The weather was looking reasonably promising as we were collected at 10 am by Brigid, our driver and guide for the day, and we were soon on our way to our first tasting at Clearview, up on the coast on the way to Cape Kidnapper's Point. As we arrived it turned out that the cellar door was closed today but they were happy enough to open it just for us. We were very glad they did as the wines we tasted were all delicious. Next stop was Elephant Hill where we particularly liked their Rose and Viognier, but the most interesting aspect of our visit was that there were two other couples visiting the winery at the same time as us and both were also from Hong Kong!!

We moved on from winery to winery and also tasted many delicious wines at Te Awanga, Te Mata, Triangle Cellars which promotes three boutique wineries, Trinity Hill and the beautiful Craggy Range winery which has a fantastic mountain view. We finished the day with a visit to De La Terre Wines where, as well as tasting some stunning wines, we were able to have a long chat with Tony the owner and winemaker who also gave us some interesting tastes straight out of the barrel.

It was a great wine day!! The area is known for C******nay and Syrah and we agree that there are some really good ones to be found. However, for us the surprise find of the day was that many of the wineries make really delicious Viognier, really drinkable and not at all heavy and perfumed as it often seems to be.

After a hard day's wine tasting we knew we didn't feel like going out to dine so, at the end of our tour, we picked up a take away roast chicken sandwich. This was a big mistake as it was absolutely AWFUL!!