If you’ve ever met me, you know I enjoy a nice craft beer or glass of wine. Quality over quantity. Now that I’m out of college and pretend to act like a responsible adult, I’ve started to take the time to learn and enjoy the work that goes into my favorite alcoholic beverages. My mom is an especially big fan of New Zealand wines, so going to wineries in the South Island was a big to-do list item for me.

Becky and I saved our wine tasting day for the end of our South Island adventure. We splurged on a hotel around the area (Hotel Boyce Boudoir, for those that are interested,) and spent the night eating Mexican food, watching Bridesmaids, and doing face masks. Before our night in, however, we took a quick trip to Yealand Family Wines for our introductory tour.

Pre-Tour Wine at Yealand Family Wines

If you have access to a car and can head out a bit farther on the map, stop by this winery first. The views of the sea and the story of how the family winery sustainably produces wine are fascinating.

The tasting was wonderful and a great introduction to how wine tasting actually goes down. Lucy at Yealand Family Wines answered any questions we had about wine and gave us restaurant recommendations. (We also ran into her friend at dinner…Renwick is a pretty small town.)

If you have a night in Renwick before a day-long winery tour, or just really want to see a winery where you can feed chickens, definitely check this place out.

Where to Enjoy New Zealand’s Best Wines

Let’s talk about Renwick.

You’ll find cellar doors (the place where you go taste wine) around New Zealand. We stopped at one or two throughout our journey, tried a glass of wine, giggled, and left. If you want to make a day out of wine tasting, however, it’s best to go to Renwick.

Renwick is a small village in Marlborough that grows 85% of New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc. It’s a quick 12 km drive from Blenheim and is easy to get to from Route 6, Route 1, and Route 63. It’s also a great pit stop before heading to the Picton ferry (just take a 30-minute drive or 45-minute bus.)

There is also a DOC campsite for $8 15 kilometers away if you want to stop by Renwick for the day.

How To Get Around Renwick

If you are lucky enough to have a friend who wants to be a designated driver, pay for their dinner and count your lucky stars. Renwick is nice and walkable, but you can hit a few more wineries if you drive.

Wine tours are available for groups who want to sit in a van with a bunch of strangers and pretend that you know something about wine. Small talk small talk small talk.

You can also rent a bike for the day in Renwick and make the trip a little bit easier for yourself.

But this is Beat, Broke, Backpacking and I promised you a cheap winery tour. New Zealand is expensive. Vans and bikes cost money. So we walked.

We walked through the pouring rain on the streets (highways) of Renwick for our wine, and we had a damn good time. I would definitely recommend walking on a nicer day (or, you know, planning ahead and checking the weather,) but life is short and we were just happy to stop here and there for a free/cheap glass.

Our Winery Pit Stops

Forrest Estate Wines: This is the only time we shelled out for a wine tasting tray. Our first pit stop arrived after a wet walk down State Highway 6, so we were ready to have a few glasses and sit for a while before moving on. Forrest Estate had a great selection of seven different wines for $7. (We also got a bag of crisps for $2, but cheese plates and other snacks are also available.) We loved the Reisling and the Albariño (a white wine that typically grows in Spain.)

Quick Reminder: This is the only money we spent all day. Every other cellar door tasting was free!

Framingham Wines: A quick walk down the road took us to the winery with the most character. Framingham Wines had quotes from musicians on the steps to the cellar door and a little venue downstairs. We had a great time laughing with the staff about bungy jumping and our trip.

Our favorite here was the Chardonnay!

Nautilus Winery: We got some nice crackers here to go along with our wine, and enjoyed some of the most awarded wines in the area. Our favorite was the Chardonnay here as well! (I’m not a big Chardonnay person normally, so this was a fun surprise.)

Wairau Valley: This was a fun one to visit, because you can easily grab some of these wines in America! (Try Whole Foods.) If you want to shell out for a meal you could make a whole afternoon just out of this place as well. If you like citrusy Sauvignon Blancs, you’ll be in luck here. We also enjoyed the sweetest wine we will ever have in our entire lives.

Bladen Wines: Time was running out, and Lucy had told us great things about Bladen Wines. The walk to the cellar door was absolutely wonderful, and we knew that this was the time to buy some wine.

Bladen Wines is a family-owned winery that hand picks all of their grapes (aside from their most popular, the Sauvignon Blanc.) The Sauvignon Blanc lived up to the hype, and I bought my wine to send home to my mom.

And that was our day!

If you have more time to hit other places, I would highly recommend:

• No. 1 Family Estate: If you prefer bubbly drinks, stop by and toast to a great glass of French champagne.
• Seresin Estate: If you want to talk about a more natural way to produce wine, stop by here. It was highly recommended by our friend at Yealand, but we couldn’t make it in time.
• The rest of the wineries in the area can be found on this map!

Tips for a Cheap Winery Tour In Renwick

• Start Early: Most cellar doors close around 3 or 4, so start your journey at 10 a.m. If it wasn’t raining, we would have been able to get a few other wineries in.
• Bring Snacks: Some of the walks between wineries are around 15 minutes. Keep a pack of crackers in your bag to munch on during the walks and save some cash on the snacks at the cellar doors.
• Have Fun! This was one of my top 3 favorite days in New Zealand. We had such a blast pretending that we were fancy wine tasters and running around Renwick in our rompers.

Have any tips for a wine tour in New Zealand? Let me know in the comments! Cheers!