Sampling wine first-hand

Matt Stewart | 20th March 2008

Wine traveller Alex Bazeley says he chose to touch down in Wairarapa because of its reputation for niche, quality wines.

"There's a lot going on in Wairarapa, I'm really enjoying it, Harvest Festival was a beautiful day and meeting all the winemakers has been great," he said.

With the vintage about to begin at Matahiwi Estate, Bazeley, an ex-Cardiff wine shop manager, said he came to the winery because he wanted to get hands-on with the winemaking process.

"I thought I'd take a year out and actually watch the wines being made," he said.

The 27-year-old has been taking in the Southern Hemisphere's key vine belts since leaving the UK in August. He has already seen how it's done in South Africa and has traversed (and tippled) all of Australia's major wine-growing regions.

"I came to New Zealand mainly because I've got a lot of Kiwi mates at home and they said it was cool, plus I love the wines."

Bazeley said Wairarapa and Martinborough wines have developed an international reputation for quality and as such it was a good place to be involved in.

"Now I'm at Matahiwi, which is my first time actually working in a winery.

"Working here has really made me appreciate how much hard work goes into a bottle of wine."

Trips to Bordeaux in the south of France with his parents as a youngster gave Bazeley his enduring love of wine and his grape odyssey is a natural companion with his passion for travel.

Accordingly Bazeley also has a website, winetraveller.net, which plots his journey with a Google map, blogs, wine reviews, user commentary and photos.

"I thought it would be fun to record my experiences on a blog. A couple of weeks ago I just hit 10,000 hits I write about wine I've drunk and places I've visited."

In the interests of neutralising bias we asked Bazeley what his pick for favourite non-Matahiwi Estate Wairarapa wine was & the answer Martinborough's Murdoch James' 2006 Pinot Noir.

When his Wairarapa sojourn ends in June he said he will continue his eastern route around the hemisphere to South America where he plans to devote most of his time to the wineries of Chile and Argentina.