C’est Cheese – Featherston, North Island
Owner Paul Broughton established this artisan shop in 2013 after quitting the corporate grind, focusing on high-quality local cheeses made from pasture-raised cows, sheep, and goats – about 90% of their selection is New Zealand-made. The shop is ideally located between the nation’s foodie capital Wellington and premier wine and dairy country in Martinborough. We chatted with the owner for a bit and I was reminded how small the world of artisan cheese is–a founder from Gourmino (producers of world champion Gruyère!) was visiting just the week prior to judge the New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards. In fact, C’est Cheese has a few of those awards under their in-house label Remutaka Pass Creamery. Paul was happy to cut us some samples before we left with a respectable haul – our favorite pick being the Lemony Lush Chèvre from The Drunken Nanny family farmstead, located just thirty minutes away.
Charing Cross Cheesery – Christchurch, South Island
I stumbled across Charing Cross Cheesery by sheer luck on the last day of our trip, nestled into the bustling Riverside Market food hall in Christchurch Central City. I scooped up a couple morsels for the Marché team to try back home, and the stand-out favorite was Vintage Five Forks from Whitestone Cheese Co., two-time winner of the Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards, and two-time winner by popular vote of New Zealand’s Favorite Cheesemaker. Reminiscent of Glen Ellyn’s favorite Prairie Breeze in appearance, Vintage Five Forks is a 50/50 cow and goat milk mix, sharp and sweet in flavor, and fudgy with a hint of tang. The closest thing to it in Marché’s cases is probably Triple Play Extra Innings, with cow, goat, and sheep milk for delightful complexity that changes as it warms on the palate.
Knowing New Zealand’s reputation for citrus-forward Sauvignon Blancs, I was pleasantly surprised to find a much broader range of flavor profiles across that single varietal. As we scanned wine lists and grocery store bottles, we saw tasting notes of gooseberry, dried hay, white peach, pomegranate, passionfruit, and schist rock in addition to the classic lemon zest. I also noticed a recurrence of Gewürztraminer, Riesling, and Pinot Gris in vineyard tasting rooms along with the standard Chardonnay, while Pinot Noir was the dominant red. One of my personal favorites was a rosé from Poppies in Martinborough, with summery hints of fresh strawberries and crisp minerality–not too sweet or tart, just right!
At the top of the South Island is sunny Marlborough, responsible for over 70% of New Zealand’s wine production. We got the full experience here on a cruise of the stunning Marlborough Sounds, sipping local Sauvignon Blanc specially paired with a regional delicacy: Greenshell mussels caught in the Sounds the day before, steamed right there on the boat.
All this to say, I didn’t go to New Zealand expecting to be wowed by the cuisine, but I soon found myself proven wrong, immersed in a foodie culture of diverse gastronomical delights. Go for New Zealand’s natural wonders, stay for the food!