Fate by the heart of wine

We wake up in Te Anau and ask ourselves having no set plans for the day. Do we hike and then return to Queenstown on the last day with the rental, or do we drive past Queenstown to do a little wine touring for the day? Not a clear choice but since we'll be back in this area on a bus for Milford Sound tour we decide on the wine.

About two hours and a few stops to throw rocks in the lake later we're in New Zealand's southern wine country.  Instead of stopping at the first one we see we decide to drive all the way into central Otago and then make our way back stopping where we feel out of the dozens of wineries.  Finally at the end of the paved road in Bannockburn we pull off into the Felton Winery which welcomes us in for a free tasting. That's nice since we're quite used to having to pay for tastings in California.  She brings out the Pinot Noir they're known for, a bright Chardonnay we both  really enjoy and a Vin Gris I had never tried before.  It's a Pinot grape without the skins in barrel so it's a white with the slightest hue of peach.  They only make this vintage every few years when they need the extra skins for the Pinot Noir and are left with skinless grapes.  The result is a pleasant mix of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with almost a Champagne flavor without  the bubbles. Refreshing!

While continuing onto the Riesling and asking her more questions than she probably bargained for she ended up taking us to the actual fermentation tanks and barrel caves filled with French oak and that oh so lovely aroma that comes with them.  She was wonderful and we thought our selves so lucky to have walked in without appointment and had such a beautiful experience.  with wine list in hand and smiles on our faces we were excited for our next adventure.

As we were pulling out we noticed a couple of signs for wineries down the dirt road and we both decided we'd see what we could find off the beaten or in this case paved track.  Apprehensively we pulled in next to what looked like a shed and parked the car by the Labrador sleeping in the shade on this surprisingly hot dry day.  We walked toward the "tasting" sign and went in.  The sign read Desert Heart as we entered this very rustic and simple building decorated with all sorts of elegant and ornate hearts.  A nice lady said hello from the office and stepped out to greet us and once she knew what we wanted she started bringing out the wines. Thanks to the wine writer who had been there the previous day we had before us a longer than normal line-up of their wines including an award winning Pinot from '08.

While working our way from whites to red conversation turned to Hawaii which sparked her right up since in a recent trip to Singapore she met for lunch with some Fellow NZ friends who had just returned from a wine rep. trip to HI.  They had told her of a meeting with a sommelier from "an upscale" restaurant that they raved over and suggested she send him a bottle of wine.  So she sent her bottle to man  she has never met in hopes they might carry her wine.  She continued on with her story very  happy to speak of her travels and experiences.  Following the urge to ask her the name of the restaurant, since Craig had worked at one of the "upscale" restaurants in HI she went to look up the name she had already forgotten.  Craig told her the name of the Sommelier on her way and within a minute or so she came out with a huge smile.  The name of the restaurant was Alan Wong's after all and she had sent the bottle to Mark who Craig knows all too well and will be emailing soon about her wine and our experience with it.   We couldn't believe the the fate that would bring us all the way to this winery tucked away on a dirt road in the valley of central Otago.

We must have spend an hour or more there just chatting and sharing her especially good wine!  She poured us a full glass of the award winner and showed us around her property she bought and cultivated only about 10 years ago.   Most of the wineries in NZ are young in comparison to some of the bigger wine regions of the world but I have to say the majority of the wines we've tried here have been excellent.
She sold us a bottle of here Saignee Rose for a remarkable discount and sent us on our way with lots of love and well wishes.  We left smiling and happy once again for allowing fate to take us on a perfect journey.

This has become our way of doing most things in life and it's working just fine.  We don't plan much too far in advance, allowing the moment to present itself and it more often than not flows right into perfect moments like this one.  Of course there are the moments that don't work out as well and then we just laugh at ourselves and move on.   Some times the frustration takes hold but in the end we're always smiling about it and learning from the many lessons we're learning together.  Life is good to us and we're so blessed to be experiencing it i this unique way!

In our Queensland "home" on the hill overlooking the lake and what they call the Southern Alps for good reason we read and shared our lovely bottle of Rose before heading down to our tent.  What a perfect way to end such a magical day!