A scenic drive

Went to the Barossa with a mate from the old work and an overseas consultant doing work for that company. We thought we'd take her to see the Barossa on the first day of the Barossa Vintage Festival which occurs every odd year. The drive wasn't too long or chaotic, although somehow we, well maybe just me, missed the turn onto the Barossa Highway or whatever it's called. We had to take this side road called Gomersal Road but we still ended up in Tanunda. Tanunda along with Nuriootpa, Angaston and Lyndoch are the main towns in the Barossa.

After dropping by the tourist centre in Tanunda we headed for Richmond Grove's winery. This was one of the closest wineries from the tourist centre. I had heard that Richmond Grove was based in a pretty building called Chateau Leonay. The truth was rather disappointing, it was a dark stone building with a corrugated iron roof. Still I guess the spire did give it some sort of quaint charm and there was that wonderful smell, well to a wine geek like myself, of fermenting must (grape juice) which just yelled out vintage time.

Richmond Grove has a range of wines with fruit from what are the apparently the best regions for the particular varieties hence Barossa shiraz, Watervale riesling and Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon. I had decided that day to be on the look out for good examples of Barossa shiraz but Richmond Grove's shiraz whilst competently made just didn't grab me like a great wine should.

The same went for the riesling and cabernet, perhaps it was because it was fairly early in the day but I had expected Richmond Grove wines to have some sort of pulling power. I also found out Richmond Grove make a port, or should that be a tawny or vintage fortified. Again no faults and well made but lacking some charm or magnetism.

Next door to Richmond Grove was Peter Lehmann and that was where we headed for. The grounds of the cellar door seemed to be on lusher, more expansive grounds than Richmond Grove. The building had a nice modern Australian touch to it with interesting local art, overall the cellar door was quite impressive inside and out.

First up we tried the Peter Lehmann Fino which was a dry sherry style fortified wine made using the solera system. It was pleasantly bone dry and, as some wine author has written concerning fino, was crying out for green olives. Quite a nice wine with that lovely nutty "rancio" character thanks to the special flor yeast.

Against my better judgement I decided to try the Barossa pinot noir, considering how delicate a variety pinot is. The wine was supposed to have berry characters with a hint of dusted chocolate but it was more like berry jam, nothing memorable. Continuing my search for good Barossa shiraz I tried the Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz. Whilst well made it still lacked that gobsmacking intensity of blackberries I love about shiraz although maybe that's telling me I should be going for McLaren Vale and Coonwarra shiraz more.

We also tried the vintage tawny and liquer muscat, both well made but not quite flooring my tastebuds. Finally we finished off by trying the late harvest frontignac and noble semillon. The late harvest frontignac was just like what the promotional material promised, like biting into a grape. Being a sucker for botrytis white wines I just loved the honeyed lusciousness of the Peter Lehmann Noble Semillon.

We had lunch at 1918 which was a pretentious and rather mediocre eatery. I tried some Moroccan inspired beef strips. Whilst quite aromatic it was rather bland and definitely not worth the 20 odd dollars. We had some Bethany late harvest riesling to go with it which was nice but after discovering the delights of botrytis whites and delightfully crisp whites it was too half-arsed a wine for my liking.

After a long coffee and cake at the charming Zinfandel cafe our final stop was Chateau Yaldara. Whilst not exactly the show pony of wines it is located on nice grounds with a grand building actually worthy of the name chateau, well in Australia anyway. I found out that Yaldara is now under the McGuigan Simeon umbrella. The shirazes on offer there were nice, the Tempus Two and McGuigan in particular.

The standout however were the vintage ports on offer dating back to the 1970s going for $50 and less. I tried and bought the 1976 vintage although what I tried was at the bottom of the barrel. Still even the bottom of the barrel tasted amazing with such luscious complexity. I was never a fan of port, finding the alcohol dominating too much but those were the cheap and nasty ones. This bottle was like an epiphany revealing how complex and luscious vintage fortified wine can be.

We wrapped up our tour by going to the Barossa reservoir which has this whispering wall where you can stand at one and hear the person at the other end as if they were talking right next to you. Overall it was quite a nice trip even though we only visited three wineries, it would be great to spend a weekend or more over there. Definitely a place I'll want to return to on a regular basis.

Gouger Fish Cafe

It was a fairly warm Friday night and the seaside was calling me. However after another week of hard yakka and work being a fair way away from the seaside I had to settle for a seafood restaurant. The Gouger Fish Cafe was chosen because of its cool blue themed lighting and decor.

As the restaurant was obviously on Gouger Street I was able to pick up a bottle of wine from Vintage Cellars in Central Market. This place has a good range of more up market wines, not quite as special as the ones in say East End Cellars but still more varied and refined than your average liquor store. Having been persuaded to try something the wine chosen was the 2003 Arneis from the Garry Crittenden 'i' range of wines.

Arneis is a supposedly rare Italian white grape but after drinking it I can see it's rare for a good reason. However I must concede that Italian white wines are generally fairly insipid minerally wines because that's the way they they like it over there. Anyway the wine itself was textbook mineral and some faint hint of pear and stone fruit. Slightly harsh and very insipid but it was served rather warm, more chilling may have given more of an impression of crisp, inoffensive white wine.

Gouger Fish Cafe is a sensible restaurant with a vaguely nautical theme about it, a sensible place for grown ups to eat fish'n'chips. The menu is middle-of-the-road Australian seafood with a few tame quasi-asian and mediterranean dishes in addition to the usual fish'n'chips albeit done with a bit more finesse than your local fish shop. I had chilli balmain bugs for entrees, this turned out to be cooked balmain bugs in a chilli sauce that had more than a hint of sweetness.

The balmain bugs had been simply cooked I presume by quickly boiling them although I felt they could have been a tad more tender. The sauce did complement the texture of the seafood but it did overpower the gentle savoury sweetness of the balmain bugs. Overall a decent dish but with the potential to be a lot better if the sauce were less sweet and concentrated and the balmain bugs more tender.

For entrees there was no other choice in a vanilla fish cafe like this but to have the King George whiting fillets battered and served with chips. King George whiting is such a delightful eating fish that as long as it's reasonably battered and fried it will taste divine. The flesh is delightfully light and tender matching perfectly with the slight crunch of the batter. The tartare sauce and salad that went with it were standard fare, nothing spectacular, indeed the salad was the stuff anyone rustles up at home.

Overall, like the wine and menu, dining at the Gouger Fish Cafe was a mildly pleasant experience with nothing wrong but nothing spectacular. My choice of wine was a disappointment in this case, but at least it was a lesson learnt about Italian white wines. The service was rather ordinary like their paper napkins, my main gripe being the wine wasn't properly chilled. Perhaps a more zingy wine like a Clare riesling and a better balanced entrée would have made it a better experience.