McLaren Vale changed my life. Quite literally. This region, and the people in it, awoke in me a whole new level of wine geek obsession. And I remember the moment quite clearly. I was in a ute, getting driven around the region to get some video footage for a DVD I was making, and crazy [...]
A few times a year, I take the kids camping with a bunch of dads and our 87 kids (feels like it), and we go down to a spot about an hour and a half southeast of Adelaide called Port Elliot. Great spot – there’s a little row of beautiful little beach towns in Port [...]
Nestled by the shores of Lake Alexandrina, the mouth of the River Murray, lies a region steeped in history. One of those regions I’d heard about, drunk plenty of wines from, but never actually been until quite recently, and what I found down there took me completely by surprise. For me, Langhorne Creek was about [...]
Just a baby, Mount Gambier is Australia’s newest official wine region, having only been awarded G.I. status for Christmas in 2010, so it’s not even had its first birthday. In fact, you won’t find it on most wine maps, but the fact is it’s a HUGE region in area. I learned everything I know about [...]
Ah, Robe… such fond memories… beautiful beaches despite the icy-cold ocean, headland walks that can change your outlook on life, 5 kg lobsters fresh off the boats, one of the great pizzerias of South Australia, the cutest little bookshop that makes the perfect cup of coffee… For many, many summers, sea-changers have flock from Adelaide [...]
While the Limestone Coast makes reference to the shoreline from a few million or so years ago, the Mount Benson region sits a little closer to today’s coastline, between lobster-fishing towns Kingston and Robe. This is beautiful coastal territory, lying just inland from Cape Jaffa, a tiny fishing town with blue skies, strong cool breezes, [...]
There are few names so famous in Australian wine as Coonawarra. Remember the heady days of the 70s and 80s, when fat businessmen smoked cigars and drank Cabernet, and brands like Wynns and Menzies were synonymous with aspiration, and charged on the company Diner’s? Coonawarra was the tide, and we all rode the mighty Cabernet [...]
Wratton-who? Not unlike her slightly more famous Limestone Coast sister Padthaway, Wrattonbully is also “on the way to Coonawarra”, lying smack bang in between the two. Probably far more famous than the vines, which have really only been taken more seriously since the 90′s, are the world heritage-listed and absolutely incredible Limestone Caves of Naracoorte, [...]
I don’t know how many times I simply drove through Padthaway on the way to Coonawarra without paying much attention to anything more than the rows and rows of vines with majestic gum trees that told me I was close to my destination. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, when I was [...]
If the Barossa Valley is steeped in German tradition, then neighbouring Eden Valley surely echoes the Highlands of Britain. Steep and rolling carpets of vivid green dotted with fragments of ancient rock, cushion pockets of wild Australian bush. The views as you drive along the weaving patchwork of dirt roads are nothing short of breathtaking. [...]
