Fine wine in Matakana - Auckland's 'Hunter Valley'

By CLAIRE TREVETT


A couple of award medals stuck on bottle labels and some good write-ups touting Matakana as Auckland's Hunter Valley and it seems Matakana winemakers have confounded the critics who said the area was too hot and too wet to grow a decent grape.

Those 13 vineyards are putting Matakana on the map. The chardonnay and pinot gris are local specialities and the merlot, syrah (shiraz), semillon and pinot noir are coming through.

Six of the wineries have set up tasting facilities, some with restaurants or cafes, and several offer vineyard walks and winery tours.

The pleasure begins before the taster has even reached the Warkworth township, at Ransom Wines, on State Highway 1 just south of Warkworth.

There is a bit of deja vu on entering Ransom's - on TV it provides the setting of the vineyard on Mercy Peak.

In real life, the vineyard looks the same except for the faces behind the counter. There are tastings and platters of food to match them with, including the grand combo of regional tastings, five Ransom wines matched with five local cheeses.

As you head out of Warkworth towards Matakana, Ascension Vineyard and Cafe nestles next to Matakana Estate. Ascension owner Darryl Soljan boasts strong family links with winemakers going back five generations.

Locals and tourists can be found in the restaurant, which offers brunch, lunch and dinner based on Mediterranean cuisine. Preserves, jellies, oils and relishes can be bought and Ascension also hosts art exhibitions, outdoor concerts and gourmet evenings.

At the boutique family-run Matakana Estate vineyard next door, the wine takes centre stage without food.

Heron's Flight Vineyard and Cafe, the granddaddy of Matakana wineries (planted in 1987), is on Sharp Rd. Its owners, David Hoskins and Mary Evans, have turned a 1994 experiment with Italian grapes into a near full-scale operation.

They have cast out the French varieties they started with - right down to the trusted chardonnay, although they still have some of the wine in stock - and replanted in sangiovese and dolcetto.

Heron's Flight also has a cafe with a hearty menu to graze from, and its own line in preserves, made of locally sourced fruits as well as those vines and trees that share space with the grapevines.

A harder-to-find vineyard is Mahurangi Estate on Hamilton Rd, off Sandspit Rd, which also has platter-style lunches.

It is well worth a visit, especially by those who go a little bit further to Snells Beach, where Pizza Construction is based, owned by the people who used to own Warkworth's Pizza Co several years ago.

In her Matakana base, Niki Bezzant, the web editor for Cuisine magazine, gets late-summer table grapes from a roadside stall operating on an honesty-box basis on Sharp Rd, next to the big fruit and vegetable outlet.

Further along in Matakana itself, she recommends Pop In Patisserie, which makes everything from its own pies to pastries but takes special pride in its breads.

Matakana also has a butcher she can not go past - "one of those old-fashioned butchers who really loves meat".

The Matakana store may look just like a dairy but it is really a grotto of hidden delights, selling local wines, organic sausages and other delicatessen goods.

Outside Matakana, 4.5km down Matakana Valley Rd, Rainbow Valley Farm sells seasonal fruits, stonefruit, lemons, eggs and honey from its roadside stall.

Another road well worth a foray is Tongue Farm Rd, just out of Matakana on the road that leads to Omaha.

Tongue Farm Rd boasts the visual feast of the Morris and James pottery and tileworks, and its cafe.

Further down is Hyperion Wines winery - where the tastings take place in a converted cowshed looking over the vineyard.

Finally, down Jones Rd, just before the causeway that leads to Omaha, off Omaha Flats Rd, beleaguered tastebuds can be given a pick-me-up at the blueberry orchard, where tables and umbrellas are set out in the field next to the packing shed for people to eat the orchard's own blueberry icecream and sorbet while they watch others do all the hard work.

Fresh and frozen blueberries can also be bought at the orchard.

If the road seems like a hot option over summer, go into Warkworth to visit Taste, a home store in Neville Rd, which also stocks many of the regional offerings.

Taste sells local wines, including those that can not be bought from the cellar door and Lothlorien's feijoa and apple sparkling wines and fruit liqueurs, produced at an organic orchard in Ahuroa.

More information

Matakana coast

Matakana wine

Omaha beach

Matakana wine trails from Auckland can be booked at: Auckland Wine Trail Tours: wine trail tours or phone (09) 630-1540

Auckland Fine Wine Tours: inside touring or phone (09) 839-4519