Saturday, August 7, 2010

So I headed over the mountains and on to the West Coast. I stopped along the way at a natural sight I’d been told of by Nick Mills, a particularly clear stream that was quite beautiful, and a short hike that I could fit into my schedule. Nonetheless I was quite worried that I’d be cutting things too close, so I literally ran to the stream. It was quite pretty, and under almost any other conditions I would have climbed down to the river to jump in, as is my tendency whenever I see water. But with my hurry, I merely ran back to the car and continued down the road. I had to take the trip slow, as there were patches of ice and bad conditions requiring caution. By sunset I was near Fox Glacier, and caught the sunset at a beautiful beach spot. Visitors had posted up driftwood into impromptu sculptures, for 100s of meters along the beach line. I admired the pieces, and the sunset, and at the end found an area where lovers had left mementos of their love, for each other, and for a lover not there. “Billy and Jonny Heart 4ever” and so on. I left a simple symbol of love, on a small piece of sandstone, hidden between several larger rocks. By now it must be gone.

I finished the drive to Fox Glacier township and holed up in a hostel with a sauna, where I worked off the stress of my rough schedule of wine tasting and touring. What a tough life I lived during this trip!

The next day I slipped in a couple of hikes, one around the lake in town, which was meant to have amazing views of the glaciers and of Mt. Cook. It was no lie, and the lake and it’s surrounding flora and fauna were gorgeous. I then hurried on to Franz Joseph Glacier and a quick hike. The day finished with a long drive all the way to Upper Moutere, where I arrived at the home of John and Ness Kavanaugh. They and their two children made me incredibly welcome, and I felt like an honored guest. Their kids were awesome and full of energy, even if a decent amount of that energy was directed at the computer video game they were obsessed with at the moment. We shared dinner and wine and planned the morrow.

I started out the day by visiting John at Neudorf, where I hung out with John and his team, and received a nice tour of their small but excellent facility. It’s a smaller place, allowing for better focus on small lots and quality. They seemed like a good group that knew how to make good wine and be happy doing it. John and I talked at length about Pinot, its many clones and expressions of terroir and variation due to barrels and processing and so on. It should suffice to say that John clearly knows his stuff, utilizing his knowledge of each vineyard lot combined with understanding of how to best express that vineyard’s terroir, and adjust and refine it as necessary using the tools at hand.

I next went over to Woolaston where John’s wife Ness was running the tasting room. I tasted through their wines with her (excellent Sauvignon blanc) before heading over to their awesomely equipped cellar. They are well set up for expansion as need be, and were using some of their tank space to store some Feijoa fruit wine for a local fruit winery. It was delicious in its way, blowing you away with sweet feijoa. Down in the wine cellar, the enologist Esther Frei tasted me through a number of tanks and barrels. It was during the tour that we realized that my friend Doug Webber had worked with them the previous harvest! They showed me his favorite spots, his shack in the fields, and sent along their love for him.

I then down the road to Rimu Grove, where I paid a casual visit with Barbara, the wife of the winemaker Patrick Stowe, who was unfortunately away when I visited. Their cellar is the tiniest I had seen so far, being essentially some tanks and barrels in a garage. They usually have a sign up saying “help yourself,” and while she was distracted by another visitor, Barbara told me to continue tasting at will. They specialized in Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, and I was impressed that they could maintain such quality across so many small lots, in such a small setting. Sometimes such small facilities lose the production cleanliness of larger wineries, but they clearly knew what they were doing, and were making fantastic wines.

That night I went out with John and Ness to the local pub for some local brews and live music. It was an excellent evening spent with wonderful people, the perfect ending to an amazing trip! The next day I would travel down to the ferry to return to the north island, and eventually Hawke’s Bay and beyond, home to California. The trip had been epic, an unmatchable journey through the finest of New Zealand wine and countryside, and I was immensely grateful for my experiences.

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