New Zealand's Pinot Noir - Or the Turn of the Screw

Each year I visit a different wine region of New Zealand and since Pinot Noir is a favorite, I thought I would take classes to become more knowledgeable. The Central Otago region of the South Island is devoted to making this wine. This is the path less traveled, as few visitors come to this area located between Dunedin and Queenstown. It’s located at 45 degrees south. It is the world’s southernmost winemaking region, mountainous, rising to over 12,000 ft, the highest in the world and it gets snow and heavy frost. A Frenchman in l864 recognized the potential for grape growing and planted the first vineyard.

There are four distinctive sub-regions separated by mountains and deep gorges. The Cromwell basin accounts for 70% of the vineyards and includes Bannockburn to the south, Lowburn, Wanaka and Bendigo to the north. A further 10% of plantings are found around Gibbston where most wines occupy steep north facing terraces above the Kawarau Gorge. In the southwest of the region are Clyde and Alexandra which grow 7% and the remaining are located around Lake Wanaka, which is one of the most beautiful in the world. This is the area of the Routeburn Track, one of the best hikes in the world.

There are thirty different wineries and this time I did my touring in style. A colleague and I hired a classic Bentley car with a chauffeur and we spent several days touring the wineries we had

selected. All wine in New Zealand is now bottled with a screw top. The reason was that their biggest buyer in Great Britain, Sainsbury Supermarket, was getting four million dollars worth of wine returned by the customers due to bad wine caused by the cork. Australia is now only using screw tops.

I received my Master’s Degree in Wine Making, to go with my forty cooking school certificates which now makes me a Food and Wine Specialist.

We did a Gourmet Food and Wine Tour. We had classes in the aromatics and flavors of each wine and had to identify each smell such as herbs, berries and other items which made each wine different. This was great fun, lifting the little lids off the jars and trying to identify them. Once you had learned the answer, then you sniffed again trying to really identify the smells. We then watched a film where a helicopter had flown over each winery and then the winemaker gave a lecture on what made their wine special. Then we got to sample six Pinot Noirs which they had selected. Each day the wineries for sampling are different. I learned that Pinot Noir thrives in cool climates, matures over an extended period on the vine which tastes of strawberries and raspberries which gives it a wonderful velvety taste

We had lunch at three smashing winery restaurants, Carrick Winery in Bannockburn, GibbstonValley near Queenstown, and Amisfield Winery near Arrowtown. They are all award winning restaurants. GibbstonValley is the one I send clients to for lunch because they are the only one with a wine cave and a cheese factory. The shop there is also an excellent place to buy gifts.

Southern Alps scenery is breathtaking. A historic gold rush region, lovely gardens, great golf courses and as for the wine, I enjoyed every glass.

A visit to the Land of the Long White Cloud refreshes your soul.

Maureen Jones

New Zealand Travel Agent of the Year

All Horizons Travel/Frosch

825 Santa Cruz Avenue

Menlo Park, CA 94025

650-961-2340 Direct

www.allhorizonstvl.com