Help - looking for a winery tour for January

[panama09]

We will be on the radiance of the seas and will be in Picton on 15 January. We are a family of 4 but will leave the 2 kids in kids club on the ship so my husband and I can enjoy a winery tour.

The tours that RCL are offering are expensive and they don't look like they go to many winery's

I would love to visit a few winery's and find a gorgeous spot for lunch before coming back to the ship.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Many thanks in advance

[Chairsin]

Two of the nicest places for lunch with very good food and obviously wine are Wither Hills and Alan Scott. Contact Kerry at BubblyGrape to set up a tour for you. You really don't want to try to visit more than four or five wineries in one day.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[bigdavefc]

Two of the nicest places for lunch with very good food and obviously wine are Wither Hills and Alan Scott. Contact Kerry at BubblyGrape to set up a tour for you. You really don't want to try to visit more than four or five wineries in one day.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I second the recommendation for Bubbly Grape. We did a tour Wine Tour with them last December and it was the highlight of our trip.

 

This is the review I posted on Tripadvisor...

 

Bubbly Grape Wine Tours provided our group with a tailor made tour of the Marlborough wine region that can only be described as magnificent. Without a doubt it was the highlight of our recent NZ cruise. We dealt with Kerry who tailored our itinerary so we could see the wineries we particularly wanted to see and she was very accommodating and a delight to deal with.

 

We initially booked 2 buses but we had a few cancellations as some people had to pull out of the cruise at relatively short notice but Kerry was very understanding and worked with us and we eventually had 1 bus exclusive to our group of 8. The price was extremely reasonable, the bus spacious and modern, and our guide was fantastic (my aunt thought he was also very yummy and wanted to take him home with us but that's a whole other story).

 

We sailed in to Picton and we were met by Jonathan who was our tour guide for the day. Jonathan is an amazing guide...very helpful, relaxed and has a great sense of humour. Throughout the day he would work with us to ensure we got to see and do everything that we had asked for and then would go that extra mile to make our winery tour special. From volunteering to be our group photographer, to altering the planned itinerary to allow us to do a few extra things like souvenir shop, nothing was too much for him to do.

 

Our first stop was Wither Hills winery where Bubbly Grape had arranged a private tasting of some of Wither Hills amazing wines. Afterwards Jonathan volunteered to take a few photos of our group outside the Wither Hills complex.

 

Next it was on to Cloudy Bay winery, where Bubbly Grape had organised a tasting in the barrel room. The smell was amazing and so too was the wine. Again Jonathan offered to take some group pics (as well as a couple of selfies...lol) of us amongst the vines.

 

Our third stop was Hunters winery. This is a smaller winery with an on site artist. Jonathon introduced us to the artist and we got to see him paint and see some of his work. Then it was off to a small tasting room to sample some more wine.

 

After all this wonderful wine it was time for some lunch. Jonathan took us to Dodson Street Beer Garden and cafe. They had approx. 27 beers and ciders on tap and we made it our mission to taste as many of them as we could. You could order a pizza and a tasting tray of 5 beers for $20 and I found that excellent value. Others in the group raved about the pork knuckle. Who would have thought that you would find traditional (and tasty) German food, wonderful pizzas and a huge array of beers in the middle of such amazing wine country.

 

After lunch Jonathon arranged an extra stop so we could purchase souvenirs and then it was on to Giesens Winery. We mainly were exploring the sauvignon blanc but don't dismiss the other varieties, I really enjoyed the Traminer riesling at Giesens.

 

Our last stop of the day was at the Makana chocolate shop. It's a small boutique chocolate factory and shop that sells some amazing sweet delights. Our favourite was a chocolate covered macadamia brittle. It wasn't cheap chocolate but it was definitely top quality. Jonathon surprised us all with a little gift of a chocolate truffle each , it was a nice gesture and shows how Bubbly Grape goes that extra mile.

 

Jonathan then dropped us back to Picton with enough time for us to do a little more shopping and return back to our ship.

 

We definitely recommend Bubbly Grape wine tours if you are ever in the Picton/Blenheim area. They do more than drive you around the Marlborough wineries, they ensure that you will have an amazing time doing it.

 

Thank you so much Kerry and Jonathan.

 

Dave & Jackie Phillips

[Hard-habit-to-break]

I can suggest Na Clachan

 

http://www.naclachan.co.nz/marlborough-wine-tour/

 

Had an amazing tour with them in Oct 2014.

 

They will tailor the tour to suit what you want, can go to as many wineries as you wish plus the Chocolate Factory, plus lunch somewhere nice. You just need to tell them what you want to do.

 

They tend to steer clear of the bigger wineries as they often charge for you to do a tasting and they go to the smaller boutique wineries that will give you free tasting and will often talk about how wine was produced in their area etc, if you are interested. If you just want to taste wine, that is fine by them.

 

Really friendly people, happy to work in with whatever you want and are able to come to the pier to meet you - some tour companies ask you to meet them in the township.