Sunday, August 20th- R Winery, Rudderless

The next morning we check out of the Grand and treck for four hours to Mannum, a river town on the Murray River the is a popular vacation and boating spot in South Australia. We spent the whole day on a very large houseboat for a tasting of the new wines from R Winery. R Winery is owned by Dan Philips and Chris Ringland and is now the home of Marquis-Philips and many other up and coming labels. We had plenty of great food, wine and sunshine to re-energize us mid-trip.

Tasted on the boat were…
2005 Marquis Philips Shiraz
2005 Marquis Philips Cabernet
2005 Marquis Philips Merlot
2005 Marquis Philips Sarah’s Blend
2005 Marquis Philips Holly’s Blend
2005 Marquis Philips Lisa’s Blend (yet to be released Shiraz blend by new MP winemaker Lisa Whetherell)
2005 Marquis Philips Shiraz S9
2005 Marquis Philips Cabernet S2
2004 Bitch Grenache
2006 Bon Bon Rose
2005 R Ose
2005 Evil
2005 Pure Evil
2005 r Cabernet
2005 R Cabernet
2003 J.P. Belle Terroir
And probably some other that I don’t remember.

Off the boat and “on the bus” for a one hour plus drive to McLaren Vale and the Victory Hotel (http://www.victoryhotel.com.au/) on Sellicks Beach . Amazing view of the sea and one of the best sunsets ever witnessed. We were at the Victory for dinner with the owner Doug Govan and his new wine label called Rudderless. Doug planted wines around his pub and now has a wine made by his friend Justin McNamee of Samuel’s Gorge fame. The Cooper’s beer battered King George Whitting were outstanding and the wines were some of my favorite of the trip.