Marlborough Wine Country

Auntsfield’s vineyards

The original Auntsfield winery

soil cutting from Auntsfield vineyard

Baby grapes!

Seresin Estate

Different Soil Types in the Region

Anti-cork, Pro-screwcap

Old Pruning method

New Pruning method

Since I have already gotten way behind in posting about my travels around the South Island, where I went to 3 different wine regions and spoke with a bunch of different producers, I thought I’d just start posting some photos.  Here are some from Marlborough, New Zealand’s most well-known wine region (especially if you’re talking about Sauvignon Blanc).  While the scene in Marlborough can seem dominated by big producers such as Brancott Estate, Villa Maria, Cloudy Bay, etc., the variety in Marlborough is actually quite impressive, from smaller family-run wineries such as Auntsfield (whose vineyard was originally planted  by ‘Marlborough’s original winemaker’ – David Herd – making him, I suppose, the other Marlboro[ugh] Man…), fully organic and biodynamic enterprises such as Seresin, to heavily European influenced producers such as Fromm and Hans Herzog.  Though notorious for Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough has started to branch out a bit, with many different varietals planted there, perhaps best exemplified by Forrest, who make around 50 different wines (though some are made from grapes grown in other parts of NZ – still, an impressive feat for their size!).