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Martinborough Wine Tasting Cycling Day Trip

Martinborough

Martinborough

We stopped in Martinborough for lunch on our way to Wellington from Auckland and vowed to return to spend a day wine tasting.  A plan was hatched with friends to do a day trip via the train, hiring bikes to get us from one vineyard to another.

Arriving at Wellington Train Station my plan was foiled – no trains were running due to rail maintenance, so we were going to do the trip across the Rimutuka hills by bus.  My attempt to finally travel by train in New Zealand busted! After some confusion about which bus we should be on, we finally secured the correct bus and settled for the hour trip up the steep,  winding road and down again to Featherston.  From Featherston we caught a local mini-bus to Martinborough.

I had trouble finding a place that could hire out 8 bicycles, but Mint on Ohio Street in Martinborough obliged, for $35 for the day.  Of course we didn’t pick up the bikes until around 11am and then returned them by 4.30pm so the term “day” is used loosely.

The beauty of wine tasting in Martinborough is that all the vineyards are so close to each other!  We started off a bit out of town at Brodies Estate.  A fairly new vineyard, which also has Olive groves producing lovely olive oils, we had a lovely tasting there in the company of one of the owners, Ann, and also got to sneak a peek in her art studio located behind the tasting room.  Lovely Pinot Noir.

Vynfields

Vynfields

A lovely place to stop off on your tour is Vynfields, a boutique organic/biodynamic vineyard.  The beautifully restored period house, moved in five pieces from Lyall Bay in Wellington across the hills to Martinborough, presides over lovely gardens.  Offering “flights” of wines the Pinot Rosé was my particular favorite, along with their mystery grape wine, Mad Rooster.  Yummy food plates are on offer although we didn’t partake this time but I intend to in the near future!

For me another wine hit was Margrain Vineyard with delicious Chardonnay and Botrytis Sauv Blanc capturing my attention (and cash!).

Not a cheap day out, especially when buying bottles of wine, but a nice change from the usual weekend activities, with a bit of exercise thrown in to make you feel virtuous!

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