So I've gotten over my chardonnay-rage. On Monday we did what will presumably be our last wine tastings of the tour, and typically we left the best til last. We were staying in a cottage that was surrounded by five wineries within walking distance. And for the record, at this cottage, the owner brought around freshly baked bread and freshly laid chicken eggs every morning, which was lovely. But, given the proximity of those wineries, we figured that the best strategy would be to do two driving-distance ones in the morning and then two walking-distance ones in the afternoon. This is rather than doing five or so walking-distance wineries in one day and subsequently not being able to walk to the last couple anyway.
So, on Monday we drove to Punter's Corner and Rymill and were suitably impressed. We then got some cheese and other local produce from The Poplars (and also did another sneaky tasting there), and went back to the cottage for lunch. We then went Brand's Laira which was probably the best winery of the tour. We jagged it here because they had three of their 'special' wines on tasting - the Eric's Blend, the Captain Stentiford's Old Vine Shiraz and The Patron cabernet sauvignon. At $74 these were obviously, hopefully, going to be the real deal. And the thing was, their normally priced wines were great... even after three full tastings and a glass with lunch. But the lovely cellar door lass was another fan of the honeymoon concept and gave us the remains of the tasting bottle of the Stentiford's shiraz! Sounds gross, I know, but this is a $74 bottle of wine we're talkin about and was the unanimous favourite so far.
Next, we went to Zema which was also brilliant. At the first Coonawarra winery we to, Balnaves, I remember smelling mint on some of the cab savs and thinking "what the hell is wrong with my nose?!" But after doing 11 or so wineries that specialise in this particular variety, it became obvious that I was, in fact, on the right track. There was lots of different kinds of mint smells going on in the coonawarra cabernets. Some were quite sweet and spearminty, others a bit more chemically and pepperminty and in some the alcohol pushed it into menthol territory. The mint was quite prominent at Zema but it was a real sweet spearmint kind and it had a delicious dark chocolate smell that complimented it perfectly. Take nothing away from the flavour but I could have bought case of it just to smell!
So, on Monday we drove to Punter's Corner and Rymill and were suitably impressed. We then got some cheese and other local produce from The Poplars (and also did another sneaky tasting there), and went back to the cottage for lunch. We then went Brand's Laira which was probably the best winery of the tour. We jagged it here because they had three of their 'special' wines on tasting - the Eric's Blend, the Captain Stentiford's Old Vine Shiraz and The Patron cabernet sauvignon. At $74 these were obviously, hopefully, going to be the real deal. And the thing was, their normally priced wines were great... even after three full tastings and a glass with lunch. But the lovely cellar door lass was another fan of the honeymoon concept and gave us the remains of the tasting bottle of the Stentiford's shiraz! Sounds gross, I know, but this is a $74 bottle of wine we're talkin about and was the unanimous favourite so far.
Next, we went to Zema which was also brilliant. At the first Coonawarra winery we to, Balnaves, I remember smelling mint on some of the cab savs and thinking "what the hell is wrong with my nose?!" But after doing 11 or so wineries that specialise in this particular variety, it became obvious that I was, in fact, on the right track. There was lots of different kinds of mint smells going on in the coonawarra cabernets. Some were quite sweet and spearminty, others a bit more chemically and pepperminty and in some the alcohol pushed it into menthol territory. The mint was quite prominent at Zema but it was a real sweet spearmint kind and it had a delicious dark chocolate smell that complimented it perfectly. Take nothing away from the flavour but I could have bought case of it just to smell!
No comments:
Post a Comment