Tour Diaries
Sydney Time
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008
Follow the antics of TORB and his mates as he
travels through the wine regions of Oz.
The 2008 Victorian Tour Diary
In February, Red Bigot and I spent a gruelling, but most enjoyable, eight days touring though the Westerns and North Eastern wine regions of Victoria. The trip was an eye opener. Anyone who thinks all Australian red wine taste the same and are high alcohol, over-ripe, intense blackberry flavoured vanilla or coffee oak-shakes and can not be enjoyed with tucker, needs to have this story poked into their myopic eyes and a few bottles of these delightful wines forcibly poured down their throats. At the time of writing this, I already have RSI from typing the words "elegant, restrained, classy, refined, and food friendly. Many labels are lower in alcohol than a few years ago. That is not as a result of the reactionary, politically correct, mummy-state elements inflicting their do good opinions; its a by-product of the strive for more elegant, food friendly wines. In total, there will be well over 200 tasting notes, as well as all the gory details on the meals consumed.
(5 March) Covers getting there and our first full day in Ararat (Great Western/Grampians). We visited Mount Langi, Kimbarra, and Clayfield in the morning. Best's gave us the Royal Tour and a right royal tasting. We went from one historic gem to another. The visit to Seppelt was another brilliant experience. They went all out and opened (multiple vintages of most of) the whole range. And then of course there was the food; and I need to warn you some of it was uglier than Phyllis Diller.
Chapter Two (13 March) Its huge. The Pyrenees Chapter is the biggest Chapter ever. A quick visit to Sally's Paddock was followed by a fascinating tour of Dalwhinnie. David Jones kept our undivided attention for hours, and that resulted in a lengthy feature story. Taltarni has undergone a complete turnaround and was a pleasant surprise. We also visited a number of smaller wineries. Multiple vintages were tasted from both Summerfield and Polleters. Warrenmang put on a dinner (and tasting) that was stunningly good. This Chapter has tasting notes on more unreleased wines than any other, so read all about them here first.
Chapter Three (26 March) covers our time in Bendigo. Wineries visited include Turners Crossing, Blanche Barkly, Pondalowie, Connor Park, Sandhurst Ridge, Balgownie and Chateau Leamon. We also had one of the best dinners on any trip. Ever!
(24 April) covers our time in the famous Heathcote Region. You can't visit Heathcote without visiting the crown jewel, so we started at Jasper Hill. We then did a quick visit to Munari, and as expected the wines were well-worthwhile. Have you ever heard of Downing Estate? Well you have now and they don't make bad wine; even their Merlot is serious. Flynn's Wines can be bloody interesting, especially their Sangiovese. And it may sound hard to believe, but I enjoyed a pie at lunchtime too! Heathcote Winery produced a couple of very respectable wines for us to try, one of which is just about to be released. We also visited Shelmerdine and McIvor Estate.
Chapter Five (1 May) covers a lot of distance. First stop was Tahbilk Winery at Nagambie . We got lucky! They were having a museum tasting. Mitchelton was next and then we moved onto Plunkett Fowles. These last two seemed a bit patchy. Baileys of Glenrowan made up for them. At Beechworth, Tinkers Hill was interesting! Dinner was with Keppell Smith of Savaterre, who actually brought a Shar-Donay and a PiNot. Wait till you see the report on that escapade. Russell and Meeghan Bourne of battely wines were also at the dinner. What a night.
Chapter Six (8 May) It starts with our final winery in Beechworth, Golden Ball, who make very consistent, quality wines. We then moved to Brown Brothers which was better than expected. Rutherglen was the nest stop. Our appointment at Jones Winey went really well; here is a small winery to watch over coming years. We did the full tour at Campbells, as well as tasting their whole fortified range. We also dropped in on Andrew Buller at Buller's Winery, and as usual, Andrew provided a unique insight into a hot topic of debate.
The 2007 South Aust Tour Diary
In September Red Bigot, The Pie King and I spent nine terrific days touring McLaren Vale and the Barossa. The quality of the wines we tried have never been better thanks to three great vintages, 2004, 2005 and 2006, as well as improvements to winemaking processes and styles. The glut may be over, but there is still an abundance of terrific wines at great value prices. If you are after exceptional value, everyday wines at under $15, or special occasion Excellent quality wines that cost less than $50, they will be listed in the Tour Diary, as will everything in between, plus loads more. As usual the concentration was on smaller wineries rather than the large corporates, but we still managed to fit a couple of those in too. At lunchtime, I did my best to avoid The Pie Kings (and his Apprentice's) insistence on frequenting establishments that specialised in meat pies, and luckily at night we managed to have good meals. All this, as well as my travelling companions antics are provided for your reading pleasure. The feedback feature will be enabled in every Chapter, so please submit your feedback, thoughts and questions.
Tour Diary Summary (26 September)
Chapter One (3 October) covers the introduction, getting there, and our first full day. Wineries visited include Sylvan Springs, Pirramimma, Longwood, Cascabel, Red Heads Studio, and Oliver's Taranga. We tasted loads of small production, artisan wines that are bound to interest wine lovers looking for something a bit different.
Chapter Two (10 October) starts at Wirra Wirra where we did the complete tour. Then it was a large line-up of just released wines at d'Arenberg, a secession with Justin at Samuel's Gorge, a quick tasting of the new releases at Kay Bros, and on to Gemtree.
Chapter Three (17 October) continues our McLaren Vale journey. We started at Thomas Vineyard Estate. Fox Creek and the new cellar door at Primo Estate were also good. Shingleback was next and then it got patchy. Coriole, Lloyd Bros, some good new fighting brands at Maxwell; an enjoyable visit to Foggo and finally to Woodstock.
Chapter Four (24 October) starts with out trip to the Barossa. On the way we stopped at Chain of Ponds and then we had a "Claytons visit" to Wayne Dutschke. After lunch it was to a new one, Jamabro, then Tim Smith and there are tasting notes from another couple of very good wineries too.
Chapter Five (31October) continues in the Barossa and although we only visited three wineries this Chapter is the normal size. There is a feature visit to Haan Wines, a big tasting at Kaesler including a number of new labels, and finally a big line-up of wines were tasted at Rolf Binder Wines.
Chapter Six (7Nov) Orlando/Jacobs Creek provided a large line-up of their top wines; many of which have not been released yet. Winter Creek showed how the Barossa can produce wonderful, seriously structured, fruit dominant wine without overt oak. A tour and tasting of the new Massena/Standish winery was next and finally, we had a meet the new winemaker and tour of St Hallett. Chapter Six can be found here.
Chapter Seven (14Nov) Peter Lehmann is right back on track and better than ever. We visited the Willows and followed that up by a thumbs up visit to Gibson. Saltram was next and we tasted a large range. Murray Street Vineyards showed us some terrific wines, as well as a few that had reductive issues. Then an unforgettable experience at Deisen, which was one of the highlights of the whole trip All in all, it was probably our most memorable day.
Chapter Eight
(21 Nov) We visited Kurtz Family Winemakers
and Steve is offering TORBWine readers the best value, everyday drinking wines
possible. Elderton took last years comments about peeling paint
seriously; the Cellar Door had a refit and now looks as good as some of their
wines. A tasting at Rockford was followed by a long Rockford lunch.
Friday saw some stunning wines at Hobbs, and then it was off to
Henschke and Kabminye followed by Charles Melton.
The 2006 South Aust Tour Diary - In September Red Bigot, The Pie King and I spent just over a week touring McLaren Vale, Clare and the Barossa. I don't know whether it was good luck, careful planning or the stars aligning, but the range of wines we tried was generally of a higher standard than any other previous trip. There were a number of small and boutique wineries that I have been trying to get to for years, and for some reason have never been able to connect. On this trip I was able to get to a some of them, and they were good. Very Good! The dinners on these trips are normally most enjoyable, but some of the meals on this trip were the best to date; real highlights. As usual, I engaged in a losing battle of avoiding bakeries and pie shops, and whilst it is a high price to pay for having the Pie King's company, his occasional words of wisdom, and very dry sense of humour makes it almost seem worthwhile. Naturally all of these experiences will be shared with readers. Hopefully it will be seen as the best Tour Diary to date.
Tour Diary Summary (11October)
Chapter One (15 November) covers the introduction, getting there, and our first full day. Wineries visited include Red Heads Studio (an incredible artisan project,)
Longwood, Mitolo and the Battle of Bosworth.Chapter Two (29 November) covers the rest of our time in McLaren Vale. There were some real gems tasted, and visits to a few new finds that are work checking out. Wineries include Oliverhill, Marius, Oliver's Taranga, Kays, Maxwell, Foggo and a whole lot more.
(6 December) covers our journey from McLaren Vale to the Clare Valley. We concentrated on small wineries including Grosset, Mount Horrocks, Claymore, Penna Lane, Jim Barry, and Eldredge. Naturally there was an involvement in the by-product of the culinary arts, and you're not going to believe this, but it was a pie free day for both the Pie King and his Apprentice.Chapter Four (13 December) Highlights of our second day were O'Leary Walker, Reilly's and Tim Adams followed a very different sort of visit to the Schubert Estate, and then Greenock Creek, Turkey Flat and St Hallett. There was also a full report on the report on the associated food and the Pie King's antics.
Chapter FIve (28 December) Our first full day in the Barossa with loads of great wine and food. Highlights include Maggie Beer, Kaesler, Charles Melton, Grant Burge, Massena, Saltram and more.
Chapter Six (13 February) Our time in the Barossa continues. We only visited four wineries, but all were top notch; Hobbs, Rolf Binder, Burge Family Winemakers and Dutschke were we sampled many excellent wines. Dinner at Vintners is also highlighted.
Chapter Seven (13 June) The best has been saved till last! Visits to Kurtz and Elderton were followed by a Rockford tasting, which was followed by an all afternoon lunch at the Rockford Stonewall Restaurant. That is not all; the next day we spent all morning and got the good oil, as well as a behinds the scenes perve at some amazing things at Yalumba. This Chapter is a big one and should not be missed.
The 2006 West Australian Tour Diary - In February, Brian (red Bigot) and I spent eight days in WA, the vast majority of the time was spent in the Margaret River region. We tasted our way through, and I made notes on about to 200 wines; ate far too much good food (and some very ordinary stuff too) and generally had a very good time exploring the best, and some of the worst the region had to offer. Instead of the Pie King, on this trip we were joined by Dr Davo who is almost as much a wag as the king himself. So please join us as we wend our way through the wineries of WA.
Chapter One - Getting There, Off Line Dinner and the First Few Wineries.
Chapter Two - Margaret River including Cape Mentelle, Vasse Felix, Moss Wood and Gralyn
Chapter Three - Margaret River continued including Xanadu, Leeuwin, Howard Park, Sandalford and Pierro
Chapter Four - Margaret River continued including Brookland Valley, Woodlands, Woody Nook and a whole
lot more.Chapter Five - Our last day in Margaret River and probably the best! Juniper was punching way above its weight; Cullen proves to be an ongoing classic and we investigate what makes Voyager tick; plus lots more!
Chapter Six - This chapter is so big, to enable faster loading, it has been split into two. It covers our last two days in WA; most of the time was spent in the Pemberton region. Brief periods of incredible highs interspersed with rock bottom lows and everything thing else in between. The chapter also contains a number of closing comments on the trip too.
The 2005 Mini Victorian Tour Diary - In November I spent a week in Victoria with two objectives. The first was to attend The 2002 Great Shiraz Taste Off where four of us waded our way through a blind tasting of 50 bottles of wine from this well regarded vintage, many of which Brian and I had bought as we considered them to be the best in their price brackets. The second was to spend time with good friends in the Yarra bloody Valley and tour a few vineyards whilst I was there. Chapter One covers the Rutherglen part of the trip including the results of The 2002 Great Shiraz Taste Off . There were some pleasant surprises and a few shocks when the covers came off the bottles. This was a fantastic experience that I am happy to share with you and naturally, it contains all the gory details, including tasting notes and dare I say it - scores!
After leaving Rutherglen, I headed off to the Yarra Valley to spend a few days with friends. Although this part of the trip was more holiday than wine tour, I did manage to visit quite a few wineries, have some good food, and naturally make tasting notes aplenty. Instead of having to put up with the usual antics of either The Pie King or Red Bigot, in this story you will have to put up with the antics of my, almost sane, and halfway sensible, good friends, William and Karen Pond, (aka Mr and Mrs Bill.) Chapter Two can be found here.
The 2005 May Tour Diaries - part two of this years South Australian Tour - This segment will cover more of McLaren Vale, the Barossa as well as a segment on Coonawarra. Vintage Perspective SA 2005 Chapter One - McLaren Vale Chapter Two - Coonawarra Chapter Three - McLaren Vale Chapter Four - The Barossa Chapter Five - The Barossa continued
"TORB Tortoises Through SA" The February 2005 South Australian Tour Diary Part One- The past tours grew to be so large a task that in 2005 the tour will be broken up into two segments over two trips. The first weeks journey took place in February, just prior to vintage, and inline with the relaxed pace of this journey, TORB only managed to amass a little over 200 tasting notes but that number does not include impression of wines with dinners, or a massive Durif tasting of in Rutherglen. Since when is Rutherglen in South Aust you ask; you will have to read the story to find out! As usual, my side kick and co-star, The Meat Pie King features in his traditional role but not as much as normal, however he will make up for his underperformance during the second trip in May. Chapter One - Langhorne Creek Chapter Two - The Adelaide Hills and a day in McLaren Vale Chapter Three - McLaren Vale - Discoveries Chapter Four - The Barossa and top end Penfold tasting Chapter Five - Rutherglen and the Great Durif Taste Off
"TORB Terroir-ises SA" The 2004 South Australian Tour Diaries - In May 2004, TORB terrorised over 50 wineries, tasting about 240 wines and that does not include notes on older wines made at dinners. Add to that, some extremely funny things that were said and there should be a few good laughs in this story too. This tour diary will be long, the whole thing will be probably run to in excess of 100 pages so it will be presented in weekly chapters. This trip was an incredible experience and it is my pleasure to try and share some of those experiences with you. So grab a bottle of good red and settle back and relax as you read, Vintage Perspective South Australia 2004 Chapter One - McLaren Vale . Chapter Two - The Barossa Chapter Three - The Barossa Chapter Four - The Barossa Chapter Five - The Barossa Chapter Six - McLaren Vale Chapter Seven - McLaren Vale Chapter Eight - Clare Chapter Nine - Clare
TORB's 2004 Victorian Trek - In February 2004, TORB trekked his way through central Victoria and tasted about 200 of the states finest (and a few not so fine) red wines, all of which have been reviewed for your reading pleasure. As usual, there are great new finds and some that represent phenomenal value. On this trip there were a few very special tasting experiences; some can only be described as once in a life time experience. There will also be stories on some featured wineries, photos, interesting anecdotes and hopefully a few laughs. Chapter One - The Grampians Chapter Two - The Pyrenees Chapter Three - Heathcote Chapter Four - Heathcote to Rutherglen Chapter Five - Rutherglen Part One Chapter Six - Rutherglen Part Two
TORB's 2003 South Australian Tour Diary - Between Friday 9th and Saturday 18th of May, TORB tasted this way through about 230 of South Australia's finest red wines, most from small to medium producers and many representing real value. There were many new exciting discoveries too. As well as the tasting notes, there are stories on some of the featured wineries, photos, some interesting anecdotes and hopefully a few laughs along the way. So join me in reliving my escapades in the 2003 South Australian Tour Diary which has been presented in eight chapters. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight
TORB spends a week in Western Australia – during February 2003 I spent a week touring through the areas around Perth, Great Southern and Margaret River Those that enjoy my ranting and ramblings will be in their elements as I hares my experiences not only on 160 wines, as well as anecdotes on restaurants and accommodation houses. Fill up a glass (of red of course), sit back and follow this link for 40 odd pages of TORB’s WA Tour Diary.
The Red Bigots Invade South Australia – was written in May 2002 when my mate Red Bigot (Brian Handreck) and The Pie King of McLaren Vale (John Davis) and I spent a week terrorising the cellar door staff of the Barossa, Clare and McLaren Vale. We were fortunate enough to visit many winemakers and taste wines that are almost impossible to find so sit back and relax as you get through another mammoth epic.
TORB returns to the centre of red bigot heaven – in May 2001 I made another trip back to the wine regions of South Australia and this time completed what I thought at the time was a lengthy report. It’s a baby by comparison to today’s efforts.