Day 54 - 29/1/14 – Port Noarlunga -> Clarendon SA

If we were at home the De would be making lunches, I would be heading back to work and the boys would be heading to school today, but we aren’t at home...we are on holidays! Instead we packed up and headed for the McLaren Vale and some wine tasting, with the reasoning that today’s lesson is viticulture 101.
We have tried out a lot of Visitor Information Centres since we left with the majority of them being, errr how can I say this without seeming a touch ungrateful, completely useless! However the quality had really increased since we have been in SA and McLaren Vale really had their stuff sorted! Maps and lists that had opening times and what wine varieties could be sampled BUT they also had a listing of child friendly wineries!!! Is there an award out there for the best visitor centre as I want to nominate these guys!! After a half hour planning session we hit the road.

First stop was Pirramimma. After all of our effort to include our children interests in our wine tour I was pretty worried as we walked in the first cellar door. A massive shed, surrounded by a gravel road and inside was very bare with not a thing to interest kids in site.....hmmm...had I put that nomination in I would have found a way to retract it....until after our 2nd tasting the lovely lady offered the boys some cordial tasting. It was the old style stuff she used to have when her Grandparents (as she was old enough to be the boys grandparents) took her to the pub on the way back from the races! They were stoked!

Second stop was Fox Creek Wines which was in a cute little cottage and around it they had set up a treasure hunt. 15 minutes later the boys came back with the required code to get their treasure while we had sipped our way through half a dozen samples!

Next stop was Wirra Wirra and it is a must visit if you ever make it down here. It is a massive cellar door that has been set up with more than just wine tasting in mind! The owner is obviously a touch eccentric having built a set cricket stump and bat two stories tall and a massive catapult that launches watermelons 100m. They had a ‘minature’ catapult inside that worked as the kids entertainment and I was amazed that De didn’t walk out with half a barrel as the young fella behind the bar was doing a great job in smoozing her while I tried to ensure the boys didn’t put anything other than a cork in the catapult!

After lunch we moved onto Gem Tree which was interesting if for nothing more than the story of how they fertilise their vines. Each year they stuff cow manure into the shell of the horn that has been removed from a lactating cow. They then burry it underground for six months in a hessian lined hole and then it is emulsified and spread after 3pm on a certain lunar cycle as that is when the earth is breathing in. All the time I was waiting for the punch line....but there was none....they were deadly serious! The funniest part was that apparently the lactating cow isn’t hurt when their horn is removed!!!! I am guessing that the lass telling the story hasn’t de-horned to many calves let-a-lone yearlings in her life!

We moved onto Hugo’s winery where Pam was such an awesome host. She took the boys under her wing and they really did viticulture 101! Why nets are used, how many grapes to a bottle, different berry and bunch sizes as well as leaf shapes and vine methodologies...I learnt more about plants in the 30 minutes we spent there than I did in a whole semester of Horticulture at Gatton waaay back when I was there!


After a  very tough day on the road we rolled onto Clarendon, which is about 30 minutes out of Adelaide, and set up for the night by the Onkaparinga River.


1 comment: