Much More than Just Sauvignon Blanc
WineMaker Magazine readers joined former Publisher Brad Ring to explore New Zealand’s world-famous wine regions in March during an eight-day trip coinciding with the Southern Hemisphere grape harvest covering both the North and South Islands filled with lots of great wine, food, people, and lifelong memories.
When most North Americans are asked to describe New Zealand wine, almost everyone will respond with two words: Sauvignon Blanc. And that makes perfect sense. Over 85% of all New Zealand wine exported to North America is Sauvignon Blanc, most of it from the Marlborough region. It is without doubt the grape that put New Zealand wine on the world map. But as this WineMaker trip group learned during their travels through New Zealand, this beautiful country produces plenty of other great wines beyond their signature Sauvignon Blanc.
And that discovery started on the first day of the trip in one of New Zealand’s warmest wine regions: Hawke’s Bay, located about halfway up the North Island. Here, the combination of long, sunny days, dry climate, and often rocky soils like the famous Gimblett Gravels sub-region produce world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. Further south on the island as the weather cools is Pinot Noir country, probably the second-best known grape out of New Zealand for North Americans. The Martinborough wine region located on the southern end of New Zealand’s North Island is Pinot Noir country. Most of the region’s production focuses on Pinot Noir with vineyards surrounding a small and charming town where we spent several days touring wineries. We also had some truly exceptional Chardonnays as we traveled throughout New Zealand. This trip was eye opening for many as the group had the fun opportunity to explore a much wider spectrum of wine styles and grapes that often never make it to North America.
Harvest is always a special time to visit wineries and the WineMaker group watched the bustle of just-picked grapes coming into wineries, pressing operations for both whites and reds, and CO2 bubbling away during active fermentations. From Hawke’s Bay on the North Island to Marlborough on the South Island, local pro winemakers short on sleep and long on to-do lists still made time to meet with our group to answer winemaking and grape growing questions, giving us all warm Kiwi welcomes to their wineries.
While in Hawke’s Bay at the start of the trip, these North American home winemakers also met up with members of the local New Zealand home winemaking club. Corks were pulled on bottles from either side of the Pacific Ocean as winemaking stories, smiles, and homemade wines were shared between the local Kiwis and visiting Americans. It was a really special and unique chance to connect with fellow home winemakers half a world away — bottle diplomacy at its best!
The group visited a total of 19 wineries covering the full spectrum of size. On one end was internationally known Cloudy Bay in the heart of the Marlborough region. Cloudy Bay did more to popularize New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in North America than any other winery. Their winery campus set in the middle of miles of Sauvignon Blanc vineyards was both beautiful and large. We were lucky to have a private tasting and conversation with Cloudy Bay’s Winemaking Director Nikolai St George. On the other end of the size scale was Chateau Garage located in a residential neighborhood in Hawke’s Bay. We visited Ollie Powrie at his home where his winery is indeed in his detached garage housing a collection of barrels and amphorae fermenters. We had a fun tasting of his award-winning lineup of wines a few feet away from his garage winery at tables in his backyard.
The group also had some memorable local food experiences to go along with all that wine. We enjoyed quite a few wine-paired meals at wineries and restaurants with lots of local seafood, lamb, beef, and produce on the table. We also worked for our dinner one evening, donning aprons for a farm-to-table cooking class producing our own three-course dinner.
New Zealand is a truly magical country that is worth the long journey for any wine lover. The scenery, people, food, and wine are all world-class. And you’ll find yourself enjoying not only plenty of aromatic and crisp Sauvignon Blanc, but also great Cabs, Merlots, Syrahs, Chardonnays, and more. Kia Ora!
Our next WineMaker trip with space available will be to Bordeaux, France, May 30–June 5, 2027. Details on exploring Bordeaux’s world-famous wine regions from both the Left and Right Banks including Medoc, Saint-Émilion, Graves, Pomerol, and Sauternes can be found at here. We hope you can join us on a future WineMaker trip as we visit different famous wine regions around the world and learn from local winemakers. Cheers!
Check Out These Other WineMaker Trips
WineMaker magazine readers joined us on trips to Tuscany, Italy; South Australia; and South Africa. Click below to read more about these awesome trips.
