In the interests of everyone having a great time on this trip and no surprises on the day, the following is to help with your wine tasting and purchasing decisions, free of the hazy glow of alcohol!
Tasting fees
At Grava/Alana, and at Tiwaiwaka, it’s $10 per tasting, which you’ll need to pay directly to the applicable winery. This charge is per glass so if two people share a tasting from the same glass it’ll only cost $10 total. While there is no charge to us for tasting at Nga Waka, there is a cost to the winery so please think seriously about supporting them by buying some wine. Some of the wineries are considering sending us an order form in advance so that all members have the opportunity of buying their wines and we’ll circulate those when received. The tasting at Coney’s is included in the cost of lunch.
Redeeming tasting fees on wine purchases
The tasting fee at Grava will be waived on bottle purchases on a per person basis, ie if two people buy one bottle of wine between them, they’ll also have to pay one $10 tasting fee.
Transporting your wine purchases The club will provide stickers so you can identify any wines you’ve bought. Tranzit policies mean that we can’t take any wine at all on the bus and any wine purchases will need to be stored in the separate luggage compartment. Please note that any wine stored in the luggage compartment will be at your own risk. Grava, Nga Waka and Coney (Tiwaiwaka TBC) will pack our wine purchases in boxes – smaller orders will be combined to fill up the boxes. If there’s a large enough number of orders, they’ll ship them to one address.
If we end up transporting any boxes back home, to make it easier at the Featherston or Wellington ends, we recommend writing the owners’ names on the boxes and combining your smaller orders with those of people you can easily distribute to. And no sneaking wine inside the bus! The club will be liable for the clean-up costs for any messes, which will be passed on if they relate to spilt wine. When we return to Featherston Station there’ll be time, if necessary, for everyone to reunite with/sort out their purchases in preparation for taking them onto the train. Bear in mind there’ll probably be limited storage space, especially for boxes, so you may prefer to bring your own wine carry bags for this part.
Keeping ourselves safe
It’ll be a long time between leaving home and having lunch so please think about bringing your own water and snacks (we’re allowed cold snacks on the train). While there’ll be lots of wine on offer during the day, we encourage everyone to drink responsibly and to feel free to skip a tasting as you see fit.