Time to linger at the cellar door

GERALDINE McMANUS lets her taste buds loose on Marlborough's delectable range of fresh food and wine.


Sunday morning in Blenheim is not the day for a lie-in. Take your taste-buds to the Marlborough Farmers' Market for a hoe-down breakfast served with hay bales and guitars.

I began with a spin through the stalls, smelling the aromas and tasting the treats. Where else but Marlborough would you find an award-winning chef, Chris Fortune, producing a delectable roll-up of freshly cooked bacon and eggs and mushrooms beside the straw bales?

Chris and his wife, Tina, helped to get the Sunday Farmers' Market under way in 2002. It is now the place to shop for the freshest of produce. You can buy organic fruits and vegetables, wild bacon and ham, organic salmon, hand-made jams and jellies, Swiss pastries or a bunch of lavender.

A couple of enterprising youngsters, Cabbie and Hannah, had picked and packed plums for just $2 a bag.

Old-fashioned orchards still exist in Marlborough. Windsong Orchards grows 18 varieties of plums and five varieties of table grapes. Perfect to eat, fruit is tree or vine-ripened and picked just hours before selling.

The produce market is one of the must-do things to let the taste buds loose on during a weekend in Marlborough.

Air-connections to Blenheim are frequent, making a couple of days in food and wine country an easy getaway. Once on the plane it's a new horizon.

First, are the vistas of the green North Island then seascapes over the Tasman Sea and magnificent Marlborough Sounds. As the plane loops over the half-circle of Cloudy Bay the patchwork of vines comes into view, whetting the visual appetite.

There was a lively crowd on the Friday night I arrived at the Marlborough Hotel. Several local foodies had gathered for a few drinks and networking at the end of their working week.

Across the central valley of Marlborough's flat, stony plains vines run neatly row after row.

The viticultural countryside is where the change of seasons is most noticeable. In spring, the buds appear on the stark vines in a burst of bright lime. I visited in late summer and nets enclosed the vines in ghostly shapes of white and black as protection against birds making their own harvest from the precious ripening fruit.

Later in the season when the grapes have been picked, the leaves on the vines turn to autumnal tones and the region changes colour to hues of yellow and red.

A rental car is a great way to get around, fossick out special treats and stop off at favourite vineyards.

I started Saturday with a delectable frittata topped with salmon and basil oil at Cellier Le Brun. This is the first cellar door to open in the morning. My taste buds crackled with a sparkling new vintage, a fine rose bubbly tinged with pink.

I meandered through the valley, tasting at two to three favourite cellar doors. The grid of roads criss-crossing the flat plain are dotted with places to stop and sample, not just wineries but also country crafts, art studios and lavender farms.

In the season, many stone-fruit orchards have farm-gate sales. This is the region to take it easy without setting a high score card for the number of wineries visited. Fewer are better.

I sampled organic wines and oils at Seresin Estate, then drove north towards Rapaura Rd for a tasting at the classic Hunter's Wines' cellar door, before dropping into Allan Scott's Winery restaurant, Twelve Trees, for a stylish and leisurely lunch.

At Scott's the outdoor terrace was filled with patrons. A long table under the pergola was well-occupied with a group who had obviously settled in for an afternoon of food, talk, laughter and wine. Bliss.

For a final burst of decadence on Saturday I was lured by the finesse of Herzog Restaurant & Winery, one of Marlborough's excellent places to dine. Herzog's service is impeccable, ably presided over by Swiss restaurateurs, Hans and Therese Herzog.

The mood is relaxed formality, starting with canapes on the veranda. As the sun sets, guests move into the dining room for the five-course degustation dinner.

Each course carefully matched with wine is balanced and sized to enable thorough enjoyment.

Marlborough is the place to dust off the taste buds and enliven them with superb vintages and seasonal flavours. I certainly gave into temptation and indulged.

* Geraldine McManus was hosted by the Marlborough Hotel






FARMERS MARKET MARLBOROUGH

Farmers Market operates every Sunday in summer at the A&P Showgrounds, Blenheim, 9am to noon.

On the web: Marlborough Farmers Market

WHERE TO STAY

The Marlborough, 20 Nelson St, Blenheim
Free phone: 0800 11 55 33

Email: TheMarlborough@xtra.co.nz

HOW TO GET THERE

Origin Pacific and Air New Zealand fly several times a day to Blenheim. Or fly or drive to Wellington and cross by Interislander to Picton. Rental cars available at Blenheim airport or Picton ferry terminal.

ACTIVITIES

Two great golf courses; walk part of the Queen Charlotte Track; art galleries and studios; cruise on the Marlborough Sounds or take a fishing trip.