Wine Pumping at Rockfords

South Australia Wine Tour

10 - 17 March 2008

This fabulous second part to our 2008 Australia itinerary takes in the star regions around Adelaide and visits many of the friends that we have been going to see for the past 14 years. Again, it is likely to be in harvest time, so there will be plenty of opportunity to watch the activity in the vineyards and see the excitement of the night time “crush”.

This will give us not only a comprehensive overview of what is going on wine-wise in this region, but a chance to visit in a relaxed way some of the lovely parts of this beautiful and vast country. You will also have time to discover some of the quiet country towns of Australia, such as rural Barossa and Clare, and the seaside vineyards of McLaren. We’ll spot many of the native wild animals, colourful and noisy birds, and enjoy the distinctive perfume of the eucalyptus trees as we travel.

We meet up in Adelaide, and from here drive the short distance to the Clare. Our visits in the Clare will show amongst the best Rieslings that Australia can produce. Recently there has been so much talk of the Clare’s great Rieslings that one can forget that this is not the Clare’s only class act. The Shiraz and Cabernet both have a rare balance of of power and elegance. We visit 3 of the top firms here and will taste many superb wines.

In the Barossa, we’ll meet some great characters and world class wine makers and taste some of the world’s best Shiraz. The wineries on our list include Charles Melton, Heritage, Rockford, Peter Lehmann’s, Penfolds and St Halletts.

Not only are they great winemakers, but they are great characters and most of all they have long understood the power of joint marketing. When we visit other parts of the wine-world (especially those closer to home) we have to be careful about who we mention we are going to visit. Here, you are just as likely to bump into several of the winemakers over a lunch, arguing about their wines and sharing their successes. It is this refreshing united-front attitude that has put them and kept them on the world wine map, plus the fact that they make great wines of course!

Dropping down to Adelaide, we have visits in the Adelaide Hills including lunch at the justly famous Petaluma’s Bridgewater Mill and one of Australia’s top restaurants, Magills where Penfold’s great Magill wine is made. We’ll also spend a day in the McClaren Vale, tasting at Coriole, Wirra Wirra and Primo.

More about Australian Wine Tours

We have been regular visitors down under for about the last 12 years. During that time we have seen this “New World” phenomenon explode under the wine world. We were actually at Orlando when they first announced that “Jacobs Creek” had overtaken Piat D’Or to become the largest wine brand in the UK. – That was mighty news at the time, but more was to follow. Australia was soon to become the largest supplier to the UK, by value, not by quantity, as a flood of early drinking, premium quality well priced wine sent traditional suppliers reeling.

Our early tours concentrated on the well known areas of South Australia, plus a quick turn through Victoria, then the Hunter in New South Wales. We took in all the large producers and some of the dynamic small players. Even in these early days we were exploring “regionality”, which is the latest buzz in Australian wine. Since then, as awareness of Australia’s regions has grown, so we have moved on to cover Western Australia, and important but remote regions in South Australia and Victoria.

We understand what makes a successful long-haul wine tour. There are quite a few things which make our life easy: The scenery on all these tours is stunning, the wines of course are fabulous and even big reds are good when drunk young. Wine-touring in the New World can be really exhilarating.

Strange though it may seem, the “Wine Culture” of many New World wine regions is stronger and more dynamic than most “Old World” regions.

Extensions

There are also many possibilities. Fly on to Sydney, Western Australia, The Great Barrier reef – the possibilities are endless and we are happy to help with this.