Author: Mrs A
Location: Tanunda, Barossa Valley
Distance cycled: 25km
We left the car behind today and jumped on the bikes for an explore. We had the ‘Barossa by Bike’ touring map I had picked up at the caravan park office and I had plotted a potential route to ride. We rode past the first few cellar doors, making a random selection for our first taste and heading into Hewitson. 
I was particularly attracted by the 97 points they had just been awarded by James Halliday (wine critic) for their Mother Vine Monopole. We were the only people tasting at this newly opened cellar door with fabulous views stretching over the vineyard.
They had some nice wine, with their Old Garden Mourvèdre a stand out, and of course the Monopole. We won’t be heading back for those bottles though, as at $88 and $150 a bottle respectively they are slightly out of our caravanning budget range! We asked the wine specialist for her recommendations locally and she circled a few on my map. Onwards we rode.
Whistler Wines was next on the schedule. We wound our way down the driveway and found a couple of fence posts to lean our bikes. Despite being on a ‘wine tasting rail trail’ it seems that bike parking is not a priority for any of the vineyards. In fact everyone seems shocked that we rode at all!
Whistler wines was not to our taste at all. They seem to specialise in ‘Next Gen’ wines, more fruity and approachable (dare I say alcoholic grape juice?) than the ‘traditional’ wines, all at a $25 price bracket, and often containing a ‘mystery blend’ of grapes and aimed at 20-somethings who want a drink-now wine that will not offend. There was one GSM they had open which was more to our taste, but at $45, again, beyond what we are willing to pay for something we want to drink immediately.
From Whistler we diverted to visit Torbreck, one of our favourites. We were keen to taste some wines not previously tasted. Again there was no bike parking, so we found a couple of trees to lean our stallions on and entered the cellar door.
What a disappointing experience. Initially, we were ignored, before the gentleman behind the counter came over and asked us what we’d like to taste. We selected something we’d not previously tasted, he poured us a sample and walked away. The tasting notes were minimalistic – simply the grape and whether it had been in a barrel or not. We tasted and tried to regain eye contact hoping he might return and instil some of the magic – the stories behind the wine, where the grape was originally grown, how it came to this vineyard, the flavours and aromas you might encounter, the colour, any prizes or reviews the wine had, where it is sold – all help bring a tasting to life. There was none of that here. A second cellar door person emerged and we called her over to see whether she would tell us more. She asked with irritation ‘What are your questions?’. If I hadn’t wanted to try more, we would have left there and then. Mr A almost did.
Torbreck broke our hearts. We’ll not be hunting out their wines again in a hurry.
Our enthusiasm for wine tasting waned after that third experience, and so we decided to continue our circuit and head back into Tanundra for some lunch, riding through some spectacular scenery and seeing no other cyclists. We settled at a lovely little café for some great food.
By the time we finished lunch it was almost 3pm so we rode back to the caravan park for a relax. By now it was about 30 degrees C and we were in need of refreshment. We decided to try out the park’s water park – what a laugh! We were immediately 8 years old as we screamed and slid down the water slides and tunnels – and definitely were nicely refreshed at the end of it.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent simply relaxing, reading our books and sipping on a Bohemian Pilsner – a gift from Ali from Lobethal Bierhaus. Thank you Ali – they’re just the ticket and a reminder of wine (and beer) tasting with better service!
We had just arrived back at the caravan when the party goers arrived back from their celebrations, the boys extremely happy with their ‘football on a string’ gifts from Santa. What a relief they both got the same gift! It wasn’t much later that the invitation went out to join Ali and Andy for espresso martinis…and so Sunday night began.
Ali works as marketing manager at ‘Something Wild’, and their Australian Green Ant Gin is just the first of their products we were to be tasting this evening. I am suspecting most people have never tasted a green ant before. I have, while I was in the Northern Territory backpacking – we were invited to try a taste of this bright green delicacy as they trailed they way along tree branches. The idea is to bite them before they bite you back – they have a taste of lime with a hint of coriander and were a favourite of the local Aboriginal populations. It works well in gin!
We saw dolphins fishing in the shallows and a lot of coastal birdlife flitting around the dunes. There was not a breath of wind – the water on St Vincent Gulf was like a lake.
As much as we enjoyed cycling the hills of the Coromandel Valley, it was exhilarating to whizz along on the flat pathways, giving a chance to look around and chat as we travelled. We reached the boat ramp to the dolphin sanctuary and watched a couple of kayakers launching for an explore before returning to camp.
We’re getting fairly packed up this evening in preparation for moving on tomorrow morning to our next region, friends and more wine in the Adelaide Hills! Tonight will be vegetarian and alcohol free…
He begins to make a slow descent….
All that work deserves a break, so it’s time for another rest and stretch out those hand muscles…
Finally down to the bottom of that branch, another rest before making the rest of the journey to see the other male off…
About 20 minutes after this photo was taken we once again heard the donkey-pig sounds in the valley – he’d made the final climb down and made it to a new tree to do some grunting from!
A surprise visitor arrived at the end of the evening, their son Mike over from the Margaret River for a wine judging course. It was the first time we had met Mike in person (see him in Cathy’s photos on Facebook occasionally) – though we talked about him and his wife Virginia a lot in the Margaret River!
Mr A and I volunteered to pop down to the shops to buy a few supplies for tonight’s and tomorrow’s dinner, and Kim pointed us in the direction of her favourite supermarket. OMG. What initially was meant to be purchasing some fish, chicken thighs and a lime turned in to an almost $300 shop!!
There is a breadbar instead of a bakery, with all sorts of goodies on sale – Mr A was like a kid in a sweet shop!He emerged with a caramel donut – to share with Kim over a cup of tea when we got back!
The Cheese was from all around Australia and the world – Mr A collected some washed rind sheep cheese from France and a bitey Stilton from England…after our journey through small town Australia, this was paradise.
Kim and Mike’s garden is also a haven for birdlife, with parladotes nesting on their patio, honeyeaters in the bottlebrush flowers, and pink and grey galahs looking down on us. Just a little paradise.
Our day concluded with a fabulously decadent evening of oysters, followed by a delicious Thai green chicken curry and dessert – Mr A delighted to find Kim had baked a fresh lemon meringue pie, and me perfectly happy with the final scoop of my dairy-free ice cream from Bunbury in Western Australia, along with a selection of fresh berries from the garden. Oh and I almost forgot the wines – an excellent selection from our tastings in the Margaret River region…Fabulous!
Our first stop, Sevenhill Cellars, was in fact the first vineyard in the area in 1851, set up by the Catholic Church to provide wine for holy communion. Other vines followed but it wasn’t until the 1950s that Riesling was finally planted here – the grape the area has built its reputation on.
We continued on, the trail gradually going uphill most of the way (but nowhere as steep as yesterday!), before reaching a peak and heading downhill towards Watervale. There we turned off the path and headed to Crabtree Wines for a tasting. What a fabulous selection of wine and a great tasting experience in amazing scenery.
We had lunch in Watervale before turning back to camp, enjoying the downhills when they came.
I lost track of how long I was under water this time, but was ready for a hot shower by the time I climbed back out on to the boat. What a fantastic view of some incredible creatures. Apparently they have very poor eyesight and their only way of testing their food is with their teeth. They don’t actually eat humans once they have attacked. We are much too bony. They far prefer the fat and blubber of a seal.
