“Waiheke Island is magic, a mere 20 kilometres from Auckland by ferry, but a world away in terms of atmosphere and charm.” Wine writer RICHARD CALVER shares a holiday highlight.

I spent the Christmas/New Year break in New Zealand with family. They live in Auckland, the most populous city, albeit not the capital which is windy Wellington. 

Auckland is well-known for its high humidity, which makes the air feel warmer and heavier, and that was certainly the case during our break, with frequent afternoon thunderstorms a feature.

Luckily, on the day we took the ferry to Waiheke Island the seemingly daily storm activity had done its dash by late morning but in the early evening clouds gathered again. 

Waiheke, the island of cascading waters, is renowned for its vineyards. They compete with lovely beaches for the tourist’s attention and we combined a beach walk (with some of our party swimming) with a visit to two wineries and a distillery, which also had a connected restaurant serving food that comprised the best meal of our holiday.

Waiheke is magic, a mere 20 kilometres from Auckland by ferry across the Hauraki Gulf, but a world away in terms of atmosphere and charm. 

That charm was also evident in the tastings we undertook at the two wineries we visited, Te Motu vineyard and Mudbrick Vineyard. Both vineyards have superlative views, Te Motu across the Onetangi Valley and Mudbrick the ocean framed by the sweep of landscaped gardens.

Te Motu has a range of tastings available at a cost and we took the top option, the vintage tasting, at $NZ55 ($A47.50) a head. We were served by one of the owners, Paul Dunleavy, whose family established the vineyard in the late 1980s. 

My sister dropped that I was a wine writer and Paul kindly expanded the tasting to include more wines than promised on the list.

He was proud of his Bordeaux-style wines and generous with the pours. Despite letting us taste wines from the early 2000s, my favourite wine was the 2021 Te Motu.

This is a cabernet sauvignon dominant blend with merlot, malbec, cabernet franc, syrah, and, Paul disclosed, a hint of carmenere. The latter part of the blend gave a slight pepper flavour in the finish.

This wine is very well balanced with the tannins discernible but not overwhelming, adding to a textural mouth feel that was pleasant across the palate.

At $NZ170 ($A147) a bottle, this wine is not cheap and all of the wines we tasted were from $110 to $285 a bottle. Boutique prices. 

The prices were also quite elevated at Mudbrick which, we were told by the engaging presenter Stella, hosts around four weddings a week.

The standout wine for me was also around the $NZ100 mark, the Reserve Syrah 2020.

Stella said: “2020 was a bad year for humanity, covid and all, but a great year for Waiheke wine.” This is true of this complex shiraz with a front palate of blackberry and a touch of maraschino cherry with a silky finish that also left a chocolatey flavour at the back of the mouth. Outstanding. 

On my next visit to NZ I’m definitely going back to Waiheke, not just for the boutique wines but to immerse in the splendid natural beauty. 

Oh, and now I’m back, NZ accent thick and heavy, I thought of this joke told to me a long time ago: 

A Kiwi local hadn’t been seen in a while, especially missing his garbage collections. Spotted by his neighbour on the most recent bin night he was asked: “Hey, neighbour, where’s your bin?”

The missing man says: “I bin in Australia, bro”. 

The neighbour says: “No, no, where’s your wheelie bin?” 

The man, now embarrassed, says “Aww, I wheelie bin in jail, bro.”