Blenheim Wine Tours Marlborough
Blenheim Wine Tours booking
Booking one of Na Clachan Blenheim Wine Tours was extremely easy. In our case we contacted the owner well in advance, confirmed availability and then booked the minibus for one of their private wine tours. Booking a private wine tour ensured the guide was focused just on our group.
We could decide the schedule and visits for the day leading to a really relaxed wine tour. This was ideal for us as we are a group of friends that had met for a wedding and afterwards wanted to relax and enjoy each others company. Helen, our guide for the day, met us at our house and we got settled in the minibus for our Blenheim wine tour.
Our morning Blenheim Wine Tour
Our Blenheim wine tours first stop was Lawsons Dry Hills which certainly gave us a lovely introduction to Marlborough wines. We had the opportunity to taste Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, therefore a good cross section of local wines. Lawsons Dry Hills is a medium sized family run wineries with vineyards in the Wairau and Awatere valley in Marlborough. After our tasting we headed to the vineyard. This allowed our guide to educate us on the vines and pruning in Marlborough.
Once our vineyard talk was over we moved onto St Clair Family estate. A great experience tasting of their wines by the vines. St Clair, another family run winery owned by the Ibbertson family. The family started off just growing grapes in 1978 and selling the fruit to other wineries. In 1994 they released wines under the St Clair label. They have 4 tiers of wines and many single vineyards wines of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Lunch time on our tour
Blenheim wine tours allow time for a lunch stop at a winery, therefore we took advantage. We chose Rockferry Wines, a small organic winery serving rustic cafe style food allowing us to taste their wine and eat.
We learned that Rockferry have 3 vineyards, 2 in Marlborough and one in Bendigo Central Otago. All three vineyards are 100 percent organic. Being small allows Rockferry to experiment with different varieties and techniques.
We had the opportunity to taste a Pinot blanc wine. A lovely delicate wine and at the time of writing this Rockferry are the only winery in Marlborough to produce a 100 percent Pinot Blanc. Another point of difference is they ferment this wine in a concrete egg which naturally is stirring the juice with the yeast lees adding complexity to the wine. A lovely drop!
Blenheim wine tours afternoon
The standard wine tour offers the option to carry on till 5pm, however we decided just one more winery in the afternoon was sufficient. We chose Clos Henri as this has the prettiest cellar door in the Marlborough wine region. The Cellar door, an old church transported from Ward to their vineyard location. Clos Henri focus only on Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir from different soils, therefore allowing us to understand the importance of the soil in the wines.
Clos Henri was a lovely way to end our wine tour because it demonstrated the importance of terroir to the wine.
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In conclusion, if you wish to book one of our Blenheim wine tours please visit the book a tour page. If you are looking for a very personal touch, why not enquire about a private wine tour.