McLaren Vale

After not being able to find a car to drive with today, we were up a bit early to get a bus down to McLaren Vale. We took three buses to the Visitors Center and then waited about 20 minutes for an Uber to get to D'Arenberg. Luckily we weren't late for our wine blending experience.

To shake up our time in this beautiful wine region, we decided to blend our wine instead of just do a tasting. We walked up to the cube shaped building with all glass windows and some Dali statues out front. The fun continues inside with colorful and eclectic decor. We took the elevator up to the top floor and headed into a private room, again, all glass, for our wine blending.

The woman talked us through one of their signature wines, Dead Arm. She explained that it was a blend of single vineyards, similar to what we would do today. We had three Shiraz wines in front of us. Our next step after tasting Dead Arm was to taste the three base wines. Base A was fruity and acidic. Base B was earthy and spicy as well as heavy in the tannins. Base C was the most well balanced of the three.

After we tasted all the base wines, it was time to start blending. We were using 40ml samples. We had to decide what percentage of each base wine we wanted in our blend, and then use a table to determine how many milliliters of each to put in. I went about 50% on base C, followed by 30% base B and 20% base A. It was a bit too earthy for me, so in my next trials I dialled up Base C and then evened out Base A and B. Allan went a bit heavier on Base B, but they were all almost equal compared to my percentages.

Once we decided on the percentage of each base, we used the table again to measure for the bottle. We got to pouring in larger quantities rather than sucking it up through the small syringe. This was surprisingly tricky for me, and I made a bit of a mess... Allan did much better pouring from the bottle. Dry ice was added to our bottles to stop the wine from oxidizing and preserve it for about two years. We each named our wine, I named mine Dànachd Ùr, new adventure in gaelic, and Allan named his Galbraith MMXXV. We finished off the wine we didn't drink and then headed out to the main tasting area.

Unbeknownst to us, the tasting is included in our blending experience! We found a spot at the bar and tried five wines each, I got the white flight and Allan got the red. We shared of course to maximize trying it all. The whites were really nice, and there was a pretty funky one that tasted like sweet jalapeno, but was made with only Sauvignon Blanc grapes. We also got a bonus try of their sparkling red which I really loved. Sparkling red wine has definitely been a highlight of the tastings in South Australia.

After all the wine tasting we went down a level to the Dali Exhibit and saw a lot of statues and some paintings. There were so many statues with the clock in them. We didn't linger too long here though because we had to walk back to the main town to get to the next winery!

The walk wasn't ideal, and it drizzled for most of it. We got into town after about 35 minutes to Hardy's. We recognized the brand from back home and thought we'd see how it tastes straight from the cellar door. It was predominantly red wines that we tried in Hardy's with only a couple of whites. Red wines like Shiraz and granache seem to be the main wine in McLaren Vale just like the Barossa Valley. Between the two wineries today, D'Arenberg definitely won the day.

We needed to get the bus back to Ian's, but we had time for a quick bowl of sweet potato wedges on the way to the bus stop. Some of the buses stopped running to Ian's, so we ended up heading to the airport to pick up our relocation car and drove that back to Ian's. The bus journey was long and bumpy with several changes, but the car pickup was pretty smooth.

When we got back to Ian's, we fired up the grill and grilled some kangaroo burgers and fillets. Like other red meat, we had to be mindful not to overcook it so it didn't become tough. It didn't take long to cook everything, and then we enjoyed our kangaroo and salad with some steamed vegetables that Sunny made. We also had some local beer and more tawny to cap off the night.

Once we had cleaned up, we didn't stay chatting long so that we could pack our bags in preparation to get back on the road tomorrow. We were also getting up early again to get to Mass for Easter. Our time in wine country has come to an end!Read more