BLENHEIM, New Zealand: It was 8:45 on my first morning in Marlborough, New Zealand, where I’d just arrived on a trip to serve as Chief Judge for a new wine competition here later this week. And what’s on the docket? A tasting of 23 wines. At 8:45 a.m.
Gulp. I never, ever get sick of wine. But that isn’t quite the same as saying that I’ve always got exactly the same level of attraction to it, and this is a little early for my taste. Nevertheless, my host is very eager to get at it, and Jeremy McKenzie, a new member of the winemaking team at Villa Maria Estate, actually arrives 
early at my lodging to get us underway as quickly as possible.
Jeremy seems to bounce with energy as he trots up to the sliding glass door to my room, whereas I saunter to greet him with only one sock on. This isn’t exactly the image I wish to project for a first impression, but he’s early and I’m jet-lagged out of my gourd, so that’s the way it goes.
On the drive to Villa Maria, Jeremy explains why we’re starting so early. Get this: He’s got to conclude the tasting by 10:30 to make it to the noon start of a race in which he and a partner need to cover 60 miles over 24 hours, including running during nighttime hours, working only with a rudimentary map. Yikes!
So, I ask, you’ve been training for this, right? Jeremy explains that no, he hasn’t really been able to train much during the past two weeks, as he’s been working a lot and spending most of his discretionary time hunting wild boar in the outback with his three pig dogs.
You run into some pretty hard core characters in this part of the world, and I’ve obviously just run into one of them. This gets my pulse rate up to an adequate level, and arrival at the winery helps with that also, since Villa Maria is a terrific company that can measure up to any producer in the world. That is proved once again by those 23 wines, many of which I’ll review on WRO in the next few weeks.
We wind things up at 10:30 on the dot, and Jeremy is out the door like a shot, flashing the winning smile of a guy who just might win that race.
I spent the balance of the day checking out some gorgeous vineyards with Vanessa Barker, a very interesting viticulturalist for Villa Maria. And in retrospect, even if I wouldn’t have chosen that 8:45 start if left to my own devices, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss a minute of the day.
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