2008 Victorian Tour Diaries Chapter Three

This Chapter, especially after the last Chapter, will seem shorter than most, but it’s of average length. As usual, the day started off with breakfast. The only thing that was open in Avoca was the Parkview bakery. The pie shop was closed. Praise the Lord.

I had a theoretically toasted bacon and egg sandwich. I say theoretically because it was hardly toasted but at least it was edible. Brian had a toasted bacon sandwich, which he described as "soggy sandwich." The coffee was drinkable, but all-in-all it was an uninspiring breakfast. Still, we have had far worse.

Our first appointment was 40 km north of Bendigo, so we had about a 2.5 hour drive in front of us. Speaking of driving, the ‘GI’ of Bendigo should probably stand for ‘geographically impossible’. From top to bottom, the region is about 90 km, so covering the 34 wineries listed in Halliday's companion is virtually impossible in one day. Also, many of them are run by weekend warrior farmers with post office box addressees in Toorak and are generally not open. Even after weeding out the wineries we didn't want to visit and those that were closed, there were still more than we could get to in one day, but we still had an ambitious list of wineries we hoped to cover.

I gave Brian the address of the first appointment and he tried plugging it into his GPS. Turners Crossing is located at 747 Old Bridgewater Serpentine Road, Serpentine, Victoria. With an address like that, I wasn't surprised when the Subaru's built in GPS (with proprietary Piewanese software and maps) had a severe case of indigestion. It couldn't find Old Bridgewater Serpentine Road, but it could find Bridgewater Serpentine Road so that's what Brian selected. The reason I called it Piewanese software rather than Taiwanese software, is because it is extremely accurate at finding shops that sell horrid pies. (Brian’s Comment: Ric had detailed instructions on how to get there, but they were in his bag in the boot (trunk) and he said he remembered enough to get us there when we got close. We did get close, but on the other side of the river with no bridge and no canoe.)

The GPS got us to the town of Bridgewater on Loddon with no problems and then on to the Bridgewater Serpentine Road. We drove, and we drove, and we drove some more. Finally, after I was sure that we had gone way too far, we started to investigate (Brian: ie I stopped the car and Ric got the info out of the boot). It turned out that the word “Old” in the address was rather important as there were two roads that were only differentiated by that single word. Luckily the wrong one, which we had taken, was not in far north Queensland, or we would still be looking for Turners Crossing. The correct road ran parallel to the wrong one, but was a few kilometres to the east. There were no side streets connecting the two as the river ran between them. That meant we had to drive all the way back to Bridgewater on Loddon to eventually get on to the correct road. Despite the detour, we were only about a quarter of an hour late for our appointment. The car’s turbocharger comes in handy on occasions. An outboard would have also helped even more. (Brian: I was pretty impressed by the Liberty GT, 105-110kph along the dirt road and it felt as steady as on the highway, but it took a little while for Ric to pry his fingers loose from the seat he was clutching rather tightly.)

We were met by Paul Jenkins, the man that is responsible for growing the grapes. Paul is in partnership with Sergio Carlei who is responsible for making the wine. Sergio also makes and releases wines under his Carlei Estate label. Sergio believes in making wine with minimal interference and employing traditional skills. Sergio removes the stems but does not crush the grapes. They sit and cogitate for forty-five days on skins. In most cases the wines are unfiltered and unfined. Being a first generation Australian of Italian extraction, Sergio likes his wine to be food friendly. He lives with his missus and seven children in a mud brick house just outside of Melbourne. With seven little ones to feed, he is lucky he can afford mud. I hope he has worked out what causes the children.

Paul was originally in the computer business and in 1985 planted his first vineyard. In 1999 he planted the 103 acre Turners Crossing vineyard. Most of the early grapes were sold to other well-known regional wineries.

The Turners Crossing Tasting Room...............................................

When talking to Paul, it became apparent that they haven't done things by halves when they mapped out and planted the vineyard. Way back when, they spent over $17,000 just in mapping the soil profile through the vineyard. At that time, they knew the soil had a high pH but didn't know why. It was only years later that the reason surfaced. Deep down, there are loads of tiny, tiny limestone pebbles. Apparently this limestone is fairly common through the soil of the wineries that are located close by. According to Paul, he has a couple of friends with local vineyards that are A Grade growers for Southcorp and they think the reason for the high quality of grapes is directly related to the limestone in the soil.

Ideally Paul would like to crop at four tonnes to the acre, but some recent vintages have produced far less. Assuming they actually achieved their aimed tonnage, they would like keep a hundred and fifty tonnes for themselves (10,000 cases) and sell the balance. I asked Paul how they decided what to sell and what to keep. He told us he had no idea where on the property the grapes had come from, for the any of the wines we tried. It is Paul's opinion that the vines are so consistent that it makes no difference where on the property the grapes are sourced. There is only a six foot drop from one end of the property to the other. Each block is irrigated. One of the factors included in how much water to give each block is the depth of the soil itself. This also helps to minimise differences.

Turners Crossing 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon is a past vintage that was opened to give us a better perspective of the wines. Unfortunately it was suffering from random oxidisation, so I was unable to review it.

Turners Crossing 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $23 direct from the vineyard and is sealed under Diam. The bouquet shows sweet and spicy notes together with blueberry fruit. It's medium-weight with a supple consistency, and the fine, silky tannins providing a solid backbone. The deep, pure fruit has abundant natural sweetness and intensity, and with the aid of crisp acid, it finishes fresh and clean. Blueberry, milk chocolate and sour cherry flavours complete the profile. A veritable baby, it sits well in the mouth and is rated as Recommended with **** for value. The rating should improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window around 2012.

Turners Crossing 2003 Shiraz Viognier was the second vintage made and sold out long ago. It is sealed under Diam. It is lighter style of wine; the bouquet is consistent with the 2005 although there is less noticeable Viognier characteristics. A very drinkable, Rhone style wine that is fruit driven, but is also sufficiently stuffed with fine, tight, smooth tannins. It maintains a similar flavour profile to the next two vintages but is more refined. It lingers well. It’s medium-weight, firm, solid, harmonious and given its greater age, it’s more together than the next two vintages. Rated as Highly Recommended, drink over the next five years.

Turners Crossing 2004 Shiraz Viognier is sealed under Diam and is the previously available vintage. The bouquet shows spicy notes over black fruits and subtle Viognier characters. The deep, strong fruit is rich, ripe and lush. It's lovely. Blackberry, blackcurrant, aniseed/liquorice, spice, mint and a drop of apricot finishes long and persistent. The fruit has been well-balanced to the abundant, smooth, powdery, drying tannins. It finishes fresh. No wonder it sold out quickly. Rated as Highly Recommended with **** for value.

Turners Crossing 2005 Shiraz Viognier sells for $24 direct from the winery and is sealed under Diam. It contains 4% Viognier which was picked very late. The bouquet shows deep, dark, black fruit, a hint of mint below, and apricot on the surface. The abundant, fine, silky-smooth, powdery tannins provide a supple consistency and solid backbone for this ample-weight wine that has a harmonious complexity. It sits well on the mouth. The blackberry, black cherry, apricot, aniseed and five spice flavours finish on sneaky, long tannins that build up quickly. The fresh and crisp acid cleans up the finish. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, it will improve in the short term when the tannins resolve and is definitely worth buying.

I commented that the wine had nice tannins. Paul (jokingly) responded, "Yes we get them from Taiwan."

Turners Crossing 2004 The Cut is available for $75 direct from the winery and is sealed under Diam. Four hundred cases have been produced. The bouquet is deep and brooding with spicy fruit and coffee oak. A laudable balance has been achieved between the serious, ultra-fine, tight tannins and just as serious, intense fruit. Black cherry, sour cherry, dark chocolate, mint, and spice flavours linger well and are supported by long tannins. A muscular, firm and solid wine with a sophisticated complexity it needs time to loosen up. A damn good wine, it is rated as Excellent with *** for value; the rating may improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window between 2014 and 2020.

There were five spice characters noticeable in the number of the wines. It comes from the grapes, not the oak.

That was a great way to start the day. Paul has a terrific sense of humour and kept us entertained. He calls his (winemaking) partner Sergio, Mr One Percent and he refers to himself as Mr Ninety-Nine Percent. Paul is convinced that is an accurate reflection of the contribution that each of them has in turning out good wine.

Paul is a man that has his priorities right. When we first met, one of the first things he asked us was where we were having dinner that night. Brian had enjoyed a meal in Bendigo not that long ago at the Bridge Hotel and said we would probably return there. Paul immediately suggested we go to a place called Whirrakee and offered to arrange a booking for us. Brian explained that we wanted to drink some older wine that night and Paul said he would probably be able to arrange for BYO too. Judging by Paul's enthusiasm, I came to a conclusion: either he was on commission, or the food was good. Only time will tell which one of the two it would be.

A couple of things stood out here about as much as Hillary Clinton would at a Republican Convention. The winemaking was consistent and the fruit is shining through. The differences between the three different Shiraz sampled could be put down to vintage variation, and the only real differences between the wines was the order and priority that the individual flavours hit the palate. They are doing an awful lot right, and as the vineyard's age, the wine should only get better.

The vineyard is immaculate. To the untrained eye, it looks incredibly consistent. Much more consistent than other vineyards we have seen. The canopies also appeared to be very small.

Turners Crossing proves that with the right viticulture, you can make very credible wine from young vines. The Cut is way better than I thought it would be although it is not inexpensive. From a personal perspective, if I'm going to spend that much on a bottle, I would prefer it to have a slightly better pedigree and lineage.

In Chapter Two, I briefly mentioned the push towards promoting the individual regional areas of Victoria to the restaurants in Melbourne. That is a very small part of a much larger picture. At last, the powers that be have finally decided to move away from promoting brand Australia as cheap and cheerful sunshine in a bottle.

The push is now towards Regionality - and it’s about time. Consumers need to know that a Mornington Pinot tastes nothing like a Riverland RoughRed or a Barossa Shiraz. This is especially crucial in overseas markets like the United States, which does not have a very sophisticated wine culture.

Hardys/Constellation Australia has announced they have given up the fight to get control of the bottom of the market. At last, they have worked out it was a losing proposition. There is no way other Australian producers could win in this segment in the long term, despite Yellow Tails success. Economics 101 dictates that other countries have cost structures that are far less than ours and will always be able to produce cheap and cheerful plonk for less. Why it has taken the boffins at Hardy’s so long to wake up to this is not easy for me to understand. But then over the years a lot of strategies from Hardy’s were difficult for me to understand, so this is nothing new.

The move away from the bottom, and lets face it, all the scavengers, suckers and crud hangs around that area, is a good thing for the Australian wine industry, who needs to upgrade its cheap and cheerful image. Regionality is a great solution and the Victorians have grabbed it like an alkie looking for a morning heart starter. These Western Victorians are a smart bunch of puppies and communicate like fish wives at the local market. Sure the Barossa winemakers talk to each other too, but not like these Victorians. They don’t stop. Every time you talk to a Western Victorian winemaker they tell you they have just spoken to not only X, Y and Z winemaker, but in the last two weeks they have spoken to the whole alphabet soup of winemakers in their area. These guys share everything, although spouses and partners may be exempt. They believe when they tell another local winemaker about a problem, it is no longer exclusively their problem. It lessens their load and dramatically increases the chances of a better solution.

The free sharing of knowledge and good ideas is the norm. By helping each other, they are helping to strengthen the wines from their area and improve the regions likely success. These guys are like a dog with a huge bag of bones. Once they get their teeth into something they don’t give up easily, but they realise there are enough juicy ones to go round.

Unfortunately where this will get a bit confusing is Fosters push with Lindemans. Fosters have decided Lindemans is now an international brand and the grapes can be sourced from anywhere. South Africa, Australia, South America, Europe. It doesn’t matter to them where they source the grapes. It might be good for Fosters, but that does not mean it is good for the Oz industry as it confuses the regional image the rest of the industry is trying to build. But they are a global company and don’t have to worry about “Brand Australia” like the small producers that are uniquely Australian/Victorian/Pyrenees.

Turners Crossing was our only fixed appointment for the day so from here on in we would be freewheeling. Although we were 40 km north of Bendigo, there were two wineries we want to visit that were even further out, Passing Clouds and Blanche Barkly. When we arrived at the entrance to Blanche Barkly, we had to theoretically go over what was termed an ‘Historic Bridge’.

There’s certainly nothing historic about it any more. History has given way to a concrete and steel as a new bridge is being built. We had to drive through the dry riverbed so it's just as well they had no rain recently, or we would have been in trouble. The owner’s house is behind the cellar door and I must say the property had a ‘lived in look’. That's a polite way of saying the back of the joint looked like an old car tip. However, as you can see from the photo below, there was one vehicle that brightened up the place. We received are very friendly welcome from the owner. According to the Halliday wine companion, “The Reimers are happy with their relatively low profile;…” Halliday’s book provides two and a half lines of description and they don't have a Web site. If there profile was any lower, they would have an unlisted phone number and you would need James Bond to find them.

Blanche Barkly 2004 Shiraz sells for $25 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows intense mint over ripe blackberry with slights hints of varnished oak and pepper. A medium-weight wine with a supple consistency; it is well backed by powdery, drying tannins. The palate is almost seamless. The acid and fresh, ripe, controlled fruit hits the palate together and delivers pepper, blackberry, mint and chocolate flavours that finish long and very clean. The fresh, crisp acid means it would be perfect with oily food. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, it should be at its peak between 2011 and 2014.

Blanche Barkly 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $25 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows perfumed, floral fruit with mint and blackberry. This wine has been cleverly constructed. Fine, powdery tannins sneak up and drag the fruit flavours through the palate, and the fresh, crisp acid finishes it beautifully. Violets, blackcurrant, mint, menthol and chocolate flavours complete the package. A medium-weight, firm and solid wine, it is controlled and credible but needs time to come together. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, the rating should improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window between 2012 and 2016.

We then headed to Passing Clouds which is 60 kilometres north west of Bendigo but just around the corner from Blanche Barkly. When we got there, the closed sign was out. According the information they provided for Halliday’s Companion, they are open “Weekends 12-5, Monday to Friday by appointment. It was Saturday and about 12.30, so thinking they had forgotten to change the sign we drove in. Locked tight. Shut with no signs of human life (or any other sort.) Bugger. Not happy. This was the winery we really wanted to visit and had we known it was not open, we would not have wasted out time driving miles out of the way to visit it (and Blanche Barkly.) Our time could have been spent more profitably. I wonder if the wineries that get potential customers to drive out of their way and waste lots of their time ever give a thought to the impact it has on their customers. Passing Clouds doesn’t. If you think I am being harsh, here is the kicker. In the Wine Regions of Victoria book printed in 2006 and given out by the Victorian tourist authority, their hours are listed as, “Open 12pm – 5pm. Appointment preferred.” That’s very different to the description in the 2004 to 2008 Halliday Companions.

Hamburger o’clock was upon us and Bridgewater on Loddon was the closest spot. Time for another ticket in life’s lottery of lunch locations. Would it be wonderful, or would we wind up with woeful gas? We found the Red Couch Cafe. With a name like that, they must be doing something right. Unfortunately we were unable to find out what that actually was.

We both ordered a hamburger with chips. The chips were cooked in clean oil, but it takes talent to make chips so tasteless. The hamburgers actually tasted good but the buns were chewy. Anyone who was dentally challenged would have had to gum them into submission. The espresso coffee was a light Italian style blend. The crema was good but the flavour was not particularly intense.

Lunch may not have been great, but at least it was edible. Brian looked so comfortable on that red couch I thought he was going to take a nap.

Pondalowie has their cellar door in a shop in the main street of Bridgewater on Loddon. That was where we headed next. I was looking forward to finding out the Pondalowie story. According to my information they made some quality wines from interesting varieties. When we walked in I gave the guy behind the counter my card and told him what we were on about.

There must be some strange disease in this area that causes people to clam up and not tell you about themselves, or their wine businesses. Either that or they were warned I was coming. At both Blanche Barkly and at Pondalowie, after I had given my card to the people who were looking after us, (and in both cases they turned out to be proprietors,) they didn't introduce themselves, or bother give us their names. I thought this must be duelling banjo's country, where everyone is related to everybody else. Either that or the wines from this area were so special that the proprietors were trying to keep it a secret. Making a toasted sandwich in a dishwasher would have been easier than gaining information from these two wineries.

As Dominic Morris didn’t bother to tell me anything about his operation, I won’t bother looking at their website to get details. If you are interested, you are welcome to look yourself. The MT Tempranillo was sold out and not available for tasting.

Pondalowie 2005 Vineyard Blend is a mix of Shiraz (50%), Cabernet and Tempranillo which sells for $20 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet shows intense spice/pepper over tar and black fruit. The fruit is it the fore but well matched to the smooth, powdery tannins. Blackberry, pepper, tar and eucalyptus flavours finish clean and dry thanks to the fresh, crisp acid. A medium-weight, supple wine with an agreeable complexity it certainly is quite drinkable. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink over the next five years.

Pondalowie 2005 Shiraz sells for $25 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet shows mushroom compost, hints of spearmint and dark fruit. Black cherry/plums and spearmint flavours finish long, clean and fresh, thanks to the crisp, lively acid. The smooth, powdery tannins are blocky and provide a firm, solid backing to this tight, medium-weight wine with a diverse complexity. A very credible effort, it needs time to soften. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, the rating should improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window between 2012 and 2016.

Pondalowie 2005 Shiraz Viognier sells for $30 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The 5% (skins) Viognier is co-fermented in open fermenters. The wine sits comfortably on the palate. Its medium-weight, has a supple consistency, and a tight, solid structure. The distinct, deeply-seated fruit delivers reasonably intense, blackberry, tar, spice, eucalyptus and mint. The influence of the Viognier is more on the mouth-feel than the flavour profile, which is as it should be. It is backed by smooth, powdery tannins and the fresh, crisp, lively acid is noticeable but not out of place. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink between 2010 and 2015.

Pondalowie 2004 Cabernet is only available at cellar door for $25 (and at selected restaurants) and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet was broody and didn't want to reveal itself. The blueberry, blackcurrant and milk chocolate flavours are buried by the other components. The fine, powdery tannins are deceptive but soon build up. The acid is noticeable right through the mid-palate. It's a medium-weight, firm and solid wine with an agreeable complexity but it demands both food and time in a decanter. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink from 2012 to 2018; assuming the fruit surfaces and the acid calms down.

During proceedings we asked if the Sparkling Shiraz was opened but were informed that it wasn't available for tasting. Despite Brian dropping hints, Dominic was not interested in opening it. That's Pondalowie’s loss as I needed to stock up on Sparkling Shiraz, and between Brian and I we wound up buying multiple dozens from other producers. (Brian: I succumbed and bought a bottle to take home and try, it is a nice medium-bodied sparkler with good dark cherry fruit, some spiciness and not too sweet, it is pushing the price-point at $36 though.)

The wines all showed a similar style with very noticeable acid. Most will probably calm down with time, but I'm not sure about the Cabernet. Overall, their wines were quite good that we left there with far less information than we had hoped. In reality the visit was a disappointment. I am quite capable of tasting what's in my glass and reporting it, but if the guy behind the bar can’t get enthusiastic about his own wines and doesn't want to tell you all about the fine points of his operation, it's all terribly clinical. It’s like waiting for the washing machine repairman to arrive. It’s necessary. After it’s over you know you have achieved something but feel your time could have been better spent doing something else.

We continued to head south east towards Bendigo and Connor Park winery. We followed the signs (although Brian had plugged the address into the GPS) and blow me down, shock horror. The earth was in alignment; the signs and the GPS had a cosmic collision at the winery.

There is an old saying about the wineries in West Oz. The longer the driveway the worse the wines and given the length of driveway at Connor Park I was a bit worried. There is also a large, no make that humongous, "bottle" on the left-hand side of driveway. I have no idea what sort of statement they are trying to make with this adornment, and whilst it stands out, it certainly does little to add to the ambience. Martin Luther King addressing a gathering of the Klewless Klux Clan would standout less than this bottle.

The cellar door looks homely. That's because it is. It forms the front room of their residence. When we arrived, one of the kid’s bikes was out the front; dad had left some tools lying around, but when we walked into cellar door, there was no mistaking this was a real wine operation.

Connor Park 2002 Sparkling Shiraz sells for $28 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows very sweet strawberry fruit together with mushroom and straw. It's a medium-weight, supple wine with a solid consistency. It's easy-drinking, not too sweet and very credible. The palate shows abundant mint, mocha, spice, and strawberry and finishes clean. Rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Connor Park 2003 Sangiovese sells for $20 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet showed a hint of reduction/tar together with dusty and earthy notes. Drying tannins combine with fresh acid and medium intensity fruit to form a lean-bodied wine with a firm, solid structure that is uncomplicated and needs food to show its best. Flavours of blackberry, cherry, tar and smoke completes the profile. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Connor Park 2002 Mourvedre sells for $20 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows hints of varnished oak/oxidative handling together with bright fruit and earthy and meaty characters. A well-balanced wine that is driven by juicy-fruit that delivers dark chocolate, charcuterie, earthy characters and blackcurrant/cherry spectrum flavours, it finishes clean, fresh, long and dry. Just ample in weight, its firm, solid, has a well-developed complexity, and is varietally correct. The fruit is pure, deep and persistence and well matched to the fresh, crisp acid and powdery tannins. It's still in nappies and absolutely worth buying. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, drink over the next eight years.

Connor Park 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $20 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet is very dusty and shows spicy and oxidative handling. Drying tannins combine with fresh acid and distinct fruit, but the hard tannins and slightly green character detracts from the pleasant fruit flavours. Rated as Acceptable with ** for value.

Connor Park 2004 Shiraz sells for $20 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows dusty mushroom, earthy characters, chocolate, and oxidative handling or varnished oak. The wine shows good sweet fruit, especially through the mid-palate with flavours a black cherry, mocha/vanillin oak, and chocolate that finish clean and with good persistence. It's a medium-weight, firm and solid wine with a very agreeable complexity. It's food-friendly and quite juggable for the price. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, drink between 2010 and 2014.

Forbidden Valley 2006 Shiraz is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet shows varnished, spicy oak but there is some volatility. Powdery tannins combine with fresh acid and intensely ripe fruit to deliver a bigger style of wine that is certainly not subtle, but it is very quaffable and an absolute bargain at the price. Rated as Agreeable with ***** for value, give it a couple of years in the bottle and it should be even better. The price? Well it’s as cheap as chips. Contact the winery cause you won’t believe it if I told you.

Connor Park 2003 Durif sells for $20 at cellar door and is sealed under cork. The bouquet shows earthy, meaty notes and varnished oak. The deeply-seated fruit is buried six-foot below the drying tannins. The palate shows black plum, dark chocolate, tar, etc. It's a full-bodied, firm and solid wine with an agreeable complexity. Like many Durifs, it should come equipped with a razor blade to shave the tongue. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, the rating will improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window between 2014 and 2020.

The wines were all exceptionally good value and when I made comment, Robyn said, “We have Water Wheel up the road.” True. Water Wheel is renowned for over delivering on value, so if you are virtually the closest winery, your prices are going to have to be sharp to survive. The wines show a fair amount of fresh acid, but they are well within the bounds of reason. The wines are consistent but could be improved if they showed less oak and or varnished characters.

(I had given Robyn my card early in the proceedings.) They have a wine called The Honour. It retails for $35. It's their premium wine and not available for tasting. Robyn was not interested in opening it for us to try, despite Brian’s subtle hint.

After the experiences at the wineries we went to after Turner's Crossing, I have come to the conclusion that the wine business must be great in this region. We have one winery that doesn’t bother opening to their advertised hours. Two wineries that won’t open relatively inexpensive wines, even for those expressing real interest in their product and three wineries that don’t bother telling you much about themselves. The wineries in other Australian regions that are finding things tough, and that’s most of them, need to take notice of the wineries north of Bendigo. These Bendigo wineries must be doing an unbelievable job in moving their wines. They don’t need to do the mundane things that other wineries find necessary. Either that or they don’t have a bloody clue and need to attend marketing kindergarten.

The next winery on the list was Sandhurst Ridge, which by this areas standards, is not all that far from Connor Park. Even though we had to take all sorts of twists and turns and changes of directions, we managed not to get lost. Possibly because we were not using the GPS. Sandhurst is owned and run by two brothers, Paul and George Greblo. (Brother) Paul who looked after us at cellar door was certainly not backward in coming forward with their story.

The name Sandhurst Ridge has got nothing to do with old English, military traditions. Before Bendigo was known as Bendigo, it was known as Sandhurst and on an old map of the area their property was situated on Sandhurst Ridge.

Their first commercial vintage was made in 1995. They must be doing something right because not only do they use all the fruit from their 28 acre property, they actually buy fruit in as well. The vines are hand pruned. They aim to crop at two tonnes to the acre but probably average about one and a half per year. The vines are now approximately eighteen years old and they produce around 2000 cases of wine. The red wines are fermented in small open vats and are hand plunged. They are then basket pressed. Under normal circumstances they are fined, but not filtered.

To enable people to get an appreciation of what they are doing, multiple vintages of the wines are available for tasting at cellar door. It's a terrific idea and it's a pity more wineries don’t/can’t do the same thing.

Sandhurst Ridge 2005 Heathcote Shiraz sells for $25 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet is tarry and black. The pure, deep, strong fruit is very ripe, intense and delivers blackberry, tar, and black cherry flavours that linger well. Its ample-weight, has a supple consistency and is well backed by powdery tannins. Rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink over the next five years. This flavour profile is not my favourite type, but many people do love inky-black characters.

Sandhurst Ridge 2004 Shiraz sells for $28 at cellar door and is sealed under Diam. The bouquet shows char and blackberry notes, but thankfully the palate is better than the bouquet. Blackberry, tar/char, black cherry, dark chocolate and lots of mint flavour finishes crisp and clean. The deep, strong fruit is well matched to the fresh acid and powdery, drying tannins. It's ample in weight and has a supple consistency. Once again, due to its flavour profile others will like it more than I; rated as Recommended with *** for value, drink from 2010.

Sandhurst Ridge 2004 Reserve Shiraz sells for $38 at cellar door and is sealed under Diam. The wine is matured in predominately new French oak with a medium plus toast level. The bouquet showed a hint of reduction with intense black, charry/tar notes. The palate shows sour cherry, black berry fruits, tar, black cherry, dark chocolate, spice and mint flavours. An ample-weight, firm, solid, tight wine with an agreeable complexity, its rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value and should enter its peak drinking window in 2010. This flavour profile really doesn’t do it for me.

From a purely personal perspective, and I completely admit my prejudice here, these wines have been bludgeoned to death by charred oak. There is no doubt that a reasonable percentage of the wine drinking population enjoy the taste of burnt timber, but I am not one of them.

We continued our journey in a south east direction with the next destination being Balgownie Estate. The winery was started in 1969 by the well-known Stuart Anderson and has become one of the stalwarts of the area. Over the years they have certainly grown. They now have vineyards and cellar doors in both Bendigo and the Yarra Valley. They also do conferences and functions in both locations. But that's not all. When we arrived they were setting up for a concert. The Australian legend, Renee Geyer would be centre stage there tonight.

We got the red carpet treatment. At that time of the day they were obviously not expecting too many winery visitors. To get to the car park, Brian had to do literally drive over the red carpet. If looks could kill, I would have been planting Brian six foot under on the spot.

When I saw the humongous size of the mobile toilet facility, without thinking I said, "holy shit” to which Brian responded, "exactly."

Balgownie 2005 Estate Shiraz sells for $31 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The wine was pretty bloody ordinary. Either Balgownie had suddenly started making crap, or this bottle was dead set defective. When I told the person serving us that I thought the wine was defective, she said, "We are not allowed to check the wines, I will get one of the winemakers to come over.”

When Tony Winspear arrived, he asked me what I thought was wrong with the wine. After I had giving chapter and verse on its reductive bouquet and stripped, unbalanced profile, I didn't expect the reaction I received. He said, "We had some bottling issues with one of the heads. We checked every pallet of wine and whilst (we think) we have got most of the defective bottles, some have still got through."

Tony has been with the winery since 1994 and is the assistant to Tobias Ansted, the winemaker. Due to lack of water the driveway block and the hillside blocks, which are minor varieties (Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc,) have both been semi-mothballed. But things get worse. Last year they did fifteen tonnes of fruit and if things go according to plan, this year they would do hundred and twenty. They should normally do between hundred and sixty and hundred and eighty tonnes. So in 2007 they did less than 10%. In that year, more than 50% of the growers in the region picked nothing. Many of the producers who were badly affected by frost in 2007 would have stress management issues and subsequent yield problems in the 2008 vintage, and possibly even in 2009, especially those without sufficient water. Who would want to be a farmer?

Balgownie 2005 Estate Shiraz sells for $31 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The nose was still a touch reductive but the palate showed vibrant, fresh floral fruit. The pure fruit which delivers cherry, milk chocolate, blackberry and liquorice flavours, was buried by the powdery tannins. In some ways this reminds me of an old fashioned wine. It's just medium in weight, is almost elegant and needs time for the tannins to integrate. Rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value, drink from 2012.

Balgownie 2005 Estate Cabernet sells for $31 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The dusty, varietal Cabernet nose leads to a palate showing blackcurrant, blackberry, milk chocolate and mocha flavours. It's solidly built and constructed but it needs a heap of time for the quality fruit to surface from below the tannins. It's medium-weight with a supple consistency, a well-developed complexity and is very tight. In time it should be seamless. It's varietal and has a mile of potential but is currently rated as Recommended with *** for value, but by 2014 when it enters its peak drinking window, the rating should be substantially higher.

The issues surrounding the screwcap sealed Shiraz is an interesting one. Should it be regarded as a screwcap issue, or should it be regarded as a bottling issue? In reality, the answer to this philosophical question doesn't matter a jot. The important factor is that it shows that wines sealed under screwcap are not exempt from problems. The issue for the winery here, and every other winery that ever delivers a bottle sealed with a screwcap which is defective for any reason, is that the consumer is immediately and automatically going to assume that winery makes crap. The chances of them understanding it is a random bottle problem, is virtually nil. In this case, if one in twelve bottles is defective, although the pallets have been individually checked, one has no idea how many defective bottles have been trapped, and how many will make it through to consumers. Not a comfortable feeling.

It was a little before 4 p.m. and we figured we had just enough time to cover Chateau Leamon. We continued our journey in a south east direction towards Bendigo. At Bendigo, we then needed to go due South to get to our destination. That doesn’t sound difficult. As we approached the city of Bendigo, Brian realised we needed petrol and instead of continuing along the road we were on, he decided to go through the city proper. As we neared the end of the central business district he asked me what road we should be take. The A79 which becomes the A300 was my response.

By the time we reached the far side of Bendigo, we were running on fumes. No surprise. It was my turn to pay for petrol. After I had handed over enough to put an oil sheiks child through university, we were on our way. What's the bet the next time we put in petrol, when Brian pays, we will do it when there is still a third of a tank of juice. This costs splitting arrangement is definitely heading in one direction. The wrong one. Hold that thought!

We passed through the 60 km zone, then the 80 km zone and into the hundred kilometre zone. Brian started muttering to himself and pulled onto the shoulder of the road. Mutter…. mutter. He look at the cars GPS. Mutter …. mutter and then out came his phone. Mutter…. Mutter. He cranked up the phones GPS system, but before it could fully load, he pointed to the directional arrow on the cars GPS and came to the realisation we were heading north east on the A300 when he should have been heading south!

Now dear readers, you need to understand that I did not tell him to turn, or indeed which way to turn. So Brian knows he can’t blame me (this time.) Who does he blame? Can you believe it, he said, “The map is wrong …….blah ….. blah. It’s defective. It should …….blah ….. blah.” (Brian: In a stroke of genius the A300 from Daylesford turns into A79 from Harcourt to Bendigo from the south and continues as A79 out the north-west and is also A300 out the north –east side, we were briefly on A79 on our way through Bendigo and I saw A300 and followed that rather than the A79. L Ric: At the risk of repeating myself, blah ….. blah.)

We did a quick U-turn and headed in the right direction. Instead of going through Bendigo, Brian took the series of ring roads around the city even there was no traffic through the city. The ring road was the (very, very) long way round, but Brian was not taking chances. Even with two GPS systems.

After giving the turbocharger a workout, we arrived at Chateau Leamon about ten minutes before closing time. When we were planning the trip, Brian was determined to visit this winery. He had worked bloody hard to get us here before it closed.

We were greeted by Mrs Leamon. She wasn't concerned with the time and was happy to spend as long as needed, so it was looking good. Or so we thought. Brian was looking forward to sampling both their standard wines and their reserves.

The winery is the third oldest in the area, being established in 1973. No swish cellar door here. It’s an old portable shed. They don’t waste their dollars on fancy packaging and advertising either. Nor do they spend it on web designers. Their site looks like it was last updated about two years ago. But they do produce consistently good wine at reasonable prices. And that’s important.

Chateau Leamon 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot sells for $22 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The deep, strong fruit is intense and delivers great power for its weight. Flavours of blackberry/current, cherry and dark chocolate finish with excellent persistence. It’s medium-weight, firm, and shows some elegance. A very solid, credible wine it needs time for with fierce, powdery tannins to soften and integrate. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, the rating should improve as the wine enters its peak drinking window around 2012.

Chateau Leamon 2005 Shiraz sells for $22 at cellar door and is sealed under screwcap. The bouquet was a bit stinky, but thankfully it didn't show on the palate. The strong, deep fruit delivers intense blackberry, blackcurrant, mint and charry flavours that finish long but the Cabernet is better. Ample-weight with a firm consistency and an agreeable complexity, it is rated as Recommended with *** for value and should be at its best between 2010 and 2015.

That was an all right start. Time to move on to the Reserve wines. Only there aren't any. They are between vintage releases. The same thing happened last time I was here. On that visit, the person serving me was able to disappear for a few minutes and come back with some unreleased wine. Good stuff. We hoped to do the same thing on this trip and Brian tried hard to make it happen.

Under normal circumstances the 2006 should have been bottled but unfortunately they were running behind schedule and the wines were still in tanks and were to be bottled in a couple of days. Unfortunately the winemaker wasn't there so they couldn't even steal some samples from the tanks for us to try.

Bendigo War Memorial and Town Hall....................................................

All that for two (average) wines. Mutter….. mutter. We headed out their driveway and Brian wanted to do an immediate right-hand turn. There was only one tiny, incey, wincey, little problem with that idea. It was a divided road. Had he turned at that point, it would have been into two lanes of oncoming traffic. That would have caused lots of four letter words. And prayers. And a call for clean underpants too.

Back in the main street of Bendigo, as we drove past the local restaurant tram, Brian said, "If the food doesn't make you sick, the motion will." I wonder if he is speaking from experience.

Accommodation in this part of the world is not what one would call in expensive. The deals through lastminute.com and wotif.com don't set the world on fire. In some locations, the room rate when you ring up, even well in advance, is actually less expensive than the last minute deal rates. We had booked at the City Centre Motel. Just as well; the place was full. We stayed in the “deluxe rooms” at $95 a night. The “ordinary rooms” must have been pretty ordinary, although our rooms were large.

The motel had wireless internet access. At $6.95 for one hour or $12.95 for two hours, it should have come with free passes to the movies. Or porn sites. Or both. Together even.

By sheer coincidence it was one block away from the restaurant that Paul from Turners Crossing had recommended. Whirrakee - bloody funny name for a restaurant. Still it’s better than calling it Acacia williamsonii which the translation. I can just see it. Hi Sam, have you eaten at Acacia williamsonii yet? No Fred, but by the time I do, medical science may have come up with a cure for it.

The restaurant is slap bang on a corner and overlooks the historic gardens and town hall. It’s located in an old, renovated bank building with high ceilings. When they have to change the ceiling light bulbs, the staff take airsickness tablets, and they probably have to erect scaffolding.

Now picture this. We walked in. On our right was a slightly raised platform with seating for about sixteen people. On our left was a sideboard/hutch used for serving utensils, menus etc. At the end of that, below the raised platform and the serving sideboard is the main part of the restaurant. We give our names and are ushered to our table. It’s a long walk. About three feet. We are seated at the end of the sideboard against the wall. To our right is a table set up for a “party” of about eighteen people. Our waitress tells us this is a “special table.” My response was, “I take it the one next to the toilet was taken.” She is young, about eighteen, and my comment goes straight through to the keeper. The music was way too loud and you couldn't hear the person on the other side of the table without shouting.

The wine glasses were a reasonable size and a reasonable shape; unfortunately they resembled brandy balloons, where thick and had heavy rims. They wouldn't have been cheap, and for what they probably cost, they could have purchased more suitable glasses. If they are worried about breakage, they could have a few decent glasses for those drinking their more costly wine.

I was beginning to wonder how much commission Paul was getting for sending us here. Probably enough have a weekend out of town. He would need a weekend out of town when I was finished with him if things kept going the way they were looking. Only they didn’t.

The first sign of a move in a positive direction was when the music was turned down from rock concert level to comfortable, background ambience. The menu boasted it was more than just a feed; it was a total dining experience. Half of what you read is bull and the other half is shit, so the proof of the pudding would be in the eating.

The first wine opened was a Seppelt 1996 Dorrien Cabernet Sauvignon. It opened up beautifully and showed fresh, vibrant blueberry spectrum fruit. The bouquet has starting to take on aged leathery characteristics and there was some spice too. The tannins have softened and integrated beautifully but still retain their integrity. The acid is still fresh and the fruit has loads of primary flavour. Just ample in weight, it's approaching seamlessness and is rated as Excellent. As Brian said, it was definitively varietal for a warmer style of Cabernet, and had a modicum of elegance. (Brian: The restaurant doesn’t usually allow BYO and restaurant wines are opened by the person behind the bar, not the wait staff. Our waitress brought a waiters-friend cork extractor to the table to open this bottle, but she obviously didn’t know how to use it, so I volunteered to do the honours and hoped the cork wouldn’t embarrass me and crumble all over the place. It didn’t.)

We were presented with a complimentary ‘canapé’ which was pumpkin and goat curd that was topped with roasted garlic oil. It was an interesting combination of textures and flavours but as Brian said, it was a bit “goaty”. It did get the taste buds into gear and the home-made bread rolls were delicious. So I had another one.

For a starter I ordered three tastes of the ocean. It featured nori battered scampi on pickled cucumber; seared Coffin Bay scallops on fennel remoulade and salmon pearls; and gravlax of ocean trout with ruby grapefruit dressing. If it tasted half as good as it sounded, I was going to be in for a treat.

The scallops were almost burnt on one side but surprisingly, that enhanced their flavour. The saltiness of the fish roe added to the complexity and together with the acidity of the lightly seared fennel, the dish caught my tongues undivided attention. The scampi was completely different. The presentation and flavour profile was Japanese. The texture of the pickled cucumber was a lovely foil to the texture of the scampi. The gravlax looked more like smoked salmon but that was because it had been marinated in house. It had been marinated extremely well. The acidity of the ruby grapefruit dressing lifted this morsel into another plain.

The starter was fantastic. The "three tastes,” were exactly that; three completely different taste sensations. They were also three unique textural sensations. It looked like Paul may not need those crutches and plaster casts after all.

When Brian tried his food, his comment was, “perfectly proportioned.” The size of his pork belly serving was enough to put a porky sized belly on him. There was far less fat than one would normally expect, which was a bonus.

It quickly became obvious that the staff had been schooled in what to say, what to do, and how to do it. For a country restaurant, the service was pretty damn good. The waitresses were all very young. They were keen, enthusiastic, good-looking and had lovely smiles. Above all else, they worked very effectively.

Let me give you an example of the professionalism of the service. We changed from sparkling mineral water to still tap water and they changed the glasses. That’s attention to detail.

The second bottle of wine opened was a Jasper Hill 1996 Georgia Shiraz. It opened with typical Georgia bottle stink. I was a little worried it wouldn’t blow off and thought it may have had a touch of cork taint. After a couple of swirls the bottle stink started to blow off but it still didn't look like a great example of this wine. It was completely seamless, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it just seemed a little flat and lifeless. As it opened up, it improved a little but it was still a disappointment. (By the end of the evening it was volatile.)

By the time our main course had arrived, the party of eighteen was ensconced at their table. Being next to a party of eighteen people in a restaurant is about as much fun as driving from Ararat to Canberra only to find that the car radio broken; you can’t turn the damn thing off and it’s locked onto the New South Wales State Government Parliament question time. The senseless noise is enough to drive one completely bonkers. Only this time the fun that normally is associated with these large groups did not happen, for them or us.

Firstly, hardly any of them drank anything. A couple of the guys had beer and a couple of the ladies had a glass of wine. One adventurous female participant actually had taste and drank a glass of Sparkling Shiraz. Judging by the seriousness of the of people around the table, it must have been a graduation dinner for a group involved in training to work in the funeral industry, who were practising their business behaviour and expressions. When their starters arrived, conversation literally stopped and they almost look relieved not to have to talk to each other. It was lovely and quiet. You could hear a corpse drop.

For a main course I ordered roast duck breast served with confit leg on wilted chard, pancetta and pistachio boudin with caramelised figs and Pedro Ximénez jus. The duck leg was done perfectly and the chutney was a wonderful accompaniment. The reduction sauce was rich, scrumptious and lip- smackingly good. The caramelised fig gave the sauce an almost black flavour profile that came across as being similar to star anise. It contrasted and highlighted both the relish and the duck breast. The duck sausage with prosciutto and pistachio was something else. The combination of flavours was splendid. It was completely different to everything else on the plate. Brian correctly pointed out that the duck, which had been wrapped in prosciutto had then been encased in duck skin to form the sausage. The confit was ace. The skin was so crispy it exploded on the palate. The confit was flavoursome and cooked to melt in the mouth perfection.

The Jasper Hill was a seamless match with the duck and had enough strength to stand up to, and blend in with, the reduction sauce.

Earlier I talked about the professionalism of the staff. The reason soon became apparent. The head waitress, who we later found out was named Renée was the glue that held the place together. It was a pleasure to watch the way she worked. Firstly the smile, which was a hundred percent genuine, never left her face. Every once in a while one of the young waitresses would come up to her and she would very quietly, and in the nicest possible way tell them what they should be doing next. The approach worked because the young waitresses were smiling and enjoying themselves too. I can't remember the last time I saw such a happy team. The number of people they were able to look after, given the staff to customer ratio, was astounding. Later in the evening, when we actually had a chance to chat, and I complimented her on the professional way in which she ran the place, she was delighted. It turned out it was the owner's first night off in six months.

Those who have followed the Tour Diaries will be well versed in the cheese sagas. In most restaurants in the wine regions of Australia if a cheese plate is listed you have to ask what's available. Invariably the staff don't know and have to make a trip to the kitchen to find out. The answer is usually, a brie, a blue and a cheddar. However sometimes you get a surprise like, "we don't know because the wrappers have been thrown out.” That did not happening here. No sir. They take their cheese seriously. The menu featured a page and a half detailing the finer points of the six cheeses on offer. The history of each cheese was listed, the flavour profile and the only thing you didn't tell you was the name of the cow (or goat) that was responsible for the raw produce. It was impressive. Very impressive.

A selection of three was $20 and six costs a very reasonable $34. We decided to share a platter. Three would have probably been enough, but there was some conflict in the choice so we decided to go the whole hog, and be a couple of little piggies, and order the six. The platter was served with sour cherry compote, quince paste, lavosh, fresh pear, and fig and hazelnut brioche.

When our cheese order was taken, Renée asked us if we would like to have a glass of Rutherglen Muscat with the cheese. Given we still had a half a bottle of Jasper’s Hill we declined the offer. As she departed she said, "I will keep an eye on you just in case."

A few minutes later, as she was walking past, I caught her eye and said, "You piqued my interest with the Rutherglen comment but do you have a bottle of Tokay?” Renee said she thought they had some Campbell’s, and I asked if it was the Gold Top. She thought it was but said she would check. As my back was to the bar I could not see what is going on but Brian told me all about it.

Both Renée and the barman were pulling bottles out from all over the place and then shoving them back on the racks. They eventually found one that didn’t go back. Then the fun began. Out from below the bowels of the bar counter came the catalogues. Looking. Looking. Looking. Not finding. Eventually Renee came back to the table with a very sheepish expression on her face. Yes, they had found a bottle. Yes it was Campbell’s. Yes it was Tokay. No it was not the Gold Top. It was the Isabella.

She said, “I am told it’s meant to be pretty good but I am not sure what it costs, so if you want it I will have to ring the boss to find out how much it costs. But it’s not cheap.”

I told her that if it helps, it sells at the winery for about $90. Renee took a huge gulp and said, That means we would have to charge $120.”

Renée couldn’t believe it. Someone was insane enough to spend $120 on a half bottle of wine. Probably thought the guy has more money than sense; if she only knew. She smiled even more and said, “Are you sure. It’s $120.”

If she only knew what a bargain I thought I was getting. A $30 mark-up on a $90 wine in a restaurant; great deal. (Brian: Ric even generously poured some for Renée to taste. After trying it, her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she rushed off to share the remainder with the other wait staff.)

The cheese platter was huge. The chef probably appreciated that we had sent a couple of glasses of wine out to the kitchen. What's more, it was as good as it looked. After consuming that lot, if I was run over by the restaurant tram the next morning, I would die a happy man. And it would give those at the next table to us something to do.

Just in case we had not had enough to eat, with the bill a plate of small delicacies arrived. Luckily they were low calorie. Oink. Oink. Flourless orange cake that contained a touch of rind, orange blossom flavoured Turkish delight, and chocolate ganache with crunchy sugar inside. Oink. Oink.

Brian had planned this one well. Guess who is bloody turn it was to pay? I don't know how he does it. I got to pay for the $120 bottle of wine, the expensive dinner, and the previous evening he got away with a cheap dinner. And to add insult to injury, I had to pay for not only a tank of petrol, but for petrol in the pipes. Some how, some way, I will balance this up, if I need a Cray Computer to work out how to do it, it will happen. (Brian: If he tries that I’ll get Andrea to send him the bill for half the wear and tear on her car for the 2,500 km trip.)

That was the bad news. The good news was that Paul was not getting a commission; or two broken legs for that matter. His recommendation was a beauty and his efforts in arranging the dinner were completely appreciated. (But I am still a tough bastard and he won’t get any extra stars for value on his wines.)

That was one of the best meals we have had in a country restaurant on all our trips. Top marks to the team at Whirrakee or Acacia williamsonii or the Old Bank, or what ever it’s called.

You say, "Our first appointment was 40 km north of Bendigo, so we had about a 2.5 hour drive in front of us."

Exactly how slowly does he drive, then ...?

Always enjoy reading the Tour Diaries, esp. the Barossa, where I used to live and work in the trade. Speaking of which, there is only one place for pies there: Apex Bakery in Tanunda; can't be bettered. All else are pale imitations. Glad you found Blonde this time.

TORB Responds: Brian drives bloody fast but he keeps getting lost or leaving his clothes somewhere. That's why we need the extra time. Also starting from Avoca, not Bendigo uses up a bit too. I wish people would keep quiet about the XXXX Bakery. I have managed to keep them away from it since we started travelling together. If they find it, we may not get to eat anywhere when we are in the Barossa.

From Brian: Saturday 29 March

Sally, the “young” navigator can’t keep up with the “old” driver. Thanks for the reminder about the Apex bakery in Tanunda, Ric managed to avoid it last time, but John and I will make sure we get there at least once on our next trip in May.