Wine, wind and....bicycles😉

01/27/20

After the lively evening, we slept a little longer today. We are slowly but surely adjusting to this time zone and no longer wake up at four in the morning. We are sitting comfortably at breakfast, watching the other campervans and motorhomes set off. But we also have plans for today! Wine tasting is on the agenda. Since we want to leave the camper, we have decided to go by bike. We pedal quickly, it shouldn't be far. We keep cycling and cycling....somehow we imagined "not far" differently....we keep cycling, consulting the map, we keep cycling, consulting the map....look! A winery...not the one we had planned to go to...(we must have missed a turn)...but okay....the motto is "one is as good as the other"😉. We are rewarded with a very nice sales room, the young lady in charge of the wine tasting is extremely charming, likeable and capable! We eagerly taste the white wines from the Jackson Estate. Since we appreciate good wine, we also try the rosé. No one knows how it happened, but we refuse the red wine. The enterprising young lady then opens her treasure chest....we get to taste the dessert wine! It has a rich color, it is heavy and oily in the glass...and it tastes like nectar and ambrosia! Boldly, we venture to try the Barrique Sauvignon Blanc (which is actually not part of the tasting), since we are probably the most interesting guests by far, a bottle is opened especially for us! Very delicious. Thanks to luggage and budget restrictions....we only buy 2 bottles. Next stop: Cloudy Bay Winery!

Help....what a wind!! We are so glad that we are riding e-bikes....otherwise we might have been going backwards.... After a short ride, we arrive. Very elegant! However, the tastings are a bit more expensive here. We decide to do the Sauvignon Blanc tasting, but we also start chatting with the young lady and find out that the wind today is still rather moderate. She - and we too - is momentarily confused and we start with a sparkling wine, Méthod traditionelle. Delicious! We take a seat in the lush garden and decide to have a little something to eat. Oyster tempura and goat cheese with beets (guess who ordered what?!?). But the wine tasting must continue...the young lad at the bar realizes that his colleague made a mistake...but no problem....now our actual wine tasting begins! 3 different Sauvignon Blancs....one of them 13 years old. Fantastic....however, the prices are high too.... and by the way....didn't we order something to eat? It takes quite a while! I ask Juliette, the French cashier. The wind apparently blew away the order slip...it's nice that something other than us was blown away by the wind! It is served as quickly as possible. As compensation, we receive a glass of Sauvignon Blanc...hicks....we need food! Due to the late hour and the extensive wine consumption, we skip the third winery. We ride back to the campground with our e-bikes.

It's quite hot today...so we cool off in the pool that luckily exists....it didn't have to be that refreshing though!

The evening is rather cozy, the doll grills delicious lamb and beef/cheese sausages and we go to bed early.