The Auswine Forum

I am driving to the Barossa to watch the TDU with a few mates. I am driving, they are flying so am going a day earlier and staying a few days afterwards to do some wineries.

I'll be arriving in Tanunda about 2pm-ish on the Monday (16th) so will do Rockford and Charles Melton and then grab some dinner somewhere. The next morning I'll have half a day to do about 2-3 wineries in the area (not interested in going further north to Clare or anything) as I need to be in the Adelaide CBD by 2pm.

Any interesting CD's to check out? I've been there done that on most wineries, so am more interested in your Sami Odi/Ochota Barrel type stuff - well made bit left of field. Hell if someone can point me to a place that has Sami Odi for tasting (if he piggy-backs on another winery I'd be happy).

Then I'll be driving down to Coonawarra, then on to the Royal Mail at Dunkeld (stay the night), then up to Great Western then to Heathcote (stay the night) then maybe Beechworth and back to Sydney. So pretty quick visits in each region to look at about 3 wineries at each Coonawarra, Great Western, Heathcote, Beechworth as I meander my way back up.

Sounds like a great trip Dave!
Not in any order.

Barossa:

Gibson - Rob is a classic
Artisans of Barossa - many smaller producers
David Franz (will have his cellar door open by then)
The Standish Wine Company (May be by appointment only?)

Havent been, but FermentAsian is meant to be fantastic. Took out 2016 wine list of the year too.

Personally Charles Melton didnt do much for me. Was OK but overpriced for what they were.

Coonawarra:

Majella
Leconfield (quite enjoyed their whites)
Katnook
Redman - Havent been, but i am loving their older reds (mid 90's)
Penley - Again havent been, but their reserve shiraz was outstanding mid 2000's vintages.
Balnaves - Love the Tally
Bowen - their 40 year tasting was very memorable.

http://www.coonawarra.org/cellar-door-map/?id=32


Great Western:

Grampians Estate
Seppelt (for the tunnel/cellar tour)
Bests/Langi Ghiran

Try and do the new cellar tour at Royal Mail as well. I hear its wonderful.

If your driving from GW to Heathcote, you could also swing by/through Nagambie.

Tahbilk is a must visit!

Thanks Rossco, cheers for the tips on the Barossa, will Google them.

Was looking at FermentAsian but they are not open on Mondays, so will probably hit up 1918.

Yep have modified already, so am thinking of doing Great Western (Langi, Bests, Seppelt (did the tunnel tour last time I was there), then Redbank (Sallys Paddock, Dalwhinnie), then on to Heathcote (probably just do the Heathcote Wine Hub had a good experience last time and they had a good range of the local wines on for tasting) then on to Nagambie for Tahbilk (haven't been there for years). Then make a call on whether to hit Beechworth or Rutherglen on the way back.

Rossco wrote:Sounds like a great trip Dave!

Artisans of Barossa - many smaller producers

Personally Charles Melton didnt do much for me. Was OK but overpriced for what they were.

Coonawarra:

Majella
Leconfield (quite enjoyed their whites)
Katnook
Redman - Havent been, but i am loving their older reds (mid 90's)
Penley - Again havent been, but their reserve shiraz was outstanding mid 2000's vintages.
Balnaves - Love the Tally
Bowen - their 40 year tasting was very memorable.

Totally agree with Rossco on the above:
Artisans of Barossa is an excellent spot and large variety of wines available for tasting from a number of producers, very knowledgable staff too. Have not eaten there, but food looked the goods.
I would also swap out Charles Melton and trade in Turket Flat Vineyards.
Rusden Wines (not far from Artisans, about a 5min drive) is another excellent producer.
In terms of Coonawarra also agree with those selections but would add Wynns, it is nice cellar door/winery.

Thanks for that, I listed Charles Melton due to the proximity to the B&B and Rockford wines. (want to grab some Rockford SVS wines)

Yep good call on Rusden will also add Artisans. Had a bad experience at Turkey Flat CD once before and that has turned me off a bit from them.

Re Coonawarra, I have been twice before so am probably going to give Wynns a miss (at their current pricing vs secondary market). I'll probably hit

Majella
Balnaves
Bowen
Redman

Couple of cheap and cheerful in Bowen and Redman and more long lived options at Balnaves and Majella.

Dave, if you send fraser an email im sure he would be more than happy for you to go to his home in angaston for a tasting.. if you go to 1918 ask for the chef and il come out and say hello
Wed ferment will be open if your still around. Id give artisans a miss for lunch/pretty ave.. good range wines tho, greg hobbs / sons of eden / spinafex.
Taste of eden in angaston worth visting
And turkey flats range is great this year im sure you wont leave dissapointed.
Highly recommended paying $30 at seppeltsfield to try there 100 year old port. Youl still taste it 10 minutes later as your driving away.
Torbreck C.d are very generous..

Hunter wrote:Dave, if you send fraser an email im sure he would be more than happy for you to go to his home in angaston for a tasting.. if you go to 1918 ask for the chef and il come out and say hello

Classic I heard he is a really nice bloke...so will be sure to do so.

Re: Fraser, that sounds like an idea although I am loathe to do so as I know it is private time to spend with family and the last thing I want to do is impinge on this. I will send him an Email in any case to see if any places have it available for tasting. (his website photo looks very much like a cellar door backdrop which has me confused http://sami-odi.com/)

Hunter wrote:And turkey flats range is great this year im sure you wont leave dissapointed.
Highly recommended paying $30 at seppeltsfield to try there 100 year old port. Youl still taste it 10 minutes later as your driving away.
Torbreck C.d are very generous..

OK I will check Turkey Flat out on your recommendation. I've done Seppeltsfield before, but is always fun to do.

So my Barossa is now tentatively... (Greenock Creek is on the way to Seppeltsfield and wanted to see if the rumours were true of them dialling back the wines)

Gibson Wines
Rockford
Artisans
Rusden
Gomersal
Glaezter
Turkey Flat
Greenock Creek
Seppeltsfield

Dave,

If you are going to Gomersal, ring ahead and try and go when Barry is there. He's a real character.

Greenock Creek seem to have dialled it back a bit. I have actually stopped buying the Shiraz's for the last couple of years.

I'll also be very interested to see what you think of the 2006 SVS from Rockford. I tried them in November though I didn't really have time to really sit on them and sus them out properly.

Otherwise your list looks pretty good. If you would like something out of the mainstream, I would give Brett Grocke a ring and try and get a tasting at Eperosa. Abel Gibson at Ruggabellus is doing some interesting things as well. If Alex Head is in the Barossa, well worth a look too. Those 3 are all appointment only.

Enjoy your trip.

Cheers
Ian

Went to Turkey Flat recently and was very impressed with the range and service.

Fraser at Sami Odi is a lovely guy. Had a tasting with him in October, before the power went out state-wide, in the cellar. Very limited range to try but hung with him for an hour before we swapped wines. What did I give him? Collector Reserve Shiraz 2013 of course.

Another big +1 for Bowen Estate.

Have fun! Cheers, Travis.

Greenock creeks just not the same in there new C.d..
Roennfeldt rd only open weekends. You my aswels call into tscharke's, its on the way..
Travis earth also doing some unusual blends via seppeltsfield.
Too many options !

Hunter wrote:Greenock creeks just not the same in there new C.d..
Roennfeldt rd only open weekends. You my aswels call into tscharke's, its on the way..
Travis earth also doing some unusual blends via seppeltsfield.
Too many options !

Yes, there are heaps of options.

I would second spending some time with Fraser McKinley. Did so a couple of years back and he was very good. One other less well know person is Brett Grocke at Eperosa in Tanunda, definitely a garagiste and well worth checking out. David Franz (Lehmann) is doing some great stuff, Tim Smith is another. You would have a to arrange an appointment with any of these.

Definitely recommend Fermentasian for food.

Some obvious favourites in Coonawarra. Bowen probably won't have much stock. Majella (Malleea), Balnaves (Tally), Katnook, Laira (171), Leconfield, Redmans all worth a visit. Don't neglect Wynns either, even though they are a behemoth.

Hi Dave,

Seems like your wineries are sorted but fwiw, I've had some to experiences with private meets with the guys at Teusner and Langmeil. If you email or call ahead they can be very accommodating and haven't had to pay a cent for the experiences either. Although a little bothersome to tee up instead of just rocking up, it certainly beats over crowded CD's and nothing beats walking through the vineyards with a glass of what you are walking on. particularly the Langmeil Freedom...

As for food, I've been to Fermentasian about 4 times and each have been a good but not great experience, I've preferred to choose my own wine instead of going with the wine pairings...Went to 1918 for an anniversary dinner and that was nice. However my all time best dining experience in the Barossa was at Hentley Farm. Been twice, and both have been great try them for either lunch or dinner. for me and Lauren, it's a do not miss restaurant. The wine pairings was good too, as are the wines there in general.

Artisans gets my nod too... that said, the wines on tasting change in a daily basis I'm told

A few random notes from some of the cellar doors I visited (did a bunch more but was going to be too long writing it all up).

Rockford Stonewallers room
1v1 for about 30mins which was a great experience. Pretty quiet at the time. Got some good information, went through all the wines (2005 SVS is apparently the last vintage of it). Some interesting facts about the vineyards and what not. Very nice experience.

Artisans of the Barossa
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch up with Greg Hobbs due to a mix up in communications. So one of the girls at the CD looked after me, her name was Lucy and she is a lovely, lovely person the epitome of what working at a Cellar Door is all about, very knowledgeable, engaging, great conversationalist. I was blown away by her knowledge of the wines she was presenting and wines in general around the Barossa and the people behind it – no umming or ahhing she just talked naturally answering your questions like you’d expect from a seasoned winemaker from the region. I must admit I was quite smitten by her by the end of it. Great asset to the cellar door.

Some really good wines, although with so many on offer it was hard to keep track of them all. Liked the Sons of Eden stuff. The Hobbs wines were very good, a big rich style one (Amarone) with about 16% alc but a lovely balance to it (think Duck Muck). These are real deal old vine, miniscule bottlings type wines - heaps of power and structure. I liked his Viognier as well and also tried the SV. (would be interesting to put it up against the Clonakilla SV). Would be nice to see them in about 10-15 years from now.

Mt Langi
If I travel, 20kms in the opposite direction from the other wineries, go down a 6km crappy road, then over dirt and gravel on a Monday by myself, I really, really want to try more than Billi-Billi shiraz and Cliff Edge Shiraz. I am happy to pay for the privilege, or get an Enomatic system if you don’t want to wear opening a bottle of the good stuff all the time. Just not good enough in my eyes. Plus the Langi at $120 a bottle, what are they thinking… did have a nice wine on their alternate label – a skin contact Riesling.

Bests
I was really looking forward to this, the last time I was here I spent about 45mins chatting and talking about the wines. This time I got a nervous young lady, seemed pleasant enough but she didn’t really know anything about the wines. I asked about the 2015 vintage conditions, not sure, had to look it up (seriously?). I asked about a bit of stalkiness in the cabernet trying to engage her, not sure, had to look up the tasting book, no mention of it there (not sure what she was trying to see as that wasn’t my point) each time I’d taste the wine, hoping she’d talk about it, but nothing. Seriously why do they put these people out without training/education, as their Rep, at their winery. Boggles my mind. I got through the tasting in record time as there was nothing to talk about, looking at the other wines I said was there any other wines open I could try, has a look and fishes out some more left over from yesterday. Bought a few wines but nothing like the 1 or 2 mixed cases I was going to buy.

Give your staff training, make them sit and listen to the seasoned people talking to people during the quiet times, make sure they know about the last 5 vintage conditions, how the wines are made (basics), where the fruit is from, any oak treatment, history of the winery etc. They only have to know around 10 different products it really isn’t that difficult with a couple of days training. They will come across more confident and probably sell more of your wines.

Anyway the wines…they are doing a Shiraz Viognier which I found interesting. The Riesling is a bit more fruit forward and quite a pleasant drink. The Bin 1 was a bit more restrained than normal, bit more acid, less fruit. No Bin 0 or Thompson available for tasting and no Pinot Menieur either.

Seppelt
Was lucky enough to get Danial looking after me, he is the one that stumped up the cash to keep the Seppelt CD complex running. He is a passionate believer in keeping it alive for the future, being a local boy and for that he deserves all your support. So although the CD is now more a front for the winemaking, he is keen to tap into the great name, facilities and support it provides for local businesses. He is really keen to learn about the history of the place and is a sponge to any information/experiences you may have about the wines and the place. He is also obviously a great resource on it as well. They’d just had their big marquee the previous day at the races just down the road with 100 or so people in it, he was really happy (and relieved) that it all went well and had received some good feedback. He is also hosting the local wine association dinner in the cellars with about 50+ people in attendance.

Enjoyed the Great Western Riesling with its old school labelling, St Peters (very nice will be a fantastic wine in 10-20 years). Loved the easy drinking Jaluka and Grampians Shiraz. The Drumborg Riesling is nice, but will need at least 10 years to come around.

Heathcote Wine Hub
This was quite surprising, as the Cellar Doors in Heathcote are few and far between, so I thought this would be a nice option since they did tastings. When I arrived I had a coffee as it is a café as well. To my surprise they had 3 x 8 Bank Enomatics set up for tasting. So you could sample up to 24 local wines (reds and whites). They also had all the big boys available to purchase (Jasper Hill, Wild Duck Creek etc) at very reasonable prices. The young lady looking after me was a fountain of knowledge of all the wines, and not afraid to call a spade a spade in a diplomatic way. She could rattle off all the characteristics of the wines after finding out my preferences and made some good recommendations like the Feathered Friends wines which was a collaboration between Wild Duck Creek and Whistling Eagle, an easy drinking, fruit forward, drink-now style at $20 a bottle. – bargain (be warned it is 15.5% so quite rich, 1 or 2 glasses for me and I’m done). They also had a 2010 Merlot from Downing, which I found to be a crowd pleaser amongst my not-so-into-wine friends.

Dave did you get time to check out Turkey flat ?
Had the 15' drumborg riza last night, lemon confit power house. But elegant. Will be a great once mature.

Unfortunately not, ironically the Barossa was the most pressed for time region of all of them. I spent too much time at Seppeltsfield, Artisans and Rockford.

Although it is steep the view from the Seppeltsfield Mausoleum is worth it (probably best to do it before you tasted 15 wines at Seppelt).













Grabbed a couple of clippings





Just back the car up they said, am I doing it right?? At Rockford

dave vino wrote:Mt Langi
If I travel, 20kms in the opposite direction from the other wineries, go down a 6km crappy road, then over dirt and gravel on a Monday by myself, I really, really want to try more than Billi-Billi shiraz and Cliff Edge Shiraz. I am happy to pay for the privilege, or get an Enomatic system if you don’t want to wear opening a bottle of the good stuff all the time. Just not good enough in my eyes. Plus the Langi at $120 a bottle, what are they thinking… did have a nice wine on their alternate label – a skin contact Riesling.

My apologies Dave, I should have emphasized my identical experience with Mt Langi 20 years ago and saved you the drive ! It was a long way to go for a modest riesling and back then Langi was $50 a bottle and I was still cleaning out bottle shops in Melbourne with the wines at $30. I was deluded into thinking, with all the effort to get there, I'd be in for a late 80's Rockford's type cellar door experience. Even the motor-inn at the Grampians had the Langi shiraz 30% less than cellar door and that was something, comparing the hue of Langi shiraz with a beautiful sunset over the Grampians.

Enjoying the report and snaps.

Evocative photos of Rockford: brought memories flooding back of one of my all time favourite vineyard visits, 15 years ago.
Fortunately not a fan of Mount Langi - so avoided your poor experience. Why do they bother?
On our most recent trip popped into Bests & had a lovely visit - the member of staff was knowledgeable & engaging. Seppelt was a let down -- though not the wines.

Thanks for the write up and the pics Dave. I see you had to have a little lie down by the time you got to the Laird Vineyard. Faithful reporting!

Cheers

Michael

Yeah I think it's being too smart for it's own good, Windows recognises it is landscape mode for a picture taken in portrait so it automatically rotates it for you. Yet nothing else does, and even clicking on rotate doesn't seem to fix it. I filed it under CBF'ed

dave vino wrote:Yeah I think it's being too smart for it's own good, Windows recognises it is landscape mode for a picture taken in portrait so it automatically rotates it for you. Yet nothing else does, and even clicking on rotate doesn't seem to fix it. I filed it under CBF'ed

Yeah rotation is a pain on many sites (and dropbox albums too). I use IrfanView (free) to open it, rotate it and save it again, seems to fix the Exif properties correctly. Many other photo programs rotate it and it seems OK, but when uploaded to some sites, the Exif info remains wrong.

P.S Great report Dave, got any more pics and info from the journey?

I did the Coopers Brewery Tour, does that count? Let me just say...if you are in Adelaide do yourself a favour and get out and see it.

You get headsets with a direct feed from the tour guide which is great in the noisy environments. The guide's name was Frank and a more passionate, knowledgeable person you wouldn't find. For a bunch of blokes who love beer the tour was a constant source of amazement - the technology behind the brewing process, the facts and figures, how it all works and comes to together was eye-opening.

You also got the sense of how this is a family owned business and a lot of decisions are made without worrying about the bottom-line, this is all about the product and the people who work there and the general community which is great to see in the dog eat dog corporate world.

The tasting afterwards was fantastic, we were thinking we'd get maybe 2-3 samples to try, but we got walked through all 11 types of beers they do, each one was explained to us, how it came about, why it came about. I think all up the tour was about 2-3 hours.

Very impressive overall and you walk out with a whole new found respect for the company.

And just for MickMc, I fixed up the pics that were not rotating properly, don't want him getting dizzy...

Dave,

Sorry to hear about your poor experiences at Best's and Mt Langhi. Although it was some time ago I had memorable experiences at these cellar doors that went on to have a postscript.

At Best's not only did we enjoy the tasting, including the intrigueing if not necessarily fine Nursery Block blend, but partway through the tasting lady had to attend to some other duty and asked none other than Viv Thompson to take over. When he heard that we were from Edmonton he immediately brightened up saying that Alberta was one of his better markets and that he was going to going there later that year. On the way out he turned to the shelf and pulled out a paper-wrapped bottle of 1997 Best's Pinot Muniere and gifted it to us. It is one of my 20 year-old 1997 bottles. Later that year, back in Canada, we met Viv Thompson at a local restaurant dinner tasting which featured his wines, back then the '98 Bin 0 and Cabernet Sauvignon, in addition to the Riesling and Fine Old Muscat 'St Andrews Vineyard'.

At Mt Langhi the lady at cellar door made us stars of the tasting room by announcing to one and all that "these Canadians" had a couple of bottles of the '98 Billi Billi in their collection (it was a blend back then). The highlight for me was their '98 'Joanna' Cabernet which I don't think is made anymore. Fast forward a number of years and here in Canada I came across a bottle of '98 Joanna sitting on a shelf so naturally enough I bought it.

Cheers ................... Mahmoud.