Central Otago

I was able to sleep in a little bit this morning because my wine tour didn’t start until the afternoon, so I decided to go for a run when I woke up. The running path around the lake is beautiful and loops in and out of the trees. Unfortunately, I tripped pretty much immediately after I got to the path and scratched up my phone and cut up my hand, knee, and hip. It really hurts to walk and running in the cold air was making the bleeding worse, so I couldn’t push myself too hard. I kept going though because since I like Queenstown so much, I felt like I needed to run through it.

My wine tour in Central Otago was beautiful. All of the wineries were set at the bases of the mountains. It reminds me of the winery we went to in Italy. I was on the tour with two couples who were both honeymooning. It was kind of weird being with such a small group, but it meant that we got to know each other. We visited Gibbson Valley, Waitiri Creek, Peregrine, and Chard Farm. I didn’t really like any of the wines particularly much, except we did try a fairly sweet Riesling at Chard Farm that was nice, but it cost $38 a bottle L I found out that apparently the sweetness of Rieslings isn’t based on the climate, but instead of how much sugar the maker decides to siphon out of the grape. I must like really sweet grapes because the 7g of sugar wine still wasn’t enough for me. Apparently it can go up to 45g. Even though I didn’t like the wines, it was fun getting to know the couples.

The Central Otago region specializes in pinot noir and pinot gris because of its position on the globe. The 44^th parallel has been determined to be the optimum growing position for the grapes that go into pinot noir. That’s why the wine is so big in Oregon, Central Otago, and Burgundy, France. It’s also starting to get big in Tasmania, which sits on the 42^nd parallel, so it has somewhat similar growing conditions.