Dr. Liz Thach, MW

(Feb. 10, 2010) Next stop was Cable Bay Winery, which was in an impressive modern style building with an amazing hilltop view of the ocean. They also had an outdoor sculpture garden with unique modern pieces, and a famous gourmet restaurant. The vineyards on the hillside were surrounded by tall hedges to protect them from the winds. I had never seen this layout before, and was told it was a lot of work to keep the very tall hedges trimmed. No wonder the wines from this island are so expensive – lots of work in the vineyard, and small production [...]

(Feb. 10, 2010) Next stop was the Goldwater Vineyard, which is the oldest on the island. Both the viticultralist and winemaker met with us and provided a walk through the vineyards and a tasting of 3 different wines. They have 20 acres on 2 meter by 1 meter spacing primarily with cane pruning. They achieve around 2 tons per acre and produce 2400 cases. They are known for their Bordeaux varietals, but also produce chardonnay, which was my favorite. For the 2008 Goldwater Chardonnay, the winemaker told us she uses natural yeast with barrel ferment and sur lies aging. The [...]

(Feb.10, 2010) The conference organizers scheduled an optional field trip to Waikehe Island the day after the conference ended. It appeared as if everyone signed up for it, because there were more than 60 people who sat down for the 3-hour gourmet lunch we had late that afternoon. We caught the 9am ferry to the island, and everyone was delighted with the bright sunny day, and the amazing turquoise blue of the water as we approached the island. Two large tour buses were waiting for us as we disembarked from the ferry and drove us to the Fossil Bay Vineyards [...]

(Feb. 7, 2010) Another happy occasion to travel to a unique wine country – New Zealand. This was my second visit – the first occurring in 2003 – and I was looking forward to returning to sample some excellent wine and cuisine. The event that brought me back was the 5th International Wine Business Conference. Academics from around the world attend this conference every two years in a new wine region. The last conference was in Sienna, Italy – and is described in the 2008 portion of this blog. We arrived in the capital, Auckland, on Sunday morning, Feb. 7th [...]