Saturday, August 12th, Arrive in Adelaide

After 34 hours of traveling we landed in Adelaide. We were met at the gate by Dan Philips, Rachel (GP’s Aussie-side employee), David Higginbotham (Paringa, Clarendon, R Winery) and Lisa Wetherell (Marquis-Philis, R Winery). Beautiful day with clear skies and temps in the upper 60’s. We quickly load our luggage onto the bus and are off on the 10 min drive to the Majestic Roof Garden Hotel. We checked in at 11:30 AM, ran upstairs to drop our bags and shower and then most of us met back in the lobby where we proceeded to the Exeter Hotel (a hotel is a bar in Aus). Called the “X” locally, the Exeter is the most popular hangout for the under 40 crowd in Adelaide. We had a couple of Cooper’s on draught and then made our way back to the hotel (2 blocks) for a 1 PM bus ride to the Ashton Hills Winery. A couple of us went to a wine shop called East End Cellars before we hit the X, too.
Ashton Hills is in the Adelaide Hills which is a 15 min ride from the hotel up a narrow winding road. We were met at the winery by owner Stephen George. Stephen makes the wines for his own labels, Ashton Hills & Galah, and is the winemaker at Wendouree, an Aussie cult wine that is not imported to the US- Dan desceibed it as the Screaming Eagle of Australia. The vineyard climate was described as very European and similar to the warmer parts of Burgundy or the cooler parts of Bordeaux.
Tasted were…
2004 Ashton Hills Sparkling Salomon Brut, a 100% Pinot Noir rose sparkler.
2005 Ashton Hills Riesling
2005 Ashton Hills Chardonnay
2004 Ashton Hills Reserve Pinot Noir
2001 Ashton Hills Five (Bordeaux blend with 40% merlot)
1998 Galah Sparkling Red (cab, shiraz and malbec blend from the Wendouree vineyard, planted in 1911)

I found the coolest spit/dump bucket I’ve seen- I want one. It is French and I wrote down the info printed on the bottom of the bucket…
Oeno Sablier, (1) 49111969, Oeno Com- France, http://oenosablier.com/

We finished up at Ashton Hills and made a visit to Cleland Wildlife Park just down the road. We all had a glass of 2004 Paringa Sparkling Shiraz before our guide Maryn took us for a tour of the park. We saw bandicoots, koala bears, kangaroos, magpies, cookaboras (sp), etc. We got to pet the koalas and the roos and the coolest part was feeding a kangaroos with a joey in her pouch- it popped its head out a couple of times too.

Back to town for a 6 PM tasting at the hotel. I feel surprisingly good at this point and not tired- I popped a Berocca (orange flavored- best yet) just in case though. On the roof of the Roof Garden Hotel we were greeted by ice cold Cooper’s Pale and a beautiful sunset view of the city and the Adelaide Hills. Noel Kelly (Clos Clare) and Corey Chaplin (Lunar) were on hand to taste their new wines and share some pizza with us.
Tasted were…
2005 Clos Clare Riesling
2006 Clos Clare Riesling

2004 Lunar Cabernet Sauvignon
2004 Lunar Shiraz

Corey , 29, and his girlfriend,27, were great people and we hit it off with them immediately. Corey worked at Rockford for Chris Ringland and Robert O’Callahan for several years before starting his own project- 2004 is his first vintage, 500 case total production. The Lunar grapes come from the Marananga, Ebenezer and Dorian vineyards in the Greenock area of the Barossa. Super wines, especially the cab which has no signs of the dreaded green bell pepper prevalent in many Aussie cabs of late. I had a long conversation at the bar with Corey about this green issue and we are on the same page- he assures me that no Lunar cab will ever be green.

At 7:30 we lost most of the group to the bed and a couple to the casino. The rest of us, including Corey and his girlfriend, went to a tapas and wine bar called The Apothecary. Very cool place. They brought in the shelving, drawers, wall panels, etc. from an old apothecary in London. We snacked on some tapas and ordered the following…
2004 Kalleske Old Vines Grenache
2004 Glatezer Godolphin Shiraz
2004 Ashton Hills Salomon Brut
and one more red I can’t remember

Back to the Exeter Hotel for more Cooper’s at 9:30ish. The scene was happening now and the place was packed. Peter Lynn (Majella) showed up and hung out until we hit the wall at 11 PM. Back to the hotel for some sleep.

Slept until 5:30 and woke up well rested. Got up, had a Berocca and a shower and then went downstairs for some breakfast. 8 AM bus ride to the airport for a flight to Kangaroo Island.