Tuesday, February 10, 2009
When we checked out of Olea Cottages today they informed us that they were closing. Between our booking and our time of stay ownership had changed hands. It was great that the new folks decided to honor those reservations that were made when they bought the place. It is too bad for future travelers as it was a great place to stay, but we may say that we were likely the very last to stay at Olea!
On to Martinborough, it is much cooler today (low to mid 70’s) and raining. Along the way, we stopped at Tui Brewery and walked through the museum and tasted some of their beer. We thought it was ok and Rita really liked their brown ale. Mike liked all the exploitation of women, so much so he took a picture of himself with the Tui girls. We stopped in Masterton for an excellent lunch at The Grill in a hotel. We had just finished driving up and down the city centre seeking some local color, but nothing was of much appeal. We decided to head out and before we left the city limits we passed this hotel and its restaurant. We turned around and were quite pleased that we did as I had the best Eggs Benedict ever. The Grill used many fresh ingredients and local products including Tuimato sauce instead of regular tomato sauce (ketchup). Tuimato became an object and obsession of future procurement.
After lunch, we were on to wine tasting. Our first stop was Johner winery where we drove down a long gravel road, rambling along rows of vines and other horticulture. Along the way, we picked up another passenger – a very large bumble bee. The bee flew into the windows and collided with Rita. She and I became quite frantic. Troy stopped the car and both Rita and I vaulted from the car, which in turn Troy and Mike followed suit. Brave Mike went back to the car, grabbed some booklet or literature we were carrying with us and worked to nudge the bee out of the car. Once we sent the bee on to freedom we continued on our way. We then passed a fella on a tractor who must have been watching us as he couldn’t get by until we passed him. We are quite sure he thought we were a bunch of freaks and wondering why we were doing some form of a Chinese fire drill in the middle of his vineyard.
Johner has a very small tasting room and a very short, older lady greeted us as we approached. She entered through a red door and appeared in the closed up tasting room. We watched from the outside as she moved a stool around the tasting room to unlatch the locks and open the windows and doors. Once inside, she began to inform us that the owner was a German and 80% of the wine was shipped to Germany. She showed us the bottles that stayed in NZ and the ones that shipped off to Germany. The wine sold in Germany had very different label than the wine sold in NZ. The wines were not bad and we bought a dessert Pinot Noir for Troy’s mom.
From Johner we headed over to Gladstone Vineyard. Here the wife of the winemaker had just gotten back from a 2 month holiday in Ireland and couldn’t find the answers to any of our questions. The wine was okay. Nothing special. Mike and Rita bought a bottle of Viognier. The last winery of the day was Fairmount. The owner here was a chatty fellow, pretty much full of himself, and the wines, at least the few he allowed us to try, were not that bad. Unfortunately, the fella talked 100 times more than he served. Half-way through his second pour and 50th rant, another couple came into the tasting room – this spelled certain doom. After many more rants, we finally gave up on thinking any more pours were coming our way, which was too bad because the wines were fairly good. Troy was so put off he was already pacing outside the tasting room. Mike and Rita bought a Pinot Noir.
Back out on the main highway we made a heading towards Schoc Chocolates in Greytown. We liked the chocolate here better than the place in Hawkes Bay, and we and bought some chocolate bars including sea salt and lime chili flavors- outstanding. We then headed to Pinot Villa’s where we were staying in Martinborough. Not being all that hungry, Troy and I stayed in for the evening. Mike and Rita did go out for dinner.
Observation: Many of the wineries seem to be leaving their tasting wines sit out, which is making wine tasting difficult, particularity the whites as these tend to be a little too warm. As mentioned, the temperatures were not all that bad (70’s and drizzly), but with the temps in the 90’s the last few days the wines are just too warm for proper tasting.
