Spin the Bottle

There’s more to New Zealand’s most famous wine region than its ubiquitous sauvignon blanc.

A full guide to New Zealand’s Marlborough wine region

at the north-eastern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, Marlborough is a striking patchwork of vineyards, sheep-dotted pastures and mountains reaching for the long white clouds.

It’s not the easiest place to travel to, even from Australia’s eastern coast. To get here, you must first fly to Wellington then take a ferry to the seaside community of Picton, followed by a drive to the small town of Blenheim – the perfect base from which to explore the region.

Marlborough rewards the tenacious traveller with more experiences than you can pack into a single weekend. To its north lies a maze of mountains and sounds. To its south is the Kaikoura Peninsula, one of the most beautiful places in the world for spotting whales, dolphins, fur seals and penguins, while to the west are the pristine Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes national parks.

And then there are the wines. With 20,000 hectares of vineyards, Marlborough is the country’s largest wine region, responsible for more than 75 per cent of the total national yield. Sauvignon blanc is, of course, the star of the show, while LVMH-owned Cloudy Bay (cloudybay.co.nz) is the George Clooney of wineries.

Look beyond the blockbuster attractions and you’ll discover hidden gems such as No. 1 Family Estate (no1familyestate.co.nz), where a 12th-generation champagne-maker handcrafts only one type of wine, méthode traditionnelle sparkling, and Framingham (framingham.co.nz), which produces a dazzling array of rieslings. A couple of days is definitely not enough time in Marlborough but these vineyards make a fine start.