G'Day!

Barossa - Day 2 The first winery on our second day is Kellermeister Wines, also home to Trevor Jones wines; a father/son operation. We are a little bit early and have to wait while the staff set up the tasting room and cash register. Once all is ready we taste through a very diverse array of wines. Some are excellent like the 2003 Trevor Jones Vintage Virgin Chardonnay, while the Pink Mink is, hmmm, interesting! All in all we taste some 16 different wines. Spitting is certainly the order of the day for those of us who are not embarrassed to do so. The next visit is with winemaker Wayne Dutschke. My brother John is a great admirer of Dutschke Wines and has asked Wayne to show us his current line. It would be little exaggeration to say that this visit is a highlight of our Barossa wine experience. It is very obvious that Wayne Dutschke not only loves to talk about his wines and wine in general, but that he also makes outstanding wines. Its clear Wayne is serious about us tasting his wines when he pulls out a set of the largest glasses I’ve ever seem. It immediately occurs to me that if I put my nose in there its very likely to get lost and never find its way out! His two shiraz wines, the 2002 St. Jakobi and the 2002 Oscar Semmler, are intense and seamless, and among the best we will taste in the next five days. We also get to taste a range of barrel samples of both dry and fortified wines. It’s a great shame that these wonderful fortified wines are made in such limited quantities. I notice that Miranda is not spitting anything out at all but by the end of the tasting she is doing an awful lot of smiling and swaying. An interesting sidelight to the Dutschke experience is the invitation to sample a coffee made from beans that have been soaked in port. Its still in the experimental stages but there is a taste of port there. After such great hospitality we are pleased that Wayne accepts John’s invitation to join us for lunch at 1918, a well known bistro and grill in Tanunda, where we finish off those opened bottles of Dutschke wine. The food is impressive enough for us to reserve a table for dinner on Tuesday night. Rockford is the next stop where John is a member of the Stonewallers which allows us to get a more private tasting in the Stonewall Cellar. The buildings at Rockford really are stonewalls and very quaint. The smell of burnt ash from the fireplace in the Stonewall Cellar would also be quite quaint under any other circumstances but we are here to taste wines. I come away somewhat less impressed with Rockford and their wines than I thought I would be. Glaetzer is also not as impressive as expected. This might be due to the first wine that we are shown, a Sparkling Pinot Noir, being corked. Last winery on the list for today is Turkey Flat Vineyards. This winery is just outside Tanunda and has some of the oldest shiraz vines in the Barossa. Its no wonder then that their Shiraz is sold out, so we try some very tasty Cabernet Sauvignon instead. Miranda doesn’t taste anything here or at Glaetzer; I think she is still savoring the taste of Dutschke Muscat. Dinner is at La Buona Vita. Pizza and yes, you guessed correctly, no one has the palate left for any more wine.