My first post for the year in my new Taste of Kiwi category. For those who don’t know, “kiwi” is an affectionate term for a New Zealander and it’s taken from our native flightless bird, the kiwi. Refer back to my Thursday Thirteen post from last year for a photo of a kiwi. They’re cute little birds.
Yesterday hubby and I visited Villa Maria Estate, which is a hop, skip and a jump away from central Auckland. I hadn’t visited before but they have a small vineyard (the main grape crop is grown elsewhere in New Zealand) along with a restaurant, wine tasting, a conference center and during the summer they have concerts. Joe Cocker is appearing there later this month.
The view from the restaurant area is beautiful and it’s difficult to believe how close to the city we were. The acutal estate is built inside an old volcanic crater. Auckland is built on a field of dormant volcanoes. If you’ve visited my blog before you’ve probably heard me mention this since volcanoes fascinate me.
The wine was pretty good, too. I sampled the Pinot Gris, which is my current favorite, while hubby tried the Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot.
Villa Maria was the first wine company in New Zealand to use screwcaps. These days all our wine in New Zealand (and Australia) is bottled with screw tops since this makes for consistent wine with no loss due to corkage. If you live in the States and see a New Zealand made bottle of wine with a screwcap don’t disregard it as cheap and nasty. It’s the modern way of bottling wine from Downunder. Personally, I find the screwcaps very convenient, especially to take on a picnic. If you’ve ever forgotten the corkscrew, you’ll immediately see the benefits of a screwcap. I know I’ve spoken to wine waiters in restaurants who prefer the corks because they can do their whole showy opening act but they are a decreasing number.
Villa Maria Estate is a beautiful spot. We found it quiet but hear that things liven up in the afternoons during the weekend. There’s plenty of room for kids to run around, although you need to keep an eye on them because of the water features. I loved all the trees and the native plants they’d used in their gardens. It was a lovely outing and I hope to make a return visit soon.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this small taste of Auckland and New Zealand. Please let me know if there’s anything about New Zealand that interests you and I’ll endeavour to do a post on the topic. So far I’ve thought of New Zealand music and food. My most recent Thursday Thirteen post was about New Zealand romance authors.
Oh! What a wonderful outing. I had read an article once about vineyards in Australia making a move to plastic corks because of trouble with cork corks (and Prince Charles’ snarky remark about plastic corks)but I didn’t realize there had been a switch to screw caps. I’ve not run across any wine from New Zealand (ever, alas!) but I’m pretty sure the Australian wines I’ve seen recently have had corks. Wonder if that is a “for export” thing?
by Jenyfer Matthews January 7th, 2008 at 12:43 amJenyfer - no, the majority of Australian wines also have screwcaps these days or at least the ones I’ve purchased both here and in Australia.
by Shelley Munro January 7th, 2008 at 11:22 amI enjoy these blogs. Very informative.
by Estella January 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pmHi Estella - thanks. I hope you had a fun weekend.
by Shelley Munro January 7th, 2008 at 2:58 pmthat is a gorgous picture wiht all this snow I wanna go there now
by Tina brunelle January 7th, 2008 at 3:30 pmTina, you might not want to stay for long. It’s SO hot and muggy. It’s trying to rain and I wish it would because it would cool everything down. And Hubby was sure it would start raining as soon as he watered the garden.
by Shelley Munro January 7th, 2008 at 6:17 pmI will look for New Zealand wine.
by Connie January 12th, 2008 at 7:50 pm