FRENCH FANCIES—DOMAINE DES CARABINIERS—TAVEL & LIRAC—JANUARY 2021 The horse and the ‘Foudre end’, magnificently displayed in what was once just the Tasting Room but now hastily performing both its original function and that of the office as well, sums up the Estates history. The title ‘Domaine Des Carabiniers’ comes from … Continue reading
TRIP DOWN TO VINITALY IN VERONA. (Day 1). Having visited most of the other big Wine exhibitions we had never been to Vinitaly in Verona, a great opportunity presented itself this year but it meant landing from the trip down under and leaving again three days later for Italy. As … Continue reading
We started this blog five years ago as our ‘Wine Travels’ but the travelling took over and we could not keep up the standard of quality in reporting to the blog within the time scale that the travelling allowed, then we started scouring the South of France for a house … Continue reading
SOUTHERN BELLES—WAIPARA WEST (WW) / THE BONE LINE, WAIPARA, CANTERBURY. This posting is mostly aimed at the New Zealand and Australian readers in that it discusses the new presentation for the two countries down under and not the UK presentation. The wines that we tasted are available in UK under … Continue reading
SOUTHERN BELLES—THE JOURNEY OTAGO TO CHRISTCHURCH AND LAKES! The South Island of NZ has the reputation for being spectacular and there is no argument on this side of the house with that statement! The whole of this part of the country is riddled with Lakes and Mountains both large and … Continue reading
SOUTHERN BELLES—WOOING TREE ESTATE, CROMWELL TOWN. When we call this estate ‘Cromwell Town’ that is exactly what we mean, the vineyard is literally in the town as you can see from the picture to the side, houses hotels and a shopping centre just beyond the vines! The winery … Continue reading
SOUTHERN BELLES—AMISFIELD ESTATE, PISA RANGE, CROMWELL. The Amisfield Winery and the Bistro (Cellar Door) are not to be confused as they are a good 60k apart, a mistake that took us from Cromwell to an overnight stay in Queenstown, and then the drive back the following morning to Cromwell! We … Continue reading
SOUTHERN BELLES—MICHA’S VINEYARD, ANDY & MISHA WILKINSON. We’ve taken a couple of days out to write up some more of the travels as we are getting a lot of really good stuff backing up – too much visiting and not enough reporting!! Having looked at all things ‘Hayden’ last time round, … Continue reading
SOUTHERN BELLES—TARRAS ESTATE, HAYDEN JOHNSTON Apologies for the late reporting, we have been a bit like the swallows flying ‘South’, so busy travelling, no time for stopping and thus no time to write up events. We have now reached Picton and have a three hour crossing, time to hunker down … Continue reading
When we were last with the relatives at Matarangi in 2003 we visited some wineries down the East coast through Tauranga down to Hastings and Napier. Not realising that it would be 12 years before we would be here again we selected just over a dozen bottles for aging to … Continue reading
