My family’s favorite wine has been a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc for years now. Whenever I go to Fine Wine & Good Spirits back home, those are the wines I stock up on, opting to try different labels and New Zealand regions every time. Our favorite region is the Marlborough wine region, but as that’s on the South Island, I’ll have to save that trip for another time.

Where I’m located on my farm on the North Island, I live right next to Hawke’s Bay, which is another large wine region that I had tried wines from before. I was only a less than two hour drive away from the town of Hastings, which sits next to many of the wineries, so on my days off, I planned to have myself a little wine tour.

I found a company that allowed you to hire bikes to follow a wine trail and visit multiples wineries throughout the day. The trail I chose – the Bridge Pa trail – had about 6 wineries all within easy biking distance from each other. I opted to go that route to visit as many wineries as I could. For this trip, I invited my roommate Steve along, as I figured biking to wineries and doing wine tastings was more fun with a buddy than alone.

We picked up our rental bikes at 10 AM, ready to start our drinking before the sun had risen to its full height. We’d left the farm early and got to Hastings early enough to visit a cafe I had earmarked. That allowed us to carbo-load for our drinking adventure and I had one of the best breakfast sandwiches of my life there. All I know is that it had egg, prosciutto, some kind of amazing sauce, and the best bread I’d ever sunk my teeth into. I miss that sandwich every day.

It was a beautiful day, and I even started to get a little red on my shoulders after sitting outside at the first winery. The first stop happened to be right next door to the bike rental shop, so we only had to pedal a few meters before parking up and heading to our first morning wine tasting.

The tastings were all fairly cheap at every winery, and the cost of the tasting was waived if you purchased a bottle of wine. I am now 4 bottles of wine richer after this adventure.

The first winery was called Ash Ridge, and offered a picturesque view of a nearby mountain range. Here we tried 4 wines, getting 2 whites and 2 reds. I didn’t meet a wine that I didn’t like, and particularly liked their Pinot Gris – so much so I walked away with a bottle. As Steve called it, the Pinot Gris was “dangerous” as it was such an easy one to drink.

As we biked through the vines to the next winery, I noticed sheep running around through the vines. I asked the man running our next tasting about it, and he said that during the winter season, the farms don’t have much need for their sheep. Therefore, they sort of rent them out to the wineries, and the sheep provide pruning and fertilizing services to the vineyards, just by running around and living life. In a country with so many sheep, I loved seeing this kind of symbiotic relationship happening.

Our second winery was called Paritua, and had a very modern and clean build to their tasting room, though apparently it was built 15 years prior. The man running our tasting was from England, but has been living in New Zealand for about 2 decades by now. He was a very entertaining fellow, and allowed us to try a range of their wines, starting from the popular rosé and ending with the expensive red blend that I would be terrified to splurge on. At the end, both Steve and I walked away with a bottle of the rosé.

Now that it was officially the afternoon, and thus a more appropriate drinking time, we strapped our helmets back on and made our way to the third winery, Sileni. While our bike rental also came with a complimentary pick up service where they would pick up any of your bottle purchases for you, Steve had brought a backpack and opted to carry all of our treasures in there on our bike ride. There was also a handy little basket hanging off the front of our bikes, but the backpack was definitely more secure.

I had read online that Sileni offered an amazing cheese plate, so I had assumed that would act as our lunch. However, when I walked up to the counter to find Steve wide-eyed and waiting for me, those plans were dashed. I’m still fairly poor, but the cheese plate on their menu was $50, and I just wasn’t feeling that luxurious that day. So, Steve and I forewent the cheese plate, and opted just for the wine tasting.

The Sileni tasting included 5 wines, but our tasting attendant kept returning with new bottles and saying “This is another complimentary one,” before launching into his description of the wine. I think overall we ended up trying 8 wines, at least, at this one location.

The Sauvignon Blanc was the wine at this location that caught my attention. Our attendant said that theirs was made to mimic Sauvignon Blanc that comes from the Marlborough wine region – AKA my favorite wine. While there were some differences I could note between this and my usual wines, I could definitely see the resemblance, and I finished off Steve’s portion as well as he didn’t enjoy it as much as he truly should have.

By the time we stood up at the end of our tasting, I knew all of our bonus wines were hitting me at once. While I went to the bathroom and pretended not to be drunk, Steve checked out with our two new bottles and met me outside. My newest wine baby was a Sauvignon Blanc – obviously – and Steve left with a Pinot Noir.

We met back up on the curb outside, where we sat for a bit before hopping back on our bikes. Clearly, since it was past 1PM now and I hadn’t had lunch, the 8 wines in the tasting hit a little too hard. Luckily, Steve is like a dad and had a bunch of snacks in his backpack. He pulled out crackers and gummy bears and we sat for a bit and snacked until I felt ready to go again. I was safe, I promise!

As we had plans for getting dinner somewhere in town, we only had time for one more winery. And probably, my body couldn’t handle much more midday wine, so one last stop around 2PM was a perfect finale. At this winery, we did decide to indulge in the cheese plate, which was about half the price of the Sileni one, and did our final wine tasting.

Instead of sheep, this winery, Oak Estate, had chickens and a rooster roaming around. For our tasting, we sat outside at a picnic table to enjoy the sun. The chickens wandered around us and under our table, keeping close. Sadly, they didn’t seem all that interested when I tried to pet them. The wine from this tasting that stuck with me, and that I opted to take home, was called Alba. It was a blend of Chardonnay, Viognier, and Chenin Blanc. It was a very summery wine, and fit the warmth of the day perfectly.

After wrapping up our cheese board and wine tasting, we biked it on back to our rental place where we returned our bikes and loaded up our new purchases into the car.

For dinner, we went to the nearby city of Napier, which is right on the East coast of the north island.

Napier is known for its Art Deco architecture, and walking down the streets in the town center feels like you’re walking through a 1930s film set. A storm destroyed the town in the 30s, so everything was rebuilt in the style of the times, and has been perfectly preserved to this day. It’s a very cool city to walk through and explore.

The city is built right up onto the stone beach that marks the coastline, stretching for endless miles. One guy I worked with supplied the fun fact that a lot of people died on this beach because the ocean has a strong undertow. I did not go in the water.

There was a cute cafe along the beach that Steve and I tried the next day. Steve often likes to be experimental and try things that sound strange, so he ordered something called a “fat black” off the menu while I opted for my trusted matcha. While we were waiting for our drinks, I looked up “fat black” to try and find out what kind of drink that could be. Google returned to me a list of results describing butter coffee, something I’d heard of as a trend years ago, but had forgotten about in the time since.

For those who have never heard of butter coffee, or bulletproof coffee as I think it also went by, it is essentially just a cup of coffee with a chunk of butter in it. I think it was good for those on a keto diet as it is low in carbohydrates, but high in fat. I never tried it.

When I shared this new information with Steve, his eyes widened and I could see the regret at his spontaneity take over quickly. He thought the whole recipe was some kind of joke, but unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what his fat black turned out to be. It was obvious as soon as it was placed on our table, as there was a layer of melted butter fat about a half-inch thick on the top.

True to form and principle, Steve finished the whole thing, but not without a grimace on his face. I forced myself to take a sip, and don’t think I will ever find myself ordering a fat black in the near or distant future. Steve learned his lesson as well, but hasn’t stopped with his enjoyment of surprise ordering.

Overall, despite drinking plenty of wine earlier in the day, our night consisted of some more wine and experimental cocktails at a few cocktail bars. At one place, we simply ordered drinks based on their names. Steve got to suffer through “The Antichrist,” which contained more cinnamon than I ever thought possible in a cocktail.

My last drink of the night was absolutely awful, but had listed an ingredient called “croissant milk” and I simply had to know what that was. Unfortunately, after suffering through the drink, I still have no idea.

I’d consumed enough alcohol on this trip to last me a lifetime, along with my truckload of wine bottles that I was bringing home with me. Despite trying my creative cocktails, wine is still the one alcohol that has my heart, and I still have plenty more New Zealand wine regions to explore. I haven’t had a bad NZ wine yet, and I’m not sure if I ever will.

Not to say that my wine standards are particularly high, but that’s neither here nor there.