Shiraz a Good Time

(steve)

Fresh off of our outback encounter, we headed south to Adelaide. Lucky for us, the journey to Adelaide from the Flinders Ranges runs smack through the Clare and Barossa valleys. These valleys are in the heart of the Aussie wine country. The mainstay of Aussie wine is shiraz (or syrah if you're from North America), but they are known for Riesling. Since our New Zealand wine tasting was mainly Chardonnay, we were looking forward to rounding out our palates a bit.



The first stop was the Clare Valley. With 30+ cellars to try, we had more than enough wine at our fingertips. Although, since it was about noon and we still had to drive to the city I had to taste in moderation. First up was the Seven Hills Winery, home of a group of Jesuit monks. We walked into a chateau on a picturesque hillside to be met by a cat demanding to be let inside (it was about 55 F outside). After we opened the door, he screeched a welcome and walked in. Inside was the best wine I've tasted that was made by monks. The shiraz was smooth and fruity, just like we like it. Outside, the landscape was a bit dreary, with vines holding on to their yellowing leaves, and in some cases late harvest grapes. We are officially in full blown winter down here. We stopped about 4 times in the valley, long enough to take up the rest of the afternoon. The most eventful tasting came at the Mintaro winery where the winemaker watched us and paced the length of the bar the entire time. It made for a really creepy experience. We were the only two in the room with him (midweek in winter) and he was obviously uncomfortable with human contact. He kept muttering to himself, and when asked a question, returned a stunted answer along with a grim glare. It's too bad, because his wine was good, with creative labels. We tasted and got the heck out of there.



Once we got to Adelaide we decided we had to go back and sample from the Barossa valley this time. Barossa is the flagship valley, with the most long established vines and reputation. Once there, we began at the Morgan Street winery with a nice cheese platter and a table overlooking the barren vines in the sun. It was nice to sit and enjoy for an hour. We toured the valley for the rest of the afternoon, with three notable stops, the Peter Lehman winery and a restaurant called 1918. While all the Barossa wine tasted better than most Aussie wine, Peter Lehman was at the top of our heap. He made some stuff we fell in love with. Unfortunately for us, the labels sold for a whopping $45 and $90 per bottle. Given our travel lifestyle for the next six weeks, we couldn't justify the price to have the bottle sit through uncounted hours in the trunk of the rental car. Fortunately, they are beginning to export to the States this year. The name 1918 comes from the birth year of the cottage-style building housing the restaurant. The food was outstanding, where we shared fried gnocchi and a kangaroo steak. We've seen roo on the menu before, but this time had to try it. Karen's comment was, "Australia is the only nation that eats it's coat of arms." And it was delicious. Our final stop for the day was the Sturt Burge winery where our usual shiraz fix was supplemented by a very nice port. Labeled the "Age Unknown", this liqueur was the result of finding an old barrel in a warehouse of a recently purchased competitor. No one seemed to know exactly when the mixture was concocted. So, they added some new stuff to balance the taste and voila, really good mystery port. It was probably the best port we've ever had. The folks at the winery were obviously sad though, as they could never reproduce the result. Oh well, at least we can buy a bottle and remember.

The rest of our time in Adelaide was a bit of a blur. The city itself was nice, with clean streets and well laid out. It was easy to walk around the see. The people were very relaxed compared with Sydneysiders, except for one notable trio. At a curry restaurant one night, a trio of locals berated the hostess for placing them at a table they felt was too small for three. To add to the insult, the server brought all the food at once, including the starters (it was really slow that night so the chef didn't have as much to do). They were the most whiny people we've seen on the trip so far. When they sent back the starters, I thought they were going to receive a few "extras" in their food for the trouble.



Our other fun city activities were visiting the Adelaide market, known as the biggest in Australia, and the JamFactory, an art school specializing in blown glass. The market was very tasty with the highlight coming from a fresh yoghurt stand, yummy. The JamFactory had a viewing platform where we watched, spellbound, as a team of three completed an interesting piece that included welding what looked like silver to the glass between trips to the oven. It was neat to see how they come up with the interesting shapes and color blends. All in all Adelaide was a nice town to visit with the main focus being wine, and boy was it good.