Thousands enjoy food and wine festival

SALSA FEVER: Latin ensemble The Carlos Navae Band play salsa tunes for crowds at Ata Rangi.

TOAST Martinborough celebrated its 23rd annual toast in style and sunshine yesterday, spared the gale-force winds that raced through Wairarapa a day earlier.

Around 10,000 people attended this year's festival, learning about pinot gris, dancing to salsa music and, naturally, sampling the best of Martinborough wine.

Toast this year featured 21 vineyards and caterers, as well as several interactive seminars and demonstrations from New Zealand food and wine experts.

Auckland-based chef, author and food editor Julie Biuso was a popular attraction at Escarpment, where she ran a seafood cooking workshop - showing visitors how to make a chowder with Escarpment chardonnay.

At Palliser Estate, guests watched a barbecue demonstration by Gavin Green of Greytown Butchery and Salute head chef Travis Clive-Griffin using Wairarapa-sourced cuts of meat. The chefs showed onlookers techniques such as marinating pork and butterfly-cutting a leg of lamb.

A "Wine.101" seminar by Ata Rangi was popular, led by chief winemaker Helen Masters, with help from Kiwi comic and actor Mark Hadlow.

The duo explained the intricacies of pinot gris, and Mr Hadlow's commentary on it being a "manly wine" and "feisty and beautiful like [his] wife" drew laughs from the crowd.

Over 20 live acts from Wellington and Wairarapa played, including King Ori Ori and the Masterons, the Wellington Sea Shanty Society and the seven-piece Latin ensemble The Carlos Navae Band, who entertained a salsa-dancing crowd at Ata Rangi.

Several groups dressed up for the occasion - donning mariachi outfits, road cone hats, leis and even school uniforms.

Toast organiser Rachael Fletcher said visitors came from "all of the country" - including from Auckland and Central Otago - and some from overseas.