An Unexpected Renaissance (Feb. 20-21)

So the last few days we’ve been making our way down the east coast of the S. Island. We left Andrew’s house in Nelson on Monday for Blenheim, a sunny town on the northeastern tip of the S. Island that’s basically in the country’s most famed wine region: Marlborough. Blenheim is a ridiculously sunny, dry, and flat town, with sets of brown, arid mountains looming in the distance. It feels a lot like many towns out west in the States, only it makes some serious wine and is much nearer to the beach.

Montana Brancott Winery

Unfortunately Becky and I are about the furthest things from wine connoisseurs, so we felt like Star Wars fans at Trekkie convention; we heard everyone tell us how good the wine is and what a choice place it is do to winery tours, but it wasn’t quite enough to convert us to drinking lots of Sauvignon Blanc, nor to wearing Spock ears. (Note: I realize the analogy was cheesy, but I spent 5 minutes thinking of it, so I was damn sure was going to go all the way with it.)

Not that we aren’t trying to appreciate wine a bit more here. We’ve been trying to buy New Zealand wines every so often to drink with dinner, though I admit we’ve only bought the cheaper stuff, so maybe that’s part of the reason we haven’t had any religious wine experiences here so far? Although we did enjoy a bottle of Corban’s White Label Sauv Blanc, which was quite the deal at NZ$9 (less than US$7).

In the spirit of oenophilic exploration we even booked a tour at Montana Brancott, apparently one of NZ’s larger wineries, outside Blenheim. Our tour guide had to be one of the most preternaturally perky people we’ve ever seen; I do not have the personality to do that job, but good on her. As we toured the winery, we mused that it would be the kind of place that Miles, the main character in the film Sideways, would hate. We certainly didn’t hate the place, but didn’t like any of the wines in the tasting enough to buy a bottle. In any event, we felt that while in NZ we should tour a winery at some point, so we may now check it off our ‘life-experiences checklist.’ I’m only partially kidding.

In a more exciting (at least to me personally) side trip, we stopped by a brewery in Blenheim, Renaissance Brewing, which was actually just a few blocks from our hostel. We met the brewers, two brothers-in-law from San Diego who had each moved to NZ in the past several years. Andy, the head brewer, was a beermaker in California, and had also made wine in NZ, while Brian was formerly a mechanic before joining Andy to start their brewery. They actually bought an old, failed brewery, Marlborough Brewing, which was quite a small operation, but which tried to compete with the big boys…on price. You can probably guess how that went.

When they bought the brewery in September 2005, Andy got a look at the state of everything and was appalled at the way the previous brewers had made beer there, as they obviously didn’t know any better and had ended up with really crappy beer as a result. That and the hilariously misguided product strategy was pretty much the epitaph of Marlborough. Andy and Brian ended up spending months cleaning, repairing, and modifying equipment, and started bottling and kegging beer last year.

After talking with the guys for quite a bit, Becky and I did a tasting at the bar next door, and were really pretty impressed with the beer. Renaissance does an English Pale Ale, a Porter, and a Scotch Ale for bottling and sale. They also are producing an American Pale Ale and a Double IPA, but aren’t as quite as far along on production of them. We were especially impressed with their Scotch Ale, as it had lip-smacking flavor and a really rich body. Thinking about it right now makes me want one, mmm.

During our tasting, Brian asked what we were doing in NZ, and so we told him about our travel and work plans. After hearing about our backgrounds and our plans, he asked if we’d be interested in a flexible position introducing their beers to bars and stores along our travels, as they are a young brewery looking to get its product into many more locations. I thought it sounded like a great and fun idea, so before long we got Brian to give us a case of beer to give out as samples and some promotional material. I like the position as it’s flexible, will allow me to participate in something I really like, beer, and the beer is a product that is really easy to get behind, as it’s really damn good. Their even printing up business cards for me. Check back in a few months to see how I feel then I guess…