After waking up in our flash hotel we were feeling a little hoity toity. Only one thing for it – fine wine, so off to the Barossa we go! Knowing that it’s always best to check out a new area with a local we entrusted our mate Todd to act as tour guide for the day. Not being fans of the early rise we didn’t arrive in the Barossa til 3, which thanks to time zones was actually 2:30 SA time but still only left us enough time for 3 or 4 vineyards. We chose the convenient location of Wolf Blass for our meeting point with Todd and in keeping with our hoity toity mood decided to make some tasting notes, our best pick being the 2006 Gold Label Chardonnay for being so full of flavour it was like biting into a chunk of oak. The vineyard was massive and home to the biggest shed in the southern hemisphere and enough tanks to hold millions of litres of vino (they told us how many millions but unfortunately we were too caught up in the chardy to remember, somewhere between 80 and 380 million I think…) but despite it’s size the staff were wonderfully friendly and it was a great start to our Barossa explorations. Next stop was Penfolds, getting the big names out of the way! Here our favourite red was the 2006 Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir and there was a difference in opinion over the whites, my pick being the 2006 Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay and Julz favoured the 2007 Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling. Todd went for the Riesling as well.
To satisfy our desire for a small family style winery we headed to Bethany Estate where we fell in love with the 2006 Cuvee Pinot Noir Brut, a divine sparkling white made in the traditional Champagne style. We also loved the 2005 Old Quarry Fronti White Port. By this time we were racing the clock, we found one winery in the Barossa guide that was open til 6pm so we high-tailed out there to squeeze as much as we could out of the day. We made it to the gorgeous Torbreck Winery before they closed and met Chilla, who plied us full of yummy wine and kept us giggling before promising to meet us at the pub. The pub just happened to be the very same from the Julz’ Beer song, written back in 2000 so we recounted the 27 … er … no, it seems the documented count may have been incorrect – 26 stairs till we would be in luck…
We ate drank and became increasingly merry with our new mates Chilla and Fish (musician with lots of mutual friends) and then crashed out in the van after a hard day of touristing.
The next morning we woke with the realisation that the fabulous spot Todd had found to park the van before hitting the vineyards was actually the main thoroughfare in and out of town, so the dozens of trucks passing meant a sleep in was out of the question! We threw down a quick coffee in a nearby park and then followed our trusty tour guide to squeeze in a few more attractions before heading west. We were assured the Whispering Wall and the worlds largest Rocking Horse were must do’s and so we were quite devastated when the Whispering Wall was closed due to a total fire ban. Luckily the worlds largest Rocking Horse was open for business so we took it in in all it’s glory and then Julz and I climbed to the top to pose for some photos and check out the view.
With a couple of thousand kilometres to knock over in the next 3 days we said goodbye to Todd and hit the road. Our goal was make it to Ceduna so we could start the Nullarbor fresh the next day and after about 8 hours we pulled off the Eyre Hwy into Streaky Bay where we camped for the night.
