(Villa Maria Estates in Marlborough)

(Part 1 of this blog was posted on February 24^th. Part 2 was posted on March 10.)

             After a delightful visit and lunch at Cloudy Bay, Stephanie drove us over to Villa Maria where we were scheduled for a winery tour, tasting, and dinner, and where we would also be staying for the night, with a tour of the vineyards in the Awatere Valley planned for the next day.

            Villa Maria is, of course, a huge concern. Family-owned and headed by Sir George Fistonich, it is one of New Zealand’s largest and most important wineries. Their headquarters are in Auckland on the North Island, and their Marlborough base was built in 2000.

            Winemaker Murray Cook showed us around the winery after which we tasted some of the wines (there were more to come later) in the suite above the tasting room, where we would be staying that night.

            The Villa Maria wines are divided into four tiers. Private Bin is the entry level tier. Then there’s the Cellar Selection, Reserve, and finally the Single Vineyard tier.

            We started with the ever-popular and always reliable Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc 2010 and it was, as always, delicious. We learned the next day over lunch that Wine Spectator had just awarded this vintage 90 points, so there was much celebration. From there we tasted through the Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling (both 2010); the Private Bin UnOaked Chardonnay 2010 and their Single Vineyard Taylor’s Pass Chardonnay 2009; the Cellar Selection Pinot Noir 2009 and Reserve Pinot Noir 2007 (which was one of New Zealand’s most famous vintages); the Cellar Selection Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon (which had a little Malbec blended in) and Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 (which had 30% Merlot blended in).

             After that came a break of a few hours before dinner. I settled myself into my room and then went for a walk after first lashing my face and arms with sunscreen. Apparently the ozone layer is especially thin over New Zealand and it is very easy to get sunburned even in dull weather. And this was a bright warm sunny day! Temperatures and weather conditions in New Zealand can change rapidly. Kiwis like to say that you can experience all four seasons in one day. Daytime temperatures on the South Island while we were there (in early February, which is summertime down there) got up to about 75 degrees F, though occasional cool winds can bring that down quite a bit. Night time temperatures went down to about 45 degrees F.

            For dinner, two of our Villa Maria hosts came up to our suite to prepare a meal for us and to let us taste more wine. While we sipped on the Villa Maria Lightly Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc 2010 – this was something new and instantly appealing and so many New Zealand wineries seem to be jumping on the bandwagon – and Rose 2010, our hosts prepared a large bowl of green-lipped mussels in a white wine broth. What made this especially delicious was that they added a finely chopped red chilli pepper and covered it over with lots of fresh cilantro. It was delicious – so delicious in fact that after we finished the mussels, I drank all the broth myself.

             While the second course – New Zealand lamb – was being prepared on the grill I was allowed to choose a few more wines that I thought would be interesting to taste. We tried a Villa Maria Cellar Selection Hawkes Bay Arneis 2010, which was unusual in that Arneis is a traditional Italian white grape, mostly grown in Piemonte, and you don’t see it much anywhere else. We also tried an Ihumatao Vineyard Auckland Verdelho 2008, which is a varietal usually associated with Portugal and to a lesser extent Australia. The Reserve Hawkes Bay Syrah 2005 was also a winner. We finished with a Cellar Selection Late Harvest Riesling 2009 which reminded us how good New Zealand dessert wines can be.

            But the evening was not over. After our hosts left we decided to go outside and do some star-gazing. Our goal was to find the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds. As we were way out in the vineyards far from any cities or towns there was no light pollution. I’d never seen so many stars in the night sky. I lay on my back on the grass and stared into the center of our Milky Way. The stars filled the darkness, like a beautiful swarm of fireflies, and there – just south of the dog star Sirius and the constellation of Orion – was the Southern Cross….

(This blog will continue next month with a visit to Brancott Estates, Monkey Bay, Nobilo, Kim Crawford, and much more.)

Bill Stobbs, ABC Wine Supervisor