Continuing to follow the wine-grape highway symbols – just south of Picton, New Zealand (the drop-off point for the ferry between the North and South Islands) you enter the country’s largest and most famous wine producing region: Marlborough. This area is surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges, with several sub-regions perfectly suited for grape growing.
This is primarily a white wine producing region; and is where most of New Zealand’s sauvignon blanc comes from. It is also the oldest, and largest (by volume) wine producing region in the country.
We spent 3 nights at a holiday park in Blenheim – right in the heart of the region – and took our time hitting as many wineries as we could for a tasting. All in all we managed to make it to 13 wineries – with a bonus stop at a local brewery – during our stay. We both got quite good at the tasting swirl.
After just stumbling upon the Hawke’s Bay region, we were prepared and planned to stop in Marlborough this time. We also picked up a “wine trail map and crossed off wineries we visited:
This was an excellent first stop on our Campervan route through the South Island.
2 of 3 New Zealand wine regions down – the journey continues!
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