We were up early at 6:30 to get ready for an early breakfast in a local cafe in preparation for wine tasting. We didn't have too far to walk so had an opportunity to read the paper. The Australian has a fantasy football game based on The Premiership. There really is no getting away from it [which given Liverpool's shoddy recent form would be a good idea].
The tour minibus arrived at 8:45 and after picking up a few more people we headed off to the Barossa Valley. My mis-spelling yesterday (Barrosa) was the original spelling given to the valley by two ex-British servicemen [British ex-servicemen!] meaning hill of roses. A surveyor got it all wrong but the name stuck. It's a good hour's drive out into the valley before we're thrown into our first winery. Here we inexpertly sample some whites and reds, often at the prompting of the staff. Come the end of the tasting Helen plucked up the courage to confirm that one of the other tasters was an old colleague of hers. Small world.
At the next winery, the elegantly fronted Chateaux Tanunda, the woman had a more scheduled approach and put us through our paces as a group, describing each wine and getting us to note what we thought. Surprisingly, I've thought all the reds so far have been a bit harsh and the whites have tasted OK (I normally can't stand whites). We try a dessert wine, a 2002 Botrytis Semillon which smells awful but tastes quite nice. She then plucks out a 2001 Botrytis which smells OK but tastes wildly different and much better. So enthused I bought a bottle as a gift for Mark and then noticed that about three others also bought the same.
Lunch was a bit ropey, I had the roo steak which had a very strong berry sauce rather than the sweet chilli they advertised. Roo's a bit rough. Hard to say if it's better or worse than warthog... Immediately after lunch we're in another winery (literally over the road) which specialises in meads. We tried honey, chocolate and cinnamon (hot) and jaffa-chocolate and orange meads [as well as several reds] which all tasted fine. My previous experience of mead was some rather rough stuff overawed by spices. Round the corner to another winery where we had a group session again. By now a lot of the flavours (I hesitate to use "flavours" as only the meads and one red had a, discernable to me, flavour) were merging into one and you're left noting the whites are sweet or not and the reds have harsh tanins or not. They did sell a magnificent bullshitters wine tasting chart with all the official words to use in the tasting groups and subgroups. AU$10 seemed a bit steep, it must be on the net somewhere.
A quick detour up for a lookout over the valley and via the South Australia Company shop [they sell things made in SA] before the Wolf Blass winery. Looking far more swish and sophisticated than any of the others we'd sobered up a little for this. The prices were a bit dubious as the Yellow Label was selling for AU$16 (didn't I buy it for AU$13 last week?). Two of their cheapest were very good [South Australian Merlot and Shiraz] and the brown and grey labels were good -- you'd hope so at AU$30 a bottle, and we were a bit tipsy. The black label at AU$130 a bottle was a bit rougher than the grey which was a disappointment but the woman in the second winery had said it was all quite individual. We bought a bottle of each of the two cheapies. Helen's matey buying a crate of the brown/grey labels, they being a third of the price back home. Then back on the bus for the drowsy trip back to "the fair city of Adelaide."
We booked a hideously expensive day trip to Kangaroo Island for Saturday, AU$358 for two which, alarmingly, is cost effective over taking the car on the ferry. Then off to do a bit more Internetting. Our dive computers have reached Helen's mum so we should pick them up at Mark's next week. How exciting, a new gadget to play with. We had a late evening coffee in the same cafe as last night with the same dippy waitress. This time she was clued up that my mug of flat white didn't fit the coffee and cake deal but only charged an extra 50c anyway. She then wandered round the cafe with our drinks having forgotten who ordered them.
Adelaide YHA, Adelaide S34.92636 E138.59451 Elev. 26m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.