Chapter Seven – Part One - Thursday – Barossa Valley
This will be the last Chapter in this Tour Diary and two of the highlights of the trip are contained within it. As it is so big, it will be broken up into two parts.
Once again the Pie King surprised as when we met for breakfast. He always stated that the reason he liked staying at the pub was so that he could have a cleansing ale, or more likely six, before he went to bed. He had been staying there for three nights, and each morning when he met us he looked as fresh as a daisy. I am beginning to wonder if he has an ulterior motive for staying at the honeymoon suite of the pub? There is no doubt he is up to no good, the only question is what sort of no good. If it was "another woman", he wouldn't look so bright eyed and bushy tailed when he showed up in the morning, so we can probably rule that one out. But what it is, enquiring minds around the world want to know.
We
decided to have breakfast in Tanunda and try a new place. We went to the Barossa
Wursthaus Bakery. As soon as he tasted the coffee, His Pieship
pronounced, "Why didn't we have breakfast at the “Besthouse” Bakery
instead?" Criticism from a man who has been known to pour copious quantities of
iced coffee milk into his short black coffee can be taken with a grain of salt,
however in this case, his reaction was justified; it wasn't exactly great.
Brian had a croissant with ham, cheese and tomato which was fine. John and I both had bacon and egg rolls and they were huge; they each had two eggs and were a meal in themselves. The food passes muster; unfortunately the coffee does not, so our search for a good breakfast place in Tanunda will continue.
Every year I visit Kurtz Family Winemakers and hope that the experience will live up to the first, but each visit since that first one has been patchy, with some good wines and some that are not as good as expected. This most recent visit was a very pleasant surprise, with the wines being right back on track. The winery has invested in an $8,000 high pressure hot water cleaner to flush out the used barrels they buy, which will ensure there should be no more “pongy” wines. Steve Kurtz is desperate to avoid Brett, and will do anything and everything to prevent it in his wines.
Kurtz Family 2004 GSM (55%/25%/20%) sells to Ric’s mates for $130 a dozen! The bouquet is attractive and shows its fruit driven character. Unobtrusive, smooth tannins produce an excellent mouth-feel and combine with lively acid to lift the fruit. The palate shows signs of warmth; the flavour profile is savoury, with plum, milk chocolate, and blueberry fruit, and whilst the persistence is reasonable, there is not a lot on the back palate; still, it's a damn good barbecue wine and well and truly drinkable. Medium-weight with a supple consistency; the complexity is agreeable and the wine is still tight. Rated as Agreeable with ***** for value; drink over the next three years.
Kurtz Family 2004 Boundary Row Shiraz sells to Ric's mates for $180 a dozen. As the wine has been bottled six months ago, it has had time to settle down and start showing its real characters. A brooding, savoury, spicy bouquet leads to a palate of plum, nutmeg and chocolate flavours that finish with reasonable persistence. It's well backed by unobtrusive, silky, dusty tannins and whilst it is not showing a lot on the back palate now, hopefully it will fill out with a bit of time. A clean, modern-style, it is medium-weight with a supple consistency and solid structure, which makes it a very easy-to-drink, great crowd-pleaser. Rated as Agreeable with **** for value, whilst it's approachable now, with another couple of years in the cellar, the rating should improve.
Kurtz Family 2003 Lunar Block Shiraz sells to Ric’s mates for $25 a bottle, and only 500 have been made. With 12 months in bottle, the bouquet showed clove, blackberry and coffee, so there is a fair amount of oak influence, but less than in previous years. Fine, powdery, drying tannins combine with fresh, lively acid and pure fruit to produce an ample-weight, well-balanced wine with a supple consistency, solid structure, and agreeable complexity. Clove, plum, black cherry, a minor amounts of dried herbs, and slightly green tannins, (which are a product of the vintage); the wine finishes with good length and whilst my rating might be seen as a bit harsh, it is a good result for a difficult year. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, drink from 2009 and beyond.
If you are interested in buying any of these wines, and certainly some of them are worth getting, contact Steve directly by e-mail. The Boundary Row and GSM represent great value and it looks like Steve is right back on track and doing everything right.
Our next appointment was at Elderton. Now I don't know what it is about this winery, but whenever I have a look at the search terms in my tasting notes section of my site, Elderton tops the list of search terms. I have enjoyed their Estate Range of wines for over a decade and it is one of the wineries where, if you like the style, almost anything is a safe buy; unless it's from a particularly poor year, in which case it would pay to taste before buying. Their entry-level wines are also well-made and good value, but with so much great wine around, I tend to stick to their Estate Range, as they are well and truly affordable. On this occasion, both of the Ashmead brothers were away, so we were looked after by Julia, their cellar door manager.
Elderton also have some terrific shirts printed with quotes that very succinctly sum up the average red bigot’s attitude towards Australian Pinot. Needless to say, Brian bought one of each. Unfortunately they didn't have the same shirt in my size, so I had to settle for second best.
Elderton 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $21.95 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. Lifted, dusty, cedary oak with cassis, and hints of coffee oak are found on the bouquet. The wine needs time for the fruit to surface from below the powdery, drying, puckering tannins. Blackcurrant, subtle tar/liquorice, chocolate and mint flavours finish with good length. A muscular-weight, firm wine with a supple consistency and agreeable complexity, it is rated as Recommended with *** for value, the rating should improve as the wine matures. (Since our visit the 2004 vintage has been released.)
Elderton 2004 Shiraz is sealed under Stelvin and sells for $24.95 at cellar door. The bouquet shows earthy, spicy oak with plum and milk chocolate but the standout on the bouquet is the attractive floral aromatics. A modern, clean wine with a very good mouth feel, the pure, ripe fruit sits well in the mouth. The tannins are unobtrusive but provide a solid backbone for this supple, ample-weight, harmonious wine with a very agreeable complexity. Plum, blackberry, liquorice, chocolate and tar flavours are sweet on the uptake, with an off-sweet mid-palate and there is a layer of slight sweetness below, with the flavours lingering well. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, buying this is a no-brainer.
Elderton 2002 Merlot sells for $25.95 and is sealed with a cork. The bouquet is earthy with plum, vanilla and spicy characters. A big, clean, and well structured wine with a beautiful mouth feel; the palate is filled with off-sweet plums and vanillin characters, together with milk chocolate, that finishes long. Muscular-weight with a supple consistency and harmonious complexity, this is one of the few wineries that will serve a Merlot after a Shiraz and the Cabernet, which speaks volumes about the quality of the wine. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, it's not your average wimpy, sweet Merlot, and it should peak around 2010.
Everyone
knows the most boys love their mothers dearly and the Ashmead brothers are no
exception, but these boys really appreciate and respect their mother big time.
The first semi public confirmation of this occurred when they made a one-off
Sparkling Shiraz which they called Ashmead, in honour of the winery’s 21st
vintage, a wine which was made especially for their mother. They have now taken
this one step further and have renamed their CSM blend in honour of their
mother. They also have re-packaged it into a heavy super-premium bottle and
chosen an eye-catching colour for the label and carton, so far with no increase
in price on the prior CSM.
Elderton 2002 Ode To Lorraine CSM blend sells for $38 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. It has a dark, brooding nose but is squeaky clean. The silky, slightly powdery unobtrusive tannins back the wine solidly and are perfectly matched to the fresh acid and pure, deeply-seated fruit. The construction and balance is impeccable. Cassis, chocolate, blackcurrant, plum, and cigar box are just a few of the flavours found, all of which finishes with excellent persistence of flavour, however it finishes slightly short on the back palate. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, and whilst it is drinking well now, the wine has potential to improve and if it does, so will the rating. Drink over the next 10+ years.
Elderton 2002 Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $85 at cellar door and is available under either cork or screwcap. The bouquet is lifted and shows subtle spicy oak, and whilst it's brooding, it suits the wine. Loads of velvety, dusty tannins combine with pure, deep fruit to form a full-bodied, solid wine with a supple consistency and well-developed complexity. It's clean and sits in the mouth beautifully and maintains some class. This is the best Cabernet to come from this winery and just about as good as Barossa Cabernet can get. Blackcurrant, milk chocolate, vanilla, cigar box, and dried tomato leaf flavours are off-sweet and finish very long and dry. Rated as Excellent with *** for value, the rating may improve as the wine matures around 2012 and beyond.
Elderton 2002 Command Shiraz sells for $85 at cellar door and is available under either cork or screwcap. The bouquet is rich, ripe and brooding and leads to a palate where nothing sticks out except the fruit quality. Framed by fine, tight, dusty tannins and fresh acid, the pure, deep, perfectly-ripe fruit is not jammy or thick and delivers all sorts of multiple berry flavours and a rich mid-palate which moves into a long, dry finish. The structure is layered with multiple levels of flavour that are dominated by off-sweet characters with hints of the sweetness running below. As expected this is a full-bodied wine with a supple consistency and is rated as Excellent with *** for value; the rating may improve as the wine reaches its peak around 2012 and beyond.
When the two top-tier wines were first released, it is interesting to note that those sealed under screwcaps sold-out first. Whilst there is still noticeable oak influence in the wines, they have backed off on the use of oak considerably, and the wines are better for it. This is the best line up of wines I have tasted from this winery, but that is no great surprise as year upon year (with vintage variation taken into account) Elderton goes from strength to strength. Whilst some large wineries tend to stretch the quantity of their medium and top tier wines, Elderton remains committed to improving quality and does not stretch quantity. The quantity of the estate wines is limited by the fruit available, and any expansion in volume comes through the lower priced wines in their portfolio. It's a pity more wineries don't take this approach and it may explain why the Elderton wines sell-out relatively quickly in such a tough, crowded market.
At this point, it may surprise readers that although we still had over a day of touring left, we would only visit two more wineries. Both of these had promised to be special experiences.
When I got to this particular point, I was trying to think of the best way of introduction to this part of the story, and the word "aura" came to mind, because the Rockford winery has an aura surrounding its image. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out how this came about. Rockford does three things extremely well. The first is that they know how to look after their customers. Secondly, in today's fast paced modern world, they are unapologetic in their traditionalist attitude; and finally, they are particularly good at marketing those attributes. Oh, and it helps that they also make damn good wine.
.............................Glad they don't charge for the shade!
When I visited Rockford in May 2004, by sheer coincidence, I happened to be the first customer at their new Stonewall cellar door facility. As part of that visit, Ian Bickford, the Stonewall cellar door manager gave us a tour of the new dining room facility. The concept behind the facility was simple. Initially, once a week on a Friday, a lunch would be served where as much of the ingredients as possible would not only be from the Barossa, but grown on Rockford's own farm estate. All the fruit and veggies were not only organic but biodynamic. The food and wine would be matched, and as Rockford has been stashing a lot of its own product away for many years, it would offer guests the opportunity to try a number of vintages of their older wines.
The number of guests at lunch is limited and one member of the Rockford team hosts it. As the concept caught on, they intended to expand the concept from one day to two days per week. In May 2005 when I visited the winery, the dining room was up and running and operating on Friday. Unfortunately when planning the trip, I hadn't factored this into account, and as we flew out of South Australia on Friday afternoon, were unable to attend the lunch; not good planning and a mistake I wouldn't be making again. When planning this trip, I made sure that we would be there on one of the two days that the dining room was operating.
We had a luncheon reservation for noon but wished to taste the current release wines, as we also had an appointment at 11 a.m. at the Stonewall cellar door. Here are the tasting notes for those current releases that I hadn't already reviewed.
Rockford 2002 Moppa Springs is a GMS blend (74%/15%/11%), selling for $22.50 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows lifted, floral characters with red and black fruits together with milk chocolate. The smooth, dusty tannins combine with lively acid and pure fruit to form a medium-weight wine, with a supple consistency, and a diverse complexity that is very food friendly. It has a superb mouth-feel and whilst it appears to be fruit driven, it is well supported by lovely long tannins. Spice, redcurrant, milk chocolate and liquorice flavours finish very long and this is without doubt the best new release Moppa I have tasted. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value, it should be at its best from 2010+.
Rockford 2003 Rod and Spur is a blend of 60% Shiraz and 40% Cabernet, selling for $28.50 from cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows subtle aromas; it has a very earthy savoury profile and is attractive. Another wine with excellent tannin management; they are dusty and although unobtrusive, are there in abundance, and are perfectly balanced to the pure fruit. Black cherry, liquorice, blackcurrant, and mint flavours intermingle and are intertwined between an off-sweet top layer with a river of sweetness below. Ample-weight with a supple consistency and harmonious construction, it's rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value and will drink well over the next 6+ years.
Rockford 2003 Rifle Range Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $33 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The nose is black and leads to a palate that is fruit-forward, very ripe and sweet, but has some savoury aspects. It is dominated by blackberry flavour and finishes long and very dry. Fine, smooth dusty tannins and fresh acid complete the balance in this ample-weight, supple wine that is a little one-dimensional. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink over the next eight years.
Rockford 1999 SVS Flaxman Shiraz sells for $75 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The grapes are sourced from two vineyards, one of them being Chris Ringland’s own. The nose was dominated by lightly scented coffee oak with earthy notes below. The wine spent 31 months in French oak, some of which was new, but the majority was older. The flavour profile is very interesting and shows loads of coffee and mushroom oak character, but there is enough fruit there to eventually punch through. Red cherry, blackberry, black cherry and all sorts of other good things including liquorice and mint flavours finish very long. A muscular-weight interesting wine with a diverse complexity, it is rated as Excellent with *** for value and should hit its straps around 2011+.
Rockford 1999 SVS Pressings sells for $75 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet on this wine was downright uncooperative. Initially it showed very little but as it opened up loads of oak characters and black scents were noticeable, but then it very quickly went dumb. Luckily there was a bottle that had been opened the previous day and it showed mushrooms with lifted sweet fruit below. The pure, deep fruit is currently buried by a pile of fine, dusty tannins but given time, the red and blue spectrum flavours with lots of plums should kick through. A full-bodied wine that is firm and solid with a well-developed complexity; it needs another three years before it begins to become approachable. Rated as Excellent with *** for value.
Rockford 1999 VP sells for $62 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The base Shiraz wine is fortified with a two-year-old, soft brandy spirit that is very clean on the nose; it also shows sweet fruit and white pepper. Tannins are velvety and the acid lively. Perfectly ripe blackberry, liquorice, rich chocolate, aniseed and mint flavours put me into seventh heaven. A full-bodied silky wine that will become harmonious in time, and whilst it's not cheap, it is sensational. Rated as Excellent with *** for value drink over the next 15+++ years, and each one is bound to be better than the last.
That was the end of the formal tasting and
from here on in, it was time to let our hair down
and
enjoy ourselves as pre-lunch drinks were being served. They had selected a
Rockford 1996 Black Shiraz as the first wine, and they were served in
hand-made glasses. Regular readers of TORBWine will know that
Rockford
is a great believer in sealing red wines with cork. Earlier on, one of the
wines that was presented to us, that had been checked and pronounced as being
fine, was mildly corked. The first bottle of Black Shiraz that was opened was
rank with cork taint. The second bottle was beautiful and shows not only how
well this wine can age, but the advantages of doing so. Yet, because Rockford
insist on using cork, they do not recommend that people keep their Black Shiraz
for long, indeed in a recent newsletter, they actively discouraged people from
cellaring it long term; the dichotomy is startling. At the lunch they
showcase how well the wine can age, yet they actively discourage people from
doing so. One would tend to think that it was good enough for the winery, it
would be good enough for their customers, but this is evidently not the case,
because in their heart of hearts, Rockford knows the corks they use in their
Black Shiraz can and do cause an unacceptable level of angst and problems.
Rockford 1996 Disgorgement Black
Shiraz
- what a gorgeous wine. The wine is nicely matured and although it is just
starting to show some aged characters, the fruit is still pristine, and the acid
fresh. The multitude of beautiful flavours, including blackcurrant and chocolate
fills the mouth and finishes very long. It's not overly rich, but it's perfectly
ripe and maintains a flawless level of sweetness. There is no hurry to drink
this; it will keep kicking along for ages. As it would be hard to get a better
Sparkling Shiraz than this one, it's rated as Outstanding.
What a wonderful introduction to what turned out to be a fantastic lunch. We adjourned from the Stonewall cellar into the dining room. From Rockford’s perspective, the object of the lunch is to showcase the best in regional cuisine in a relaxed, informal setting. Although the luncheon club has now been going for approximately 18 months, the planning started years before.
Robert O'Callaghan used to live in a house on the winery property, but as the business expanded over the years, the staff started taking over the house room by room. Around about the time space became so cramped in the house that Robert started thinking that the dog kennel look like a good place to sleep permanently (as distinct from occasionally when he was in the poo), a fortuitous event occurred. There was an old farm about 800 m up the road that Robert had had his eye on for about 10 years, but unfortunately the owners were not interested in selling. About three years before the opening of the dining room, out of the blue, Robert received a phone call from the owners stating that their circumstances had changed, and they were now interested in selling. Robert mulled it over and took his time making up his mind, about 1000th of a nanosecond.
The house had been in the same family since 1850 and they hadn't done a lot of work on it, so it was more than just a “handy man's delight”. One of the main drawcards is to the property, besides its location, was the garden. Whilst it was neglected, there were some very interesting, old-fashioned varieties of vegetables, as well as fruit and nut trees. It was this garden that was to form the backbone and the nucleus of the produce that would eventually be used in the dining room kitchen.
Before this could happen, the garden needed lots of TLC as much of it was in a condition that was not much better than the house. Any project like this requires good people to manage it and Robert knew just who to ring, Michael Voumard and Ali Cribb. Their brief was simple; get the garden up and running and then use the produce to produce wonderful food in the kitchen. Very easy to say, but it took years of hard work and dedication to make it happen. Michael and Ali were the perfect choice. Besides both been talented chefs, their other passion was organic gardening. Robert took this one step further, insisting that everything was not only grown organically, but bio dynamically as well.
All the vegetables, herbs, and fruit that are used in the dining room not only grow on the farm, but when new stock is needed, it is grown from seed. No shortcuts here.
Da
Chef - Michael Voumard
................
Michael and Ali determine what is good in the garden, and this dictates not only the choice of food, but the selection of wines from the winery's library. In terms of freshness of produce from the garden, if it's used in the kitchen that day, it's picked that morning. Truly impressive.
Unfortunately they can't produce everything themselves, for example meat, so where outside produce is purchased, it is local to the Barossa Valley.
Our host was Ian Bickford, the Stonewall cellar door manager, but we were also lucky enough to be joined by the new winemaker, Ben Radford.
Food is served on large platters, and when I say large, I mean very large. For those of you who are old enough to remember the TV series “The Walton's”, sitting in the dining room here is like an upmarket version of the Walton's kitchen table. It also has that same friendly atmosphere where all comers are made welcome. The food is passed around the table and people help themselves to as much as they like. One thing is for sure, it would be impossible to get up from his table and feel hungry. Ahead of us were five courses of food with five matched wines.
The first course was an Asparagus and Duck Egg Omelette with Snow and Sugar Pea Salad. The accompanying wine for this dish was a Rockford 1999 Eden Valley Riesling. Rockford know their customers, and in a very generous gesture, other than the dessert wine, this was the only c-through wine served. I was also impressed by the way a glass of that gorgeous 1996 Black Shiraz mysteriously appeared in front of me, so that I had something to drink with the first course.
Shock horror, there were no pies on the
menu. 
The Pie King was most devastated, but what was even more disappointing to him,
was that the chef had failed to provide tomato sauce, something that His Pieship
deems mandatory with a Duck Egg
Omelette.
With exceptionally good grace and panache a bottle of tomato sauce was found so
that the Pie King could be kept happy. I kid you not!
The duck egg omelette was very tasty, (even without tomato sauce,) and the sugar and snap pea salad was excellent. The coriander provided a wonderful contrast, whilst the sesame seed, ginger, soya and oyster sauce dressing provided a wonderful explosion of flavours on the palate that lingered longer than a novacaine injection (and was a lot more enjoyable.)
The next wine off the blocks was a Rockford 1998 Moppa Springs which was served from a Magnum. These magnums were never commercially released, and all of them found their way into Rockford’s library. One thing you have to give Robert O'Callaghan, he is a forward, strategic thinker that is not driven by short term, bottom-line result. He is very much driven by a long-term, strategic outlook, and it is this forward thinking that has enabled the dining room to be established and the library to be stocked with older vintages of wine.
Rockford 1998 Moppa Springs - this was the first release of this wine which is medium-weight and the fruit is still very fresh. Tannins have softened and integrated but still provide a solid backbone. It’s reasonably earthy with mushroom type characters, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and red cherry flavours which finish with excellent power for its weight. As the wine opened up, the chocolate became more prominent and blackcurrant started to emerge; it's very more-ish and I wanted to just keep sucking it down. The complexity of flavour is fantastic and presents across the palate in layers. Rated as Highly Recommended.
The
second course was Pigeon and Cardoon Risotto. For the uninitiated like
me, cardoon is a root vegetable, and in some ways is similar to a globe
artichoke. It is sometimes also called the artichoke thistle, but does not have
spikes, and you eat the stalks, which look like very long pieces of celery. The
dish was presented with rare pigeon on the top, with fully cooked pigeon
portions in the risotto. It was served on a bed of watercress, endive and
nasturtium salad, and dressed with red wine vinegar and olive oil.
The flavour of the risotto was very strong,
and the slightly bitter finish was offset by the sweetness of the sauce. The
risotto was decidedly creamy and had a slightly lemony flavour as well. (I
wonder if the pigeons come from the winery courtyard.
)
The next wine was a Rockford 1992 Basket Pressed Shiraz which had amazingly bright colour for a wine of its age. The bouquet was starting to show signs of aged, leathery characteristics, milk chocolate, a hint of pepper, and dark chocolate. The palate is fully mature although the acid is extremely youthful and does a great job of lifting the fruit. The palate has integrated beautifully and shows black cherry, liquorice, milk chocolate, and aged leathery, meaty characters that finishes with respectable persistence. It is layered; the top being very savoury whilst the bottom is reasonably sweet. Rated as Excellent, there is no hurry to drink this wine, and it may even improve slightly, if not, it will certainly hold for years. It shows how excellent wines can be produced in what is generally regarded as a poor vintage.
The final meat course was Spring Lamb with Baharat Roasted Root Vegetables. (The Pie King would not have been having fun here; veggies are against his religion.) Baharat is a very fragrant blend of Moroccan spices. You name the type of root, and it was there; sweeds, turnips, pumpkin, parsnips, carrots and naturally, spuds. To accompany the new season spring lamb, a dressing of yoghurts and mint had been provided. Even without the accompanying dressing, the lamb was full of intricate spicy flavours. The match between food and wine was simply perfect.
..........................
Ben
Radford - new winemaker on right
Also served with this course was the Rockford 1987 Basket Pressed Shiraz which had an amazing colour for its age. There was a fair level of coffee character, but this character comes from the fruit, not the oak, and seems very different to many of the modern day, coffee oak infused wines. There were also hints of mushroom, white pepper and vanilla. The palate was an utter surprise; it was loaded with primary, sweet blueberry fruit. The tannins are still there in abundance and the acid was staggeringly fresh. It was still strikingly youthful and will easily hang around for another decade. Amazing when you think it is already 19 years old, and from what is generally regarded as a poor vintage. The wine finishes dry and clean. It's ample-weight and fairly rich on the uptake, and completely fills the palate. The fruit is primarily sweet, blueberry flavour and in some ways is more like a Cabernet than a modern-day Shiraz. As the wine opened, some savoury cherry characters started to emerge.
The final wine, which was served with an Apple and Dried Fig Tart, was the Rockford 1989 SWF Frontignac. (The SWF stands for sweet white fortified.) In many ways the making of this wine was an experiment. Once it was made, they put it in the cellar and thought they would worry about doing something with it later. 2006 was regarded as later! Small amounts are drawn off, straight out of the barrel, for these luncheons. The bouquet showed rancio, nutty, and marmalade characters and almost burnt caramel like notes. The palate was very dry, which was unusual, and showed some of the same burnt caramel characters that were on the bouquet; it was quite an interesting flavour profile. The tart was yummy; it had a combination of sweet and slightly sour flavours. It was served with thickened cream, and in my opinion, could have been better served slightly warm.
The wine was another great match, and the acid did a terrific job of cutting through the fat in cream.
At this point in the proceedings, His
Pieship being in full form, thought that the title for this tour diary should be
changed to "Whining Your Way to Alienation - in
Style."
Just in case anyone was still hungry, there was a plate of Ballycroft Shiraz Washed Rind Cheese served together with quince paste. No new wines were served with this dish, but there were plenty of leftovers to wash it down. The cheese was acceptable, although there was nothing special about it.
Finally, there was a choice of Mexican Organic Coffee or Leaf Tea Infusion.
After all this great food and wine, what can one say? It is one of the great Barossa experiences and should not be missed. You may have noticed the term "restaurant" has not been used once in this story. That is because it is a private dining room that Rockford choose to open for its Stonewall members. As you would expect, bookings well in advance, are essential, and you either need to be a Stonewall member, or be a Stonewaller's guest.
It was after four by the time we'd finished,
but the time had just flown by, always a sign that you are enjoying yourself. We
headed back to our accommodation for a late afternoon snooze, and met up later
that night for a snack. A slice of pizza was all that any of us needed, but have
you ever known anyone to just have one slice?
What a top day, truly one of the highlights of the trip.
For Chapter Seven Part Two Click Here
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Copyright © Ric Einstein 2007