Marlborough Winery Tour – Day 81

Today we are going on a wine tour of Marlborough. We’re starting the day in the tombstone backpackers where we are getting ready for today’s activity which is the Marlborough wine tour with sounds connection. we are introduced to our guide John who is taking us on the tour today to several different wineries with a bunch of lovely people. Our first winery today is going to be hunter’s winery which has an amazing entrance through the garden but because it’s raining today sadly we could not film it.

As we enter we are greeted with a bunch of glasses which we guess are gonna be filled with wine. we are told that hunter’s is an award-winning winery and a great place to start a wine tour. we’re gonna be tasting a wealth of wine right here some Sauvignon Blanc some gewurztraminer some Pinot Gris and even some Chardonnay. we are sipping all the tasters while our host is telling us about the growing process of the wine in the Marlborough region. all the tasters are actually really small portions of wine. one after the others Laura and I start to be pretty happy. our host is also telling us about the different flavors that we can taste in our wine and how those flavors are achieved while growing in the Marlborough region. the Marlborough region is the largest wine growing region in New Zealand so we really have a huge variety of wines to
taste.

So as we get to our last tasters we start to get a tiny bit tipsy and maybe a little bit cheeky. so after tasting almost all the range that hunter’s has to offer we are hopping back in a van and making our way to the next winery on our tour today which is gonna be Cloudy Bay. Cloudy Bay is probably the most famous winery in the Marlborough region and I can see why they are actually much more generous with their portions. the glass are full on this tasting or just actual wine drinking. as we start getting a bit more tipsy and a bit more jovial we are mingling more with our
fellow tour goers oh my god I have had too much wine. I want more wine.

The decor in Cloudy Bay is really modern really sophisticated and you can see rows and rows of French oak wine barrels in the back of the cellar door. we spend a bit of time in front of the cozy fireplace it’s nice and warm a good place to well taste wine and eat lots of crackers. but it’s already time for us to head back on the road and head to the next winery on our [wine] tour which is Framingham.

You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will all be as one.

Do you know where that’s from? You have to read that?

You’ve done too much much too young now you’re married with a on when you should be having fun with me. Framingham has a rock music theme it’s really cool to have the very famous music quotes right in front in the garden but as soon as we enter the winery we just greeted a bit like all the other wineries by a lady that’s gonna tell us more about the wine that they have to offer. here we get some very helpful information sheets about the different wines that we’re tasting which include Riesling which is one of my favorites from here. we try Montepulciano I don’t know how you pronounce that Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir so we have quite a few tastings of those before heading down to the hidden cellar of Framingham. so down here is sort of like a mini museum and behind some dungeon doors are vintage winemaking kits old wine bottles and lots of information about the Framingham winery. take some good pictures Laura? I think so. I can’t tell at the moment but I’m pretty sure they’re alright.

It’s getting a little bit late in the afternoon so the last winery that we are going to be visiting today is Geisen which is one of the very famous winery in New Zealand you can find their bottle of wine in every supermarket around the country. this is a final wine tasting so everyone is in a good mood by this point it’s just more like social drinking than wine tasting. so how do you like this one? little bit of like you know reminds me when I was in the park early age. it’s hard to believe that by the end of these tour we have actually tasted 22 different wines and this last winery is definitely
putting the nail in the coffin as they are very close to closing time and are serving us one wine after the other very very quickly we are speed tasting this is
like speed dating but with tasty It’s called titting, t-t-t-tasting. One sip wonder I’m gonna use that one.

By this point in the tour everybody is definitely a little bit tipsy and joking around and socializing and a lot of the tour goers are ordering wines by the crate there’s a lady on our tour which is
from the US that orders in this very winery over three crates of wine to be shipped back to her country. it’s absolutely incredible the amount of money that people can spend on wines in New Zealand as they are absolutely delicious.

Which one was your favorite? number 17 and a half was particularly delightful. are you just bullshitting right now or is it
the truth? I can’t remember a single one.

Our guide John is letting us know that this will be the last winery that we will visit today but that he has a little surprise for us for our next stop and he said it has nothing to do with alcohol so Laura and I are quite intrigued. so we just ask the bus driver to stop and take some pictures of this amazing landscape. It’s a very fun trip to the next stop of our journey and everybody is actually singing and joking in the van. Chocolate I’m not waiting for anyone. we are stoked to find out that our final stop is Makana Confection which is a chocolate factory right in the middle of the Marlborough region with loads of free chocolate samples we also get the chance to have a look behind the scenes of the Chocolate Factory where we’re watching the workers behind these huge glass windows while we’re eating probably more than our fair share of chocolate samples. in particular we love the macadamia butter toffee crunch which is absolutely to die for.

After an awesome day of wine chocolate and more wine we are heading back to our accommodation at the tombstone
backpackers where we’re getting ready for tomorrow where we are doing mountain biking in picton.

I just had 21 different tastings here that makes a whole bottle.
Why would I buy a bottle? I just got 21 tastings.