Winos Down Under

We have now reached day six on the "The Island of the Long White Cloud," aka New Zealand.  The only item on today's agenda was an al-day wine tour of Blenheim. :)  Blenheim is located at the north end of the the south island.  The climate and terrain is optimal for the grape vines as well as olive trees.  The summer days here tend to get quite warm but the nights cool down a considerable amount making the grapes have thicker skins, which in the end makes better white wines and Pinot Norse (at least that what they said...for all we know they made it all up and I would not have questioned them). The Marlborough region of New Zealand, which is where Blenheim is located, is mostly known for their white wines, more specifically Sauvignon Blanc.  Our first winery stop was at Withering Hills Winery. We were the only ones on the tour at this point (probably because it was 10 AM) but that did not stop us.  Withering Hills was probably one of our favorite stops.  This winery had been recommended to us so we mentioned this was one stop we definitely wanted to make - we were lucky, too, because our tour guide (Colleen) was not planning on even stopping there.  The scenery was beautiful as well as the architecture of the winery (seen below).  The wine here was no different.  Both of us are not big white wine drinkers but we were amazed by how much we enjoyed their Sauvignon Blanc... so we bought a bottle.

In this picture you can see why New Zealand is named the Island of the Long White Cloud. Just before the mountain you can see what looks like white fog. This is actually what they call the long white cloud that extends throughout the region.

Here are some pictures from the other wineries we toured.  After touring a total of seven total wineries, it's hard to keep things straight.......but we think we liked them all. 

Rock Ferry Winery: everything produced here is certified organic

 Drylands Winery:

Wairau River Winery: we also ate lunch at this stop...delicious. I totally forgot to get a picture of the front of the place...can you tell the wine is starting to set in?  Or maybe I was just hungry.

Framingham Winery:

Hunter's Winery:  this place was really, really cute.  It's owned by a woman...which is a big deal - they've won a ton of awards.

Final alcoholic stop - Saint Clair's Winery:

Basically, everything was absolutely gorgeous and the wine was delicious.  Before our day ended we had one final stop to make...the CHOCOLATE FACTORY (this may have been my favorite stop).  Jerbear and I bought some pinot noir chocolate truffles to go with all of our wine we purchased on the tour. 

We are now off to Abel Tasmin National Park to do some hikes and stop spending money. ;)