"TORB’s September SA Sojourn" – (The 2006 South Australian Tour Diary)

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Chapter Four – Monday – Clare Valley and Barossa

As we were well behaved last night and only consumed two bottles of red between the three of us, getting up this morning was easy. We headed into town for an early breakfast and found a new, very good bakery. The Danish pastries look terrific and I ordered a muffin which tasted as good as it looked. The coffee was also very respectable so I was happy, but even happier after another muffin and a second cup of coffee. As the boys had had a PFD (pie-free day) yesterday (now there's a first), they decided they had better try and make up for it by scoffing one down for breakfast.

There's not much open in the way of wineries at nine o'clock, but I had made an appointment at O'Leary Walker Wines. For those that aren't acquainted with O'Leary Walker’s wines, you should be. These two very talented guys were the winemakers behind the success of the Annies Lane brand name. In 2001 they went out on their own and started their own winery; since then have been doing extremely well. Besides making their own wines they do a lot of contract work, hence the huge winery.

Barrel soaking in progress. Note the strength of the wind causing waves - and the Pie King had not been eating beans.

When you walk through the winery there's a colossal amount of wine, but about 90% of it is not theirs. These guys are doing some serious winemaking. They are now the largest contract winemakers in the region. As you walk around the barrel shed, you will see some interesting names (of the owners) on the barrels.

I reviewed some of their wines at Wine Australia in July, and as usual, they were all very good and exceptionally good value. At that time I had the opportunity to retaste the stunningly good 2002 Reserve Shiraz, which is developing magnificently (under screwcap). David O'Leary told me they would be producing a Reserve in 2004 and 2005. Gone are the days when I feel like I have to spend $75 or more for a bottle of wine, because in most cases you can get wine that is just as good for around $50. When I first tasted the 2002 Reserve, I knew that the price was justified and I wanted some for my cellar. That was why I was anxious to try the 2004; I wanted to know if I had to start saving up.

Like so many places we had been to, the winemakers were away, so we were very capably looked after by Keeda Zilm. We started with a barrel sample of the 2005 Reserve Shiraz. The wine had just been racked and sulphured, so was far from showing its best and the sample was just one component picked at random. Even though the wine had just been beaten up, you could tell the plummy fruit was absolutely sensational. The tannins were incredibly tight and the wine brilliantly structured. With the level of the quality of fruit they are using, this wine will be terrific.

O'Leary Walker 2004 Reserve Shiraz is a blended barrel sample, but the wine is still in oak. (We were able to compare the 2002 to the 2004 and the 2005, side by side.) This wine maintains complete stylistic integrity with the previous and next release. The bouquet is rich and ripe, showing spicy oak with plum, and coffee. I just wanted to bury my head in the glass and keep sniffing. In terms of balance, the wine has all the components. The dusty tannins are tight. The acid is fresh, and the fruit is pure and deep. It's an ample-weight wine with a supple consistency, solid structure, and its already showing a high level of complexity for such a young wine. The palate shows rich, ripe plums dominating spicy nutmeg, chocolate, and blackcurrant flavours that finish with good length and persistence. I love the flavour profile. It's a work in progress, but a damn fine one, and even more so when you consider it had recently been racked and sulphured. It shows real class and in time should be sensational. The only downsides are that it is leaner than the 2002 (but it will flesh out), and it is slightly warm on the palate. At this stage I would say the wine would be rated as Excellent and unfortunately I'd better start saving my pennies now; I'm going to want some of this one when it is released.

Our next stop was just down the road at Annies Lane. This winery is owned by Fosters. This winery has another redeeming feature; it actually opens at 8:30 a.m. Now that's what I call an opening time, none of those banker’s hours for this lot. I needed to check one fact so I had a look at their website; it shows the Cabernet Merlot current release as 2002, so it’s about two years out of date.

Annies Lane 2004 Cabernet Merlot sells for $18 at CD (but is available for as low as $11 on the street) and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet is lifted and shows blackcurrant, plum and vanilla. With a good level of fine-grained, powdery tannins, the wine is well-backed and solid, but the fruit is forward and presents plum, blackcurrant and chocolate. Medium-weight with a supple mouth-feel, the complexity is agreeable and it’s rated as Recommended with ***** for value (based on the $11 price). Drink over the next five years.

Annies Lane 2004 Shiraz sells for $18 at CD (but is available for as low as $11 on the street) and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet is reasonably unexciting and shows generic Shiraz characters. The palate exhibits black fruits, subtle chocolate and mint. Its medium-weight and backed by powdery tannins. It's easy drinking, inoffensive, will go well with food, but is just another wine that gets lost in a crowd. Rated as Agreeable with **** for value (based on the street price.) It would be a safe wine to have by the glass in a bistro, but the Cabernet Merlot is a better wine.

This sign, of grave importance, holds...............

prideof place in the Pie Queen's Garden............

Annies Lane Copper Trail 2001 SGM is a 43%/39%/18% blend and sells for $30 at cellar door. The bouquet has black fruits dominating red fruits and meaty aspects. Unobtrusive tannins combine with crisp acid and delicate fruit to produce a very subtle wine and it is hard to pick out the individual flavours. There is a slight herbal streak through the whole palate and it finishes clean and crisp. An elegant wine with a lean body weight, the complexity is well developed and it would be a good food wine. Rated as Recommended with ** for value.

Annies Lane 2002 Copper Trail Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $42 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet is attractive showing blackcurrant, liquorice/char and vanillin oak. An ample-weight firm, solid wine with some elegance, it needs time and has potential. It should be a lot better once the pure fruit, which is currently buried by the abundant, ripe, powdery, drying tannins, surfaces. Blackberry, blackcurrant, mint, dried herbs and milk chocolate complete the picture. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, the rating should improve as the wine matures around 2010+.

Mixed results from this winery but if you pick out the gems and good value wines, you can do alright here.

Speaking of mixed results, I have had some of those in the past at Reilly’s Wine in historic Mintaro. From memory, the first wines I tried of theirs were from the 1998 vintage and cost around $20. From then on, almost every time I tried their wines they seem to be more expensive and rapidly became overpriced. That certainly lessened their attractiveness and so whilst I kept a casual eye on them; they were never a high priority. Sometime ago I was contacted by Justin Ardill and I committed to visiting the cellar door the next time I was in Clare.

The cellar door is located in an historic old stone barn, but the winery itself is now in Leasingham. The winery is named after (Hugo) Reilly, an Irish immigrant who started occupying the premises in 1856.

They made their first vintage in 1993 and production has slowly increased since that time, although in the last few years, the number of labels has increased dramatically.

Their prices have come back to a more realistic level, and if you a member of their club, they send you four cases a year, but you receive a 20 percent discount. We were very ably looked after by Kathy Finey.

Reilly's 2004 Grenache sells for $22 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. Made from 90 year-old dry grown vines; the bouquet is very attractive and shows ripe strawberry and hints of coffee. Powdery tannins and pure fruit combine to form a medium-weight, solid wine with an agreeable complexity and supple consistency; it has good structure. Juicy fruit delivers raspberry, sarsaparilla, milk chocolate, and blackcurrant flavours. It's very drinkable and a good food wine; I'd be happy to drink this with a high-quality hamburger. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, the rating may improve with a few years in the bottle, and it should go for five years.

Reilly's 2002 Shiraz sells for $27 at cellar door. The nose is black and oaky. Smooth, tight, unobtrusive tannins combine with pure fruit to produce a medium-weight, supple wine with a harmonious complexity. The oak is poking out at present but it should settle down. Blackberry, dried herbs and chocolate complete the picture. It's easy drinking and rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Reilly's 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $27 at cellar door. The bouquet is distinctly Cabernet with loads of menthol and mint. A well-balanced and constructed wine; it is backed by abundant, smooth, powdery tannins, fresh acid and pure fruit. The grapes are sweet and juicy, delivering blackcurrant, chocolate, mint and red cherry flavours which are underpinned on their journey across the palate by long tannins. Ample in weight with a supple consistency and harmonious complexity, it's a very enjoyable drop that will only get better. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, the rating should improve as the wine matures around 2009+.

The next wine we tried has a history. The story on the back of the label goes like this. “One of the most prominent growers in the Clare Valley owns and 80-year-old Shiraz vineyard in Watervale which has some exceptional fruit. The fruit has previously only been available to some of Australia's prestige, red wine brands. Our winemaker, using his unique negotiating tactics, (playing pool) waited until one night this particular grower had a few too many drinks under his belt. He challenged him to a game of pool with the rights to the legendary fruit as the prize. The Stolen Block label attests to who won the challenge, because to this day, the grower still believes he was robbed! (It didn’t say what the winemaker put up as his matching wager chip, but there is no truth in the rumour that it was a free heart bypass operation.)

Reilly's 2002 Stolen Block Shiraz sells for $38 at cellar door. The bouquet is all menthol, mint and eucalyptus with loads of oak characters. Ultra fine, silky tannins combines with pure fruit to produce a clean, modern wine with excellent construction, and sensational mouth-feel. Black cherry, plum, coffee, dried herbs and liquorice flavours provide a diverse but harmonious complexity. An ample-weight wine with a supple consistency, this is a classy drop that is still tight and almost seamless. A damn fine wine; get three mates, one of you joins the cellar club and buys four cases, for only $30 a bottle. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value (at $38), the rating should improve as the wine matures around 2010+.

Reilly's 2002 Sparkling Dry Land Shiraz sells for $29 at cellar door. It has loads of fizz and is pretty ripe. Sweet but not overly sweet, the complexity is not great but it will still be very drinkable on a hot day. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

All in all, the wines were a lot more attractive and more competitively priced then on previous visits. The Stolen Block and the Cabernet are the pick of the bunch. All the fruit is sourced from local growers.

As we were trying the Sparkling Shiraz, Brian came out with a wonderful piece of wisdom. “Sparkling Shiraz -- the thinking man's Riesling."

From Reilly's, we headed back towards Clare proper because a visit to this region would not be complete without a visit to one of my all-time favourite wineries in the region, Tim Adams Wines . Tim has been consistently producing good quality wines that are extremely well priced for many years. I first started buying his Aberfeldy with the 1994 and, vintage upon vintage, it is incredibly consistent and with time, develops into something very special. In all that time, the price has basically remained constant. His lower-priced wines consistently over-deliver on value.

It's always great to catch up with Tim, but unfortunately on this occasion, as I had not let him know I was coming, he was not there. When we arrived, the cellar door and office building was in the process of undergoing a major renovation. Capacity has increased dramatically, which should make life a lot easier for the crew. Our tasting took place in what will be the new boardroom because the cellar door had workmen in it.

Tim Adams 2004 The Fergus sells for $18 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. Fine, smooth, powdery tannins and fresh acid provide a supple consistency for this solid, medium-weight wine with an agreeable complexity. Sweet red cherry, milk chocolate, meaty flavours and spice finished crisp and dry. A good, food friendly wine is rated as Recommended with **** for value.

Tim Adams 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $19 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. Just ample in weight, the abundant powdery tannins provide a very firm but supple consistency. Red cherry, milk chocolate mint and dried green herbs provide an agreeable complexity. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, give it a couple of years in the cellar to integrate further.

Tim Adams 2004 Shiraz sells for $19 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet is pleasant showing earthy characters and mint. Chewy tannins and juicy fruit form a medium-weight, firm, solid wine with a well-developed complexity; it's attractive, clean and modern. Red berry, chocolate, mint, herbs and hints of liquorice and spice complete the package. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, it's ready to go now.

Tim Adams 2004 Aberfeldy sells for $39 and is sealed under screwcap. For the first time, there seems like there has been some change to this wine; possibly it's a change to the oak. The bouquet is earthy with coffee, vanilla and spice. Slightly powdery, smooth, tight tannins combine with pure, deep fruit to fill every nook and cranny in the mouth. Blackberry, spices, coffee and mint flavours finished long and dry. Ample-weight with a firm consistency and solid structure, the complexity is well developed and the wine has some class; it seems more refined than previous vintages and I was reluctant to spit the sample. Rated as Excellent with **** for value; drink from 2012+.

After typing this note, I rang Tim to find out about the perceived change in the 2004 Aberfeldy. Tim informed me that everything was virtually exactly the same. The wine saw the same amount of oak for the same period of time, it spent the same time on the skins as usual, and everything was as per plan. The only thing that Tim can put it down to was the quality of the fruit from the vintage. As an unabashed Aberfeldy fan, I wish they were all this good. Whilst I don't need any more wine in my cellar, I will definitely get a six-pack.

The old adage, if it is not broken don't try and fix it, certainly rings true with Tim Adams. Year in and year out, he keeps doing the same thing, and doing it well. I have never had a badly made Tim Adams wine, and in terms of value, they range from good to excellent. This is one of these few wineries where you can buy the wine and know that you'll always get a good drop. This was the last winery we visited in Clare.

On the last few trips to Clare, I have wanted to get to Wendouree. This winery is the most prestigious in the region, does not open to the public, and sells out within weeks of release of the newsletter. As I understand it, they have a waiting list of people who would like to get on to their mailing list. If you are lucky enough to be a long-time customer, like I am, within reason you get everything you order. For those who have not been customers for a long period of time, you may wind up ordering a lot, but only get a limited quantity.

Wendouree does not have a web site; it doesn't even have a fax machine. In the past, when I am wanted to contact them to a try and arrange a visit, I had rung and left a message on their answering machine. This is what I had planned to do on this occasion. The only problem was by the time I got around to doing that, it was too late. The old phone number has been disconnected and they now have an unlisted phone number. This is the first time I've ever heard of a winery having an unlisted phone number. The only way you can contact them is by snail mail. So, as I had left it too late, I missed out on visiting them again. At least I have the consolation of having a number of vintages of their wine in my cellar.

                           Spitting only - no $hit!  

Comparing the regions of McLaren Vale and Clare is interesting. McLaren Vale has a number of highly regarded, cult and premium end producers like d'Arenberg, Classic McLaren, Kay Bros, Hardy’s, Mitolo, Noon’s etc. Clare really only has Wendouree and Kilikanoon and possibly a couple of others like Tim Adams and Jim Barry.

If I think back to the number of wines that stood out from the crowd, when comparing the two regions, there were a large number of them in McLaren Vale, but very few in Clare. The quality of the wines in Clare was generally consistently good, but there was a generic sameness about many of them, and very few generated much excitement. If you were looking at a wine list in a restaurant, buying red wine from Clare could be seen as a reasonably safe bet, but safe can sometimes be boring. Generally speaking, most of the wines from Clare are reasonably priced; many are above average in terms of value, which in today's crowded marketplace is a positive. Nevertheless, whilst we left Clare feeling happy, our time there certainly didn't generate the buzz or the excitement that we experienced in McLaren Vale.

It was about noon when we left Clare and started our journey to the Barossa. When I was planning a trip, I received an e-mail from Cecilia Schubert of Schubert Estate suggesting that if I had any spare time that we call in and visit. I had tasted the current release, the excellent 2004 Goose Yard Block Shiraz, so there was no new commercial wine to taste but Cecilia had said there was something she would like to show me, if we could find time. She also suggested that even if we just wanted to have a break from the mad house of tasting wines, she would be happy to see us. When I rang and asked if she would be available at around two o'clock, she asked where we were and what we were doing for lunch. I told Cecilia we were just leaving Clare and would grab a bite to eat on the way. Cecilia would not have it! She insisted we come for lunch; she said it would be no trouble and would just throw some sandwiches together.

What the hell, even if Cecilia sandwiches were revolting, they would be bound to be better than the sort of food I have experienced in the past when stopping between Clare and the Barossa. Breakfast the previous day immediately came to mind, so I gladly accepted her kind invitation. And there was an added plus; there were no pies involved.

When we arrived, we received an extremely warm greeting from Paddy; Cecilia and Steve seemed like they were pleased to see us too. Paddy is a real character, but more about that later.

Most people avoid the dentist like the plague, but when Cecilia goes to the Fang Doctor, she gets strange ideas. There she was, sitting in the waiting room, minding her own business, and avoiding the ten year old Reader's Digest's by reading other uplifting publications like Women's Weekly, New Idea, and Dolly magazine, where she came across an article that spawned an idea. The idea was churned around in her brain, (no doubt the dentist's drill helped,) it was fertilised, it took root, (given the dental association the bad pun is intended), it grew until it flourished, and then the Frankenstein experiment began.

The article that Cecilia had been reading was all about making single vineyard wines and the areas in Australia that did it best. It finished up with a flippant comment, “the ultimate would be to make a wine from a single vine.” Whilst most sane people discuss the weather with their dentist, Cecilia discussed the conclusion of the article with the dentist. He said, “You have got the golden opportunity to do it. Go for it.” Like all good patients, Cecilia took the dentist’s advice.

When the story started to unfold, Cecilia went to great pains to explain that her project had absolutely nothing to do with Schubert Estate, other than the fact that they provided the single vines for the experiment. (Steve’s entire involvement in the entire process was to rack the wine, and that was only because Cecilia was unable to get the gizmo that she bought from the home winemaking shop to work.)

Once the grapes had been picked and the experiment commenced, the first and major problem that would continue through the whole process immediately became apparent. The size of the batch was miniscule. Normally when people are talking about small batches, they are talking about hundreds, possibly even thousands of litres of wine, but in this case, we are talking single digit numbers. All the normal winemaking dimensions and measurements simply do not apply. This was turning out to be more “a home kitchen experiment,” rather than a fully fledged winemaking experiment.

The underpinning philosophy behind Cecilia’s process was, if you had one vine at home and wanted to make wine, and didn’t have any commercial winemaking equipment, how would you go about it? She wanted to come up with equivalent of a sponge cake recipe for making a bucket of wine. The secondary objective was to see if it was possible to make wine from a single vine and determine how one-dimensional the end product would be.

Paddy Schubert

Cecilia decided to make five different batches and tried different things with every one. She tried everything from plucking all the grapes off the bunch for one batch, to whole bunch crushing for another. The objective was to see what worked, what didn’t and the effects that the different processes would have on the end result. Speaking of end results, each vine produced a whopping 8 - 9 375ml bottles: that’s just over three litres, literally a small bucket of wine!

Looking back on it, Cecilia felt that the biggest shortcoming in the winemaking process was the lack of cold stabilisation during the ferment. Each batch was left to ferment for about two weeks and was then basket pressed.

The first wine was sound and certainly drinkable, better than I expected. It showed a raspberry and chocolate flavours and while the fruit was bright, it didn’t have much length. After tasting this wine, the Pie King, who is obviously going through withdrawal symptoms, said it should be marketed as “Home Kitchen Shiraz.” What a great idea when there is a grand total of 8 x 387ml bottles. I wonder who will be marketing his wines?

When Brian enjoyed the second wine he said, “I would rather drink this in the morning than my usual cup of coffee. It certainly had a lot of coffee flavour in it.”

And so it went, each wine was completely different and showed the characteristic of the individual vine, which in itself was fascinating. Some of the wines were better than others and two of them were certainly eminently drinkable. All of them had good mouth-feel.

When you think about the difficulties involved in making wines at this level, the intricacies are amazing. If you want to add oak character, how much oak do you use, about a pencils worth? When adding sulphur, how much of that? A pinch; but is it a small pinch, or a tiny pinch?

According to Cecilia, she learnt an awful lot in the process and will probably do it again next year. Who knows, there may eventually be a book for home winemakers in it.

Whilst all this important discussion was taking place, we had lunch, and what a lunch it turned out to be; a veritable feast and far better than any bakery. That’s two days in a row I have had a big win at lunchtime. There were focaccia and wraps with salmon, some had a type of locally produced smoked bacon that was delicious and there were all sorts of other goodies in the sandwiches too. For desert, there was a bee sting and for those so inclined, a South Australian specialty known as "frog cakes." If that wasn't enough, there was a huge cheese plate and coffee.

Frog Cakes ............................... 

The hospitality didn't end there; Steve opened a bottle of the Schubert Estate 2004 Goose Block Shiraz. The bouquet showed wonderful multiple berry fruit aromas with hints of coffee and plum. The tannins are smooth, fine and tight, and combine with the brilliant, pure fruit to form an excellently structured wine with the wonderful mouth-feel. The flavour profile has fantastic complexity which is dominated by blackcurrant and plum, and whilst it is approachable now, and finishes with good persistence of flavour, it needs a little time to gain length. Ample-weight with a supple consistency, its great value for the quality and is rated as Excellent, but the rating should improve as the wine matures around 2010+. When I tried this wine, I had the impression that it was just starting to head into a sleep phase. When I tried the wine again a couple of months later, this suspicion was confirmed in the wine is now shut down and fast asleep.

Sitting outside, having a relaxing long lunch and chewing the fat, both literally and figuratively, as well as sipping on some very good wine, is the best way I can think of to spend an afternoon. Unfortunately, as much as I would have liked to have stayed therefore the rest of the afternoon, we did need to get to more wineries.

I have heard that be Schubert's are known for their legendary hospitality, now I fully understand why.

Paddy was adopted when Dan Standish moved house and was unable to have him at his new place. He was used to visiting as Dan was the winemaker at Torbreck and a frequent visitor to the Schubert's property. According to Cecilia, when he first arrived, Steve thought his name was Wally. So the first few days they kept called Paddy "Wally" but he did not respond. Thinking the dog was stone deaf the Schuberts took him to the vet for a check-up. That's when they found out his real name was Paddington - Paddy for short and although he may just act like a "real Wally" - who wouldn't after being taken away from "Dad"? However Paddy is really happy where he is and loves a good BBQ. I recon that Steve is the Wally for getting the dogs name wrong!

The Greenock Creek winery is just down the road, and as it is only open for a few weeks a year, we couldn't miss the opportunity to taste their wines. The winery has an awesome reputation both in Australia and the US, and many of their customers are more like disciples than customers.

I have mixed feelings about this winery, some of their earlier vintage wines, like those from the early 90s I found very attractive. However, some of their later wines were simply not to my taste; I found many of them were huge and noticeably high in alcohol. My personal preference aside, the wines sell-out in an incredibly short period of time.

When we parked the car, there was only one other vehicle in the car park, and it contained an elderly man that appeared to be fast asleep.

The cellar door is actually below ground in a beautiful old stone building. It's tiny and doesn't have much room. When we walked in, there were three guys tasting and finally buying wine so we let them finish before we got started.

As they were walking out, the Pie King being the master of tact said, “I think I should warn you that the old guy in the passenger seat of your car looks like he might be dead.”

To which one of the three replied, "Yes. That's not far from the truth; he is going into hospital to have a brain tumour removed tomorrow.”

The egg John just laid was bigger than the double yolker I'd had for breakfast the day before. John looked around for a rock to crawl under, but unfortunately he couldn't find one.

The guy who was looking after us in the cellar door could only be described as a little Irish leprechaun. I can't remember the last time I can remember seeing anyone so openly excited about what they were selling. To use John's expression, he was pure gold. According to him, the wines from 2004 were between one and one and a half percent lower in alcohol than the previous recent vintages.

Greenock Creek 2004 Corner Store Grenache sells for $29 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet is bright and attractive and leads to a palate that is driven by pure, savoury fruit with some sweetness running in the secondary under layer; it's almost in the sour cherry spectrum. Medium-weight with a supple consistency, it's an open wine with a very agreeable complexity and is food friendly. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, it is ready to drink now.

Greenock Creek 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $38 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet showed loads of dusty notes, a touch of VA and blueberry. The fruit behind this wine is terrific; it's pure, deep and delivers blackberry, cassis, and a touch of dried mint. Medium-weight with a supple consistency the structure is approaching seamless and the complexity well developed. A classy, clean, well constructed wine with a delightful mouth-feel, it's rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value and should peak around 2010+.

What the **** is this doing in the visitors bedroom at Pie King Bridge Hotel?

       Is the Pie King going into second childhood? Or is he maturing??

                            At least it is not an inflatable love doll!

Greenock Creek 2004 Alice Shiraz sells for $28 at cellar door. Fine, dusty tannins provide a solid structure and a supple consistency for this medium-weight wine with a very agreeable complexity. Blackberry, mint, coffee essence and rich chocolate finish with good persistence which is further enhanced by an attractive mouth-feel. Rated as Recommended with *** for value; drink from 2008+.

Greenock Creek 2004 Apricot Block Shiraz sells for $35 at cellar door. The bouquet is coffee oak over dark fruit which is replicated on the palate with an intensely savoury profile showing coffee, prominent blackberry, more coffee, chocolate and apricot, and whilst it has good persistence, it's short on the back palate. Muscular-weight with a firm consistency, solid structure and an agreeable complexity, the loads of flavour intensity should gain length of the wine fills out with a few years in the bottle. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink from 2008+.

Greenock Creek 2004 Seven Acre Shiraz sells for $45 at cellar door. The bouquet showed varnished oak with nutty characters. A well-balanced wine that is perfectly supported by creamy, velvety, dusty tannins and pure, strong fruit; the mouth-feel is lush. A clean, modern wine with blackberry and rich dark chocolate flavours; it finishes very nicely thank you very much. It's a muscular-weight, supple wine with a well-developed complexity and whilst it's lovely, it does show some warmth on the palate, but it is not intrusive. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value; drink from 2010+.

The wines were credible, the house style 100 percent consistent and it was great to have the opportunity to try the line up again after such a long time. John went in the fully expecting to walk out with a few boxes of wine under his arm and a dent in his credit card. When he walked out, he hadn't spent a cent and Brian and I weren’t tempted either. The fruit on some of the wines almost seemed a little lean for their weight, but this could have been put down to the wines relative youth. Although they have cut back on the alcohol, some of the wines still showed a little warmth.

We had no set appointments for the afternoon as we originally hadn't planned on being in the Barossa until about 6 p.m. so we decided to hit a few of the wineries on our wish list. Whilst we were driving between wineries, the conversation turned to the quality of cellar door staff. We were remarking on not only the professionalism, but the attractiveness of one of the cellar door operaters and John said, "If I had my druthers, I would only employ beautiful women in my winery…….. if Sue would let me.” To which Brian replied, "Yes, and it would help if you taught them something about wine too."

We headed up through Tanunda and decided to stop at Turkey Flat; it is one of those of wonderful wineries that doesn't make bad wine, just some wines that are better than others.

Turkey Flat 2004 Butcher's Block is a blend of 95% Mourvedre and 5% Grenache and sells for $26.50; it is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet showed a touch of VA. The palate is meaty with intense blackberry/mulberry spectrum fruit together with rich chocolate, and a hint of strawberry leading to coffee. Unobtrusive, but sufficient dusty tannins provide a solid backbone for this supple, ample-weight wine with a well-developed complexity that certainly holds one's interest. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, drink from 2009+.

Now that's what I call a glass - one of those a day will do me!

Turkey Flat 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $30 at cellar door and is sealed with a cork. The bouquet is bright and vibrant and very attractive showing sweet fruit with spearmint. It's one of those wines you can sniff all day. The juicy-fruit is well supported by a solid wall of subtle, but firm, dusty tannins. Medium-weight, it’s clean, well-balanced and has a supple consistency. The wine has some elegance and class and is already showing signs of harmony. Whilst it is good now and rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, it should be sensational when it reaches its peak around 2012+.

Turkey Flat 2004 Shiraz sells for $36 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet grabs one's attention as it jumps out of the glass. It shows spicy oak over very dark fruit. Tight dusty tannins back a solid, medium-weight structure and the wine has a supple consistency, and an agreeable complexity. The fruit is very ripe but has a subtle flavour profile with blackberry, dried herbs and chocolate. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value it should peak around 2011+ and whilst it is a good wine, there was something about it that I could not pin down that just didn't do it for me.

If anyone wants proof that the Barossa can make Cabernet, they need look no further than Turkey Flat. In 2004, to me the Cabernet was a much more enjoyable wine than the Shiraz. The Butcher's Block is also certainly worth buying for something different. It is interesting to note the young lass who served us did not check the wine when she opened it, so I guess it was no surprise that we found a corked bottle of Cabernet.

It's not much more than a hop skip and a jump from Turkey Flat to St Hallett. Once again, we were looked after by the delightful, and above all, very professional, Vanessa Johns. Vanessa does an outstanding job of looking after visitors and really knows what she's doing. St Hallett has a terrific range of wines and a number of them are only available from cellar door. In many cases these cellar door only wines are either very limited production, or wines that are being trialled to see if they will be a commercial success.

St Hallett The Black Sparkling Shiraz sells for $42.50 at cellar door. The base wine used for this FRS is the Old Block Shiraz and this is the second disgorgement. The palate is off-sweet with blackberry, plum, and chocolate but there is some fruit sweetness was well. It is lighter than say the Rockford or the Black Pepper but it is still a bloody good wine. Medium-weight it is harmonious and well-developed and this second release is better than the first. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, I hated spitting.

It should be noted we purchased a bottle of this wine to take with us for dinner that evening. The bottle we purchased was so much better than the first it wasn't funny. The purchased bottle was really clean, and showed the quality of the Old Block fruit. Any rational person would think that the first may have been not quite up to scratch. However, Brian and I also split a six-pack, and by coincidence, I opened the bottle the night before typing this note. Unfortunately, although there was no obvious fault, it was not as good as the one we tried at cellar door. So three different bottles have shown three completely different levels of quality; this certainly is cause for concern. It will be interesting to see what my last two bottles are like.

St Hallett 2005 Unearthed Touriga Nacional sells for $24 at cellar door. The nose is sensational and shows rich, ripe, fruit but unfortunately the palate is a complete letdown. It has no body or tannin and is all sweetness; there is not much acid but it does linger nicely. I am not sure what they were tried to do here, but I think they missed the boat. Rated as Acceptable with ** for value.

St Hallett 2005 Unearthed GST sells for $24 at cellar door. The wine is a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Touriga with a bouquet that shows dominant of spicy characters. It's driven by pure fruit that provides loads of flavour; it's sweet on the uptake with a spicy mid palate and savoury finish. Flavours of blackberry, spices and coffee are harmonious, but the unobtrusive tannins do not provide a lot of length on the palate. A very drinkable food wine, it's rated as Recommended with *** for value.

St Hallett 2004 Faith Shiraz sells for $19 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet shows spices, cherry and earthy notes which lead to a palate that is driven by ripe, pure fruit, that delivers cherry, spices and chocolate. Medium-weight with a soft consistency, seamless structure and agreeable complexity, it's an easy-drinking wine and is food friendly. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

St Hallett 2004 Blackwell Shiraz sells for $30 at cellar door in a sealed under cork. The bouquet is attractive, showing spicy, peppery notes and grabs one's instant attention. A clean, well-built and made wine, the unobtrusive dusty tannins provide a solid backbone and supple consistency for this medium-weight wine with a harmonious complexity. Driven by ripe, pure fruit that delivers chocolate, blackcurrant spectrum fruit, and attractive coffee; it finishes long and is simply bloody lovely. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value.

St Hallett 2003 Old Block Shiraz sells for $70 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. Showing smoky oak that is typical of the style, the tannins are velvety and provide a lovely mouth-feel. The fruit is rich and ripe delivering black plum, blackberry, liquorice, black coffee and whilst the profile is completely black, it's certainly not overripe. Ample-weight with a firm consistency and sophisticated complexity, it is certainly one of the best 2003 Shiraz around. Brian said, "Its smart viticulture and smart winemaking." I'm in violent agreement with him. Rated as Excellent with *** for value, drink after 2011.

It was interesting to compare the three different Shiraz offerings against each other. The Faith is a great party wine, the Blackwell is serious for the price, offering outstanding value and it should cellar well, whilst the Old Block is a fantastic result for any vintage, let alone such a difficult one is 2003.

That was our last winery for the day and we checked into our usual accommodation. John had so much fun last time he stayed in the honeymoon suite at the Tanunda Pub that he booked the room in advance. He really is a sick puppy. Brian and I went to the Weintal again. When I checked in, I asked how much the rooms were and were informed they were a hundred and something dollars for the night, but they were prepared to give us the corporate rate of $88. I responded, but I only paid $80 last time, and they were happy to accept that price.

This little pricing dance has been going on for many years. In fact, Brian figured out the original $80 price goes back to the days before the introduction of the 10% GST. For the money, the accommodation is certainly great value. The rooms are larger than most, everything works, there is enough light to actually read easily which is quite rare in most motels, and it is kept in good condition.

We had decided to have dinner at The 1918 Restaurant that evening and full details of the night will become a little later. As this will be the shortest chapter in the Tour Diary, I will include one of my observations at this point.

After talking to a number of growers in the three regions we visited, one thing became abundantly clear; some of the large producers are taking advantage of the current oversupply of grapes and absolutely screwing the producers, whilst some, whilst still taking advantage of the situation have been acting reasonably.

According to a number of sources, at the top of the list for “bastardry towards growers” is McGuigan Simeon; we all know the stories about that company as they have been well covered in the media.

Surprisingly enough, and this was confirmed by a number of sources, Constellation (Hardys) has also been playing a mean game of hardball. Apparently a number of growers were told (for example), “We have an opening between 12 and 2 o’clock and you are to have your grapes here at that time or we won’t take them.” The implications of this are interesting. Firstly, getting the machinery or the people to pick grapes on short notice is frequently extremely difficult. If the grower is also selling to multiple producers, and this can and does happen, this can cause further problems if the other producer doesn't wish to take them at that particular time, and that leads to the second concern. Basically Hardys are telling their growers to pick grapes based on availability at their processing facility, rather than on picking when the grapes reach their optimal ripeness.

I was also informed that Foster's, and to a slightly lesser extent Orlando, had processing facilities that were also under enormous pressure. Fosters in particular did it as well as could be expected, and to quote one person in the know “Despite the problems that the integration of Foster and Southcorp presented, they were really good to their growers and they were much more reasonable to deal with than Hardys.” Orlando was said to have planned the logistics very well and didn't overcommit themselves.

This was shot in the Pie Kings Garden. The Pie King maintains it

belongs to the dogs, but can't believe a line like that now can you?

Australia has had a number of boom and bust cycles and a number of over-supply and under-supply situations. All cycles swing the other way and whilst we are in an over-supply position today, it is quite possible that in five years time there could be a shortage of grapes. When that happens, many of the growers who have survived the tough times will not forget the way they have been treated by some of the corporate organisations. Many of the large companies are divesting themselves of vineyards, and over time, will rely more and more on bought-in grapes. When the cycle goes the other way, the large corporates will be even more dependent on bought-in grapes then they are today. The corporates will not only have to pay dearly to get grapes, they may find it difficult to source them, as many of the growers continue to sell the grapes to the smaller wineries who didn't try to screw them over during the tough times.

Getting the absolute best quality grapes is never easy, because by definition, they are always in short supply. My bet is that in the long-term, the large corporates will wind up paying more and more for these grapes, whilst many of the smaller wineries will continue to obtain them at reasonable prices because they themselves have been reasonable and have treated their growers with respect.

In November of 2006 many of the cool climate areas including the Yarra Valley and Coonawarra have basically had their crops wiped out by frost. The crop for the 2007 vintage in these areas will be extremely low. One of the large corporate organisations has a ready been out to warmer areas, beating the drum, trying to tie up growers who have grape varieties that are generally grown in these cool climate regions; varieties such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon etc. They are offering significantly dollars for these varieties, that in some cases almost couldn't be given away last year; this is very good news for some growers.

We took the council limo into Tanunda and Brian dropped me off at the 1918 Restaurant and went on to leave the car at John's hotel, a short drive/walk down the main street. By the time they arrived, I had consumed a glass of the St Hallett FRS, which slid down incredibly easily. (Brian’s comment: I think Ric had more than that; it took a while for us to arrive.  I waited downstairs at the pub at the appointed time for John.  When he didn’t appear, I asked at the reception/bar if they would phone up to let him know I was waiting as I didn’t have his mobile number.  The attractive young blonde person I asked fussed near the phone for a while and then disappeared around the corner of the bar.  I waited some more and eventually John appeared with a wistful look on his face – he’d opened the door to his room and saw a pretty young blonde and thought his luck had finally changed!  They don’t even have phones in the rooms at this establishment!)

For a starter Brian ordered Westside wabbit tartlet with shaved fennel, tangy green olives, gremolata (garlic, parsley and grated lemon peel); it was a lovely combination. I ordered quail with a cassoulet sauce which was full of flavour and tasted magnificent. Unfortunately there were three thighs and no breast meat which was a disappointment. The serving sizes were on the small side, although John's serving of bugs was fine.

We didn't have a lot of joy with the wine on this occasion. The Orlando 1996 Limited Release Shiraz-Cabernet Blend was mildly corked, but enough to be rejected. We then opened a Charles Melton 1995 Nine Pope's that was rank with cork taint. (Brian’s comment: Ric took a long sniff, frowned, then another sniff and said: “It’s got a little bottle stink, but it’s fine” and passed the glass to me.  I took a sniff and nearly fell off my chair laughing at Ric’s “mind power over matter”; the wine was a classic example of mid-level TCA taint and after a day of sniffing out the most minor cork problems Ric just didn’t want to believe that we could strike two in a row of our own, aged wines!)  Luckily John bought a Vasse Felix 1995 Shiraz which was beautiful. The bouquet was reasonably earthy but the fruit on the palate was as fresh as a daisy. It was more like a 2001 than a 1995 and it will keep kicking for many years. Prominent, rich chocolate and blueberry, coffee and a touch of mint, it finished long with excellent persistence. The wine had an harmonious and refined complexity and is rated as Excellent.

Normally on these trips, I frequently ordered duck as it is not something I cook at home, and it goes very well with aged Shiraz and Cabernet. This was the fourth night and the first time I had seen duck on the menu, so there was no question about what I was going to order. Brian felt the same way and ordered it too. The base consisted of a potato and creamed corn cake and perched on it was a duck confit and duck breast. The presentation was stunning. The breast was medium rare but unfortunately didn't have much flavour. The confit was admirable. John had a “curry style” dish that had virtually zero heat, and to me, tasted like Keens extra mild curry powder.

The service was impeccable but then there were only about four tables being served.

When it came to desert, naturally we had to ask the $64,000 question. This time we actually got a straight up, almost sensible answer. There was a tarago washed rind, a blue, a brie and a Surprise Bay cheddar.

Overall, it was an enjoyable night but the food was not as good as we had found on previous occasions. Perhaps it was Monday night-itis or perhaps it wasn't. Over the years I have had some fantastic meals at this place, but have also had some that were very ordinary. Based on this experience I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the chef has changed since our last visit. The reputation of this restaurant seems to go up and down like a bride's nightie.

We took a taxi back to our motel and John walked back to pub. The big question on our mind was: what shape John would be in, in the morning? When he stays at the pub, he has been known to us have a cleansing ale (or six) before bed (and maybe the pretty young blonde would still be on duty in the bar).

Find out in the next chapter. There’s a lot more of great stuff to come.

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