Having a car is like being a rock star. Once the other backpackers found out that I have transportation, I became very popular and they suggested we use it to get out of the hostel and go on a wine tour. I was reluctant at first because I thought it would be too expensive, but I was assured that most of the tastings were free and only a few charge $2. The five seats in my car were quickly filled with the following wine-tasting crew:
Jorg - a German guy who has been living at the hostel and working in the vineyards for a few months now…a self proclaimed expert on wine who is very proud of his Franconian (Bavaria) heritage. Jorg has done plenty of these wine tours and offered to be both a tour guide and a DD, ensuring that we would only hit the very best wineries in the region. I asked him heaps of questions, and his knowledge was invaluable. He was also quite opinionated about the wines we tasted, which proved to be pretty funny at times.
Amit - a British guy who was also very knowledgeable about wine. He has worked in the vineyards for a few months as well and had the proper British accent to add an air of sophistication to our tasting conversations.
Vanessa - another German backpacker, who was relatively quiet, but added the much-needed female perspective to the trip. She had only been working in the “winyards” for one week.
Brian - Canadian to the core, he hails from the town of Red Deer, a few hours north of Calgary. Friendly and sociable, he was on a quest to find the best Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand.
The five of us hopped into my car around 11:00, and spent the majority of the day hitting the better wineries in the region. As I mentioned earlier, the Marlborough region, especially the valley I was in now is devoted almost entirely to grape production. This valley specifically is wide and verdant, and receives an amount of sunshine that is atypical of the fickle weather that the rest of the country is known for. That sunshine, combined with cool breezes from the nearby coast, and the fertile soil make the area ideal for growing white wine grapes, and virtually all of the country’s Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürtraminer, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay are grown in the area. Red wine production is not as popular in this region, but almost all wineries had a Pinot Noir, a relatively light red wine, and some had a few heavier reds as well.
I don’t typically care for white wines, and almost always prefer a full-bodied red, but throughout the course of the day, and speaking with wine experts from our group and from the nine wineries we visited, I began to grasp the attraction to white wine. For instance, Sauvignon Blanc was produced at all of the wineries we visited, and some wineries produced many varieties, each one tasting drastically different. There are so many factors that go into producing wine, that subtle changes in the soil, climate, harvesting techniques, yeast, aging times, cask types, bottling date, and hundreds of other components lead to wines that are so distinct that even someone with a palate as unrefined as mine can easily taste the differences.
I spent the day learning about different types of wine, and discovering some of the techniques that are used in wine making. I always thought it was very similar to beer making, and I’ve done some home brewing so I understand that process very well, but it is actually quite different. I was thankful to have people who know what they are talking about teach me some things, and touring these wineries with people who are knowledgeable about wine was a great experience.
After six hours of tasting, I was beginning to feel the effects the wine. Around 5:00PM, most of the wineries were closing and we decided to head back to the hostel. I didn’t spend a cent the entire day and experienced a great deal about wine making and culture. On the way home, we finished our trip with an elegant meal at the local McDonald’s and I went back to the hostel and took a nap.
That evening, I opened one of the bottles of wine I bought on the trip and chatted for awhile about travel with a French Canadian named Rene. He is planning to go to Peru in a few months, so I gave him some advice, and we shared our experiences of quitting our jobs to travel. Around midnight, everyone in the hostel decided to go out and experience nightlife in the small town of Blenheim. We went to an Irish pub called Paddy Barry’s and I had a few overpriced Guinesses (beer is very expensive in this country) while chatting with a couple from Montana, an Argentinian, a Brazilian, and a guy from the Czech Republic, whose English was still improving. Around 2:00AM, I went back to the hostel and finished my bottle of wine while watching a documentary about Bob Dylan. It was a great day.
