Wine Tasting - 29 November
What a wet day in Queenstown - November 29 2006. It did not stop raining and was pretty cold with it.
Last night (Wed) snow fell down to 600m level (Queenstown is at about 350m above sea level, so did not affect the town) - nevertheless the mountains appeared to be covered this morning. Summer starts on Friday!
However, we largely avoided the rain all day by dint of us going on a wine tasting tour, visiting some of the Central Otago wineries and tasting various of their splendid (and not-so splendid wines).
The varities that we sampled were : Pinot Noir de Blanc (a very good rose), Pinot Gris (very similar to Pinot Grigio), Riesling, Some champagnes (Pinot Noir/Chardonnay blend) and the best of all, Pinot Noir. The 2005 Pinot Noir was the very best that we sampled - owing its quality to the fact that there was a very poor harvest that year (frost killing many vines), which in turn - we were told - produced a more complex wine.
Pinot noir is only produced in three areas of the world - Burgundy, Oregon & the Otago region. Co-incidentally (or not, probably), these are all on the 43rd line of lattitude. Spot the difference : the 1st two are in the Northern Hemisphere of course.
Anyway, evidently my four hour trip (and approx. 20 samples of various products) have turned me into a wine expert. All I know is this, I like the taste.
I think I will pass this post over to Rita now in order that she can expand on the day's events..
Mornin' Chaps. It is a wet Thursday morn in Qtn so good oppo to bloggo. Surething, we 'hit' a few Wineries yesterday with a guide and managed to continue sampling and tasting without a guide once we were back at our 'pad', sans guide/sans sense. Apparently we ate and watched a film after that but to recall the detail now is all a tad hazy. Anyway you don't really want to know what we dined on, do you? I mean, a blog from 13,000 miles away in fantastic NZ should not really be reduced to the Banal should it, about what was on our plates? Oh, you do? You peops are so unbelieably inquisitive or are you just humouring us? Well, ok then, if you insist. It was leftovers! Ha! ha! More of Leigh's home cooking. Chicken a la Merrix on a bed of sphagetti al dente. (Needed a few more minutes - but didn't get it!) with a chilled to perfection Marlbourough SB.
But more about the Winery visit...
On the blurb it gave us the option of pre-selecting lunch either hot meal or a cold lunch (sandwiches and a piece of fruit). We decided to pass on this in favour of bringing our own packed lunch in the interests of ensuring quality food and not being ripped off. The memory of a lunch we had in Haast whereby a tourist only passes thro' once, dictated the culinary standards of the chef and we had no choice but to be subjugated to it - was still ripe in our collective memory, so Leigh popped off to the supermarket early doors so that when lunch arrived we were able to produce our own fare. So far so good. On the coach we were introduced to our fellow winery-goers (winery-growers came later): Mr and Mrs Middle-aged from Chicago, Mr and Mrs young marrieds from York (work for GNR), Mr and Mrs Early-40's from Auckland and Two Post-Grad Female from Holland and your's truly our Two Valiant Brits (us!). Ten in total plus Driver-cum-guide (Goldie Hawn).
There were four Wineries lined up. One pre-lunch and 3 post lunch. First Winery was tantalizing as we sipped wines that barely covered the surface of the glass and the interludes in between fills were longer and less interesting by the word. The cave we stood in surrounded by barrels was echo -ee and cool. We were then ushered into a Posh, high roofed, subdued dining room. The table was set for 10 but food was produced for 8. (Quite so, 8 had prepaid and ordered their luncheons - two had not!).
I admired the table setting. The table itself was highly polished, with oak tall back chairs, the linen napkins (I used to call them serviettes but recently learnt that was so Del-boy), were crisp white and so starched you needed your Dad to unfold it for you. Cutlery was heavy, silver and shiny, extravagant crystal oval shaped glasses and colonial ambience. Polite conversation ensured and timorous social smiles and oh, so terribly reserved and then the food came out. Crickey it was a bloody banquet. I dare barely glance at it for fear of looking deprived/envious. Out of the corner of my eye I observed the most fresh top quality looking food ranging from freshly cooked pasta al dente (not a second more or less than perfection) and cheeseboards
Thurs eve:
... Look here, I've got to cut Rita short. I'm back in Internet cafe Thursday evening. It's still cold & wet but have done good bike ride in interim.
Rita's not here at the mo', but in the interest of keeping things up to date, I'm going to publish and be damned. I'm sure I will be.
Look out for this post being amended though, probably in a couple of days when we're on the Otago bike ride. See yous later.
Last night (Wed) snow fell down to 600m level (Queenstown is at about 350m above sea level, so did not affect the town) - nevertheless the mountains appeared to be covered this morning. Summer starts on Friday!
However, we largely avoided the rain all day by dint of us going on a wine tasting tour, visiting some of the Central Otago wineries and tasting various of their splendid (and not-so splendid wines).
The varities that we sampled were : Pinot Noir de Blanc (a very good rose), Pinot Gris (very similar to Pinot Grigio), Riesling, Some champagnes (Pinot Noir/Chardonnay blend) and the best of all, Pinot Noir. The 2005 Pinot Noir was the very best that we sampled - owing its quality to the fact that there was a very poor harvest that year (frost killing many vines), which in turn - we were told - produced a more complex wine.
Pinot noir is only produced in three areas of the world - Burgundy, Oregon & the Otago region. Co-incidentally (or not, probably), these are all on the 43rd line of lattitude. Spot the difference : the 1st two are in the Northern Hemisphere of course.
Anyway, evidently my four hour trip (and approx. 20 samples of various products) have turned me into a wine expert. All I know is this, I like the taste.
I think I will pass this post over to Rita now in order that she can expand on the day's events..
Mornin' Chaps. It is a wet Thursday morn in Qtn so good oppo to bloggo. Surething, we 'hit' a few Wineries yesterday with a guide and managed to continue sampling and tasting without a guide once we were back at our 'pad', sans guide/sans sense. Apparently we ate and watched a film after that but to recall the detail now is all a tad hazy. Anyway you don't really want to know what we dined on, do you? I mean, a blog from 13,000 miles away in fantastic NZ should not really be reduced to the Banal should it, about what was on our plates? Oh, you do? You peops are so unbelieably inquisitive or are you just humouring us? Well, ok then, if you insist. It was leftovers! Ha! ha! More of Leigh's home cooking. Chicken a la Merrix on a bed of sphagetti al dente. (Needed a few more minutes - but didn't get it!) with a chilled to perfection Marlbourough SB.
But more about the Winery visit...
On the blurb it gave us the option of pre-selecting lunch either hot meal or a cold lunch (sandwiches and a piece of fruit). We decided to pass on this in favour of bringing our own packed lunch in the interests of ensuring quality food and not being ripped off. The memory of a lunch we had in Haast whereby a tourist only passes thro' once, dictated the culinary standards of the chef and we had no choice but to be subjugated to it - was still ripe in our collective memory, so Leigh popped off to the supermarket early doors so that when lunch arrived we were able to produce our own fare. So far so good. On the coach we were introduced to our fellow winery-goers (winery-growers came later): Mr and Mrs Middle-aged from Chicago, Mr and Mrs young marrieds from York (work for GNR), Mr and Mrs Early-40's from Auckland and Two Post-Grad Female from Holland and your's truly our Two Valiant Brits (us!). Ten in total plus Driver-cum-guide (Goldie Hawn).
There were four Wineries lined up. One pre-lunch and 3 post lunch. First Winery was tantalizing as we sipped wines that barely covered the surface of the glass and the interludes in between fills were longer and less interesting by the word. The cave we stood in surrounded by barrels was echo -ee and cool. We were then ushered into a Posh, high roofed, subdued dining room. The table was set for 10 but food was produced for 8. (Quite so, 8 had prepaid and ordered their luncheons - two had not!).
I admired the table setting. The table itself was highly polished, with oak tall back chairs, the linen napkins (I used to call them serviettes but recently learnt that was so Del-boy), were crisp white and so starched you needed your Dad to unfold it for you. Cutlery was heavy, silver and shiny, extravagant crystal oval shaped glasses and colonial ambience. Polite conversation ensured and timorous social smiles and oh, so terribly reserved and then the food came out. Crickey it was a bloody banquet. I dare barely glance at it for fear of looking deprived/envious. Out of the corner of my eye I observed the most fresh top quality looking food ranging from freshly cooked pasta al dente (not a second more or less than perfection) and cheeseboards
Thurs eve:
... Look here, I've got to cut Rita short. I'm back in Internet cafe Thursday evening. It's still cold & wet but have done good bike ride in interim.
Rita's not here at the mo', but in the interest of keeping things up to date, I'm going to publish and be damned. I'm sure I will be.
Look out for this post being amended though, probably in a couple of days when we're on the Otago bike ride. See yous later.
posted by Leon Trotsky | 10:15 pm
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