New Zealand adventure days 4 and 5, heading to Central Otago and visiting Te Kano
It’s a strange drive from Waipara to Queenstown, and a long one. The first two and a half hours is spent driving through pivot-irrigated cow pasture on the flats south of Christchurch, and it’s a bit depressing. But after you hit Geraldine, an archetypal country town, it gets interesting. The landscape changes, becomes quite dramatic, and it weaves through high country. There are the two alpine lakes, Tekapo and Pukaki, which on a sunny day are a stunning vivid blue, with Mount Cook visible in the distance across Pukaki. There’s also Mackenzie country which is a dark skies reserve, with very little light pollution, so a great place to watch stars. Then you head through the Lindis Pass, which is quite dramatic. It took me seven hours to get to Queenstown, and such a delight to be back in Central Otago.
I had just three visits in Central, aiming to do deep dive rather than just a normal visit. The first stop was at Te Kano, with Rhonda Lloyd (owner), Dave Sutton (winemaker), Natty Walsh (marketing) and Mark Naismith (viticulture). Back in 2018 I visited them when they’d just planted their Northburn vineyard, and I was quite keen to see how this ambitious vineyard had progressed, seven years later.
It’s 40 hectares on the side of Lake Dunstan, and the vineyard consists of lots of different blocks, with differences in altitude, aspect and soil. The vineyards are looking very good.
They also have vineyards in Bannockburn, where their impressive tasting room is located, and Waitiki. Waitiki is a couple of hours drive away and has a strong limestone influence and cooler climate. They picked up established vineyards there, and also bought the old Pasquale winery, which is ideal for them because it has a 400 ton capacity. And this was a lot cheaper then building a winery in Central, which was the original plan.
The wines are looking really good, ranging from quite straightforward, well made crowd pleasers to some quite serious Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Dave is a thoughtful winemaker, and having Northburn, Waitaki and Bannockburn vineyards gives lots of options for blending in interesting components, as well as making single vineyard offerings. Full write up to come.
