Last week we received a lovely delivery, 10 bottles of wine all the way from New Zealand :)
B and I went to New Zealand on our honeymoon in early 2010 and completely fell in love with the country. We spent a few weeks touring round a number of different parts of both the North and South Island and one thing we ensured we included in our plans were trips to a number of the country's vineyards. We went on a number of organised wine outings, to ensure we could both take advantage of the free tastings, including one hilarious Bike the Vines tour in Hawkes Bay.
We had heard of Cloudy Bay before we went, with a few friends highly recommending the wine, but I don't remember if we had ever tasted the wine before we went to NZ. Originally a trip to their vineyard was not part of our plans but then fate stepped in! Our whale watching excursion was cancelled and when we were looking on our map to plan out something else to do that day, we noticed that Cloudy Bay was only an hour or so drive away.
We ordered a case of Cloudy Bay wine on our honeymoon, and although we still have 3 of the 15 bottles, when our good friends visited NZ before Christmas, (As part of their YEAR long honeymoon!! Follow their amazing adventure here.) we thought it was a good opportunity to order some more of their wine that you can only buy at the cellar door. Well we do have grand plans for a wine cellar in our new house!
This time we only ordered 12 bottles:
6 x Mustang Pinot Noir 2009 - we still have 2 x Mustang Pinot Noir 2007 left from our honeymoon purchases
4 x Te Wáhi Pinot Noir 2010 - that was just released at the end of last summer
1 x Pelorus - a white sparkling wine, Cloudy Bay's 'champagne'
1 x Vintage Pelorus 2007 - which we bought for our 3rd wedding anniversary next month!
The delivery charge and additional customs payments bump up the cost of the wine, which came in at around £40 a bottle. Now I know some of you may be thinking who pays £40 for a bottle of wine?? I would have said the same thing a few years ago, but for us these bottles aren't for everyday drinking and will be saved for special ocassions. In fact we already have plans to keep two of each of the reds for a good number of years.
Basically there is going to have to be a special ocassion soon as I am dying to try the Te Wáhi, our friends sampled it when they were ordering our wine and told us we were going to LOVE it!! Any ideas what I can convince the boy we need to celebrate readers?
Roz xx
6 comments:
Surely the new house is something to celebrate?
This is a really lovely idea. The boy is off to California soon so I might have to send him on a day trip to Monterey to buy some of the wine we had at a winery on honeymoon!
I like this and would agree that the new house would be something to celebrate!
DO NOT leave it too long to drink your wine - I've heard sad stories of good wine going past its best as people wait for that special occasion too long. Check online for how long you can cellar it but bear in mind if it's in a centrally heated house (or a freezing garage!) it will be a shorter time than in a proper cellar. And how many people have one of those! I wish I did...
We're off to California wine country for our honeymoon - can't wait!
Very good point Amanda! I have actually contacted Cloudy Bay to ask for their opinion on cellar time / enjoy before dates :) It would be awful to open a bottle you'd saved for a special occasion only to taste it and it's off.
Hope you enjoy your wine tasting on honeymoon, very jealous! Make sure you try all the grape varieties, even those you think you don't like!
Gotta have one when you love into your amazing new house!
How about one when you meet my imaginary bf too lol!
"Make sure you try all the grape varieties, even those you think you don't like" - I don't understand this? Can you please explain - it's a concept I can't grasp.. ;-)
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