Last year we did a marvellous wine tour to the north of Barcelona, I rated it in the top three things we did in Spain, so I was keen to replicate that experience here in NZ, so before we jetted across the ditch I did some research and booked a wine and lunch tour through Altitude Tours.
The tour took us to three wineries around Queenstown (in the Otago region of NZ), starting at Gibbston Valley Wines who kicked off the Otago wine industry in the mid 1980s.
The story goes that everyone told them (including the department of Primary Industries) that they were crazy and there was no way grapes would grow near Queenstown as it was too far south. They gave it a whirl anyway, and discovered that Pinot and Riesling did quite well. Of course many then followed and how its a massive money spinner for this part of NZ.
Gibbston also have a fantastic “wine cave” which is a cellar they dynamited out of the side of a hill back in the mid 1990s.
The second winery was the Allen Scott winery, where we sampled even more delicious grape based beverages before heading off to the “Stoaker Room” near Cromwell for lunch.
I’d actually book the Stoaker room for dinner next week after hearing great things about it, however when I found out it was on this tour I cancelled that booking to free up the night for another amazing dining establishment.
The “Stoaker” is basically a BBQ built into an old French Oak wine barrel. They even sell them for about $NZ2500 should you so desire to purchase one (You won’t fit it in your hand luggage though).
They cooked a variety of meats in it, Orange Roughy Fish with coconut cream and slaw, BBQ Duck with honey mustard, Goat Ragu with Smokey tomato sauce and polenta, Pork with pear and orange marmalade and Venison with Cherry Sauce and roast veg.
The third winery was the wonderful Church Cellar Door and Cafe, where we also had cheese and biscuits with more wonderful wines.
The tour was essentially complete at this point, however as we had time the guide took us through arrowtown (which we visited on Tuesday) and then we dropped in to the new Ayrburn estate that has some amazing restaurants and bars to explore. Apparently they spent NZ$200 million making it like it is, and it looks divine.
It's all about the coffee 