| Frank & Lisa's Amazing Cross-Australia Adventures |
| South Australia - Barossa |
| In actuality we ended up not taking a single photo in Adelaide itself... But we had an amazing set of adventures in areas around Adelaide! Welcome to our South Australian Adventure! |
| on to Kangaroo Island ...or |
| Grange in terms of quality, but without the high profile market demand. On the way to their cellar door we took a wrong turn and ended up on a dirt road (in a rental car - bad us). We came upon a lovely little Lutheran church across from a vineyard - a picture postcard little place. We took the time to stop there for a moment as we got back on track. When we finally got to Henschke (pics below), there were posters of the Hill of |
| The other wineries we visited that day included Bethany Wines (pic below left), and Yaldara Estate (pic below right). I loved how quaint the cellar doors could be made to look, and yet there were still clear signs that big business was going on just behind the door (pic right - note the rows of stainless steel vats in the backyard)... |
| We began our cellar door visits at Wolf Blass (a large commercial winery with a full range of reliably good quality wines) where we tried, among other things, their top end Black Label Shiraz. (pics left) From there we were off to Henschke - a very exclusive label with small production focused on top quality reds. Their exclusive Hill of Grace goes for $350 a bottle and rivals Penfold's |
| On our last morning, the only winery we visited was Penfold's. We participated in a pre-booked, paid tasting of some of their vintage wines. For $100 each, we and 3 other couples tried a variety of their higher quality wines, capping it off with a 1997 Grange. A fun way to have a try 6 of their wines that would cost more like $1000 to buy in bottles (and a couple of them were actually sold out)! (pic left) |
| Our last stop on the way out of town was to Maggie Beer Farm Shop. There a lovely Canadian girl named Cindy served us samples of lovely pates and quince, along with some wines (okay, so Penfold's was our last intentional wine stop - we didn't know Beer Brothers wine was the same place). Our purchases of her pates saw us through many wine and cheese style meals over the next week! Yum! From there we were off to Victor Harbor to spend the night on the Fleurieu Peninsula before catching our ferry to Kangaroo Island early the next morning! |
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| It all began in the Barossa Valley! It is Australia's premier wine region and arguably the shiraz capital of the world... My favourite wine and some very impressive and recognizable wineries made for a fantastic 2 days! Not to mention that the views there put the Hunter Valley to shame! (pic right) |
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| Grace vineyard on the wall... complete with cute little Lutheran church in the background! It was such a neat surprise to find that we had stumbled upon the infamous vines that we had to buy one of the posters (pic below right)! They also threw another one in for free (pic below left) - it's basically a close-up from within the picture you see in the above right with the white door open! |
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| Northern Territory: Red Centre , 2 / Top End , 2 NSW & ACT: Hunter Valley / Sydney / Canberra , 2 Queensland Coast: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 South Australia: Barossa Valley / Kangaroo Island / McLaren Vale & Coonawarra Victoria: Great Ocean Road , 2 , 3 / Melbourne New Zealand (North Island): Aukland / Rotorua / Tongariro / Wellington (South Island): Nelson / Westland / Queenstown / Milford / Dunedin / Mt Cook / Christchurch |