December 2012 – May, 2013
When I came to New Zealand 26 years ago, it was all about sheep and tea kiosks. Now, it’s all about coffee and cafes and good food and wine, lots and lots of wine. Aside from the famous big vineyards in the South Island and the lower part of the north island, there’s an abundance of small vineyards and wineries throughout both islands. New Zealand doesn’t just have a wine country area: it is wine country, all of it!
My first surprise in coming here was in seeing just how many small wineries there are. Every region has a “wine trail,” a list of wineries you can visit while you are there, aka “cellar doors,” that are open for tastings and sometimes a talk with the owner. These cellar doors range from small out-buildings behind a main house to large operations that feature a fine restaurant. In the north part of New Zealand where we were originally, there are 10 cellar doors.
Rich and I managed to visit most of the far-north wineries during our stay in Opua, plus several on our later visit to Waiheke Island, and it was during this time I got my biggest surprise. Over the years, New Zealand has become famous for its sauvignon blancs, which are second to none in the world, and its pinot noir, and these were the wines I looked forward to drinking. The surprise has been the chardonnay! At first I thought it was a fluke, an anomaly, that a few seemed to be really, really good. After all, I’m from California, and we do chardonnay. (OK, not me specifically but I’m loyal to my home state.) France, of course, also does fine chardonnay. And OK, Australia. We are the Big Guns here; this is our wine.
I tried, but after a time I couldn’t deny it any longer: New Zealand’s chardonnays are better than California’s. My next question: why is this a secret? Why are they hiding this? They must be up to something! Maybe they are afraid of pissing California off (You can trump our sauvignon blancs, but don’t mess with the chardonnay!). Or maybe they just want to keep it all for themselves. I don’t know the answer, but we will continue to investigate this by visiting as many wineries and drinking as much chardonnay as we can. We will work undercover and report back our findings. -Cyndi
