April 25 – June 4, 2016
Like most cities in New Zealand, Nelson has its own nearby wine country. It covers an area just outside Nelson starting in the small neighboring city of Richmond and stretching north along the rolling Moutere Hills.
Unfortunately we barely got to see any of it. Nelson’s wine country is far enough away to require a car to get there, and while we rented one a couple of times, we had higher priorities both times. Still, we managed to fit in a couple of cellar doors. (Next time around we plan to do much more.)
The two wineries we did manage to visit were Fossil Ridge and Waimea Estates in the city of Richmond. By now, fall had arrived. We’re used to visiting New Zealand wineries under the warm summer sun, sitting out on a deck overlooking rolling hills (and often a calm ocean bay). But it was just as enjoyable to visit in the cooler air, the leaves a riot of color, sitting indoors with a fire burning in the hearth. Of course, there’s no bad way to enjoy wine tasting, but doing it in the fall has its own rewards.
Below a gallery of photos from our visit to Fossil Ridge, where we got to choose the wines we wanted in our tasting flight of four. We were invited to take our flight to one of their tables to do our tasting (with accompanying nibbles), all the while enjoying a view of the pond and surrounding vineyard. While nothing called to us to bring a bottle home, we enjoyed the experience so much we’d recommend a visit to the winery to order a tasting flight; then sit at a table and soak in the view.
After that we headed up the road to Waimea Estates. Here we found another beautiful venue with lots of stone, wood, and large windows, not to mention excellent wines: this time we bought three bottles. So far we’d liked the (admittedly very few) wines we’d sampled from the region, but nothing made us go “wow” until this winery today.
We’re anxious to return and visit more wineries like these. –Cyndi
