Good day to you all I hope the Sunday scaries are not too severe. Usually on Sunday night I self medicate with some edibles. If lucky I’ll get 4 solid hours of sleep uninterrupted until I toss and turn and stress for the next 4 hours. Such is life when you hate your job and are only doing it for the benefits. Also the fact that you have a 5 year old who will soon eat us out of house and home plays into it.

Its pollen season here and I’ve never seen anything like it. Remember dear reader that I lived downtown for 17 years and have recently moved west into basically a city forest on a foothill. Everything is covered with this yellow dust and people who have allergies must be hating it. Living here has been great as it is 10 mins to my old place, 15 mins to my old favoUrite pub, and the same distance to my 2nd job. We have tried all the local takeout in the area and we may not have the selection we had before but one improvement is our local Chinese food place! It still is a bit suburb-ey to me but I think the space and the fact that I am building a pub in the basement will help the change from urban Litre to growed up house owner Litre.

Travel story time!

I once took the slow boat up the Mekong River from Northern Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos. This is a 2 day journey with an overnight stop in Pakbeng, Laos. Pakbeng is a tiny village that really only serves the travelers on the slow boats and jungle trekkers. There are guest houses with spots to drink for those who want the delicious Beer Lao (amazingly good). This place is legit in the middle of the jungle so you have your common mosquito nets over them that flow in the breeze, it’s quite breathtaking.

Now we were in the guest house having a few beers with about 30 fellow travelers when I befriended a couple gentlemen from la belle province! Beers flowed, good times were had by all and they asked if I wanted to go smoke a joint? Boy did I! I have a rule of not buying illegal substances in foreign countries as I do not want to get thrown in jail, but will I partake if someone is offering? Hell yes.

We get stoned and head back to “the restaurant” and have a few more beer. That joint hit me like a tonne of bricks and I needed to lie down right away. As I laid in my bed covered by a mosquito net it flowed rhythmically in the breeze I started to feel like I was melting into the bed. I was a bit unnerving but knowing I had no choice to do anything as I was in the jungle I just rode it out. I had a very restless sleep as I was not sure what was going on. Nothing stressful or a “bad trip” but just feelings that I wasn’t used to.

At breakfast I asked the lads where they got that weed from as it was a wild trip that I wasn’t accustomed to. They THEN informed me that indeed there was some black opium in that joint and that is probably why I felt the way I did.

A little bit of common courtesy goes a long way. If you are offering something like that to someone, let them know. Would I have still gone and smoked with them? Absolutely, but I would have been in a better mindset for the ride.

Wine time! Got pretty wine drunk on Friday but very little hangover so that’s a win.

Back to New Zealand we go and more specifically Marlborough.

This is the home of New World Sauvignon Blanc. It differs wildly from Sauvignon Blancs that you get from France, specifically Loire. French Sauv blanc for the most part to be more earthy, minerally, represent the terroir and tends to be lower in alcohol than New Zealand Sauv Blanc. The new world Sauv blancs tend to be much more fruit forward, have higher alcohol and definitely less earthy or flinty.

Marlborough accounts for 2/3 of the national total of vines planted and 75% of New Zealand’s wine exports. It is the powerhouse region and sits right at the north of the South Island. They say that it is one of the most sunny and dry areas in New Zealand which lends itself to a great growing climate. There’s a Maori expression for the Wairau Valley “Ke puta te Wairau” which means the place with the hole in the cloud.

Sauv Blanc which is about 80 percent of plantings in Marlborough tend to be quite herbaceous, very fruit forward with tropical fruits dominating the nose and palate. The second most popular grape is Pinot Noir which tends to have dark cherry, plum characteristics with soft tannins and a kind of spicy background. Once again these differ from Old World Pinots by being more fruit driven, higher alcohol and less earthy. I personally prefer pinot noirs from Martinborough which is across the strait and has a bit warmer climate.

They also grow Chardonnay, Viognier (yum), and Gruner Veltiner which is one of my summer fave varieties!

Hope you are enjoying these small vino breakdowns each week and they help you when visiting the wine store.