Toast to the new Taste Wairarapa
By Joelle Thomson, Wine Writer
Taste Wairarapa stepped in where Toast Martinborough left off on the third weekend of November this year.
The well-known Toast Martinborough food, wine and music event has run for 30 years and will return in January 2025 in a reincarnated form with Foley Wines as the festival’s new owner. In the meantime, a group of Wairarapa winemakers wanted to see something in its original place.
Enter Taste Wairarapa.
“The Toast Martinborough date of the third weekend in November has been a long-standing tradition for decades, pencilled into many wine lovers’ diaries,” says Wilco Lam, chief winemaker and partner of Oraterra Wines and chair of Wairarapa Wine Region, the industry body.
“When this date changed, a lot of wineries took the opportunity to organise their own events for those who had already booked their accommodation last year, or just love spending a spring weekend in the Wairarapa (Martinborough) region,” he added.
The weekend was deemed a success by many, including Lam, who says visitors enjoyed a wide range of events that wineries, breweries and other venues in the district organised. Some were stand-alone tastings or line-ups of wine while others were collaborative partnerships between people.
“The floor was also open to the wider region this year (and in future), so people were encouraged to explore and experience the Wairarapa over this weekend,” says Lam.
The event saw the use of lots of bikes by visitors to the region. There were no buses, no road closures and no vast clean-up necessary in Martinborough village, post-Taste.
Winemaker Jannine Rickards, who owns the Huntress brand, says the feedback she received was positive.
“It was great to celebrate spring and people I spoke to thought it was focused and a great celebration of wine and kai. There was a nice buzz about the region,” says Rickards, who opened Huntress wines for tasting over the weekend.
Taste Wairarapa may not have quite the familiar ring to it that Toast Martinborough did but it’s early days for the new incarnation of the much-loved former event, which will return next month in a different guise.
Wilco Lam hopes that the third weekend in November will remain a favourite with regulars and visitors to the Wairarapa and become a fixture for newcomers.
“Hopefully the old Toast Martinborough date can remain in people’s diaries with the success of
this year’s Taste Wairarapa event.”
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