Adelaide

Trip Start Sep 04, 2007
1
45
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Trip End May 28, 2008


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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Having reached Adelaide I decided to spend a quiet day recovering from all that travel, and also I needed to sort out my travel plans. I had a look around the city but it just didn't impress me... nothing wrong, it just isn't Sydney. In the evening there was a a talk in the hostel about trips around Australia including an auction of various activities. Not many people turned up and some of them had already been to the East Coast, so I got 1/3 off a 3 day Tall ships sailing trip in the Whitsundays, and 3 days campervan hire anywhere in Australia for just $55.

On Tuesday I went on a wine tour of the Barossa Valley. The area is home to many of the famous Australian wineries including Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Jacob's Creek and Rosemount Estate. Our first stop was at Wolf Blass where we had a tasting of their very nice wines. I paid an extra $5 for a glass of their Black Label, which usually costs $135 per bottle! It was certainly nice, but I reckon I would rather have a crate of Yellow label instead of one bottle of Black label! The Port was also very nice - they recommend putting it in the freezer until it turns slushy, and then pouring it over ice cream.... I haven't got any Port to try it with, but if you have some at home then give it a try let me know how good it is!

Next we visited Maggie Beer's farm shop (Maggie is the local equivalent to Delia Smith and became particularly famous for her very pleasant Pheasant Pate). There were plenty of free food samples of chutneys, pastes and sauces... and a bit more wine. Then it was off to Barossa Valley Estates winery for more wine tasting and a decent lunch of regional gourmet produce, including more of the Pheasant Pate. Then it was time for Langmeil Estate which was my favourite winery. We had a tour of their site which included their 160 year old Shiraz vines, which are infact the oldest growing vines in the world. It is currently harvesting season so we also got to see some of the manufacturing process including pressing of grapes. The wines started with $20 per bottle shiraz and went up to the $50 Orphan Bank shiraz and then the $100 Freedom Shiraz. The wines were very good, but they were also more expensive than I would buy. Our last stop was Chateau Tanunda where we had yet more wine, followed by the drive back to Adelaide including a brief glimpse of Jacob's Creek. It was a great day out and I slept quite well after all that wine!

The next day was an early start to catch the train to Melbourne. The train ride was fairly slow, but much better than spending 12 hours on a bus.
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