This was the third winery on our list for the day and was very lovely. We booked ahead to do a wine tasting here, and it was a really nice experience. We sat at a big table near the windows which allowed us a great view of outside whilst being indoors.
The very cool thing about this winery is that they have Australian, New Zealand and South African wine. I was naturally very excited to try the wine here. Some of the wine they stock from NZ is from Craggy Range winery in the Hawkes Bay, which I have visited. This is a stunning winery (you should definitely visit it if in NZ), however, I am not a fan of their wines. In comparison to other NZ wines, this would not be the ideal representation of NZ wines in my opinion. We had a very nice tasting here nonetheless.
The NZ 2009 Wild Rock Sauvignon Blanc (R130) was nice, but it doesn't have the passionfruit flavours which I like in the NZ Sauvignon Blancs.
The Wild Rock Syrah 2006 (R160) was smooth yet a little dry on the palate.
The Australian 2006 Pirathon (by Kalleske - R235) was very nice. It was matured in french oak for two years. It is smooth, a little dry, has a smokey and earthy taste.
The Haskell Pillars Syrah 2008 (R400) was a little dry, but had a very nice taste and aftertaste.
The Haskell Aeon Syrah 2008 (R290) which is 95% Shiraz and 5% Mouvedre was smooth, nice flavoured, more robust and flavoursome than the Pillars Shiraz, with a slightly dry aftertaste. We all liked this one more than the Pillars. Though both were nice.
Out of all the wines, we all loved the Australian Pirathon the most.
The service here was great, the guy who served us was really informative and friendly. We all enjoyed the wine tasting here. I hope that my comments about the wines do not come across as a little harsh, as the wines were actually very nice, and I do believe are worth trying out!! On that note, the guy who does the wine tasting selects different wines for the tasting each week. I would be very keen to go again to try some of the other wines.
We had a lunch here at Haskell also. It was lovely!!! The views were fantastic, and the food was just as great!!
I had the lamb phyllo pastry special and it was awesome!!! Absolutely delicious!!!
Everyone enjoyed their meal and all agreed it was worth the visit for the wine, food and scenery.
Be sure to come here if you have the chance.
Hey Crissy, thanks for coming out and visiting. You're welcome any time, we'll try to let you know when we have some interesting stuff happening. Winemakers Table once a month which is well worth attending ( on a Friday).
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Grant
I visited the farm for the first time yesterday. I was very impressed with the wines of both the haskell and dombeya range( very good quality at affordable prices) Christine Andrews gave us a good tasting and showed she is really passionate about their wines. Best wine farm of the day!
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