pork chop

A small break from the New Zealand posts (and still many more to come, I assure you) to mention dinner. You see, I'm all alone tonight. Conrad is in Honolulu. I have Tyra, Simon, and a night of reality television to keep me company. Bless all those Americans out there desperate to make fools of themselves on national television.

I got home a little late from work tonight, not badly so, but too late for the start of swimming. Lazy me, I decided against showing up after practice had started and began work on dinner instead.

Two thick cut pork chops. Tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme.

A tomato, a bit of fresh fennel, some little black olives (nicoise?), a bit of white onion. Diced, tossed with olive oil, coarse salt seasoned with fennel, and coarse black pepper.

I placed the pork chops in a hot pan. Seared them on each side, then the pan went into the oven to roast.

Once roasted, the pork chops went onto a plate to rest and keep warm in the oven. I put the pan on a hot burner, brought the drippings to a boil, then added in sherry and then chicken broth. I reduced this, then swirled in a chunk of unsalted butter.

For plating, the pork chop went down, the fennel-olive-tomato on the side. I laid a few asparagus spears, then drizzled the sauce over it.

Wine? A cheap and cheerful (I love that expression) Chianti. Dessert? A bit too much of the cookie dough that turned into the batch of chocolate chip and walnut cookies that are still cooling on racks nearby.

Queenstown

Another blog posting wherein I start off reminiscing about the 2007 trip and the planning for it. Ah well, it's inevitable. Heck, if we decide to go back to New Zealand in 2011 (World Cup Rugby!), then you'll hear it all over again again!

Back in 2007, though, one place that I kind of blush to admit I vetoed was Queenstown. Foolish me, I had no clue about the wines in the area. Instead, my knowledge of Queenstown was that it was a bunch of bungee jumping and adventure sports. Um, no thanks. But as I said, I was foolish, for Queenstown is a handsome little city.

We flew down there on the Monday morning and spent a little while exploring the town a bit, including getting lunch then heading up the gondola to see the view of the city from up high. You know what? My first time in one of those things. Scared of heights, you know. It wasn't too bad, all things considered, and the view was quite worth it.






We got out of the city later that afternoon, heading for the Millbrook Resort

to enjoy the spa. A massage after 30+ hours of travel is truly a very good idea.

The next morning, before the wine tasting adventure, Conrad and I walked from our hotel into town to find good coffee and just enjoy the quiet morning. The lake was enticing,



but the temperature was not, sadly.

Some shots, then of the town, one we'd gladly go back to (if only for the wines!).

NZ wines: Otago

When we did our first trip to New Zealand in 2007, we had a lot - A LOT - of discussion about potential itineraries. So many places to see and things to experience. How to figure it all out and draw up a do-able schedule?

Well, what do we like? Food, obviously. Also wine. And that became the core of that 2007.

One other good thing on that visit was getting re-acquainted with Dion and meeting his wife, Minna. As it turns out, they, too like wine. Serendipity! Happier still for Conrad, they rather like their Pinot Noir. Best of all, New Zealand, and Central Otago in particular, is gaining ever greater and deserving renown for its Pinots. Of course we began the trip own there. And so, on our second day in New Zealand and under gloriously sunny skies, we set out tasting.

I don't have any photos from our first stop, The Big Picture. It's a good idea, a wine experience parked out among vineyards and offering tastings of several wines. I just wish they were offering better wines. The six pours were not very distinct from each other, frankly, and I found the wines unexceptional. Nonetheless, it was lovely to sit out in the sun and begin the tasting, if tentatively. We ended up not buying any of the six Pinots we tried, but we found, instead, the lovely Valli Pinot Noir we'd had the night before at Saffron (blog posting to come). That first stop paid off a few nights ago when we enjoyed the bottle over a quiet Saturday dinner in.

On to the first proper winery: Rockburn. Conrad loves that rock wall there.
We all liked the wines we tried, in fact. We came away with two of their moderate label, the evocatively named Devil's Staircase (a mountain feature on the lakeside south of Queenstown), and enjoyed the Pinot Noir a few nights later while in the Catlins. The Pinot Gris came home with us. A delightful start.



Mt. Difficulty was up next,

and what an experience that was. I'll embarrass myself now by forgetting the name of the man who took us round, but it was a fantastic customized visit to a winery whose Pinot Noir we'd enjoyed a number of times. Minna's company owns (or is it distributes) the wines, and so she had arranged this special visit.



Wow. What a thrill, getting a look at what the workings were on the day before the grapes were to be harvested. They took such good time and care with us, it was remarkable. And hey, great wine. We couldn't taste the high end single vineyard ones, but we trust they'll be good, and we came home with a bottle. Also, a cap and a t-shirt - I love the logo. Oh, and a dry Riesling. What struck me over the course of the say was that Otago may be known for its Pinot Noir, but I liked a lot of the Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay I tasted. It made for a more complete experience that day.

Anyway, the tour done, we ventured up to the winery restaurant with its gorgeous view of the river valley below.
Those hoodoos over there? Left behind by former mining activity in the area. Lunch on the sunny patio, and it was hare for me.
Hare. Cool! We sat by a handsome little water feature and relaxed quite nicely.



Next up was just a short drive, next door as these things go. Another lovely setting. Grapes ripening, protected from birds.
Conrad picked up some
fallen on the ground - somehow, they still look so appealing. Felton Road is a producer of highly-sought and high-quality wines. Some of them are for mailing list clients only, and there is a waiting list to get on the mailing list! I'll say two things:

• The wines we tasted were magnificent. I tasted a vin gris - a rose left pale as can be - and loved it. The "regular" Pinot Noir? Super! Oh, and what was that I spied? An opened bottle of an exclusive single-vineyard Pinot? Oh no, the woman, protested, it's been open for a few days, left over from some event. No worries, I said, I'm sure it's fine. Oh yeah, it was fine. Very fine. Easy to see why there's a waitlist. Sad not to be able to sip more.
• The woman behind the counter should work in another part of the winery away from customers. Sorry. She was very pinched in manner and acted as if it was incredibly disagreeable to her to have to have strangers come in and want to buy wine.

We left with a couple of bottles, of course.



Up next: Akarua. This seemed so much more low key a place, and the wines were more modest. No worries, modest by comparison to Felton Road is not a bad thing. This was another place where I liked the whites as well, and we ended up with not just Pinot Noir but an unoaked Chardonnay as well.

Carrick. Wow, a lot of wine already consumed. Conrad and Dion kind of eased off at this point (and Minna, in case I hadn't mentioned it, was our designated driver - we hope that when Peaches Honeyblossom is born next stuff, that Mom and daughter will be healthy). No matter, my tastebuds go on. Sadly, my memory is dreadful, and though we did buy a bottle, I cannot recall it. Fair enough. I liked the place and its wines, but I wasn't blown away by them.

Still with me? Good. Two more (plus) to go! The last one before dinner was sort of my request, based on looking at the map and past experience: Wooing Tree. Love that name. It ended up having a cozy cottage feel to it. Again, good wines. We've got a bottle of Pinot Noir here with us at home.

You can tell that we were flagging at this point - we weren't buying as much, and I'm writing less and less. Two more stops, though up next was a bit of a snack. We'd been drinking all day, but we needed something else. Though we didn't go to the winery here, we did like a break with some cheese at Gibbston Valley.

And then it was on to Amisfield.
Ah, we'd looked forward to this one. A year and a half ago we'd marveled at one of its wines over Boxing Day dinner at NoMI. Now we would visit the winery AND have dinner there. On such a lovely, sunny day, what could be better?


The darn thing is, we didn't actually have a range of wines. A bottle with dinner, and not even our favourite bottle of the day. Ah, who cares? Come on? What a setting, out there on that sunny patio.

Dinner served in multiple courses family style, with some risotto, salmon, beef, salad, and more even.



All very very satisfying.

We chuckle at our holidays being planned around wine, but really, look at the day we had, the company we had, and read what I say about the wines and the food. Is it any wonder we do? Now all we have to do is figure out how to persuade Minna to organize similar days in the future...