HEART OF THE GLASS

We had at lovely day today touring around Cromwell, Bannockburn and Earnscleugh with mum

while dad was off playing golf, very good golf actually - he had a net 67. Not bad for a creaky 75 year old.

We decided to call in to the Wooing Tree vineyard on the boundary of the Cromwell township.

We won a bottle of its extremely fine Pinot Noir in an online Air New Zealand Wine awards competition recently, so we wanted to see what else they had.

We now have a new best wine friend - Blondie - its the liquid version of BustedBlonde. A blanc de Noir. It's zippy, luscious, a little bit fruity and surprising good and the more you get to know her the better you will like her.

Way better than Sauvignon Blanc, in our uneducated opinion.

For that reason it has to be a superb wine match with crustaceans and we think almost perfect with New Zealand Rock Lobster.

Funny how things just happen though - a mate of a mate of mine rang out of the blue yesterday. He lives in Wanaka and he was heading over to Fiordland with some blokes and had heard of a method to cook crayfish using kelp that he thought we might know about. As we were in the car with the our father, the answer was almost immediate.

"Yup" dad said.

"Cut two bits of kelp and hollow them both out like a bag. One has to be able to fit inside the other so you end up with two bags. Then put the whole crayfish inside one and then opened end first - put it in the the other kelp bag - then fold the ends in like an envelope. Then put them on hot coals and when the first bag has burned off the crayfish is ready to eat."

The minerals and salts of the kelp will flavour the steamed crayfish.

Muttonbirders, like Bustedblonde, used to use kelp bags to store muttonbirds, so you can get an idea of how it works from the great old photo above.

We seem to remember using the kelp purse method of cooking fish on a beach many moons ago.

We also remember being with some bloke and doing a bit of sandy snogging - but can't remember just who that bloke was so he cant have been much good - but we do remember the crayfish and it was very memorable.

So how good is it that today we found the wine that we think would be a perfect match with that ancient recipe!

Wooing Trees " Blondie" is a complex and extremely interesting wine - unlike anything we have had for quite some time.

Its slight champagne blush comes from a smidgen of contact with the pinot noir skins. Its really is a stunner. It lingers on the tongue and has lovely peachy notes.

Sadly we have some crayfish but not the kelp to cook it in this weekend. But for the those who like adventure with elegance and if you are heading to a kelp strewn coast to catch crayfish, then make sure you get a bottle of "Blondie" as a perfect accompaniment with your kelp parcelled crayfish.

You will be delighted by how much she will enhance your lobster eating experience. Of course if you want a sublime experience take BustedBlonde with you as well