Morton Estate Winery
Episode: New Zealand? Bay of Plenty
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
Morton Estate Winery is a must visit destination if you love fine wine and excellent food and it is the perfect place to recharge your batteries after you have wandered around the Bayley?s Garden and Art Festival.
Nic Millichip is the Katikati wine maker who is best described as a humble artisan. The specialities include fruit out of the Marlborough where they do all the sparkling base. The juice is moved up and is taken it through the full process making the base wine. From the base wine it is then left en tirage and kept on lees for at least 18 months before the wine is disgorged. It is then taken back, labelled and ready for distribution.
The winery has barrels of chardonnay from Hawks Bay which is the wine they are most well famous for. They have won awards for decanter for 2000 and 2002 with the Coniglio and the black label in London. Their Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and the sparkling wine has been a good performer at the international wine challenge. They have a great range of wines that meets a wide range of tastes.
Every great winery has a great restaurant and Morton?s Restaurant, located alongside the cellar door, boasts the services of Carl Sutton. Carl is a past Australasian and New Zealand Chef of the year and he has worked at international iconic restaurants such as Maxine?s at Paris and the Savoy in London.
Trevor is served local produce straight off the boat or out of the paddock such as crayfish, mussels, mushrooms, fresh asparagus and seasonal strawberries. The snapper has been hot smoked that is done by specialty restaurants as well as the local kiwi?s that live near the beach will have a smoker. Their tag is game and seafood and duck season opens on the 1st of May and they have a deal where if you catch it Morton Restaurant will cook it. You have to be a chosen restaurant and be represented as a fish and game ambassador. There are only seven throughout New Zealand and everything seen on the platter comes from within 5km of restaurant.
Morton Estate Winery and Restaurant
State Highway 2, Katikati
Ph: +64 577 0795
www.mortonestatewines.co.nz
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