Full-Day Wine Tour from Blenheim

Don was great. Relaxed and easy going tour. 2 couples in am, then 4 couples in pm. Had a great lunch at the 3rd tasting stop. Really nice group got along well. Rainy weather but tasting wine a good way to enjoy the day.

In January my partner and I booked in for a full day wine tour (lunch not included in the price). We were looking forward to seeing more of the local area/wineries and tasting some NZ wines. Our ride was 30 min late however we did receive a text message letting us know. We were picked up from our Blenheim accommodation and joined 2 other couples. Our guide was Alison. She was friendly and provided some information about the region and wines. The van was air conditioned and reasonably comfortable with 6 ppl. We went to 3 vineyards in the morning including the one that we bought lunch at: Nautilus Estate, No 1 Family Estate and Allan Scott (lunch). We were told that there was meant to be 4 wineries in the morning but b/c of time we only went to 3. After enjoying lunch with our lovely tour group ($70 approx with 1 drink for 2 ppl) Alison returned with 4 new ‘afternoon only’ guests. At this point we had already done our tasting and had eaten lunch and were encouraged to walk around the property while the new group did their wine tasting. In our opinion this could have been organised much better in order to maximise time and wineries visited. Perhaps we should have all gone to a new winery and started the afternoon off this way rather than waiting around (30-40min) for others to finish. My partner and I decided to walk across the street to Cloudy Bay to try some of their wines instead of waiting around. Once everyone was ready we went to 3 more vineyards and a chocolate shop. These wineries were: Framingham, Whitehaven and Saint Claire. We started the day at 11:00am and finished at 5:30pm. Overall, the day was good. Lots of beautiful cellar doors and wines to taste. We particularly enjoyed chatting with our tour group. The tour was middle of the road; nothing special but got the job done and allowed us to sit back and relax as we traveled from place to place. Tip: if you are planing to ship wine overseas be sure to thoroughly understand the process as this was very different to what we have seen in the past or have used domestically in Australia. It would have been good for Sounds Connection to have this information ready for clients and be able to explain what they needed to do before or at the start of the tour. We booked our wine tour 3 months in advance and would suggest doing this as they were very busy and sold out during the time we were there. Thank you for a good day.

We booked late last night and they were still able to get us on a tour. Marsalla (not sure if that's spelt right) our tour guide/driver was so down to earth and knowledgeable about the area. The best bit was she was able to take time out of the tour to go back to our favourite vineyard on the route back so we could pick up wines! She also was able to tailor it to our needs - one couple really liked red wines so she organised a tour at a vineyard recognised for its reds with an hour's notice. She topped it off with a stop at a chocolate factory. A great day, and some fantastic wines.