An early start as we had to shower, eat breakfast and be ready outside the YHA for 08:45 for the Barossa Valley Supreme wine tour. We had breakfast in a snack bar and then waited to be collected by Prime Mini Tours. On the way to the snack bar I saw a woman who looked very much like my sister in law. I squashed a fly on Ian's bag while waiting for the bus and got a very bloody finger in the process. The remains of the fly were hanging from my finger which I flicked onto the pavement.
We were boarded onto the minibus and travelled through Adelaide to collect other passengers. One of the last two men to embark the bus looked exceptionally familiar. We both held eye contact for a moment, both looking at the other as if we knew each other and did a double take. We acknowledged each other and the trip went underway. I was left wondering whether or not this guy was actually the person I thought he was or whether I should apologise to him for staring.
At our first winery, Grant Burge, we sampled some red wines and I was left to my own devices to photograph the beautiful vineyard and winery. I mentioned to Ian my suspicions that this chap was an ex colleague of mine and he encouraged me to talk to him to put my mind at rest. As I approached the building from outside in the glorious sunshine John Camidge said to me 'how are you doing, I can't believe you're here!?' and immediately I knew my suspicions were sound. We had a quick chat and catch up before setting off to the next winery. How small a world this is. You just don't travel 18,000 kilometres around the globe to bump into someone you know, in a pretty big city, on a wine tour. A supreme wine tour. It's absolutely incredible!
Chateau Tanunda was a remarkable building and the structured wine tasting meant that we all felt we knwe a little bit more about what we were doing. We no longer felt like plonkers, pardon the pun, as we sloshed wine around and lunged our noses into the bottom of the glass! Tasting the wine did indeed become an art form. I tried some white wines as well as reds and a botrytis which is a very sweet honey tasting wine. Ian bought a bottle for Mark back in Sydney.
In Tanunda we had a few minutes to ourselves to wander around so Ian and I took the opportunity to investigate the prices of Toyota Landcruisers for no particular reason other than we would like to own one.
Lunch was a three course affair at Barossa Junction Resort which was a restaurant and motel accommodation made from railway carriages. Ian tried kangaroo fillet which I sampled. It's very, very tough meat but not as tought as warthog.
The commentary from our driver, Kevin, throughout the day was good and I learned that the wineries plant rose bushes at the end of the vines to detect diseases in the vines and that irrigation pipes are installed at a height of 6 inches from the ground along the vines for those hot Australian summer days.
Across the road from the Barossa Junction Resort we had another tasting at Chateau Dorrien which specialises in honey mead wines. We tried several, including a couple of hot mead wines. We particularly like the chocolate jaffa one which was very nice!
Hamilton's Ewell vineyard was next on the tour and this gave us an extensive selection of whites and reds to try.
We then drove on to Menglers Hill lookout which gave us a terrific view over the Barossa Valley. Barossa, incidentally, is a misspelling of Barrosa as it was originally called but the name stuck when it was mistyped and has since been known as Barossa. John and I took another opportunity to have a chat and his friend took a photograph of us in front of the Barossa Valley in the glorious sunshine. We exchanged e-mail addresses too.
A trip to South Australia Company Store passed some incredible trees with bright orange flowers in bloom for which I made a special trip and walked back up the road to take a photograph. At the store we were presented with some cheese and biscuits and dried fruit platters. I took some cheese and biscuits away with me to the fifth and final wine tasting at Wolf Blass winery.
It seemed as though we may have saved the best to last but when you've sampled over twenty five wines in a relatively short space of time you begin to feel a bit tipsy and less tasteful of what delights you swill into your mouth and down your throat. Ian, I think, had already decided that he would like Wolf Blass and had pretty much decided that he would like to buy a couple of bottles of red wines before we arrived. We dutifully sampled the majority of their red wine list, including their expensive black label, and while I finished off my cheese lumps Ian drifted off and bought two bottles. John, however, was buying a dozen... It was entertaining to see him struggle out of the winery totally laden with bottles of wine!
On the drive back to Adelaide I think everyone on the bus nodded off to sleep and everyone soon got dropped off at their associated establishments. John, I noticed, had accommodation opposite the casino which I thought to be quite apt.
After booking onto a day tour to Kangaroo Island on Saturday we returned to the cyber cafe for another 3 hour session. I didn't feel like I had achieved much but then realised that the dates I had been concentrating on have been particularly long entries in my journal and I have been adding lots of webpage links as I go.
Mum sent me a text message to inform me that our dive computers that I ordered yesterday arrived this morning so it took less than 24 hours from the time of despatch to the time of receipt. Impressive or what? Now all we have to do is get them FedExed to Sydney by the time we arrive back there next week!
We completed our day with another chocolate cake and hot chocolate supper in the dozy waitress cafe. And again she was spectacularly dozy.
The only thing missing from the tour, I feel, is an informative explanation of the wine making process and a guided walk around the vines and winery. But all said it was an excellent tour and day well spent.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.