Day 2 in Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. It’s a beautifully sunny day, with vivid colours and temperatures in the high 20s. Just the day for a walk through the vineyards. And lots of Riesling.   It’s the Summer of Riesling event, which involves christening the new vineyard walking trail that’s just been opened. And then we stopped at Mountford, tasting some 50 Rieslings from around New Zealand, and then walked again to Black Estate, tasting another 30 there. We also had a spot of lunch, and some beer. It was pretty epic.

The fab Angela Clifford and Lynette Hudson (partners in Tongue in Groove wines) gave a speech before the walk about Riesling. James Millton gave a speech at Mountford about synaesthesia and Riesling, and then Andrew Headly from Framingham (New Zealand’s master of Riesling, even though he comes from the northeast of England) gave a talk at Black Estate. The mood was good, the wine was good, the weather was good. Below are some of the best (though not all… I enjoyed so many).

Mid afternoon I headed back to Pegasus Bay, where I was staying, for some beer in the spectacular gardens (Moa, in three kinds). A quick change of attire, and it was time for the evening’s festivities, which involved an aged Riesling tasting, some live music, a tutored tasting by Jo Burzynska on music and wine (it does seem to affect the way we actually perceive wine, in that different music made the same wines taste a bit different in an interesting but rather annoyingly unpredictable way), and then a dinner. And then wine, and more wine, and lots of banter, a bit of opera singing, more wine, and finally off to bed in the middle hours of the morning. It was a great day.