Sunday, October 02, 2005
winery
Yesterday Linda and I joined some friends on a tour around the wine-making factory at the Villa Maria winery in South Auckland. Unfortunately the rain precluded any ideas of wandering around the vines. The website (here) has lots of pictures and information, so I won't repeat it.
We enjoyed the tour around the factory, the informative guide, trying to spot oompa-loompas in the bottling room...Then, thankfully, wine tasting.
We went through five wines: Sav-blanc, chardonnay, reisling, cab-sav-merlot and then a step backwards to a pinot noir. I really enjoyed the Chard but, thanks to my usual eye for detail, I didn't get the year. The pinot was also very nice and the cab-sav-merlot was certainly drinkable.
My dislike of white wines was somewhat tempered by the chardonnay but even though it was good -- I still disliked the acidic fruity hit of the sav-blanc.
It was a nice way to spend an hour or so and worth the drive out to the winery. The free passes that Chris provided made it economical too!
