Central Otago

November 8, 2011 by Heather Lucier Stanley 2 Comments

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After hearing the we could not ski, 2 people in our group suggested to our tour operator that we participate in another wine tasting. Surprise? Not really. Skiers like to drink wine!

The tour operator called around and by the end of our Coronet Peak tour, the wine tasting shuttle had arrived at the base of the mountain. Each of us paid our own wine tour cost, but at $105 New Zealand dollars, I felt it was a real bargain because we got to taste Pinot Noir from one of the top three Pinot Noir regions in the world: Central Otago.

Willamette Valley in Oregon; Burgundy in France and Central Otago in New Zealand are the top Pinot Noir regions in the world. Before the movie Sideways, Pinot Noir was my favorite grape and it is still most often my go to grape varietal. However,Sideways, in raving about Pinot Noir, created greater demand for it. A finicky grape with greater demand means that it has gotten pricier. A good bottle under $20? Really hard to find! I wish Sideways did not reveal the secret, but I still love that movie!

We visited four wineries on our Queenstown Wine Trail tour:

Gibbston Valley
Peregrine
Chard Farm
Amisfield

I really enjoyed Gibbston Valley, where the group also stopped for lunch, and Peregrine. The others are also excellent wineries, but after 2 tastings, it is hard to be as objective. Oh, what a party!

heather

About Heather Lucier Stanley

Heather Lucier Stanley grew up in Central Massachusetts and lived in New England until she started studying at the University of Michigan where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature. In her early 20s, she moved to San Antonio, Texas and started studying business and accounting. In her late 20s, she became a Certified Public Accountant. She has held many varied and interesting business and volunteer positions: public accountant, internal auditor, systems implementer, project manager, business analyst, tax preparer and Austin Skiers board member. While traveling 35% for a position she held, she earned her Master of Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Phoenix. She is enthusiastic about learning and trying new things. A few of her passions are personal development, fitness, snow skiing, and travel. She is outgoing and real. She feels that success is easy to attain if the individual defines what success means to her and then has a plan to achieve her individual success. No two definitions of success are the same because each of us is unique and has something original to share with the world.
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