Thursday, March 11, 2010

Central Otago Wine Trail

Central Otago has probably one of the prettiest wine regions I have ever been to. Vines surrounded by rugged desert mountains and deep blue lakes. One of the other distinguishing qualities about this region is it is at latitude 45 degrees south. This makes Central Otago the southernmost wine producing region in the world and also at the same latitude line (albeit the North 45 of course) as the famous wine regions of Burgundy France and Willamette Valley in Oregon.

We spent the night in Luggate before we headed down to the Cromwell/Bannockburn region for the wineries. That night at our campsite we hung out with a some of the local wildlife, the hedgehog. This little guy was loud! He was rustling around so much I thought it was a dog digging around behind us!


But... back to the wine. We headed first to Aurum. Here there is a cute little yellow cottage where you can sample their wines and olive oil grown on site. The winemaker is from France and we were able to try the region's famous Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.

Pinot Noir is king in this region and is certainly a hot spot right now. (And it is reflected in the prices of bottles of Pinot from all of the Central Otago wineries (but luckily for us we were just sampling!).

We headed to Olssens next where we tried some wine but was a little stuffy. Nice tasting room though.

Then we headed to the winery that we both loved the most (tied with Chard Farm) and were looking forward to: Felton Road. Felton Road has a beautiful compound that heads up onto the hills.

Further down the road, they have vines growing right on the shores of the lake. Here there was a great woman who runs the cellar door letting us taste and learn about the wine. We tried the 2009 Chardonnay Elms, the 2009 Riesling, the 2008 Pinot Noir and the 2008 Pinot Noir Calvert. The whites were great and the Pinot Noirs were amazing. We did not get to try the famous Block 3 or 5, but she did point out the vines to us! 

After Felton we visited Mt. Difficulty that has beautiful views of the region from their very stylish restaurant and tasting room. Their wines were good... their Sauvignon Blanc was a little green but maybe it was unfair to try any wine after visiting Felton.

Finally we ended with Bald Hills. I chose this winery out of the many in the region because I swear I have tried the wine before. The winemaker said they had sent a large shipment of wine when they first started producing to the US but has since scaled back to focus on their regional markets.

The owner of Bald Hills (along with his wife) is a great gentleman named Blair Hunt who grew up in Fiji and New Zealand and went to USC. He is there and explaining and pouring the wine at the cellar door! Their winery started as a retirement spot and of course has grown into another full time job. We had a lovely time talking with Blair about the region, Fiji and New Zealand. We bought the Pinot Noir from Bald Hills as we loved the wine and the place (right on the lake as well).

That night we camped out by the river that runs by Chard Farm Winery and is also the river that runs under the famous AJ Hackett Bungy jump.

We loved Central Otago for its intimacy with the Cellar Door tastings (most tastings were with the owners or winemakers) beautiful scenery and of course amazing wine. It is an area which we kept coming back to after all of our other trips in NZ for its wine, adventure and beauty. 

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