Matakana

Dion and Minna have wireless, and while I'm trying not to use up all of their limit for the month, I do have to get some photos up and at least one blog entry in. I'll be jumping all over on the blogging posting in days ahead, and I have a huge number of photos to weed through before I do. It's easy to pull off what we got up to yesterday and show a little bit of that. And only a little bit: it's a lovely sunny Sunday out there, and we'll want to wander off before too long and enjoy the day.

After breakfast - again at that funloving near by cafe, Jafa - we hopped in a car to head about 3/4 of an hour north to Matakana. The town is noted for a few things, including its market. An upscale market at that, and we sampled some tasty local products like good mustards and preserves. We even bought a few things there: mustard, a chocolate and hazelnut butter, lime-scented olive oil.

One other thing we picked up, though, was a quince ratafia. It's an old-fashioned recipe for a spiced liqueur made of the fruit. We're quince fans, definitely, and we did buy a bottle after tasting it, but what caught our eye was that it was from Heron's Flight.

My friend Dave had pointed us to Heron's Flight. His cousin, Mary Evans, and her husband, David Hoskins, own the winery, and - in fact - it was David who was at the market selling wines, grape juice, and the ratafia. We had a nice chat, and when he learned who we were, he let us know to get up to the winery as soon as we could to try the wine and meet his wife.

We're very grateful to Dave for putting us in touch with Mary because that was a very relaxing time spent at the winery. We arrived to find the placed thronged with what turned out to be a 50th anniversary party. The winery has full restaurant service and a good patio overlooking the vines. Set in among the green hills near Matakana, it's an exceptional escape from the city. We sat outside with Mary for a while, and she opened a bottle of their Sangiovese for us.

What's noteworthy about the winery (well, several things are, of course) is that it focuses on only a few wines, and rather than the usual NZ varietals (of which Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are the most common in our sampling), the winery produces wine from two Italian grapes: Sangiovese and Dolcetto. We were drinking their top line Sangiovese, and it opened up beautifully as we sat and sipped.

Eventually cool breezes drove us inside where we continued to enjoy chatting and sipping. Despite the crowd there, Mary had arranged for us to have a terrific platter of breads and spreads. We didn't go hungry from there - it was more the case that between the wine and the food, we were utterly relaxed and content.

It was only a few hours that we were in Matakana, but it was a wonderful time. And, of course, we finished off very well with dinner at the French Cafe. Ah, but that's a blog entry for another time.