Plan a pinot pilgrimage to New Zealand – and don’t forget the jet boat ride
Canadian journalist Beppi Crosariol (The Globe and Mail) writes about his visit to Central Otago and his discovery of "the most compelling new pinot noirs outside France"...
The 95,000 visitors in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup, which culminates its 45-day run on Oct. 23, are about to learn a bittersweet lesson. As hard as it is to get to this country on the other side of the world, especially from such distant places as North America and Europe, it can be harder to leave. And not because of the post-rugby crowds at Auckland airport. The place grows on you from the minute you touch down.
It captivated me while still in the air as my flight slipped under the clouds on the last leg of a 30-hour journey from Toronto to Queenstown. The Southern Alps, frosted on many of the peaks, often glowed with a bright, grassy green below the snow line. Ireland meets the Rockies, I thought.
Regrettably, my travels included no rugby games. I had come for two more placid sports, eating and drinking. World Cup frenzy notwithstanding, New Zealand has come a long way since Rod Derrett's 1960s working-class anthem Rugby, Racing and Beer. I was keen to bear witness.
For starters, I intended to eat my weight in fresh seafood. I had heard in particular of a prized delicacy called the Bluff oyster, mainly harvested near the town of Bluff on the southern coast. I was told it's illegal to export the mollusk, and in a contemplative moment while crossing the Pacific on Air New Zealand's non-stop service from Vancouver, I fancifully imagined little hands emerging from their shells to deliver the one-finger salute to the tide of globalization.
My main destination: Central Otago, the world's southernmost wine region and source of some of the most compelling new pinot noirs outside France. If you love pinot, you probably know that finding a few good ones often entails travel beyond your local Canadian liquor store, and planning a vacation around the pursuit can seem entirely reasonable. Like the All Blacks, New Zealand's national rugby team, pinot has a way of breeding fanaticism....
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