Build update

Beautiful day today. Bright sunshine and a wonderful aroma of pine because all the materials are now on the site waiting to be locked together.

Through a glass...

Just one more thing.

Pagasus Bay restaurant and tasting room both used Spiegelau glasses rather than Riedel. Close but, as Bill Clinton said, 'No cigar.'

Pegasus Bay uncensored

The aircard connection doesn't restrict access to vineyards so I am allowed to consider aspects of the universe which include alcohol; funny that!

Pegasus Bay is not a vineyard I've examined at all since I arrived in Godzone. I've always looked at the labels and thought it was a kind of rip-off of Cloudy Bay. The Cloudy Bay label has a 'sexy' reputation worldwide and I have ignored Pegasus Bay because of it. How stupid is that? I have done Pegasus Bay a great disservice; the wines are outstanding and the customer service, both in the wine-tasting and the restaurant, is absolutely top-class, bordering on exemplary but not quite reaching historic proportions.

We arrived unannounced so no tables were available but, guess what? If we wanted to spend 15 minutes 'or so' in the tasting room then they would find a table. Well, no-brainer, really.

We tried some lovely drops including a delightful Riesling '07, a Sauvignon Semillon '07, a surprisingly weak Pinot Noir, a lovely Merlot Cabernet '04, a 'Maestro' '05 which is supposed to be a superior Reserve version of the Merlot Cab with a higher proportion of Malbec grape, but which seemed to have gone into it's 'tunnel' and was totally unimpressive, and a stunning 'Encore' '07 which is a Noble Riesling allowed to develop botrytis and very grateful it is for the opportunity. I bought a bottle of the delightful, a magnum of the lovely and a half-bottle of the stunning.

I was the designated driver so spitting was in order. The spittoon is the big barrel-like thing in the middle of the photo and, as the tasting room was empty when we arrived, that's what I used. However, other customers started to arrive and you can imagine my dilemma when presented with a choice of spitting into a barrel over someone's shoulder! Just visible on the right-hand counter is a small spittoon so I commandeered that and continued to spit with gusto until the table was prepared at somewhat over the '15 minute' prediction.










I chose the 'home oak barrel cold smoked salmon, Italian buffalo mozzarella, grilled zucchini, roast pepper bruschetta' accompanied by 'Paris mash' and a glass of the '03 Riesling. On the left is the photo from the web site and on the right is the dish I was presented with so they are honest and accurate with their advertising. It was superb.

Hep, the media guy had beetroot and goat's cheese, pictured here. He seemed to like it.








It had snowed the previous night and continued during the morning. Oceania contains members from places such as Fiji, Samoa, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands, additionally Hawaii is an invited guest so snow was a major new experience for them. The photo on the right is from the web site and the one on the left is mine from the day we were there.

Das Trinken wird verboten!

We've just finished the Oceania Championships in Christchurch. On the last day the media guy and I headed out to the Waipara valley to check out some wine-tasting and to feed ourselves. Waipara is not to be confused with Wairarapa as they are on separate islands but they do both produce some outstanding wines. No set plan but the early invitation came from the Pegasus Bay vineyard on the right about 30 minutes north of Christchurch.

I was going to show you pictures from their website but, as you can see, the content police here at the new offices are so on the ball that no hint of virtual alcohol is allowed to pass anyone's virtual lips.

I'll access it later on the aircard and complete the post as intended :)