Thursday, January 13, 2011

Barossa Valley Wine Tasting. mmmmmm........

Despite my experience with the Great Ocean Road tour (recall meatball review) I signed us up for a full day van (not giant double decker bus) tour of the Barossa valley and I am SO GLAD I did! Barossa is one of the many famous wine regions outside of Adelaide; in addition to Clare Valley, MacLaren Vale, and several others. We chose to do a tour so that we could have two active wine tasters...and chose this particular tour because it also stopped at Addi-friendly sites including "the Big Rocking Horse" (the largest in the world! Addi and I climbed ladders 35' to the saddle, but rain and fear kept us from climbing 60' to the top of the head), the Herbig family home (a family of five lived in the trunk of this tree for five years!), and the Whispering Wall (a dam with unintentional acoustic properties that allows you to whisper at one end and be clearly heard at the other end 100m away).

We tasted more than 18 wines at four vineyards: Wolf Blass (including a $130/bottle black label) Simpatico (grapes sourced from Stonewall Vineyards), Grant Burge on Krondorf and Kies Family (a small 6th generation vineyard). We bought at three of the stops. We had a 3 course lunch at The Vine Inn where Addi got a paper peacock in her ice cream- apparently, a dream come true.

Everyone on the bus, with the exception of Addi, Jim and I, snoozed on the hour drive home from the valley. That should give you a sense of quantities of wine 'tasted' if the number 18+ didn't. It was perfect.
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4 comments:

  1. jimJanuary 13, 2011 at 4:23 PM

    mmmmmm......wine!

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. garncoJanuary 13, 2011 at 8:38 PM

    You guys could be having a hit show on the travel channel!! Also we are big fans of Australian wines, but would never have thought their vineyards could be toured in real life. Keep sharing the adventure!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 14, 2011 at 4:28 PM

    1. "big rocking horse" is an understatement
    2. "family home for 5 in the trunk of a tree" is an overstatement
    3. I think you were "pissed" (i.e., drunk) for this leg of the tour - no surprise after drinking 18 bottles, I mean tastes, of Aussie wine (glad you kept your meatball to yourself)

    Question: do you and your tourmates sing "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" or some Addi-friendly tune when you're in your van / bus?

    Great photos! Keep 'em coming. xo

    ReplyDelete
  4. mollydookerJanuary 15, 2011 at 4:19 AM

    Lol! We didn't sing any songs but I did honor the group with a read aloud of Dr Suess! Try that after 18 tastes!

    ReplyDelete

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