area was used as a training ground for Spitfire pilots during WW1 hence the name. Lorna liked the 2010 Drylands Pinot Noir, which was amongst the better of the pinot noirs that we had tasted since our journey began. Win.

Our last stop was to Hans Hurzog Vineyard. Arthur, a French transplant, hosted the tasting bar. We tried several that were good but the only one that stood out to me was a 2010 Montepulciano, an odd grape for the region but has lately been becoming one of my favorites. We bought a bottle of the Montepulciano to take with us. Win.

We finished the day with supper at the Marlborough Vintners Hotel. We had mussels, pork potstickers, salads with goat cheese, seafood chowder, ox cheek, and local pinot noir.

Day 11: Wine tasting in Marlborough
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