Activity Summary
Wednesday 14th December - Day 104 (continued)
Drive to Hastings
Thursday 15th December - Day 105
Hawkes Bay Wine tasting
Linden Estate
Church Road
Trinity Hill
Craggy Range
Te Mata peak
Friday 16th December - Day 106
Walk around Napier
Art deco walk
Bluff hill lookout
Drive to Palmerston North
Summary
Hastings
Bit of a shithole and the campsite also showed it as well. We didn’t really spend any time here apart from floating between fancy wineries and it seemed to be the best way to do it.
Napier
Quite a nice small town and much nicer than Hastings. Little to do here however so it was a nice half a day walking around before moving on.
Accommodation
Hastings - Top10
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £11
The campsite was a bit more run down, larger to accommodate city folk and the kitchen was pretty annoying to cook in. Had a TV room we could retire to in the rain however so while being one of the worst Top10’s we’d been to, we are being slightly dramatic in our negativity. Although Nicola’s stress levels at nearly losing the laundry would say this was the winner of the wooden spoon.
Diary
[Continued]
Once in Hastings we set up the tent, cooked dinner and potted around the campsite. Nicola was doing some laundry when the machine decided to break halfway through, and locking our clothes in the drum. It had done this just late enough that reception had closed so there was no one we could cry to for help. Luke however managed to save the day but then we realised we had made our sulphur / clean clothes boo boo. A rewash did not succeed in ridding the smell of burnt clothing so we just had to settle for our new natural eau de parfum - burnt sulphur. If it ever takes off, we were the first trend setters.
Not the most relaxing evening we have had on our trip.
Finally the day had arrived fondly termed ‘Luke’s day’ whereby he decides where he wants to drink wine, and Nicola drives him to said wine. Luke had spent a solid 2 hours researching cellar doors in the Hawkes Bay region of Napier and Hastings when in Rotorua. While this sounds like a long time, he really had no idea what he was doing or what he liked so as a complete novice was taking a complete stab in the dark.
Through a combination of googling best wineries and reading various blogs / reviews, he had settled on the following wineries by choosing 1 winery from each Hawkes Bay ‘region’; Esk Valley, Taradale & Sounds, Gimblett Gravels, Bridge Pa (omitted), Hastings & Te Awanga (omitted). This came with a tight timeline for each as follows:
Linden Estate [Esk Valley] - 10.00am-11.00am
Church Road [Taradale & Sounds] - 11.30pm-12.30pm
Trinity Hill [Gimblett Gravels] - 1.00pm-2.00pm
Craggy Range [Hastings] - 2.30pm-3.30pm
A tight timeline but Luke had worked out how long the tastings were, how long the drive was between each and booked slots for the latter 3 as this was encouraged.
The cellar door experience ranges in experience quite a lot, with the smaller wineries tending to be more hands on, generous with their tastings and far less snobby. The larger wineries theoretically house the better and more popular wines but the cellar doors are more expensive. Hence a wide range was planned but this is A LOT cheaper than booking a $150 wine tour. Basically Nicola saved Luke a serious amount of dosh.
All that was left was to get on the road and see what was in store for his first wine tasting day.
The first stop was Linden estate and it was the best intro into a wine tasting we could have wished for. Luke, at 10.30am (were a little late setting off) was the only person in the winery (of course, it was 10.30am) so had the host all to himself. She was lovely, interesting and was plenty generous with the wine that Luke was provided.
Alborino 2021 - 8.5/10 *** best white of the day
Sauvignon 2021 - 7/10
Chardonnay 2020 - 7/10 ***surprising and would actually drink bottles of Hawkes Bay Chardonnays
Pinotage 2019 - 7/10
Syrah 2019 - 5/10
Merlot / Cab Sauv / Cab Franc 2020 - 7/10
Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 - 9/10 *** sensational but spenny
Luke loved Linden estate for the vibe and the wines were all good - even Nicola was having a decent time talking with the hostess. The Cab Sav was incredible but came with a ‘I’m a great wine’ price tag. Taken by pleasant surprise with the Alborino, and that he preferred this to the Sav, he came straight out of the blocks and purchased the $28 bottle with the added plus of deducting the $10 wine tasting fee (which is fairly standard practice outside of the largest wineries).
We had to move on fairly quickly to Church Road as we were slightly delayed in setting off in the morning which we were pretty sad about. Church Road is a much bigger winery but to give them credit it was still a pretty intimate cellar door tasting.
The two of us were seated at the bar and got a full talking to about each wine and the region. Probably the first of many times Nicola was subject to Luke’s desire for wine chat, having zero interest in it but being far too polite to do anything but sit and pretend like she gave two monkeys. The hostess was an Italian so our assumption was that she would be halfway to full snob (aka French). She actually was very nice, knowledgeable and engaging so had a decent time of it.
This time Luke decided to make himself feel fancy and splash the cash on a $15 wine tasting and the “Grand Reserve” range which, and this is quoted, ‘reflect our premium and high accoladed wines’.
Grand Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2019 - 7/10
Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2020 - 7/10
Grand Reserve Pinot Noir 2019 - 8/10 *** when I realised I really like Pinot Noir
Grand Reserve Syrah 2020 - 5/10
Grand Reserve Cabernet Merlot 2020 - 7/10
Overall the wines were good but nothing screamed sensational so no wines were purchased and we moved on.
Trinity Hill wasn’t too far away and in arriving early we went into full peasant mode having just spent our morning frequenting these lovely great big vineyards fit for weddings and lavish parties. Not wanting to spend a fortune on a terrible cheese platter, we smashed some dinner leftovers for lunch in the car before recomposing our classy selves and walking into the winery like we owned the place.
The experience at Trinity Hill was the worst cellar door we had that day but by no means terrible. The approach was very different as we opted to sit in the comfy sofa area rather than the bar, so the wine tasting was served on a palate with a quick note explaining each whizzed through all at the start. Luke learnt very little about the wine but to be honest he was going to pick up basically nothing really anyway.
He was pretty happy to get a tasting of the Tempranillo for free however, as the Linden lady had suggested trying this given she used to work there. Freebies are always wonderful.
Coming on from the grand reserve range previously Luke decided to mix it up and go basic b.
Rose 2021 - 4/10
Pinot Gris 2021 - 6/10
Chardonnay 2020 - 6/10
Syrah 2020 - 5/10
Merlot 2020 - 6/10
The Trinity 2020 - 6/10
Tempranillo - 7/10
There really wasn’t any stand out winner here so we packed up and moved on.
Luke had every intention of dragging Nicola to the 5 cellar doors he could fit into a day but after being 3 down, the weary look on her face and him feeling bad decided that Craggy Range would be the last one before a bit of sightseeing.
And what a last one it was. The views from the table in the winery were amazing, well groomed green open space out front with the mountain ranges towering over in the background. It certainly won the most scenic wine tasting award.
We were looked after by two people in the end, a guy who had just finished wine school and a girl that was unbelievably friendly. Both were incredibly engaging with the wine chat but we had the most fun talking around all of it, wine school and what that entails with the guy and with Maddy a whole host of things to do in Wellington over xmas as this is where she was from (the name remembered as we could apparently use it to great effect if we were more party focussed).
Sauvignon Blanc 2022 [Martinborough] - 8/10
Chardonnay 2021 [Gimblett Gravels] - 7/10
Pinot Noir 2020 [Martinborough] - 8/10
Syrah 2020 [Gimblett Gravels] - 5/10
2013 Sophia Merlot Cabernet [Gimblett Gravels] - 9.5/10 *** but £80 a bottle
This was the most expensive cellar door by a long way at $35pp but given the ludicrous cost to get a tour, the fancy bottle of Sophia on offer and just the whole experience this price tag didn't seem so horrendous. Absolutely no bottles were likely to be purchased however after paying the fee given it would only be waived if purchasing 3 bottles. No chance sunshine.
And with that we were done with our first wine tasting experience. The less well known wineries & cellar doors are better - cheaper, more generous with portions, more engaging and Luke found better wine. Also that cellar door experiences and wine tastings really do not get you drunk. Drinking wine in small quantities (could easily be just a glass per cellar door) over the course of 5-7 hours is very slow going.
Nicola put up with a lot and she's a bit of a hero in doing this. She has absolutely zero love or care for wine or the wine making process but she stuck with Luke the whole day as he revelled in the 1-1 attention and information from the various hosts while Nicola did her best to feign interest out of pure guilt. Not a particularly entertaining day for her but as an amazing girlfriend she was more than willing, and more importantly is still willing to accomodate Luke and his attempts to be classy.
Some of the key takeaways of the Hawkes Bay wines (in Luke’s opinion):
Syrah, Hawkes Bay - Not a big fan of Syrahs which are the reds best known in the region. I found them overly peppery and quite heavy so it would be something I would drink in smaller doses.
Sauvignon Blanc, Hawkes Bay - The Sauvignon Blancs are less tangy than Marlborough Savs (supposedly), so more mellow on the palate which I like a lot.
Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay - I actually quite like the Chardonnay’s from Hawkes Bay and this was a complete surprise. They tend to use older oak barrels which takes away the buttery taste. Also just tastes a million times better than supermarket Chardonnay so I am clearly feeling the need to splash more cash on my wine.
2019 was a very good year for New Zealand wine.
2020 was also a very good year for NZ wine.
Not the biggest fan of overly full bodied reds.
Wine tasting done.
With all this over Nicola drove us. as the responsible adult in the room, to Te Mata peak which was very close to the beautiful views of Craggy Range. It however was not a particularly great day for it and the visibility was awful so could absolutely nothing. In doing so Luke has missed the opportunity to go to his 5th winery but that probably was not a bad idea.
Once back at the campsite Nicola made Luke dinner (rather than him taking control as he usually does), preplanned thinking he would be far worse off than he actually was. Then it was drink water, pop a paracetamol as Luke is old and can’t handle his booze anymore, and half pack for the getaway the next morning.
Can confirm that Luke did not wake up with a hangover.
With a bit of sunshine in the morning Luke was able to have a good stab at drying the tent out but sadly the grass cutting dude was on the prowl. Luke & New Zealand grass have a pretty bad relationship (as he would find out pretty severely in Martinborough) so he had to rush through his job so as to not risk blowing a hole in his skull from sneezing and also covering the tent in grass cuttings.
On our way to the Palmerston North area and next campsite we decided to go back up to Napier to have a look around. The town was quite nice, with various street art knocking around formally known as the Art Deco walk although we’re fairly uncultured and couldn’t appreciate most of it.
One of the lookouts is called Bluff Hill so decided to drive up it rather than walk, which given the views of the port aren’t that great it was definitely the better option.
After a few hours we were on our way south. As always we had lunch with us so pulled up to a random stopover in the area that looked over immense fields & vineyards all while the glorious sunshine had come out as well. Bit typical this was during a travel day but hey ho.
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