Coonawarra Wineries

June 12, 2014

Ben and his family invited me to come along with them to Coonawarra. It is an area in South Australia that has over a two dozen wineries. It was a early start on a gloomy day, but good conversation made the trip there feel short. It is about 3 hours away from Warrnambool. 

The first winery we stopped at was Rymill. It is winter here, so all the vines were cut back but the area still was beautiful.

 We were able to go on a platform and look in the cellar. The horizontal vats are for red wines while the up- right ones are for white wines. It was pretty chilly in this part of the winery.  

The Rymill family has a "long and important connection with wine  and horses [and] is honoured by the presence of  our Stallions Rampant." - Brouchure. This statue is image on the winery's labels. One of the wines we tasted was call the Dark Horse. It was a Cabernet Sauvignon. It is names after Judy' Rymill horse Adlai. "He was the most handsome steed in the Victorian mounted Police, he always led their parades, until he developed the unfortunate habit of bucking his commanding officer off at the most inappropriate moments." Judy saved him from the knackery and began a riding career with Adlai. They went to the Rome Olympics in 1960. I did like the wine but I didn't love it. I am still not in love with red wines. I did love the Botrytis Gewurztraminer! I am a sweet wine kind of girl right now.

The next winery we went to was... 

I had had one of their wines, "The Musician", before with Ben's family. Their sparkling Shiraz was my favourite wine that I tasted there. They also had the cutest little lambs outside! 

We took a break for lunch. We needed something to eat after all the wine we had already had. We went to the Royal Oak Hotel and Restaurant. The food was really good. I had a gourmet chicken burger and chips (how American of me). The restaurant's design made you feel like you had dropped back into the early 1900s. I thought is was funny how it is the Royal Oak hotel yet the moulding had red maple leaves. 

After lunch we were off to the next winery...

 8 liters of wine... this is what Ben get excited about!

The woman who was serving us the samples was so excited I was from America. She was asking me I had all been so far and giving me some other places to look into. She was very excited for me. 

My favourite wine from this winery

Next stop...

This winery had sooo many wines to try. I have actually seen some of their wines in Dan Murphy's and almost bought one, but I never did. Now I know which ones I like! I really enjoyed the Sauvignon Blac, 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Jessie Botrytis Semillon. By this winery, I was starting to understand and taste the differences in the wine. I began to be able to predict was it should taste like based on the variety. 

The next winery is what Ben describes as the BEST winery in Coonawarra.

 My favouite wine here was the "Cheeky Red" for the taste and the name. It is a Cabernet Sauvignon.

This winery was also impressive for the beauty. There were roses all over the estate and at each end of the rows of grapes. I would love to visit it in the warmer months when everything is blossoming and the grapes are green.

The final stop was at his Dad's favourite winery...

My favourite wine here was the Cabernet Sauvignon. 

This area of Australia is sometimes called the Red Wine capital. The soil type is "Terra Rossa" (red earth). In the winter time is is hard to see how red the soil is because of the green grasses. This soil type is conducive to growing the cabernet sauvignon grapes. These wines are some of the best in the world. So at least I caught on to the good wines. Many of the wines we tastes are given scores in the high 90s. It was a very interesting and yummy experience for me. I at least feel I kind of know what wines I like and the I know the wines I don't like.

These are the two wines I bought

We made our way back to Warrnambool and ended up ordering pizza for dinner. Ben's mom and I went through the songs I will be singing in church on Sunday. Even Ben made the comment I am starting to sing for my dinner. It is fun to be getting back into music again. Then we watched Dark Shadows. It was not what I was expecting it to be, but it was a good movie.