With the Autumn already starting to show itself with the grape harvest just around the corner, we were blessed with a glorious sunny day for the Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival. With bands playing all day, local restaurants providing samplers of their wares, and of course local wines to be sampled, it was a great day out.

The small town of Martinborough is certainly the most famous for wine in the Wairarapa province, and as they had had their own event ‘Toast Martinborough’ back in November, so this is mainly about the wines from the rest of the region. That’s not to say they weren’t represented at all though – and the Hudson Winery certainly brought some flair to the event!

Due to the heat, I stuck to white for most of the day, starting at Jo Ryan’s where I finally had a chance to try his wines – after me and a group of friends helped him picking some Chardonnay the week before! These turned out to be some of my favourite wines of the day – the Joseph Ryan 2007 Sauvignon is a beautiful fresh style with appealing fruit of citrus, a great refresher to ease me into things, but the wines got better from there!

The Joseph Ryan 2007 Pinot Gris has an awesome nose, with loads going on without being too busy – almonds, stone fruits and some pear. The palate is pleasingly refreshing, with more almond cake and light fruit.

It was the Joseph Ryan 2006 Riesling that I opted to take home with me though – and if I was staying in New Zealand for longer, I’d have bought some to cellar, because with plenty of acidity giving the wine backbone, this will be drinking really well in 3-5 years. The nose is fairly restrained, with some green apple and a touch of wax, but it’s on the palate that it really explodes. Zingy vibrant lime, with honeysuckle and some developed flavours leaving a richer more rustic finish – as well as the acidity, which lingers on.

I did eventually plunge into some reds – all Pinots! and my favourite (of the few that I tried – towards the end of the afternoon…) was the 3 Terraces Pinot Noir 2006. Which had some lovely creamy character a bit like Brie on the nose, and had nice balanced fruit and decent length. A good example of the style that comes out of the region.

This was the second year the Harvest festival and while no one can guarantee the weather for next year – I’d highly recommend it as a day out!