Travel With Betsy

Big, Jammy Reds….

That has been my impression of South Australian wines since I was introduced to them with all of the rest of you years ago when they first broke into the American wine scene. Sometimes I can get myself interested in a big, juicy Shiraz, but it’s not usually my favorite. It’s so much not my favorite that when I was planning my trip, I almost skipped visiting the wine regions near Adelaide because I really felt the wines were nothing special. But….I reasoned…..if one is going to Australia and part of the trip is focused on wine, how can you skip the Barossa? It just didn’t seem right. So, I forged ahead and planned some time in Adelaide. My wine tasting landed on the Barossa and McLaren Vale.

To begin, I will confess that I took an organized tour of like-minded tasters out to each area, and I left the decision on the regions to visit to my tour guides. I am not always a fan of the organized tour. I like to do my own thing. And, when my friends were with me and we were doing some tasting in New Zealand, we did do our own thing based on recommendations of industry contacts and friends. But, I didn’t have the time to do a lot of research on these regions and, thus, I wasn’t too sure what “my own thing” here would be exactly. Left to my own devices, I would probably just end up at the bigger, high production places that we all know and love….or hate. So, I decided that I would rely on the people who lived and work here to direct me to the best regions and the best representations of the regions.

It was a good strategy.

I hired “Perfect Blend Tours” to take me out to McLaren Vale and “Cellar Door Tours” to take me out to the Barossa. Thanks to Russell and Tim, who proved to be excellent and informative tour guides, I got out to some of the lesser known…..and more interesting……vineyards. It was a great education on the wines of Southern Australia.

I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I did have my fair share of juicy Syrahs, or “Shiraz’”, as the Australians call it. It’s the signature wine of this region, after all. The terrior as well as the general customer demands this style of wine. But, just as in other regions in my own area, the climate is changing and the winemakers are adjusting. And, there are some very creative winemakers that are just looking to do something a bit more interesting. I found a few such people here.

My biggest revelation was that I didn’t find only Syrah, as I expected. I’m not sure why I thought this would be the case.

Silly me.

What I found in both regions were Rhone varietals. It makes sense, of course. With Syrah comes Mourvedre (Mataro in Aussie speak), Grenache, and blends made with those grapes. I also learned that the Clare Valley does a great deal of Reisling. The climate in that area is right for Reisling. There was a large German population in the whole area, the Barossa in particular, and when they discovered the favorable climate, they introduced the Reisling. I did get some of the Reisling from Clare Valley vineyards at 2 of the wineries where we stopped and it was fabulous. I also found interspersed in my tastings some Italian varietals as well as some Spanish varietals. In the end, it was quite like tasting in my area of California with the same varietals and an interesting mix of styles.

To me, the most notable wines in McLaren Vale came from Chapel Hill Wines…

…..and Hugo. Chapel Hill had a Mourvedre that I thought was outstanding. And, I did a reserve tasting there

……where the “Gorge Block Cabernet” and “The Vicar Syrah” competed for my attention. The Syrah had a much more elegant style than we are used to with the typical Australian imports that we get in the United States. I was close to buying something here, but how would I get it home?

I liked everything I had at Hugo, but they had a new release 2017 Grenache that they were pouring for special guests that knocked my socks off. I’m still thinking about it and wishing I had purchased it.

We also visited “The Cube….

……a new and innovative tasting room done by the D’Arenburg family. Does this look familiar?  It’s patterned after the Rubik’s cube. The tasting room rivaled MONA, the museum that I saw in Hobart, for unusual and creative art. This was part of the display that gets you ready for a tasting of the wine.

You squeeze the bulbs and the scent of whatever is in the glass comes out.  It’s probably on of the most unusual sensory experiences I havc seen at a winery. The Arenbury family owns and operates this, but they have gotten a fair amount of money from the government to build it and keep it going. It brings in a lot of tourists…not only to this facility, but to the area as a whole.

The Barossa was probably the biggest surprise I had.   We went to 4 places. They were all different and they were all excellent. At Murray Road…..

…..we tasted two 2006 single vineyard Syrahs that were very different from each other. One had begun to take on the tobacco and leather characteristics of an older wine. It finished with a layer of delicious light fruit. The other had a much more dark and juicy fruit quality. Both were an unexpected delight!

We stopped next at a place called Tscharke’s.

The owner/winemaker, Tscharke, was our host. His wines were fantastic and they were priced somewhere between $10 and $15 Australian for a bottle. He has fine-tuned his winemaking and aging process with production efficiencies that allow him to charge less per bottle. We figured he makes his money by selling more bottles at the lower price than by selling just a few at the higher price. He doesn’t care about the pretense of expensive wine. He cares about taste. In additon to the usual suspects, he was also working with Italian varietals. My only purchase of the 2 days was here. I bought a 2015 Montepulciano that was so unique that I couldn’t pass it by. It had an earthy, almost “barnyard” feel about it. I can’t say that I have ever had anything like it.

If I lived in Australia, I would join his wine club. You can’t beat his creativity and the price per bottle.

The other standout was Rusden.

They were very small and some of their production techniques were quite primitive. This was the machine used for pressing. It’s a high pressure affair and had exploded on them a few times lately. We had to get special permission to get close to it.

All of the Rusden wines were outstanding, but the highlight for me was the Mourvedre. Believe it or not, they also had a Zinfandel. It was the only one I saw in all of the tastings we did. It was good….and a little jammy….not quite at California standards. But, it was fruity.

We ended our day in the Barossa with a small upstart winery headed by Peter Lehman’s son, David Franz.

For those of you who don’t know, Peter Lehman was the founder of one of the major wineries in the Barossa that still bears his name. It’s still there, but has been purchased by one of the large wine management groups. David was quite a character. Very fun! We had a rose that was made with 108 different grape varietals. They were all printed on the bottle.

It wasn’t my favorite. But, I’m guessing it is or will be someone’s favorite! But, it was certainly unique.

So, my final call on the Barossa was quite different from where I started at the beginning of my tour. Just as with people, you can’t always “judge a book by its cover”…..or reputation as it were. Sometimes it’s worth a second look to see if there is something beyond the surface. As I have found with people, it doesn’t always happen, but it’s such a pleasant surprise when it does.

What Was I thinking?……

…when I decided that 2 full days in Tasmania would be enough?

I don’t always have this feeling when leaving a travel location, but I can honestly say that I felt sad when it was time to depart from Hobart a few days ago. From the minute I checked into Hadley’s, an old historic hotel in Hobart, I felt like I was at home. After getting settled in my room, I walked down the hill from the hotel to the port area for dinner……

….and made friends with the bar keep.

I was going to like it here.

When I got back to the hotel, I was given a free bottle of the local Pinot Noir…..it came with the price of my room. I took it to the small hotel bar where they were playing old Frank Sinatra tunes. The first one was “I Did it My Way”, a choice full of personal symbolism that reminded me of some happy times in my recent past. I couldn’t imagine that it could get any better.

But, it did…..

I loved everything about my visit to Hobart and the surrounding area.

Hobart is really just the “tip of the iceburg”, as they say, in the exploration of Tasmania. It’s a sleepy port town where those who are exploring the island usually start their journey. For me, it was a mixture of a lot of the things I enjoy about my area of California.

And more.

I loved walking around the port area. On the different piers along the water’s edge, I could wander in and out of small shops selling all kinds of things that were fun to look at. I wove my way in and out of shops filled with local art, clothing and food products.

I could take a break, sit on a bench looking out to the water and view the moored pleasure boats that bobbed up and down at their docks. It was peaceful and relaxing.

I also sat and watched the activity on a pier had some commercial fishing boats.

Several nights I dined on fresh fish in restaurants along the waterfront. One night I had scallops at “The Blue Eye” restaurant. The scallops and the restaurant are favorites of the locals.

On my last night, I had dinner at Muir’s Upstairs, another local gem. I had a white fish that reminded me of cod.

I wish I could remember the name of the fish. I can’t. But, it was the trademark of the restaurant, an institution in Hobart, and had been brought in by its own fishing boat that morning. The waiter called it a “hook to plate” dinner…fresh from the sea and onto your plate. It reminded me of some of the fish restaurants in Morro Bay, near where I live, that touted the same kind of freshness in their fish. It was delicious!

Salamanca Place was another favorite.

It’s the site of the famous Saturday market, which, sadly, I missed. But, I did enjoy a stroll through the shops there…

and enjoyed the little square that anchored the area.

Battery Park and Arthur’s Circus…..

…..were filled with the history of Hobart and the old buildings that have been a part of Hobart from its beginning. They are now upscale living areas boasting real estate that comes at a very high price. The infamous bakery, Jackman and McRoss lives there. This restaurant is purported to have the best scallop pie in town, another favorite Hobart taste treat.

In the morning of the day I had my visit with the kangaroos and the Tasmanian Devils, I spent a fair amount of time at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

They had a great exhibit about the Tasmania Devils, which gave me a good base of information for my afternoon tour.   The museum was delightful……and, it was free.

Tasmania was, of course, where I spent my time with the kangaroos and other Australian animals at the Bonorong Animal Sanctuary. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip for me.

On the way to the sanctuary, we stopped in Richmond. There, I viewed a beautiful old church…

and the oldest surviving large stone arch bridge in Australia.

The bridge was built by the convicts who were banished to Tasmania in the 1800s and beyond. It still stands today as a reminder of the forced convict labor that was used to build the bridge. The area around the bridge was beautiful, green and serene and is now a lovely residential site.

I also toured the old jail, where convicts were imprisoned.

Men and women British convicts were imprisoned on the island for doing “bad” things. “Bad” was subject to interpretation.

Isn’t that always the case?

“Bad” could be anything from insubordination to murder. When the convicts got to the island, they had some semblance of freedom. But, they were required to do tasks as assigned. If they didn’t do them, they were imprisoned in the jail, crammed in together in very small quarters. If they misbehaved in the jail, they were sent to solitary confinement. It was a double-edged sword. Solitary confinement provided some relief from the overcrowding of the jail, but the cells were lonely, cold and desolate. It’s hard to say which was worse, the general prison or solitary. Either way, it wasn’t pleasant. I, for one, am glad I don’t have to spend any time there.

Much to my disappointment, I never got to any of the walking and hiking trails in the beautiful mountains surrounding Hobart, of which there are many. I also missed Mount Wellington and the spectacular views of the city.

I enjoyed my visit to Hobart…..but there were other places for me to visit on this trip before I was done.

So, I will just have to go back.

And, I will go back…..and, I will spend more time.

What was I thinking?……..