Waipara Wine

About a 40-minute drive from Christchurch is the Waipara wine region. Since we do not have a car we have booked a half day wine tour with lunch through Canterbury Leisure Tours. We are scheduled for a 12:30 pickup from the cottage. The driver (Graham) arrives in a small passenger van and says we just need to pick up two more people, good – we like small groups. We pick up Alex and his father ‘Fred’, who are visiting from Hong Kong and head out. We are supposed to visit four wineries with a small lunch stop at one of them. Graham informs us that we will be visiting four, but will not have a tasting at the first one, just lunch – his reason is that it is ‘silly season’, with the really large tour groups (think buses) overwhelming the tasting rooms. Hmmm.

The lunch was a “Ploughman’s Platter” for each person, Dick and I could have easily split one. We head out for our next three wineries. In the interest of fairness, the guide was OK, but the whole tour just seemed off. We rushed through the second stop, then arrived early at the third and didn’t really need that much time there. Got to the last stop early and had to wait because it was before our booked tasting time. Then we had to leave before finishing all that was offered for tasting, don’t know why. I definitely would not recommend this tour group. It was kind of late in the planning process and there are not that many options available, so chalk it up to experience. We did meet two very nice people from a different part of the planet.

We walk back to the downtown area to explore some dining options. In the central tramway, we locate a cute little restaurant called The Cosmopolitan, the seating is in the central courtyard. We are not starving, so we just build a cheese, bread and meat board for sharing. They have a jazz saxophonist playing tunes and our waiter turns out to be the owner. He and his wife just opened this restaurant about four months ago and he is working really hard to make a good impression.

After dinner, we head over to New Regent Street for a last beverage at The Institution, a well rated craft beer bar that was on ‘the list’. We run into Alex and Fred enjoying some whisky at a street café when we are leaving.

Mary

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North of Christchurch and along the coast is the emerging Waipara Wine Region.   The area is known for Its’ Pinot Noir and Riesling varietals but has a number of ‘micro-climates’ so there are also a number of smaller plots of varieties uncommon to central South Island NZ.

It’s quite a drive from the city up to the region and I wasn’t comfortable driving (and tasting!) so we booked a tour through Viator. Although our group was small (only 4 of us) the tour was disappointing and not as advertised. On the plus side we travelled with a father-son pair from Hong Kong who were good fun. ‘Fred’, the father, had what he jokingly called ‘an original Apple watch’ – very cool! The scenery was good, venues nice and the wines were excellent, so it was a good day overall. Interestingly, one of the staff at Greystone was from Kentucky – a long way from home. She’s made a good lifestyle decision!

Dick

• Wine