We knew we wanted to do a wine tour but we’re not super in love with large tour groups, or crowds, or really people (sometimes). We’re both former park rangers (one of us is formerly law enforcement) so you’ll forgive us if we don’t enjoy when people can be people-y. So we looked into a tour by bike. Well, first we googled if you can get a DUI on a bike in New Zealand (you can’t, but you could get reckless or careless) then we looked into a bike tour. Fun fact, New Zealand has had compulsory helmets on bikes since 1994.

The hotel we stayed in originally said it rented bikes out. In fact, it’s partially why we picked it. But when we arrived they didn’t. So after a quick search, we booked Wine Tours by Bike (with Lorelle and Greg). It was a five minute walk from our hotel, past many honesty boxes selling wildflowers, eggs, and fruit. With it being early autumn in New Zealand it was harvest season so some of the vineyards were actually closed for harvest. The bike tour company got us fitted with bikes and helmets as well as a map that showed what was open and how to get to them. There were even saddlebags on the back of each bike that could fit 4 bottles of wine but Lorelle and Greg also had a pick up scheme where they would pick up your wines if you had too many to carry.

We set off, leaving the main roads and going onto a bike path that soon turned into a county road winding around vineyards.

We biked past cows and many vineyards on the back roads. The vineyards we biked past were busy with harvesting machines and people. A shotgun (blank bird-scares) would go off every once and a while. Again, as (now former) law enforcement officer this had my undivided attention for half a second until I remembered there was almost no chance someone was just shooting up a random vineyard. This bird scare worked as we didn’t see any birds stealing grapes. But we did see some errant sheep devouring them.

We picked our bikes up at 10 and by 10:20 we had wine-in-hand at our first stop, Forrest Wines. Tasting was $16NZD ($9.40USD).

Perhaps the only problem with biking (besides the rain) is that you’re going to take second fiddle to the big tours. This is fine if you want a break from crowds, like we did. But the groups got a lot more tasting notes and information than random arrivals do. The first couple vineyards we went to had tours by van set up so there were tables pushed together, ready to go for a large group. We would show up with our helmets and sometimes dripping wet and they’d scramble to get us a place to sit. Of course everyone was super accommodating and awesome, just a note if you’re wondering which one might be best for you.

The Marlborough District (like a state in the US) is the largest Sauvignon Blanc grape growing region in the world, twice as big as the Loire region in France. In fact, 68% of wines from New Zealand come from this region The key to all the grapes in the area are the rocks. That’s right, the rocks. The rocks below the vines not only reflect the sun from below, ripening the grapes, but also help the glacial, loamy soils drain. Although they do only get 25 inches of rain a year (Wellington, just 52 miles [84km] away gets 52 inches of rain a year). So draining rain is maybe not as important as other places may be.

We stopped at Allan Scott Bistro for lunch and had one of the fanciest lunches we’ve ever had. We did not have reservations (didn’t even know we needed them) but as we showed up with helmets, technical fabric and tennis shoes the waitresses made it happen. I had the “55 Day Aged Beef, served with cafe de paris butter, agria, heirloom, jus” and the suggested wine pairing a pinot noir for $39NZD ($22 USD). If you’re not ordering something you don’t know what 4 of the 5 things you’re ordering you’re clearly not at a fancy restaurant. Because I had no idea what cafe de paris butter was or what heirloom (heirloom what? tomatoes??)… and Jus… until I ate it.

Chris got something equally fancy. Lamb belly baked for 15 hours with asparagus, fig, goat curd, and pomegranate molasses. He also had the recommended wine pairing, Black Label Pinot Noir.

Feeling sufficiently satiated, snooty, and a little tipsy we then biked to the Vine Village. This ended up being an adorable little campus with a mix of local businesses (wine, distilleries, gin and cheese tasting) as well as a playground and pond for kids… and lots of information on the region. It had been threatening to rain all day but now it finally came in waves. We got a little soaked as we biked on the side of the road and arrived at the Vine Village just as it was getting worse. We went to the Whitehaven tasting room, they allowed us to sit in a private tasting area as it was warmer and we enjoyed some tasters ($20 for 4 of their higher end stuff). They threw in a freebie of one of the labels they sell in the USA. We have since sought this out and enjoyed it in Colorado. We were able to look over the Matua vineyard but never ended up going there. Matua is probably the most recognizable and widely available NZ wines in the USA.

We then biked to Wairu River where we got some tasters and feeling a little tipsy, got a “snack” of phylo wrapped feta cheese covered in hot honey. Holy shit. Maybe because we were getting a little tipsy or maybe it was just some of the best wine and food we had had, this one was our favorite. The glasses all had little papers with tasting notes. Our waitress was also really eccentric and kept making fun of the Australian visitors much to everyone’s delight (including the Aussies). We bought 1 bottle each from both Wairu and Whitehaven and still talk about them. It introduced new wine lexicon “pastry” which we describe random wines to be now.

We biked back in the rain and made it just in time for the return time of the bikes.

Turns out most things are closed on Mondays in the area and not a single place had food or was just closing. After desperately hunting for dinner, including getting turned away by fast food restaurants closing, we settled for the ultimate depression meal: cup ramen from the local grocery store. The absolute juxtaposition of eating 55 day aged beef or 15 hour lamb belly now crunching vaguely underprepared cup ramen was not lost on us. We had to get up early to return our rental car and get the ferry to the North Island.