Well as I said yesterday we were going on a wine tasting tour today - and what an excellent day we had. We were picked up outside our motel by Gareth who owned the tour company (OdysseyNZ) who was a mine of useful information, not only about wine but about the region in general.
The tour started off at the Trinity Hill Estate where we were introduced to some of their wines. We were advised that the correct way of tasting wine was to only have one mouthful and throe the rest away (ouch!!!). As this was the first winery we were somewhat reluctant to buy any not knowing what was to come.
We next moved on to the Church Road Estate where we started off with a tour of the winery - as the grapes are not due to be picked for another six weeks or so then there was nothing much to see other than some big stainless steel tanks and some large barrels.
Following on from this we were shown the Tom McDonald Cellar (Tom McDonald was the guy who started this estate) which is used as a function/concert room. From here we moved on to the wine museum and the "real" cellars where the wine is allowed to ferment. After all of this serious business were then had some wines to taste.
The next stop was at the famous Mission Estate where we had lunch. Not only were the wines excellent so was the food (food and wine included in the price of the tour). One thing that takes place at some of the vineyards are pop concerts and at Mission they were getting ready for Sting who will be performing on Saturday.
After our superb lunch we then went to the Mona Park Estate which is one of the smallest wineries in the Hawke's Bay and it was interesting to see the difference in the scale of the operation. Our guide around the winery and tasting was Dan Barker - the passionate owner and winemaker of the estate. Just got to wait for the case of wine to be delivered in about eight weeks time.
Our next stop was at the Ngatarawa Estate - the only estate where there is a link to the Corban family who were the founders of wine making in New Zealand. This was an interesting estate as it was, at one time, a stables and racecourse.
Finally we were taken to the Vidal Estate where we were given a "gourmet platter" and some more wine to taste.
After all of this we were then returned to our motel after having a excellent day around the wineries of Hawke's Bay - the problem is that none of the wines that we have tasted today are available in the UK
Tomorrow we move on to Wellington