For $79 pp we purchased a wine tour wristband @ were given a map.. Vans stopped at 26 wineries &…read moreliquor themed venues. Vans came every :30. It took :20 minutes to get to Blenheim for our first winery. A wine museum, gift shop, gin distillery, confectionery, vine village, beer garden ... we drove through magnificent wine country with rolling hills, sheep & of course vineyards. Our driver was knowledgeable sharing info about the area, wines & stops. There were people running to the van @ he was frequently running late. We had time to stop at two wineries for :30 and one for an hour lunch. At the end of the day they checked that everyone made it back to the port. We were told that we shouldn't have an issue getting lunch at any stop. We wouldn't need reservations today. However, there were cruise ships tours & Viacor tours that tied up many kitchens & wine tastings. We would have like to make more stops.

We spent a fantastic day visiting wineries, amazing lunch, and chocolate factory with Cam and his…read moreteam on our private tour arranged by Hop 'n Grape. We were picked up in a great coach at the port (shore excursion) and taken to several wineries in Blenheim and the Marlborough area. We had an amazing lunch and tasting at one local vineyard they put together for us. Additionally, we had many great tastings throughout the day, learned about New Zealand's wine making industry and living in this beautiful part of the country. Cam made this visit so personal and tailored it to our group. We met with winemakers and a local brewmaster. If you go to wine country, Hop n Grape will not disappoint. It was one of the highlights of our trip to New Zealand

Our hotel recommended Bubbly Grape, and it was a good recommendation. Kerry was fantastic to work…read morewith through e-mail, even picking us up from the airport so we could drop our car off a day early a save a few dollars, and dropping us off at our hotel after the tour. We did the full day wine tour for $95 (including tastings), and thought this was a fantastic deal. We were picked up at 9:45am and opened our first winery at 10:00am. From there, we hit three or four before she left us to the drinking and went to pick up six other awesome people who were doing the half-day tour. Eight seems to be about the max she likes to take, which means the van is not packed, it's a good sized group to get to know and talk, and we don't overwhelm the smaller wineries. In the end, for the all day tour, we ended up at about nine different wineries, from very big to very small. We, and all of the folks on the tour, tended to prefer the smaller ones - Rock Ferry, etc. However, my wife and I actually liked Villa Maria the best, even though it's a large one...but it felt small. We also chose to get lunch, and Kerry let us stay at Allan Scott whilst the rest of the tour moved on, and then came back to pick us up. The recommendation of Allan Scott for lunch was another great choice by Kerry - it was fantastic, and reasonably priced. Kerry knows her wine ridiculously well - the art, the science, the taste. She knows all of the people at all of the wineries. She is very, very good at what she does, and charges an incredibly reasonable rate to provide her service. Definitely, without a doubt, check out Bubbly Grape for your wine tour needs!

From the owner: We do wine tours in the Beautiful Marlborough New Zealand region…read more We travel around in comfort in a 11 seater Mercedes Van. We take yoy for wine tasting in famous and not so famous wineries.

Na Clachan wine tours Easter Sunday, April 21…read more We found this tour company through Cruise Critic recommendation. Our ship docked about ten minutes from town and we took the provided ship's shuttle to the parking lot of the town's tourist information Office. We Met Chris, two other ship passengers and two people on a world tour. Wineries were about 20 minutes outside of Picton and there were plenty to choose from. Chris took us to six wineries where the predominant regional wine was Souvinon Blanc with a smattering or other whites, some Roses and some Pinot Noir. We liked the Pinots best, a much lighter product than our favorite Oregons. We found Chris to be both knowledgeable and gregarious, fun to be with. We found some of the wines a bit repetitive but their take on Pinots exciting. Our tour ended with a visit to a chocolate factory then a trip to a high lookout to photograph our ship. We found the experience fun, entertaining and informative, our six person tour far and away better than the 50 passenger busses from the ship we kept skirting. We highly recommend Na Clatchen for your Picton adventure. PS. Neglected to say tour included stop at winery for lunch which was excellent. Sometimes we were a" wined out" but this break for lunch revived us....until the chocolate. Chocolate we could easily bring on the ship, wine was questionable.

From the owner: Small group wine tours with knowledgeable tour guides. We introduce each winery and provide…read moreinformation on growing grapes and the Marlborough region during the tour. We DONT have a set timed itinerary to ensure a relaxed tour

My wife and I took this tour from a cruise ship. Laura picked us up at the dock, picked up a family…read moreof four, nearby, and off we went. The van could hold eight, with everyone getting a very comfortable bucket seat. Laura was very knowledgeable and friendly. We drove around the small downtown, stopping at Parliament Square, a beautiful old church, through several beautiful coastal and hillside suburbs, the Rose Garden, stopping at Scorching Beach at a great, seaside restaurant for tea and pastries (Scorch-O-Rama) then off to Mt. Victoria for spectacular views - plus more places I've forgotten. I can highly recommend this tour company and guide.

We went here while visiting some of the wineries in the area. We were based out of Blenheim, and…read morethis winery was about as far from there as you could get, but I wanted to come to this one because I remember seeing one of their wines at the store and thought they had a cool name for their business. We went there and sampled some of their wines. I got to try 5 different ones; they charge for this but not much. As we talked to them, we learned how they got their name. There is some secret defense facility that I guess supports spying somewhere nearby. They had fun with it though and used it to set their business apart. Their wines had messages in morse code on their labels, and they had a huge poster from a James Bond movie on the wall. The setting was nice. It's not on the main road, so it was very quiet and peaceful. In the end, we bought a bottle of the merlot/malbec, which was very good and is only available there. You can buy a case, which they will ship for free, but for them a case is 12 bottles. Too bad - if it had been 6, we would have done it. Bottom line, this place was great. If James Bond drank wine, this it what he'd drink. I couldn't have asked for more. I would definitely go here again.

Our second (of six) wineries we visited. Spy Valley was on our list as it had a fun spy theme going…read moreon. We dropped in around 2:00pm and the place was packed because of a huge bus tour. Luckily, they were packing up for the next spot. There's an outdoor backyard area with picnic tables to sit and do tastings at. Service was okay but not very informative. Our server didn't tell us much about the wines. At least the wine tastings are complimentary here. We ended up trying four. - Sauvignon blanc - nice balance, a little sweeter than the norm. - Pinot gris - a typical gris. - Gewurtztraminer - the bottles are cool as each one has a different morse code on it. This one translated to "spice". Decent but nowhere near as good as the one we had back at Wither Hills. - Syrah - this one had black peppery tones. Spy Glass was pretty average in our books. Not really worth the detour.

We had a wonderful day with Sam Kuprus doing an out and back hike on the Routeburn Track. He was…read moredelightful and very knowledgeable! We are American and he taught us so much about the unique flora and fauna of NZ, discussed conservation and anti predation efforts. He also answered many questions we had about this beautiful and welcoming country. What an amazing and gorgeous forest walk, with epic waterfalls at the top, the azure waters of the Routeburn accompanying us most of the way!

Paula and Phil planned out a fantastic day of wine touring during our visit to Queenstown. We had…read morenever been to New Zealand prior to our trip and they did a wonderful job of recommending places to visit and eat and we took their advice on several stops. They were wonderful hosts and we enjoyed our day with them!! Thanks again from the guys from Austin, Texas!!