wine country

So our trip has all but come to an end, and I'm happy to report it's been on a very high note. The last leg is in the wine country near Adelaide. The Barossa Valley was our home base, and we took some very memorable day trips from there.

Our first outing was to the McLaren Vale appellation, home of some of the world's best Shiraz. I should say first that the wine country in South Australia is far more like that of the California central coast (Santa Barbara and environs) than Napa or Sonoma. It's low-key, tastings generally consist of ten or so wines and are completely free, and the wineries are somewhat spread-out.

When I say spread-out, I mean it. There's no "main drag" where you find tons of wineries like Highway 29 or the Silverado Trail. The directions from our hotel to the McLaren Vale should illustrate this point (and of course, reminded me of this colorful episode of xckd). But having to wind your way through scores of unmarked backroads which traverse the heart of wine country makes it more of an adventure - it feels kind of old-school. And by the time we arrived at our intended destination we were usually ready to drink.

Mollydooker was our first stop and we had probably the most amazing wine-tasting experience ever. They don't have a tasting room so we had to make an appointment for a tour, but without a cellphone we couldn't confirm an appointment the day of. So we just figured we'd drop by and see if/when they could take us.

We arrive and they told us to join a tour that had just left (which was only two other people). This tour consisted of the winemaker's mother Janet showing us around their brand new facility, letting us taste some upcoming vintages from a bunch of different fermentation tanks. Then she invited us back to her house, which was on the property, where she prepared us a meal and opened up three of their best bottles of wine and let us pour whatever we wanted. And all of this with no charge and no pressure to purchase anything (they don't sell bottles there anyway - it's not a tasting room). And to top it off, their wine was amazing (it's no surprise that one of their wines was rated in the Top 10 in the world by Wine Spectator). Um, wow. We were floored. I see us buying a few cases in the near future.

Spending our days riding through the hills and valleys, surveying the beautiful countryside, eating delicious local food and sampling fabulous wine, suffused us with a much-needed sense of calm that was perfect for winding down our honeymoon. For many stretches of the road between towns there were no other cars in sight.

Other highlights of our stay include Maggie Beer's farm shop, the Angaston farmer's market, and some other wonderful wineries such as Petaluma, Longview, Coriole (which, oddly, produces one of my favorite Italian white wines, Fiano!), Shaw and Smith, and Henschke.

Our final nights were spent at the beautiful hotel The Louise, where we had an amazing suite that was literally feet from a huge vineyard. We dined at Appellation, the restaurant on-property, where they offered us a multi-course prix fixe meal designed around the "Garden Series" of wines from Two Hands. Two Hands is another amazing producer we had visited with special treatment, thanks to a hookup from my cousin Brian who knows the owner. They create some amazing Shirazes, and although we usually don't drink much Shiraz because it's hard to find vege/pescetarian food that pairs well with it, Appellation turned our view upside-down.

Course after course of clever integrations of earthy and spicy flavors that paired beautifully with the deep fruit of the wines were delivered to our table. It was a tremendously enjoyable dinner - and paced properly to boot. :)

We can't say enough good things about The Louise - we even met the owner, Jim Carreker, who is a Silicon Valley expat who travelled to Australia with his wife to do something different. He's a jovial fellow who clearly loves what he does. He even delivered us breakfast in person one morning to our room - talk about service!

It's with a sense of melancholy that we prepare for our trip back to Sydney, and ultimately home. Our honeymoon has been relaxing and energizing, and pretty much everything we intended it to be. But I think we're ready to get back to our friends, our apartment, our favorite city, and real life.

Pictures of the moment (from top to bottom):

1. Janet at Mollydooker. She's Sparky (one of the winemaker)'s Mom, and was delightful and gracious. We spent more than two hours with her talking about their wine, their business, and many other things.
   
2. Fields of lavender. It's cultivated here and so there are hills that are literally completely purple. Cool.
   
3. Angaston farmer's market. Convening Weekly on Saturday mornings, this market had all kinds of droolworthy local confections. It definitely seemed to be heavier on baked goods than produce, but I didn't complain. One of the favorites is Rich the Chocolatier, who we had met the previous day pouring wine at Maggie Beer's.
   
4. Shaw and Smith. One of the many beautiful outdoor tasting rooms we visited.