vilakins | Summer wine

I have just got back from one of those days out that have to go into the Good Memories box.

We went to the Kumeu Wine and Food festival and had a wonderful day in the sun with two excellent bands, lots of good wine from 12 wineries, and some very nice people. All the tables and chairs under the marquees were taken so we went to sit under a large tree, and some people there promptly offered us a rug. We spent several hours with them--it turned out we knew someone in common--and we had a great time chatting and telling each other about bizarre experiences (like the guy with the nipple ring who got it caught on a door in the office and was dancing about yelping to everyone else's puzzlement, ouch!)

Though they only had a few food stalls, one of them was Thai (great green curry and Pad Thai) and another was run by Fatima, a gourmet kebab place in Ponsonby I've been wanting to try. Their falafel in pita was to die for, the best I've had since Israel (and I pride myself on being a falafel connoisseuse). Wines: I had pinot gris, rosé (half of which got knocked over me, gewürztraminer, and a wonderful fusion sparking muscat (which I'm sure I bought from that winery last year; must unearth it). Kerr Farm was one of the wineries, but no, I didn't have any of theirs despite the name; I didn't fancy the four they were offering. We finished with Ice Wine (a yummy sticky dessert one) with hand-made chocolates. Mmm-mmm!

On the way out I checked out the craft stalls and Greg bought me an stunning skeletal copper fish on a torque choker and I bought a Thai silk scarf in pale gold and grey.

Lovely day out. It felt like a one-day holiday.

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I guess you must have been sipping rather than glugging, or your memory wouldn't be so clear! Sounds great.

They give you complimentary glasses on entry, not that big either, with marks on the side for half and full, and you can buy accordingly. It's a nice way to find wines you like so you can go back to the wineries later. I had full glasses except for the dessert wine, spaced over about four hours, and was never tipsy. After all, I had to drive home!

I have a growing collection of these glasses, all marked with the festival name and year. They're nice to use outside or at barbecues because I don't mind if anyone breaks one.

By'eck, you have a stronger head than me! I couldn't have walked home. It sounds a very civilised sort of day out; of course it'd never work over here....

I do have a good head for alcohol. If I'd started to feel even the slightest bit tipsy, I'd have stopped drinking; I hate that out-of-control feeling. They weren't big glasses though.

There are a quite few wine festivals at this time of year and I enjoy them because I can try different wines and good food. The people who go to them are always friendly and happy too; there's none of the drunkenness and bad behaviour you get at some outdoor concerts.

That sounds like a really nice day! We have a similar-format event here in glitterville, with our beer festival, but I'm not really enough of a beer fan to enjoy it. But the same with wine would be brilliant.

I love the sound of your scarf and necklace!

They're wonderful! The scarf looks amazing with anything beige, gold, or black, and the choker's fabulous. Really stunning, as was all the jewellery the designer was selling.

I love the wine festivals. Everyone has fun and I've never seen any bad or drunken behaviour. Some wineries also have excellent restaurants attached which are great to visit at this time of year. When we go up north next month, we'll do a bit of a wine tour. Hee; I keep intending to go to the one outside Hamilton called Vilagrad, but that's in the other direction. :-D

Vilagrad

What a brilliant name! I hope you can get glasses from there, too! :-)

It's a vineyard famed for its parties and functions and at one stage last year they had exotic dancers! I'm sure Vila retired there; it's just his thing. They have their own website (http://www.vilagradwines.co.nz/). And, sadly, 'vila' is just Croatian or Serbian for 'home' so the name just means 'home town'. I have a sister and brother in Hamilton so I'll get there. Maybe for my birthday this year; they have a big harvest party around then. [looks at harvest festival dates] Yesss! One of them is the day after my birthday. I just told Greg. It's a date!

Hee. Watch the new animated header on that site. There's a guy among the casks who looks like Vila, and the guy in the first photo below, upper left, is so an older Vila! It's true, I tell you, he came here after Gauda Prime. :-D

Twelve full glasses of wine and you drove home!! Even spread over 4 hours with my extra body weight I wouldn't have dared. Mainly because over here there would have been a fleet of police cars outside the gates of such an event here with police with Breathalysers in each hand just waiting to pounce. Still it sounds a great way to spend a day.

I didn't have 12! There were 12 wineries there, but I only had [counts them up] five and a half glasses from about four of them.

Oops, that will teach me to read not skim, I read that as 12 wines not wineies and thought you had tried them all, me bad.probably have driven after five and half glasses in four hours especialy with food, and the food you had sounded delicious

It was! I'll have to go to Fatima's now I've tried their justly famous food. Pity it's so hard to park around that area.

Sounds fab!

There used to be an annual festival here, sometime around now. Haven't seen any mention of it this year :(

There were two this weekend (one on Waiheke Island which would be fun, but Kumeu's a lot easier to get to) and there's the Devonport one next weekend, but that's far too crowded for my taste. We went one year and by the time we left, you had to shove your way between people to get through the crowds. Incoming ferries looked like refugee boats, packed to the gunwales. :-P

The people we met today said there are a couple of others in the area we hadn't heard of. I know we have a lot of vineyards up here, but then so does the South Island (e.g. Chard Farm) so I'm surprised you don't have at least a couple of them.

The furthest one we went to was Martinborough one year when we had friends with a house there. It was great (buses ran people between the wineries) though it poured with rain just for us; every other years it's been fine.

Oh, there are heaps of festivals, just that that was the only one that didn't need several hours of driving to get to.

Bum. I wouldn't bother going out of Auckland to one, but Waiheke counts as Auckland and Kumeu's just past the end of the western motorway. We only went to Martinborough because it was to see friends in Wellington who happened to have a holiday house there at the time. Still, there are three in two weeks here, though I won't go to Devonport--far too crowded. Hmm. Sometimes they hold one at Easter out west.

I'm seriously considering the harvest festival at Vilagrad (http://www.vilagradwines.co.nz/) outside Hamilton though; one of the days is the day after my birthday, I've been meaning to go there (it's a fun place apart from the name) and it's also their 100th anniversary. :-) Eh, it's only 90 minutes away.

Lovely day out. It felt like a one-day holiday.

:)

I've got a bottle of rioja thst Sainsbury's were doing at half price that I'm looking forward to opening later today.

To your health! :-D

Thank you. :)

sounds a great day, I love days like that :0)

It was wonderful. I love the wine festivals out west; nowhere near as crowded as the more fashionable ones.

Did you see what I said further up about a winery in the Waikato called Vilagrad? :-)

Sounds like you had a great time... the scarf sound nice!

It's great! It not only matches my winter coat (the one I call Colombo), it will actually make it look classy. :-D

Even better!

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