And what great occasion to start my New Zealand summer with a visit to Toast Martinborough.
Toast Martinborough Wine, Food & Music Festival is “the” event for the Wairarapa Region.
10,000 tickets were sold out within 20 minutes of release. I’m glad Beaven had organised some for us.
The combination of culinary highlights from the region’s finest restaurants, wonderful live entertainment and of course sampling the wines from the participating vineyards, makes this event a real highlight.
The participating vineyards were:
Ata Rangi
Te Kairanga
Alana Estate
Tirohana Estate
Craggy Range
Margrain Vineyard
Winslow
Muirlea Rise
Martinborough Vineyard & Burnt Spur
Palliser
The most interesting aspect is this special very soft New Zealand Style Pinot Noir.
Having our desired traditional Burgundian style in mind, these wines are absolutely new world style – Upfront fruit, full bodied, very soft, smooth and pleasent.
Pinot in its youth needs some grip and slightly drying tannins, an ideal combination with food.
This is our aim to combine the traditional Burgundian vinification and style with the unique fruit of high quality New Zealand Pinot Noir.
We are now already looking forward to our own regional pre Harvest Festival, next to the Ruamahange River under beautiful old Totara trees, just a few hundred meters north of our vineyard.