Ata Rangi Pinot NoirThere are many kinds of invest­ments avail­able on the mar­ket today: putting a lit­tle some­thing aside for lat­er can be very reward­ing.

One of our favourite kinds is a bot­tle or two of nice wine. And where bet­ter to source your invest­ment than just over the hill from Welling­ton, in Mar­t­in­bor­ough?

Set aside a Sun­day. Haul your­self out of bed by about 10am; dri­ve through the Hutt and onward, and by lunchtime you’ll con­ve­nient­ly arrive in Mar­t­in­bor­ough for a spot of vict­uals. There’s lots to choose from. Then cruise the vine­yards, cred­it card in hand.

Make sure, of course, that you have a des­ig­nat­ed dri­ver. Or, if you can’t find any­one mug enough to be dri­ver on a trip like this, seek some pro­fes­sion­al advice. Even bet­ter, save up and get in line for Toast Mar­t­in­bor­ough, a much antic­i­pat­ed annu­al wine fes­ti­val.

And so, with time you can reap the rewards. Right at this moment, we are enjoy­ing a nice bot­tle of 1994 Dry Riv­er Pinot Noir that we pur­chased near­ly ten years ago: back in the PK era.

You don’t need to be seri­ous about wine to do this: we weren’t. But when­ev­er you get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get hold of some­thing you like, put some of it away. And like us, come a dull Sat­ur­day night some­time in the dis­tant future you’ll have some­thing to sup on… once the kids have gone to bed.