Discovery Wine Tours of Marlborough, formerly Na Clachan Wine Tours

Picton cruise ship shore excursions review for 6 hour tour
Nov 2019
We chose this 6 hour wine tour primarily because it advertised it was tailored to fit in with the cruise ship timetable. Firstly we were pleased to see we were in a 10 seater van so we knew to expect a more intimate tour than on a large coach. From the pick up at the Picton iSite centre until our timely return, we were treated to a wonderful informative tour of 6 wineries including boutique wineries, tasting up to 30wines where we had personalised talks by winery staff. While driving between them, our tour operator Chris added more interesting information about the region. Lunch was not included in the price but Chris had made a table reservation at Alan Scott Winery with ample time to enjoy our own choice of food. A great choice for our Picton cruise ship shore excursions

We met with Chris for 2 glorious days in July and had a fantastic time! There is so much to learn about NZ wines and their production, and Chris not only took us to wineries that were more than willing to tell us their story and teach us about their wines, but he knew the answers to most questions that we had and forgot to ask at the Cellar Doors.

We highly recommend Chris and his company… he was prompt, courteous, knowledgeable, informative, and a pure pleasure to spend two days with in Marlborough. We look forward to a return trip one day, and will surely look for Chris when we go!

Chris did such an amazing job! Contacted him about 2 weeks prior to our trip (in winter), and he had availability. He asked what our preferences were…I told him, and that we sort of just preferred to see where the day took us, rather than having a rigorous booking schedule.
He picked us up from our hotel in Picton, drove us to several different cellar doors that offered tastings that both myself and my husband enjoyed (we have slightly different tastes), booked us for lunch, and drove us back to our hotel when we were done.
He even helped us organize shipping wines back to the US, and helped us book bus tickets to Christchurch for the next day, which is truly above and beyond!
I can’t say enough about how much we enjoyed our day with Chris at Na Clachan wine tours!

We did a full day wine tasting tour with Na Clachan yesterday and I couldn’t recommend it enough. Our guide (Bill) picked us up from our air B and B in Picton and was just the most lovely, interesting man. He took us to small boutique wineries and even took requests. We went to the Alan Scott winery for lunch (between $25-$30 a head, amazing food and a beautiful restaurant) while waiting for lunch we had another tasting after lunch we went to 4 more wineries. Our group was only 6 persons so it felt like we were on a private tour and the support of the smaller vineyards was great to see (everyone’s on a first name basis) Highly recommended if you’re in the area!!!! Thank you so much.

We wanted a half day wine tour from Picton & Na Clachan suited us fine.
We were picked up on time & transported to Blenheim where we met the rest of our group. There were 8 of us from
different parts of the world…a lovely bunch. Phil was our awesome guide. We had a lovely lunch & wine tasting at Allan Scott & then went on to Nautilus, Bladen, No. 1 and Saint Clair with a stop at Makana Confections.We highly recommend Na Clachan for a relaxed fun & informative wine tasting. Thanks so much!

This is when a 6th star would be useful. Total staff is around 3 people, very attentive from the booking time to the final drop-off. This is a small operation that prefers to take small groups of tasters to small wineries (the Na Clachan bus is an 11-passenger van). Reviews do rave about Helen as a guide, probably appropriately: she is very nice and clearly knowledgeable. Our guide, Chris, was excellent and also ready to express his own opinions (just ask him what was the bubbly at his daughter’s wedding!). Very highly
recommended.

Chris made our day very special by asking the right questions to find out where would be best to take us and he succeeded 100%. We were lucky enough to be the only two in the morning and then met up with two lovely siblings for lunch and the afternoon tour. We really value finding the wines that aren’t readily available at the supermarket and our wine Friday’s will definitely be full when we get home.

Apart from the wine tasting, my favourite part of the day was the great banter we had with Chris and prizing some personal recommendations from him. He was a little nervous about this as we bought some wines without tasting on faith. Can’t wait to email him our thoughts once we’ve tried them.

Really lovely afternoon with Chris, tasting delicious wines and learning more about the local wines. Chris has amazing knowledge, and was able to answer all our questions. Highlight for me was Clos Henri, where one side of the fault line is stony ground, the other is clay. The same grapes are grown on both soils. The wine goes through the same process, but the taste is quite different. If you enjoy wine, I would thoroughly recommend taking a tour with Na Clachan.

Had a great time with Chris and Phil today. They are obviously very well educated in the world of wine and helped my novice pallet understand the differences. We went to 5 different vineyards during our tour which were tailored to our wine tastes.

From start to finish an excellent experience with Na Clachan Wine Tours. Wendy was very friendly when booking onto the tour! We did a half day tour with Chris and he was fantastic. Great knowledge and very good at sharing it throughout. Small group (only 6) on this occasion. Sampled some great wines. Excellent experience, would recommend Na Clachan for anyone visiting the area!

An excellent experience, with a knowledgeable guide, unhurried pace and a brilliant introduction to the best wines in New Zealand.

If you want to know about NZ wine then this is the trip.
We did a similar trip last year and thought that was good – this is even better.
They tailor the tour to the wine the group is interested in and are flexible enough to alter their schedule during the course of the day to meet peoples expectations.
The guide is so knowledgeable he blew us away – thank you Chris

We arrived in Picton at mid-day and booked our Picton wine tasting tour last minute, our guide, Chris, came straight out from Blenheim for us and the day was fantastic. Chris asked what wines we liked, if there was anything in particular we would like to try and tailored our tour to suit what we asked for. As it was just the two of us we basically got our own private tour wine tasting. As a guide Chris was really easy to talk to and quite honest on particular vineyards which we did appreciate.

Each of the cellar doors we visited were excellent, and we were briefed expertly by Chris before each one. We have been on a few other wine tours across Australia and Europe and definitely enjoyed this the most, thanks to a great guide and a great region. Highly recommend.

I joined a group of friends on a Na Clachan wine tour around Blenheim in December 2018. We visited 6 wineries and tried a lot of different wines. Our guide, Chris, was brilliant and very knowledgeable. We even had a lunch stop at one of the wineries. I would do this again if I visited NZ in the future.

We had an amazing Blenheim wine tasting experience with Chris who was very knowledgeable, very friendly and had a great relationship with all the six Wineries we visited: Hunters, Lake Chalice, St Clair, Allan Scott, Seresin( Organic and Biodynamic) and Framingham.

During our 6 hour trip we tasted over 30 wines including astounding Sauvignon Blancs; superb modern Chardonnays; perfectly sweet late harvest Rieslings ; and our personal new favourite Gewürztraminers

Pick up was from information centre in Picton – where the cruise ship shuttle bus drops you and Chris dropped us back at that pick up point- Tours timed to fit in with cruise ship times
Really glad we booked with Na Clachan- very organised with a friendly approach, very knowledgeable and our best Tour of the whole cruise