McLaren Vale

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Trip Start Jul 08, 2006 Previous
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  McLaren Vale, Australia
Thursday, August 17, 2006

We were only going to stay in McLaren Vale for one night after getting back from Kangaroo Island (it is close to the ferry port), but as it turned out we ended up staying for four. This is another wine producing region near Adelaide but it is not as well known as the Barrossa Valley or Coonwarra. We both really liked the town and came to the same conclusion that of all the places we have visited so far, this is the one that we could live in (not that we will, unless we retire out here ...).

Took a trip out in the car on Wednesday to do a few wineries. John drove the car, but we both sampled the wines (although only Cathy got to swallow any of it). First stop was Pirramimma which has a stunning setting and very nice white wine. Picked up a Sauvignon Blanc Semillon and a Chardonnay from here and apparently their wines are distributed in the UK by Tesco and Sainsburys.

Woodstock wines was next where we bought another Chardonnay and a rosé. Some sort of link with Woodstock in Oxfordshire at this place which is odd because we were there the week before we set off on this trip at a wedding (hello Rob and Maya, hope you are settling in to married life).

The third winery was the best in our opinion in terms of setting and quality of wines. It is called Chapel Hill and we bought an unwooded Chardonnay, a Verdelho and a Pinot Grigio. We had already sampled the unwooded Chardonnay with our evening meal the night before so we knew it was good stuff, but we sampled it again just to make sure. Tesco distribute their wines in the UK.

Final stop was at the Olive Grove. Cathy has only recently discovered that she likes olives and these were really good. Something else we noticed here was the popularity of something called dukkah, a spice and nut mixture. Buy shares in any company that makes this stuff 'it's a taste sensation; it's the future'. They also sold Lloyd Brothers wine here and we got another bottle of unwooded Chardonnay (must be off reds) and a bottle of Rouge Jus (non-alcoholic Pinot Noir juice which is surprisingly nice and very refreshing!).

On Thursday, we took a drive out to Victor Harbor (located on the other side of the Fleurieu Peninsula) where whales had been spotted earlier in the week. Guess what? We didn't see any. Ironic given that the name of the bay is Encounter Bay... We took a trip on the horse-drawn tram over to Granite Island (great name, huh?) where there is a colony of little penguins (you guessed correctly if you said we spotted none of these either). On the way back, stopped off at a micro brewery in Myponga (the only one for miles). Luckily Cathy was driving today and it was John's turn to swallow. Walked away with twelve bottles of beer and twelve bottles of ginger ale.

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02 A view of the (empty) nudist beach	03 Granite Island as seen from Victor Harbor	04 Give Way on Granite Island	05 Victor Harbor viewed from Granite Island
06 Victor Harbor tram	07 Chapel Hill - nice place, nice wines

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