Cloudy Bay

I really wanted to go to the lesser known, family run vineyards in the Marlborough area, so first we went to the Forrest vineyard owned by Dr Forrest. He's named a bubbly named after his wife, simply called "Bridget". Lovely stuff.

The Maori's knew this bay as Te Koko (the scoop) and Cook rebranded it, somewhat pessimistically, as Cloudy Bay. We nearly didn't go to Cloudy Bay, the vineyard, thinking we would swerve by the Louis Vuitton owned operation, that had sold out to it's kiwi roots.  But it didn't take much for us to swerve in and enjoy the Cloudy Bay fantasy for a couple of hours as the kids played croquet on the lawn under giant eucalyptus trees, swung in suspended nests, ate wood-fired pizzas and glugged on vintages and blends we don't get in the UK; like a late harvest Riesling. The UK market is the second largest after Australia, with a 20% share.

On another, less frangrant note, and with none of the lychee and gooseberry flavours, our campervan loo is really starting to honk. A heady mix of uric acid with top notes of fish oil, from the nearby bait and tackle box.