Tuesday, February 17, 2009
After the brief pit stop in Makarora, we headed on to Wanaka en route to Queenstown. As much as we enjoyed the day out in the wild of the New Zealand west coast, Wanaka was a welcome change. The town was quite cute complete with views of snowcap mountains surrounding beautiful Lake Wanaka. Our first stop was Rippon vineyard, which had an amazing location. The vineyards come up from Lake Wanaka and the small tasting room is set atop of a small hill, looking back over the vines and on to Lake Wanaka. We were stopping for the view and didn’t expect much of the wines, but we were pleasantly surprised. Rippon performs all organic farming. We met a couple from Canada. He flew planes and had been to Oshkosh as well as Ripon, Wisconsin so that is why they stopped at the winery (spelling aside, he was a nice fella). By this time we had everyone calling Mike JP, including the lady from Canada. We kind of laughed as we were not sure who she was talking about, but she must have heard Troy call Mike JP. After we left Rippon we headed back to the city centre aside the shores of Lake Wanaka and had lunch at Spieght’s Ale House. Again the food was pretty good.
Before we left the home stay in Makorora, Kenna the owner recommended that since it was such a beautiful day we should take an alternative route from Wanaka to Queenstown. So instead of taking SH 6, we went over the Cardrona pass. The view wasn’t much so we figured she told us to go this way because it was a short cut and the road didn’t have much traffic. As we climbed up the winding road of Cardrona pass we came over the bend and found we were at the top of Crown Range looking down on Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown. Simply Amazing! When we stopped to take pictures, we noticed the car smelled like burning oil. Not a comfortable feeling when you are high up on a mountain pass. We then headed our way down several switchbacks on one of the steepest roads Troy ever recalls driving. The breaks were making the car shake and I wasn’t sure if we would make it down, but we did and Troy did an excellent job driving.
Once we finished that adventure, we were in the Gibbston valley and Valli Vineyards was our first Central Otago wine experience. Valli was by appointment only and Troy had pre-arranged the visit three weeks prior to our departure. When we arrived, all we found was an old sheep shearing shed among the vineyard. This was just after we took a wrong turn up a grassy hill that ended at an abandoned bus. The gentleman there pointed to the sheep sheering shed and said that was where Grant met his customers. We later found out the gentleman was Grant’s cousin.
Troy and Mike snooped around the sheep shed returning to inform Rita and me that it appeared as though Grant had prepared to meet us. Although the shed appeared empty, there was a makeshift table with one box containing Valli bottles of wine and another box with wine glasses. Rita and I were a bit leery, thinking of axe murders and such and thought may be should leave. Troy gave Grant a call and got his voice mail. So we thought we would wait 5 more minutes and then leave. Just as we were about to leave, a car pulled up. It wasn’t the wine maker Grant, but his girlfriend Jackie. She apologized for Grant being late and said there was some blasting on SH6, which was holding up traffic. In the mean time, she got us started on tasting a Riesling. It was very good and dry.
Grant then showed up and took us through his Pinots. All of them were excellent. He is a very fascinating person. Grant started with wine in 1980 at Pine Ridge in Napa. After building the winery, the winemaker left and no one else knew the process so Grant became the winemaker. He came back to NZ in 1993 and bought his vineyard. At the same time, he also helped others in the Central Otago region start up their wineries. In the late 90’s he went back to the US. This time to help the Pine Ridge owner start a winery in Oregon – a little place called Archery Summit!
The old sheep shed Jackie took us in was someday to become the tasting room and it was a work in progress. The makeshift table was made from a pool table that Grant placed a piece of plywood over the top, which is where he served the wine. He had just completed installation of the hardwood flooring. He had obtained a very heavy hardwood from a friend. The wood is so dense and heavy that it would sink in water. We cannot recall the strain, but the story went that the wood was so hard that it ruined the milling equipment – never to be used again. Troy was fascinated and commented on how wonderful he thought the space would be once complete. After our tasting, Grant took us into the vineyard and gave us an education about the vines, the grapes and the growing process. He showed us the cropping and canopy management techniques, also describing how he prepared the vines for the following season. He also mentioned in passing that Joe Torre (former manager of the New York Yankees and current manager of the L.A. Dodgers) came for a visit a few weeks back.
Two hours later and another a case of wine destined for West Bend, WI, U.S.A. we were headed to the apartment rental where we were staying – Villa Dell Largo. It was a good, comfortable space with multiple levels, a full kitchen and a great view of the Lake Wakatipu and across the lake, the mountain range, the Remarkables. After settling in, we took the walking path into town and the Queenstown Marina area where we met Scott and Nanette Dryburgh. Scott and Nanette were on a 4-5 week trek traveling south to north, opposite our trek, but our paths crossed this single day in Queenstown. We met at Solera Vino. Good food and a better than average wine list. Troy and Mike said the bouillabaisse was nothing special – no one else complained. We capped off the evening with beers at Dux de Lux. Walking back to our place it was very dark and we got to see all the stars along the way. When we met with Grant earlier in the day, he told us how to find the Southern Cross and we finally verified its identification this evening. From Makarora to Queenstown the sky finally revealed itself so very differently that we have ever experienced. Very Cool!
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