Who's a saint?

On our first day in Blenheim we visited the information centre and picked up lots of information about the wineries in the Wairau Valley. There are a number of different wine trails that you can follow but we have made up our own, we started with some food options because 10.00am really is a bit early to start drinking!

Here’s a rundown…

1. Hedgerow strawberry farm where we bought a very large punnet of strawberries that we’ll have for dessert tonight.

The strawberries are grown hydroponically.

On the farm there are also raspberry canes, 
lemon, lime and cherry trees.

We have seen quite a few orchards in the area and the apples seem to be ready for picking at the moment.

2. Makana Confections…the visit here is an experience not to be missed. We watched the making of tantalizing confections and tasted a few samples of the hand made chocolates and other temptations.

On our travels in the UK & particularly in Scotland we’ve seen many churches and souvenir items featuring Saint Andrew…today it was my turn…

The chocolate here is delicious and because it is hand made using very high quality ingredients it is quite expensive…after much deliberation we decided to buy a box of the ‘Very Berry Toffee Crunch’ and we’ll enjoy having it with coffee for the next few days.

3. The Vines Village made up of 7 artisan stores nestled amongst expansive tranquil lakeside grounds nestled in the heart of the Marlborough wine country.

The shops include;

The Quilters Barn, with over 3,000 bolts of fabric lining the walls and a large range of quilting, knitting and crafting needs on offer.

Mihi Merino, with lovely clothes for men, women and children from a family owned fine merino producer based in the Awatere Valley.

I fell in love with a merino wrap with Paua shell buttons. It can also be worn as a cardigan, scarf and shrug…very versatile! I just had to buy it.

Lilac Wine – Art & Gifts featuring Kiwi artists and designers…we were all tempted and made purchases.

4. Our first wine tasting was at Giesen where visitors can taste their way through Giesen’s range – all of which come from their 700 established vineyards in the region. We enjoyed sampling a few and then bought a bottle of our old favourite Sav Blanc.

5. Rock Ferry Wines was our next stop, our host in Blenheim recommended it as a great spot for lunch and so even though we’ve never heard of this vineyard we decided to give it a go. We are now great fans of Rock Ferry…they asked if we’d like to have a tasting in the cellar door area or at our table while we were waiting for our food to be prepared. We opted for the latter and after selecting our meals a fellow with a waxed moustache who reminded us all of Rene from the very funny TV series ‘Allo, Allo’ (you might remember the show set in France during WW2) took us through a most enjoyable tasting at our table!

My favourite wine was the Marlborough Pinot Blanc…the wine notes describe it as having a musky note with hints of orange blossom on the nose, the palate is richly textured and weighty with good focus and length. With age the wine will develop a toasted almond, rich baked caramel apple tart character.

After telling Rene that I had decided to have a glass of it with my lunch even though my tastes are not sophisticated enough to follow and find the described notes and nose described, he replied that it’s all marketing hype anyway…

We rated our lunch as our best meal so far…we started off with a selection of warm artisan breads with flavoured butter…one of them included a mixture of white pinto beans, taihini, harissa, herbs and garlic.

Mum, dad and I had Teraki, a white fleshed fish, on coconut and kaffir lime risotto with coriander and spring onion relish. Andrew chose the dukkah crusted Aoraki salmon served on organic durum wheat salad topped with chipotle ailoli.

The food was an absolute taste sensation, the service impeccable and the setting idyllic. Andrew got a bit carried away and ordered dessert…upside down plum cake with rosewater syrup, poached plums and ice cream – with 4 spoons & we all did have a taste, just to help him out.

We then had to make a decision about either heading back to the villa or visiting another winery. We’d heard that the view overlooking vineyard from the Brancott Estate Heritage Centre is pretty stunning and this is what we found…we weren’t all that fussed about the wine but the view is hard to beat.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that we all had a little nap when we arrived back at the villa this afternoon and enjoyed a late dinner, another platter affair with Manuka smoked New Zealand King Salmon and Manuka smoked chicken, ciabatta bread, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and chutney collected on our journey.

Tonight I’ll leave you with one of Andrew's artistic shots today…

…and a photo of the 19 year old self taught, resident artist at Brancott Estate…you might like to check out her website at www.rebekacodlinart.co.nz